The rest of our weekend is a little up in the air! We’re heading out on the boat with friends on Saturday but other than that, our weekend is wide open. I’ll do my best to remember to snap some pictures so I can share a recap with you guys on Monday but until then, let’s keep things trucking right along with my usual Things I’m Loving Friday roundup of favorites.
Have a great weekend, my friends!
Things I’m Loving Friday
-
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My subpar reading streak is over thanks to The Guest List! It’s been a hot second since I’ve read a book good enough to recommend on the blog but I’m happy to report that I finally found a winner with this mystery. I flew through it in two nights and thought it was a serious page-turner.
From the first chapter, I was hooked and I absolutely love the formatting of the book as it’s told from the perspective of various guests of Jules and Will’s wedding. With the bride a prominent magazine publisher and her groom an up-and-coming television star, the couples’ luxurious wedding takes place on a small island off the coast of Ireland that lends an exclusive and eerie feel to the whole affair. As the story unfolds, dark pasts are revealed and a body turns up on the night of the wedding. Who isn’t all that they seem? Who is dead? And, the biggest mystery of all… Is there a murderer among the guests?
-
Biceps / Triceps / Shoulders Triple Set Workout
I slept terribly on Wednesday night (legitimately awake for three hours in the middle of the night — thank you pregnancy insomia) so I had zero plans to wake up early and work out on Thursday morning. Despite my desire to sleep in my body was wide awake at 5 a.m. so I figured I might as well get in an upper body workout since they’re my favorite and my brain wasn’t exactly prime for working first thing in the morning. Wouldn’t you know Thursday’s workout ended up being my favorite of the week!? Those isometric bicep holds BURNED in the best kind of way and I
-
Butterflies, Birds and Snakes of NC Pamphlets for Creature Man Chase
There’s not much Creature Man Chase loves more than searching for little critters. He is all about going on various outdoor adventures in search of animals and insects and loves doing his best to identify them. A while back when Chase first got really into watching the birds at our bird feeder, my mom gave him a laminated pamphlet featuring pictures of common birds indigenous to North Carolina. He calls it his “bird map” and still uses it to identify any new birds he sees flying around outside. My mom added to his collection for his fifth birthday and gave him pamphlets for North Carolina butterflies and snakes and he absolutely loves these things! The butterfly pamphlet comes along on many of our walks and he loves the fact that each butterfly photo is accompanied by its caterpillar counterpart. I figured these little pamphlets were worth highlighting on the blog for any of you out there who may also have some creature-loving kiddos on your hands! (FYI, these are available for various regions/states so just do a search for your local ones on Amazon — using the “quick reference guide butterflies” search term should do the trick!)
This water doodle mat is one of the coolest things we’ve recently discovered in our house! It was a birthday gift for one of the boys from a friend (I honestly cannot remember which boy technically got this one but I think it was originally intended for Ryder?) and it’s been a mega-hit with both of them! I’ve never seen anything like it but I’m all about it because it’s basically a mess free activity and lets the kids draw, play with stamps and stencils and water and have a blast without turning our house into an indoor pool or a paint-splattered mess. It’s big enough for our whole family to play with at the same time and the boys have loved drawing water pictures and playing with the stamps, roller and stencils over and over again. My picture above does not do it justice at all (definitely check out the images + reviews on Amazon for a better look), but trust me when I say the water pens and stencils work shockingly well and the water drawings last just long enough. I’m now keeping this mat in mind as a go-to birthday gift for the boys’ friends in the future because they’ve loved it so much!
-
Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Highlights
If you are at all active on Instagram, I have a feeling you’ve been bombarded with highlights from this year’s Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. It opened up to cardholders yesterday and will open to the general public on Wednesday. I am not a fanatic about the sale but do love to browse it for some items I’ve been eyeing for fall/winter as well as grab some gifts for loved ones (I’m looking at you Moonlight Dream Pajamas!) and apparel for the boys since the savings on the sale items are pretty darn good. Items sell out FAST but seem to be restocked semi-regularly throughout the sale. Here’s my brief roundup of what I think are worthwhile finds in the sale this year:
Items I Already Own and Love:
- Moonlight Dream Pajamas (I have the long version and the shorts version — both in black — and they definitely live up to the hype! They are also my all-time favorite pajamas for the postpartum period because they’re nursing friendly, black — aka great for hiding leaky milk stains — and incredibly soft and forgiving. They are a go-to gift for me for new mamas.)
- Barefoot Dreams Circle Cardigan (I call this my robe-that’s-not-a-robe… it’s cute enough to wear out of the house but feels like a robe so I throw it on over loungwear and wear it around the house all the time in the colder months)
- Zella High Waist Leggings (Thicker than regular leggings, smoothing and great for wearing with sweaters + tunics in addition to workouts)
- Rails Hunter Plaid Shirt (a splurge for sure but I’ve had mine for years and it’s easily the softest and most flattering plaid top I own and easy to style a million different ways)
- Herschel Supply Co. Backpack (You can’t beat this brand for quality backpacks! They hold up so well for years and years.)
Items I Ordered This Year:
- Free People Teddy Coat (I ordered a teddy coat last winter that was a big fat fail and have been wanting one ever since. I ordered this one in the camel color and am hoping it’s a hit. They were already out of my size so I sized up and now my fingers are crossed it works!)
- Madewell Leopard Transport Tote (Such a gorgeous bag and I’m thinking the size would be great for holding all the kid things.)
Items I Ordered for The Boys This Year:
- Vans Sneakers (I ordered these high-top sneakers for both boys for fall!)
- Tucker + Tate Moto Joggers (I’ve ordered these every year for Chase and now Ryder is wearing them, too! Great quality that lasts as hand-me-downs.)
- Tucker + Tate Mountain Crest Jacket (A great transitional jacket for fall — love this style!)
Items I’m Eyeing (and Hoping Come Back in Stock In My Size/Color Preference):
- BP Jogger Pants (because I basically live in joggers in the fall and winter #knowthyself)
- BP Cozy Top (to pair with the joggers for at-home lounging because I’m a sucker for matchy, matchy sets)
- Cowl Neck Sweater (love the slouchy look and I’m a sucker for anything rust color right now)
- Tie Dye Hooded Sweatshirt (tie dye is so in right now and I am here for it!)
- Smocked Ruffle Dress (the leopard one is calling to me and I think it would be adorable dressed down a bit with ankle booties and a denim jacket this fall)
-
Friday Flashbacks
Everything Bagel Seared Tuna (SO pumped to get this RARE seared tuna back in my life post-baby.)
A to Z Family Workout (A fun, alphabet-themed family workout to do with your kiddos when everyone needs to burn off some energy!)
Question of the Day
What is something that made you smile this week?
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Thanks for including your favorites from the Nordstrom sale! Are you willing to share what size your Moonlight Dream pajamas are? I’ve been wanting them for ages (thanks to you mentioning them a few times!) and would normally go medium, but the reviews seem to say then run large…
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Medium!! If you are between sizes, I would definitely size down though!
Thank you!!
The Guest List is so good! I forget if you read this book already but if you haven’t, The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Hamel is an amazing read! I’m now planning (well dreaming once it safe 😉 a trip to Champagne, France because it sounds incredible based on this book!
I haven’t read that one but thanks for the recommendation! I was on a not-so-good streak with books there for a while so I am looking for some decent ones to dive into now for sure!
That book looks so good! Is definitely doing going on my library list. It sounds a lot like that show Harper’s Island that came on TV about 10 years ago. That show is on my Top 10 list 🙂
I think you would love Long Bright River by Liz Moore! Page turner!
I flew through The Royal We and it’s sequel, The Heir Affair last month! If you are someone who is interested in the royal family you would probably love this fictional series.
My 4 month old baby laughed for the first time yesterday! It’s literally the best sound ever! Having a quarantine baby is TOUGH, but moments like these make it so worth it 😊
Aww, love that!
Do you buy physical books or use a Kindle or iBooks? My local library is still closed due to COVID, but I want to check out some of your book recommendations!
I discovered the midwest sunflower fields this week! As a first-year Midwesterner (relocated from the deep South), this is MAGICAL to me and definitely made me smile! 🙂
I’m was wondering if you finished reading White Fragility yet (apologies if i missed that post). I keep awaiting your reflections and updates on it and your continued work around anti-racism and supporting BLM in general. Thought of it because we had a historic week for Black and Asian American women but no mention on here or the immediate misogynoir attacks against Senator Harris
My 4-year-old loves that doodle water mat too! I love something that’s not messy – ha! (we do SO much messy play over here). Only thing is, she’s not exactly gentle with those water pens and has basically smashed the tips of two of them so they don’t work anymore. I’m going to look for refill pens, hopefully they sell them separately because the mat is fine still.
Oh man, I’ve missed a ton of posts because your blog stopped showing up in my Bloglovin’ feed! (And the same thing has actually happened to MY blog too, which is irking me…before when this happened, I just needed to clear my cache plug-in, but that doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. Maybe something is going on with Bloglovin’s RSS feed?)
Anyway, that water doodle pad looks like so much fun! And lemme just say, I’m so impressed with how much you take your boys out to do fun things…do you not have to deal with them doing much of the whole “post-fun meltdown” thing? I’ll admit, half of the time I don’t even want to do many “big” fun things, just because I don’t want to deal with the inevitable meltdown at the end, ha ha!
I just finished reading “The Marriage Lie” and “What She Knew” which you recommended in another blog post, and I loved them both. So just when I was wondering what to read next, you recommend another book which sounds interesting. Thank you 🙂
love these posts!