Happy New Year!
2020 is off to a… weird start, but that just kind of feels like a continuation of the past few months. Thankfully it seems like things are starting to look up: I pick up my car from the shop tomorrow, I’m finally starting to feel some improvement and relief in the herniated disc in my lower back, and our house is beginning to feel warm and cozy thanks to repair of our heating system and finishing unpacking/starting to decorate.
Because we spent a week in Florida and because my back has limited my activity, it felt like we put a pause on exploring Charlotte – but yesterday and today we managed to get out and about a bit, trying a couple of new (to us) restaurants and visiting one of the area museums (above). The doctor prescribed lots of walking, and I can’t wait to figuratively hit the pavement again, especially now that the days are getting longer.
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Tomorrow (Epiphany) we’re going to take down our Christmas decorations, which is always bittersweet. Most of our neighbors have chucked their trees to the curb already, which always makes me laugh – this country is so anxious to get to Christmas but is just so done with the holiday as soon as December 26 arrives. Typically we align our celebration with much of the rest of the world, waiting until December to get our tree, and the twelfth day to take it down. If you celebrate Christmas, what does your “tree timeline” look like?
Tree or no-tree – here are a few interesting links from around the web:
Travel
I loved watching a few episodes of The Empty Suitcase Show on YouTube. The premise of the show is intriguing: a self-described plus-sized woman arrives in different cities without a suitcase and must find clothing from local retailers to create a day look and a night look.
Alyssa’s Guide to New Orleans makes me want to go back for more than just a day. [site closed]
Taking Andrea’s New Year’s Resolutions for Travelers post to heart (and I’ll be sharing some of my goals for this year in the next few days!). [page no longer available]
Why carry-on luggage is such a hassle.
What do you do when one partner has TSA Precheck and the other doesn’t?
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Food
Even though I didn’t spend as much time baking this year, I still made quite a few things for the holidays. In addition to my favorite gingerbread and sugar cookie cutouts (sub in all-butter!), I made this loaf, these rolls, this babka, this cake (in cupcake form), and this cheesecake. Whew!
This week we began this ten-day smoothie challenge to get us back to eating breakfast daily and to get some more vitamins in our systems at the start of the day. Smoothies were my go-to breakfast while I was working, so frankly, this doesn’t feel like much of a “challenge” at all!
We recently signed up for Misfits Market and so far, so good! The company aims to divert food waste by shipping imperfect produce that grocery stores would refuse to stock directly to your door. Produce is the bulk of our grocery bill, and I’m grateful to save money on organic produce and to have an excuse to get creative in the kitchen with the assortment of fruits and veggies we receive. And you can save 25% off your first box with code COOKWME-VV7ALJ, which means the savings are even greater.
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Life & Home
Crossing my fingers for this week’s East Fork giveaway. It’s a good one!
I’m jotting down notes from this post about welcoming guests when you don’t have a guest room – even though we now do have a guest room again! We’re balancing out cost and comfort in that space, keeping things light and clean with this bed that can be arranged multiple ways, these machine-washable guest slippers (we are a no-shoes house!), and a garment rack – which doubles as a blog prop and means that guests won’t need to access the closet. What are some ways hosts have made you feel extra at home as a guest?
Fun adventures in renting: our toilet roll holder fell off the wall this week, so I’ve been searching for other ways to mount a holder in the bathroom without hardware. I think I might just riff on this idea and wrap a leather strap with a dowel around our bathroom shelves.
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Style
First Away, now Everlane. Perhaps not all is well in DTC startup-land.
I keep crossing my fingers that I’ll find one of these jackets secondhand to wear around the house. It looks nice and big with pockets (for snacks!) and sleeves that won’t get in stuff.
Sale Alert!
- Teddi Joelle is holding a Sample Sale (makers of the belt bag you see here and here).
- Tradlands‘ Anniversary Sale has begun, and they’re offering an additional 20% off markdowns with code BDAY20. The trick with their sale is that the savings percentage will increase as the days pass, but inventory dwindles – so you have to time a purchase just right.
- The Winter Tag Sale at Anthropologie is always a weakness for me, with an extra 40% off all markdowns.
- Saks Fifth Avenue‘s sale is going strong, with up to 70% off sale styles. Some of my sub-$100 faves include this classic button-down, this cool-and-casual skirt, this endlessly layerable bodysuit, and these silk joggers to spend the rest of your life in.
- Madewell has upped the ante with an extra 40% off their sale items, including this genius puffy jacket/travel pillow, these don’t-they-know-it’s-still-winter? boots, and this tattoo-worthy silk bandana.
- Need Supply (now closed) has an outstanding sale going on right now, too.
- And despite what’s going on with their employees, Everlane is still holding their big Choose What You Pay event and the new Final Sale page is still live.
Things I bought recently
There hasn’t been a ton of time for shopping in the past few weeks (except for household stuff), but I still managed to find a few good deals I couldn’t say no to. This Cuyana silk tee popped up on eBay for a steal, and I found both this pair of oxford shoes and this pretty pair of almost-flats locally in two different consignment shops. I also couldn’t stop myself from buying these pima sleep shorts from Cuyana when they held a very quick sale last weekend. Later I’ll get this top, these pants, and this cami to make a really nice mix-and-match pajama set for home and away. As for the home, we just bought a secondhand coffee table and a few plants yesterday (not pictured), some house numbers, and a no soliciting sign (the number of times we’ve had people try to sell us stuff already is bananas). We could have saved money and requested that our landlords add house numbers on to our rental, but frankly, I don’t believe they would have chosen ones that match the rest of the homes in our area. While I don’t like sinking money into a home that isn’t ours, to me this adds a bit of our personality into the space, and that’s incredibly valuable to me.
cover photo outfit details: Sweater | Necklace | Pants | Jacket (similar) | Shoes | Bag | Sunglasses |
How did your holidays go? And if you put up a Christmas tree, when do you usually take it down?
