Happy Fri-Yay: The Pantry, Plant Shopping, & Pretty Sandals

I’m back! I took a little hiatus for a staycation in Newport Beach and for Benji’s summer break from preschool (he just turned two in May), but next week we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled blog posts.

Now, let’s get to the updates:

The Pantry: I finally finished the pantry this week. Denis and I gifted each other an organized pantry for our anniversary last October, but with all the production problems from the pandemic and everyone else being home and wanting to organize, it took until now to get all the pieces in place. Check out the Instagram feed for a video and stay tuned for more pics.

The Backyard/The Garden: Benji started calling our backyard the garden, and I am here for that! It makes it sound so sophisticated and also somehow makes its size (Tiny for a backyard) feel more appropriate. But on to the update: We got new chairs! The Acapulco chairs from CB2 and you can see them in the Highlights section on my instagram page (With lots more pics to come). This update is huge for me because they’re replacing our plastic Adirondack chairs, which I never intended to last more than a season and have somehow stuck around for three years. I’d also love to snag two of these outdoor Ikea poufs to add some natural fibers to the scene, but they are sadly sold out across most of the country.

Next update to the garden: string lights! I’m planning to hire a TaskRabbit next week to install the lights (we got a kit but it’s still a big task with drilling into cinderblock involved).

In other garden news, I took Benji plant shopping earlier this week and evidently he has no interest in non-functional plants. Every time I asked if he liked a flower he said “no,” but when he heard about growing blueberries and strawberries, he was all about it. So we now have several food-related plants sitting in the garage that need to be planted. But first I’ve got to decontaminate the garden containers because my plants died of root rot last year and it turns out that you need to clean the infected containers with bleach before replanting. Oof, next week is starting to look busy!

Pretty Sandals: I just opened a box from Zappos with some sandals I ordered and I’m so excited about one of the pairs. I’ve got super flat feet that cause a lot of problems for me including keeping me away from most cute shoes. I’ve been rocking the same pair of Birkenstocks for a few years now (I just keep replacing with the same style), and I decided I wanted something that felt prettier and different. Fortunately, there are a few brands I can turn to for cute shoes and Vionic came through for me with the Jillian sandal in Macaroon. Take a look at these pretties:

Maybe I’ll get a pedicure this weekend so my feet can feel really fancy!