Market Friday
Today was a particularly successful one for me at the Venice Farmer's Market. Look at this pokeweed! EPIC. (Folks with kids and pets-- be careful if you put this branch in/around your home, as it's toxic. Luckily our pups aren't interested in trying to eat it.) This is my favorite branch to use in the house-- it's full and leafy, yet simple to cut and arrange. Plus it doesn't shed. The subdued plum-rose tone of the vines adds a pop of color without being too noisy for those of us who lean towards neutral tones.
I love to liven up our home with market greenery, as it allows me to change up the look as frequently as I want, without causing clutter, creating waste or costing much money. These branches were $10 total, and will last for at least a week.
I also stocked up on fresh produce for the weekend. At nearly 31 weeks pregnant, the baby and I are craving citrus, watermelon and peaches these days. There was no need to buy berries-- as you can see, we have PLENTY of grapes growing in our tiny garden right now!
Cozy in the Cottage
I decided to take a few weeks away from the blog in mid/late July and just stay calm and cozy in the Cottage. But as the month is somehow already over, we're back! August will be fairly crazy for both my creative firm and my personal brand, so I felt like it was wise to rest up before-hand (especially since I was particularly wiped during the transition into my third trimester). This post recaps a bit of what we were up to these past weeks. While I was still running my creative firm from my home-office, I took a significant amount of time to declutter in anticipation of the baby's arrival, relax when possible, and organize the little things that I'm sure we won't have time to tackle once our son is here.
PUPPY LOVE | First and foremost, we took time to overly-smother our pups with love. Everyone says that pets get neglected when a new baby arrives. We hope that won't be the case for us, but we wanted to give Stanlee (10 yrs old) and Sophee (1 yr old) as much attention and affection as possible, just in case:
We also had another health scare with Sophee a couple weeks back, and we were terrified that she wasn't going to pull through this time. Luckily this little adopted beagle is one hell of a fighter, and she is nearly fully back to her normal "Menace of Venice" behavior already.
Above: Sophee upon returning from emergency treatment at the pet hospital.
DECLUTTERING | While you can't see most of the decluttering we did, we certainly did a TON. We donated several car loads of clothing, shoes, home goods, dishware, and books. It feels good to see the surface of the Cottage looking so simple, and to know that simplicity is echoed behind every cabinet and within every drawer:
ENTERTAINING | We did some very low-key entertaining at home. I didn't feel much like going out (just too damn tired), but several of our amazing friends were sweet enough to make the trek to Venice to hang out at the Cottage:
Above: Justina Blakeney of The Jungalow, Erica Reitman, and Jennifer Harrison of Flea Market Fab having dinner at the Cottage.
Above: Lindsay Hollinger of Casa Joshua Tree (with Adam, Sophee and Stanlee's stub-tail) in the Cottage garden.
Above: My life-long bestie Nell (also pregnant!) and her husband Chandler visited the Cottage and canals for a summer movie night along the water. Nell officiated our home wedding and co-hosted my bridal gathering back in May.
HOSTING | We hosted some video and photo shoots here throughout the month. Once those wrapped, we spent time messing the house back up with my three year-old Nephew Finn and his infant brother, Digby. We enjoyed the outdoor section of the nursery with Digby, and started harvesting the grapes off the Cottage vine with Finn:
EVENTS | I did manage to make it out of the house for a few events, my favorite being this tastemaker dinner at Rolling Greens. How dreamy is this set-up at their LA location? (And how easy is it to pick out the giant 6'-tall preggo in the photo below?)
Despite all the sickness-- both Sophee's and my own-- it was a wonderful, peaceful month. I feel so grateful and so damn lucky to be surrounded by so much love and beauty.
I'll leave you with this-- my favorite Boomerang thus far. Here is our 10 yr-old adopted beagle-mix, Stanlee, leaping up onto the dishwasher while trying to scare a squirrel through the window. It makes me smile every time I see it...
