Odds & Ends, vol. 4: Autumn Reads and an Easy Home Styling Hack

Autumn Reads

This time of year always makes me want to read The Night Circus. It’s one of my absolute favorite books, especially this time of year. It’s in my top 3 all-time favorite books and is one of very few that I’ve taken the time to re-read. (Also great for fall: Caraval, Harry Potter, Practical Magic, Bread & Wine (pictured above), and Ninth House.)

An Easy Home Styling Hack

This is the easiest way to make all those random dresser-top things look nicer. (1) Get a nice looking hardcover book or two. (2) Line everything up. That’s it – I recently tried this with my dresser and think it made a big difference! Look at this before and after:

Recent Buys

Target has had some surprisingly great workout clothes recently! I’ve been working out much more often and found that I needed some new things so I wasn’t having to do laundry every other day. A few recent buys have been this workout tee (nice fit, good quality) and this tank top (cute pattern and good fabric, but runs big).

Master Bedroom Inspiration

This master bedroom by Studio McGee is so good! It’s been a major inspiration for our master bedroom refresh. I almost bought this very similar (but much cheaper) bed from Target for our bedroom, but we ended up not using it since it needs a box spring.

An Easy Meal Idea

Grill chicken for dinner and made extra to add to a salad or eat for lunch the next day. (Cold grilled chicken is one of my favorite lunches – which may sound weird but it’s delicious.) A simple but tasty marinade we’ve been using is olive oil + salt and pepper + jerk seasoning + lemon juice. It’s great with hummus and pita for lunch or dinner!

Life Lately

Nothing very new here! Jamie still runs around and talks a lot, and he is at a very fun age where he loves to “help” us work on the house. We’ve been (slowly) working on a few fun home projects; our powder bathroom is starting to take shape after a long leak-related hiatus, our upstairs linen closet has nice new matching baskets, and we rearranged our living room!

Pregnancy Favorites, Maternity Photos, and a Pregnancy Update

Now that we’re just a few weeks away from my due date, I wanted to write a quick update here on the blog! I also wanted to share a few maternity photos. I’ve really never thought of myself as a “takes maternity photos” type of person, but I seriously underestimated how much third-trimester moms need to feel good about the way they look. It was a really positive experience to have some pictures of me taken during pregnancy where I actually look nice! (I’m basically like Aly during that one episode of New Girl; if you don’t know what I mean, you should definitely watch New Girl, it’s hilarious). We took all the photos ourselves in our home, which was a relaxed experience and made for some special photos. Finally, I wanted to share a few of my pregnancy favorites: a few things that have been must-haves for me during this pregnancy!

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