Lifestyle

On My Radar

August 7, 2022

The July recap is coming to you a week late because work has been hectic recently (and shows no signs of slowing down). I’m enjoying my projects, but boy, they’re keeping me busy!

These monthly On My Radar posts are some of my favorites to write, and I hope you enjoy them, too. I think they offer a very authentic glimpse into my everyday life. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the July recap!

High & Low of the Month

High: The high of my July was watching Elvis at a drive-in movie theatre. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a new movie (maybe Little Women in 2020?). I’ve had a crush on Austin Butler, who plays Elvis in the film, since his days of guest-starring on Nickelodeon. Watching the movie at a drive-in made the experience that much more fun. It felt retro in the most wonderful way. They even played vintage commercials before the movie!

Low: The low of my month was Fourth of July weekend. For starters, I had bronchitis left over from COVID. Then, when doing a routine software update, my phone completely crashed. The tech guy at the Apple store was convinced the phone was fried and I’d lose all my photos (including those from the first month of having Sunny 😢). I talked him into trying to manually update the phone using one of their store computers, and—thank goodness—it worked.

Read

I nearly finished The Most Fun We Ever Had in July. I have a few chapters left, so my full review will have to wait for the August recap.

Watched

In addition to Elvis, I watched the 2012 rom-com The Five-Year Engagement. Starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, the movie follows a couple whose relationship becomes strained as their engagement is extended time and time again. I liked the movie because, unlike most rom-coms, it depicted the ups and downs of a long-term relationship. A lot of reviews complain that the movie was too long (it’s 2 hours and 4 minutes), but I felt like that was the whole point; you were supposed to feel how long the engagement dragged on.

After hearing so much hype, I binged The Summer I Turned Pretty. I now understand the appeal. The show is a coming-of-age story about sixteen-year-old Isabel “Belly.” Set during her summer vacation spent at a family friend’s beach house, Belly finds herself caught in a love triangle. Watching the first season made me long for a summer spent by the shore and nostalgic for teenage first loves. I’m excited for season 2, which is currently filming, and I’m tempted to read the trilogy by Jenny Han that the Hulu series is based on.

I also watched season 3 of Dream Home Makeover, a Netflix reality show that follows Shea and Syd McGee as they help families redesign their homes. You may recognize the McGees from their popular Studio McGee Target line. If you like interior design, you’ll enjoy this show.

Finally, I have been watching the current season of The Bachelorette. The dynamic of having two bachelorettes intrigued me and I’m rooting for both Gabby and Rachel after Clayton broke up with them *at the same time* last season. For those who are tuning in, my favorite contestants so far are Zach and Tino.

Bought

I lasted six weeks with the dog hair before caving and buying a Roomba during Amazon Prime Day. The iRobot Roomba i7 has already proved to be a fantastic purchase. Yay for outsourcing vacuuming!

I love spending as much time outside as possible (and Sunny does, too!). To extend our outdoor time as we head into fall, I wanted to get a fire pit for the backyard. After researching, I landed on the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 because it doesn’t generate smoke. Thunderstorms keep thwarting my firepit plans, but I’m excited to test it out as soon as we get a clear weekend night.

While the Roomba and Solo Stove were exciting purchases, I think my favorite find in July was a 5′ faux fiddle leaf tree. I’ve wanted to add a fiddle leaf to my living room for quite some time. However, I learned that fiddle leaf trees are toxic to dogs, so I needed to go the faux route. A lot of the faux fiddle leaves out there are quite pricy, so I was thrilled when I was served a targeted ad for a realistic, reasonably-priced one from QVC of all places.

Winter is coming. Okay, so we admittedly have some time before the temperature drops in Virginia, but I had to grab these fleece tights from LL Bean when I saw them on sale. I have a hard time finding items like these in XS Petite, so I always scoop them up when I can. FYI: The tights are even further marked down in-store than they are online.

In my house, the front door opens right into the living room. There’s not a true entryway, so I’ve struggled to find the right entryway table. Until now, that is. When I saw the Kiki 20″ Floating Nightstand, I knew it’d be the perfect fit. Sadly, the product is back-ordered until October. Hopefully it will be worth the wait!