Bits & bobs of summer

Ahh, the sweet joys of summer...sweating every minute, spending too much money on the AC so you can sleep at night, mosquito bites everywhere, the desire to hide indoors as much as possible...

Mostly kidding with that above stuff. As it happens, here in Nebraska we've had a relatively nice summer as summers go around here. We've only hit the upper 90s in the last week or so, and we had some really gorgeous days prior to that so I'm counting our blessings. I'm guessing it will stay meltingly hot through September to make up for it, but for now we're just adjusting to the heat and trying not to melt.

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David has been working his butt off finishing our flower beds along the front of the house. We're not quite finished, as there's a little bit of brick edging he wants to add to the front of the beds for easy mowing capabilities, but we're about 90% of the way there and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! We went from this a few months ago:

to this:

I cannot emphasize how much I love the difference between those two pictures. (Of course the non-winter setting of the second helps the grass effect.) It looks SO good and there are a ton of man-hours gone into this, so props to David for 99% of those hours. Also tons of unseen hours, dirt to fill those beds and a new gutter system dug into the ground, etc. etc. The flower beds are all made by him, by hand, the painting done by us two, and the grass improved by seeding & watering.

Next up outside is the brick edging mentioned above and some cedar shutters to replace the black ones. We have a plan for the shutters but haven't started yet, and then the front will be basically done until we plant the beds full next spring!

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If you haven't seen it yet -- I'm guessing you don't spend a lot of time on the internet, because it's Prime Day! I'm linking some things here through my affiliate link, things I've purchased and things I've been watching, because who can resist a good deal? If you purchase through the links below I get a tiny percentage back. I love using that to pay it forward to small businesses & mama-run companies, so I really appreciate it!

Anywho onto the deals...

Graco Contender 65 Convertible Car Seat: Cora's just too darn heavy for me to lug around the baby carrier anymore, and I'm also tired of it taking up room in the living room. I was waiting for a good deal at Target to snatch a convertible one up, but this deal is way better! $82 (including tax) is a fantastic deal for Prime members, and we really love the Graco front facing one Kate's in, so don't change things that are working, right?

I also splurged and got this piano book for the La La Land soundtrack, because I've had those beautifully simple melodies stuck in my head since watching the movie, and I haven't bought a new piano book in probably 10 years. Although to be honest, every time I sit down to play, both the girls start crying so we'll have to work on that part.

Oh! and you can get $5 off a $15+ book purchase using PRIMEBOOKS17. So yeah! Makes any book on your wishlist worth buying. (Although in honesty, I had to clear the cookies from my computer to get it to work, so it might have been my computer or it could be their system. But try a few ways before giving up altogether.)

Supposedly if you also download the Amazon app to your phone and sign in, they'll email you a $10 off coupon in the next few days so I did that! Worth a shot right?

Other things I've been watching:
Instant Pot (everyone seems to love theirs but we don't have one yet!)
Kindle (I love my Kindle and don't know what I'd do without it)

What else should I be looking at? (David's going to stop me from buying anything else unless we absolutely need it but...the deals are irresistible!)

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Welcome to my new favorite corner of the house, our tiny ensuite bathroom. This picture doesn't do it justice but I've got this lovely print from Heather Sleightholm at sleightholmfolk and it is gorgeous in person. We also finally got some blinds for the back side of the house and I hung an IKEA shelf that we've had since September for our tiny bathroom to have some additional storage, and I love it all together. 

Small steps, y'all. Small steps.

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I've recently become obsessed with this music video of Francis and the Lights featuring Chance the Rapper, linking so you HAVE to watch it. Kate and I have watched it about 100 times since yesterday, and she's actually pretty good at imitating the dance moves. It's adorable. And the music video is mesmerizing.

Speaking of music, I'm also obsessed with HAIM's new album. Totally worth a listen.

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That's a brief summary of what we've been up to lately. Less sporadic blogging to come, hopefully, but no promises!
HG