It’s been a minute since I’ve written a Friday Five but I find these roundups fun so here we are. I mentioned it in this week’s newsletter, but this week I felt like I had so much on my mind. Most of my anxiety this week centered around COVID restrictions being picked back up in so many places so I’m trying to remind myself that there’s not much about that which I can control. (Aside from personally masking up whenever I go out and making sure to wash my hands.)
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Friday Five: Twas a Hot One | Buying
I snagged a Monstera plant while I was at Trader Joe’s last weekend and it is gorgeous! I’m a bit nervous that I might kill it so if you have any tips, let me know in the comments. So far I’ve only lightly sprayed it and dusted off the leaves with a microfiber cloth. If I can nurture this one, I’ll be thrilled but if not I may opt for a faux Monstera plant next.
All about my latest plant purchase: Click To TweetRELATED: Best of Trader Joe’s: Haul & Reader Favorites
Other purchases this week: they’re on backorder but I ordered this leopard midi dress and this gingham mini dress from J. Crew Factory, my brother’s birthday is coming up and as part of his gift I snagged a $30 Yeti tumbler and this hilarious card.
One of my weaknesses lately has been the Iced Blueberry Matcha Latte with Oatmilk from Dunkin. After reviewing my debit card statement (YIKES) I told myself I was cutting back and picked up some of the matcha latte mix from Trader Joe’s. I’ve been mixing it with this blueberry syrup + Oatly over ice and I swear its gotten me to skip about five Dunkin trips in two weeks.
Friday Five: Twas a Hot One | Reading
So far, I’ve finished seven books this month; I think I’ll probably manage to finish an eighth before Sunday but we’ll see! In an act of laziness, I let my library card expire so I’ve been doing all my reading on my Kindle. I’ve had Kindle Unlimited for at least five years now; it lets you borrow up to ten titles at a time from over a million ebooks. You can read on any device — I use my Kindle and occasionally my phone, but I also have used their app to read on my laptop.
My e-reading habit was getting expensive for awhile; I’d easily spend $50 a month on books and feel super bummed if I picked a book I didn’t like. What I like about KU is it exposes me to authors I likely wouldn’t know about otherwise, it has a ton of options in various genres (although I tend to stick to the romance novels), and at $10/month it’s cheaper than buying books individually for me.
My top two reads this month: Caspian by Samantha Whiskey and Silver-Tongued Devil by Rosalind James. I’ve read series from both of these authors and really enjoyed them.
Other reads this month:
- Focused by Karla Sorenson
- Faked by Karla Sorenson
- Floored by Karla Sorenson — this series was cute and the books are relatively quick reads; I started with the fourth book — you can definitely read these out of order
- Playing for Keeps by Kendall Ryan
- All the Way by Kendall Ryan — another series, I liked them but haven’t been in a rush to read the rest of the books in the series.
- Truth or Dare by Danielle Allen — saw a TikTok about this book and downloaded; it was alright but probably my least favorite of everything I finished reading this month.
Friday Five: Twas a Hot One | Dreaming Of
Florence. My friend Ashley is leading an Italy trip in September and the itinerary looks amazing! She’s been over in Italy for about a month now and her content has been dreamy. I’m not quite ready to travel internationally yet, but it’s making me hopeful that maybe that will feel safer for me next summer.
Friday Five: Twas a Hot One | Watching
Way more TV than I normally do! Keeping up with this season of the Bachelorette, but also have really enjoyed this season of Love Island USA. During work, I’ve been streaming Blue Bloods on Hulu and Sexy Beasts on Netflix. Next on my list: the Love is Blind reunion special, season two of Too Hot to Handle, FBoy Island, and more Olympics.
Friday Five: Twas a Hot One | Blogging
It feels like there are just not enough hours in the day but this week I shared this post about summer dresses and a new episode of the podcast I co-host, Content Culture, dropped as well as the video pod.
Happy weekend!
