Happy Monday! It’s one of the biggest shopping days of the year (all the details at the end of this post)! I’m also realizing just how far into summer we really are, so I’m digging out all the recipes, activities, tasks, etc. that I wanted to try this year. I’m torn between wanting to finish and try them all or just relaxing and enjoying summer. 😉 Here’s what we were up to this past week.
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Home Projects & Updates
I spent most of last week prepping for our summer home tour (finally!), so I didn’t get many other projects completed.
Even though I know it’s basically the worst time of year to do so, I planted more flowers and shrubs last week. Any time I go to Lanoha, the nursery by our house, I think I need 100 more plants. Which I definitely don’t. I really loved this combo of the Summer Crush hydrangeas (the bright pink on the bottom) paired with the limelight topiary trees! We have a similar tree in our backyard that we planted four years ago and it’s gotten rather large (and looks like it will be blooming like crazy this year). And those Summer Crush hydrangeas are the ones I’ve added over the past few weeks and I was so excited to see this combo in action! I love it!
Those hydrangeas you see off to the left in the pic below (next to the house) have been making me so happy this year! I ended up buying two more of them (albeit much smaller versions) and can’t wait to have more of these blooms in the yard next year! They’re the Incrediball Hydrangeas that have huge white blooms fairly early in the season, and they do well in sun. I’m thinking of putting together a hydrangea guide soon with my favorites if that interests any of you with growing tips, close-up photos, etc. If it’s not clear, I have a slight obsession with them 😉
Chaise Lounge Chairs | Medallion Pillows | Planter | Umbrellas
Around Town & For Fun
Last week was crazy hot. On Thursday, Zoe and her nanny came up to swim for a few hours. She finally used her mini cabana and she instantly made it even 10x cuter! It comes in a navy blue options as well, but we went with the beige since it matches our umbrellas so well. A lot of the reviews say people buy them for their dogs too! Every one that sees it dies over just how cute it is in person (so tiny)!
Zoe’s developed a bit of obsession with the cats. She was scared the first time she saw them, but now, even in the pool, all she can focus on is if the cat’s are looking out the back door. When she was over, Hawkeye wanted to come out and she just wanted to pet him and they’d sit and stare at each other. It was pretty hilarious!
Friday afternoon we decided to hop in the pool. We had gotten in a bad habit of only using the pool on the weekends, but we’ve been trying to be better about hopping in during the week. Especially since early summer was such rough weather for us! My flower pots are starting to go crazy thanks to my all-time favorite fertilizer! You can also see that hydrangea tree I mentioned in the pic below. It’s straight up from Kurtis’ head and off to the left in front of those two tall oak trees. That Summer Crush hydrangea (bright pink) is also straight behind it along the fence). The tree is going to be amazing covered in blooms! Also, I just saw our navy blue conversation set (you can see the chair below) is 40% off today and the striped umbrellas we’ve had for four years are almost 50% off!!
Umbrella | Conversation Set | Botanical Pillow
Since we spend so much time outside this time of year, we also try to make sure we have some quality time with the cats. We started watching The Ranch. Turns out we started with the last season and didn’t realize it (which explains why we couldn’t figure out the story that well). We didn’t even realize it until we went to watch a little more Sunday night and saw we weren’t on the first season. Duh!
We had a fun pool day with Jill and Nick Saturday. They got a sitter so we had about four hours in the pool before picking her up and then heading out to dinner at Timber Creek. It was such a fun day!
The cats shed like crazy this time of year. So they each get about a 30 minute window outside with the Furminator every few weeks. Hawkeye was being hilarious yesterday. He kept wanting to stand on the edge of the table and lift his head up in the wind to catch scents. He was closing his eyes and just bobbing his head and you could tell he was in heaven. Just living his best cat life!
This “private island” float has quickly become our favorite this year. Kurtis made fun of me when I bought it and thought the palm tree was ridiculous. Turns out it’s pretty amazing, especially when you want your face covered in shade!
We ended the night with a fresh caprese salad. Every time use these herb scissors I love them more and more!
Recent Buys & Sales
As I mentioned in my weekend sale post, Amazon Prime Day starts today and runs through tomorrow! And with that, half the other retailers in the country are trying to compete with it. Target and Walmart will be the ones to watch closely. I’ll be sharing some deals on my Facebook page and Instagram Stories live throughout the day (and may even hop on with another blog post if the deals warrant it). Here are some other sales that are still going on!
- AMAZON is hosting Prime Day for all members! You can shop the sales here. A few early sale favorites below:
- Our Ring Video Doorbell 2 is $60 off and includes a free Echo dot! It was one of our favorite purchases of the year last Christmas! And this option with the older generation is half the price of the 2!
- Our Dyson vacuum with all the attachments is $120 off today! We don’t know how we lived without it for so long! So much better than any other vacuum we’ve used.
- The Ancestry DNA kits are half off, and always such a great gift idea – especially for relatives!
- Kurtis loves his Fire for travel to watch movies on and you can get the 7″ Fire for only $29 or the 8″ HD Fire for only $49. And, if you buy two, you save an additional $10 on the 7″ or $20 on the 8″! We got one for my mother-in-law too, and she loves it. Makes such a great gift for anyone in the family!
- This is when I subscribe to my magazines each year! You can get my favorite magazine and tons others for only $5 a year (12 issues)! You do have to sign-up to have it auto-renew, but they send you an email a few weeks out and it’s super easy to cancel it via Amazon if you don’t like the new rate. I’ve always just left mine on, because the rate has been so reasonable!
- Get up to 30% off Apple Watches and iPads!
- Get 30% off Supergoop! Sunscreen.
- ANTHROPOLOGIE is offering 25% off bedding, rugs, curtains, and more (prices as marked). They’re also offering free shipping on all orders. You can shop the sale here.
- BANANA REPUBLIC is offering 40% your entire purchase, plus an extra 10% off sale items at checkout. Prices update at checkout – no code required. You can shop their sale here.
- CRATE & BARREL is offering 15% off new arrivals. You can shop the sale here.
- GAP is offering up to 50% off sitewide. You can shop their sale here.
- J CREW is hosting a Prime Event with deals starting at just $4.50! Some of the deals are really, REALLY good and include brand new items!! Includes things like the famous Tippi Sweater at nearly 70% off in every color imagineable! You can shop their sales here.
- J CREW FACTORY is an extra 60% off clearance items with code CLEAROUT and 40-60% off nearly everything else. You can shop their sale here.
- NORDSTROM launched their Anniversary Sale yesterday if you hadn’t already heard  I shared all of my initial top picks here but there are so many great items on sale. I love that you can shop all them fall looks on sale before the season starts (even if I’m 0% ready to start thinking about fall). You can shop their sale items here.
- OLD NAVY is offering 50% off EVERYTHING! Discount applied at checkout. You can shop their sale here.
- POTTERY BARN is offering a one-day flash sale with summer items marked up to 75% off! You can shop their sale here.
- RUGS USA is hosting their Summer Black Friday event, offering up to 75% off all rugs! You can shop their sale here.
- SERENA & LILY has added to their sale section with items up to 75% off. You can shop their sales here.
- TARGET started their Deal Days of summer with crazy good prices on tons of items. You can shop their sales here.
- TJ MAXX has tons of markdowns for home right now. This light fixture is a dupe for a designer version that costs well more 10x the amount. You can shop their sale here.
- WEST ELM is offering up to 40% off all in-stock items. You can shop their sale here.
- WORLD MARKET is offering a buy more, save more sale with 15-25% off your purchase with code BMSMDEAL. Our office desks are already marked $70 off, so the savings could really stack up! You can shop their sale here.
I hope you all have a great week!
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Trista says
Your yard looks fantastic! I would love to have some tips on hydrangea care. I have two that we planted two years ago. They’re starting to bloom but I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do with them. They’re so beautiful.
Jessica says
Your yard looks amazing! I’m still buying shrubs this time of year also, I think we see where places need to be filled in, and the plants are pretty hard to resist when visiting a nursery.
Linda Grubbs says
Beautiful yard! I love hydrangeas but have been afraid to attempt them…. you have given me the inspiration to try!! Thanks friend!!💜
Sharon Peterson says
My advice Sarah is to relax and enjoy summer. Where we live, summer is way too short. Those projects will be waiting for you this winter when the snow is blowing and you can’t enjoy being outside. You and Kurtis should enjoy your pool and yard. You worked hard for it.
Amy says
You’re backyard is so beautiful. What size planters do you have?
Sarah says
Thank you Amy! Ours are the 32″ size. We’ve had them for years and they’ve held up great. We even bought two more this year because we love them so much!