We haven’t stopped fantasizing about Cinque Terre since we left- it’s heaven on earth. It’s a popular daytrip from Tuscany or Pisa, and cruise ships dock in Livorno or La Spezia, but I’m going to shoot you straight- if you want the full Cinque Terre experience, you have to stay in one of the towns.
I was doing a little adjusting of my amazon subscribe and save subscriptions and realized this post was long overdue, so here we are.
Like always, full disclosure- I’m an Amazon affiliate, my storefront is here and I may make a small commission on items you purchase through my links.
These are my og pimple patch love, if it wasn’t clear from the purchase history. I’m subscribed to the ten pack, and they offer three and five packs to try a smaller amount. They are thin, comfy to wear and work so well to absorb and protect a blemish. I love these cute ones as well, but when we run out of these CosRX ones, David is promptly ready for a restock.
David and I had just finished singing Asher his bedtime song, and were settling on the couch for an hour or two of work with 90 Day Fiancé on in the background, when I swiped open my email and saw an invitation to the White House. I was already heading to DC to take part in the #trendingup conference, for creators who use their platform for social impact, so I thought it was just part of that, related to our offsite visits, but Joe Biden was I wrong…
This email came from the White House digital team with an invitation to share my thoughts with the team in the West Wing and have a q&a with senior staff. Um what?!? The five-year-old immigrant girl in me couldn’t quite believe what she was reading. The folks at the White House want to hear from me? What a genuine honor… but also like.. really? They had to have seen my many criticisms of their boss online… are they sure they want to hear what’s going to come out of my mouth? My platform may not be massive, but using it to advocate for important causes has long been a priority. So despite imposter syndrome and a case of nerves, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I was turning this invite from Joe and co down.
Let me be clear, this is not meant to be braggy, but matter-of-fact.
I make INCREDIBLE buttermilk biscuits. Tiny towers of fluffy layers, gorgeously golden. crackly crust on top, tender within. The perfect vehicle for everything from more butter to a whole breakfast sandwich, I spent a full winter perfecting them in college, and it shows.
This past year plus that we’ve spent at home, one of the things that has brought me peace is baking challah. I don’t pretend to be more observant than I am- I bake, often weekly, not always timed freshly for Shabbat, but for joy of cooking and eating, for cultural connection. And in many ways, my baking routine has become meditative for me.
Last Halloween, I mostly only decorated Asher’s room. If you’ll recall, I scored our mantel on marketplace just in time for Hanukkah last year.
So if we’re being technical, this was the mantel’s very first spooky season so I had a very valid excuse for getting excited. If I’m being totalllyyy honest, though, Asher and I were picking up prescriptions at Target while David was in the hospital. I swear I only was going to grab one thing, the garland, and the next thing I knew my cart was full.😬 A little decorating magic ensued…
I needed to do some organizing and more shopping and returning as I figured out our Halloween spooky garden party aesthetic, and then had to do some crafting and customizing myself. None of the bigger freaky floral arrangements that were in store worked in our space, so I made the perfect ones myself.
So happy with the way this all turned out… Cheers to all the fall festivities up ahead!
A whole lot of the questions I frequently get in my dms relate to one topic, Asher’s sensory play setup. It’s quickly grown into a basis for some of our most fun activities here at home, so I wanted to create a master post detailing what we have, and how we make it work for us.
The sensory table is an ikea flisat, which works with the trofast bins in all their sizes. We also have this trofast storage unit in Asher’s closet (a fb marketplace score), and the interchangeable bin setup is really so useful for organization and toy rotation that I can’t help but keep up with it.
I was talking with my girlfriend Cassandra last week, who is also an immigrant, about where this trend of perfectly iced sugar cookies came from. It wasn’t a thing when we were kids, but now business has boomed and there are so many talented makers crafting the most beautiful cookies! I’m no artiste, so this post isn’t about those kind- if you are looking for artwork and perfection I can recommend my friend Jen in Los Angeles or learning through the World Cookie Summit. These are easy, yummy sugar cookies, plain and simple.
