Some of my favorite things during the month of July.

LAMP (find it here)
I had no interest in Amazon Prime Day until I came across an article linking to discounted home decor items and I thought ok I’ll just check it out and then BAM the perfect lamp I’ve been looking for was there.  My plan always for this little area on our media cabinet was to put a table lamp that would fill in that blank area of the wall underneath the frame, hopefully something that was sculptural enough to make you think maybe it’s not a lamp and simple enough to where it could blend in with the background.  This one is very similar to the FLOS lamp except waaay more affordable, and it’s one of my all time favorite affordable home finds.

RUG {find it here)
The most recent change we’ve made to our home is switching the living room rug to this textured gray beauty c/o of Nordic Knots.  I still very much love the previous moroccan shag rug we had, the one that I’d get asked about more than any other item in our home, but after years of giving it the extra care it needed, I had enough.  A combination of relentless LA dust and getting tired of raking the wool (rug rakes, they’re a thing) to keep it from getting too matted made it easy to go with a plush, cut-pile rug that requires less maintenance.  It’s comfortable, feels so much cleaner, and makes our living room feel more ‘lux’.

TRADER JOE’s FIND- NESPRESSO CAPSULES
Is it a monthly favorites post if there isn’t a Trader Joe’s find?  I’ve shared about these a bunch in my IG stories and always get a lot of questions about it so let me put the info here.  These are Nespresso compatible capsules that are not only much cheaper ($4 for 10 capsules) than the Nespresso branded ones, but they’re also really, really good.  Trader Joe’s has two different roasts and I think this Ristretto one is my favorite between the two.  The machine I use is the Nespresso Essenza Mini which is compact, no frills, and quick.  I make myself a glass with ice almost everyday and it brings me a lot of joy.

DIOR JASMIN DES ANGES (find it here)
I worked with Dior to share on Instagram about their recent fragrance collection and in that process discovered a new favorite scent.  Knowing already that I tend to gravitate towards floral and fruity, what’s hard is finding one that’s neither sickeningly sweet or too potpourri.  This one is Jasmine, a scent I’m already crazy about, and is subtly sweet.  Reminds me a lot of what I love about Glossier You, my other all time favorite perfume, except this one smells more mature.  I don’t even know what exactly makes a scent more mature but you can just smell it, ya know?

DEEP STONEWARE PLATE  (find it here)
I got a set of these plates for the floral chandelier DIY post I shared recently and love their plate/bowl versatility, softly speckled design, and bold rim.  They’ve been the perfect small serving bowls for fruits, side dishes, and one bowl dinners.  I think I would’ve preferred them to be sliiightly larger but nonetheless they’ve become a daily staple in our kitchen.

LINEN BEDDING (find it here)
This isn’t the first nor second time I’m praising this bedding.  Linen is so so so much more comfortable during the heat of summer.  It’s more breathable and feels dryer, which every hot sleeper can appreciate.  I’m partial to the blush color for some summer color that isn’t loud, but I think the bone and coal colors are gorgeous too- on my wish list.

REUSABLE SILICONE SANDWICH BAGS (find them here)
I’m constantly cutting up veggies and saving them to use in meals and they’d be in amounts that didn’t warrant the use of our precious limited supply of tupperware, so sandwich bags became the primary storage mechanism which were also great for taking up less space in the fridge.  The problem was that I was going through a lot of sandwich bags and I felt very guilty and wasteful about it.  I didn’t know silicone bags existed until I accidentally stumbled upon these at the grocery store.  Reduced our sandwich bag waste immensely and the tight seal works well even for avocados (though I’ve never stored them more than a day, can’t resist).  I feel pretty nerdy about being so excited over these but I truly find them life changing + feel good about reducing waste.

HOOLA LIGHT BRONZER (find it here)
Took me years to finally try this and now I see why so many like it.  It’s a matte bronzer best suited for light to medium skin tones and is the answer to anyone’s frustrations with bronzer or contour looking muddy.  I love using it like a contour powder because it’s buildable and again, doesn’t look muddy.  Since it’s softer and lighter, it looks a lot more natural than most every other bronzer or contour powder I’ve tried.  It’s also more on the neutral side and doesn’t read orange like a lot of bronzers do.  The brush it comes with also isn’t bad!  I just wish the packaging was something sturdier than whatever this cardboard material is.

PAN-BANGING COOKIES (find the recipe here)
The story begins a couple months ago when I made chocolate chip cookies for a potluck and they didn’t turn out good, and then I realized that I’ve never made good chocolate chip cookies before.  Wanting to figure out why and redeem myself, I’ve set out to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and have become a little obsessed over it.  Along the way I’ve learned that my “technique” needed a lot of work, which has also resulted in me trying the same recipes more than once.  It’s fascinating how many variations of chocolate chip cookies there are, and how you can make the same recipe twice and it can turn out really different each time.  I’ve been on a weekly cookie baking spree since and by far the best recipe I’ve tried so far are these pan-banging cookies.  The pan-banging technique gives them those pretty ridges, and the cookies turn out crispy around the edges but soft and chewy in the middle.  Simple ingredients, fun to make, and hubs liked these the most too.  You’ve gotta make these if you like cookies.

QUOTE
This one’s from my husband who paraphrased what he heard on a podcast:

“People severely overestimate what they can do in a day and severely underestimate what they can do in a year.”

He brought it up while I was expressing how I want to do it all but don’t have the time to and consequently feel stuck, anxious, and lost.  It’s basically another way of saying that other classic piece of advice about how you can do it all but not all at once, a reminder that great achievements don’t happen right away and to trust that staying consistent with daily habits that work towards our goals will pay off immensely with time.  Now if I could also borrow a lot of patience!!