Five on Friday - Favorite Area Rug, Best Sunscreen, and Purse Organization

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Hey, y’all, happy Friday!  The kids have been at camp all week, so I was able to get a lot accomplished, and that was much-needed after two weeks of caring for Olivia’s arm and then a week at the beach.  My to-do list was about 84 miles long, and it feels good to have put a sizeable dent in it.  Are y’all ready for some favorites?

O N E – New Office Rug

I’ve wanted a rug to go under the craft table in the middle of my office for years.  The table has always looked like it was floating out there like its own little island, and I’ve been wanting a rug to ground it.  As I’ve said before here on the blog, I’m suuuuper picky about rugs, and I pretty much don’t like any of them, so my office has been rugless for, ohhhh, 10 years?  Haha.

I randomly stumbled upon this one while searching for something else, and it was love at first sight!  It was everything I’d been looking for all these years for this space and it was on major sale when I saw it (and still is), so I knew it was meant to be.  I also just happened to have a bunch of Amazon gift card money from my birthday at the time, so I couldn’t add it to my cart fast enough. 

B helped me get it into place (it was quite a feat getting it under that big ol’ craft desk and keeping it centered on the floor and under the desk), but it was worth the time and the struggle because I AM OBSESSED.  This rug is high quality (by far the nicest rug we have in our entire house), it’s so soft, and it lays flat!!!!  All the praise hands for that!  I cannot stand a rug that curls up at the edges, y’all. 

I love this rug so much that I now want to replace the one in our bedroom with the larger version of this one.  The one we have in our room will not lay flat no matter what I do (I have rug tape down around the whole thing and that won’t even hold it down), and it’s constantly bubbled up on my side of the bed… it’s basically the bane of my existence.  Unfortunately, the new rug is pricey since we need a large one for that space, but I’m hoping it stays in stock long enough for us to be able to grab one eventually.  (Brian is cringing and shaking his head as he reads this.  Haha.)  I’m also hoping it stays on sale forever as it’s currently 52% off right now! 

If you’re in the market for a rug, I cannot stress enough just how beautiful and good this one is.

 

T W O – The Real MVP of Summer

Everybody’s all posting about their favorite $30 bottles of super fancy sunscreen and I’m just over here still using my not-fancy-at-all, tried-and-true basic sunscreen from my high school days!  Haha.  I know there are tons of fancy sunscreens on the market these days, but y’all, I’m still using the same Australian Gold with Instant Bronzer that I’ve been using for two decades and I still love it after all these years!  The only difference is that I now use SPF 30 rather than 15 since I’m paying better attention to skin care and protection.

I’ve tried several other brands throughout the years (including a couple of the more expensive ones) and honestly, nothing beats this one!  It covers easily, protects well from sunburn for at least 80 minutes (though I find it works longer than that for me), it smells amazing (seriously the best smelling sunscreen on the market!), and best of all, it adds a subtle glow to your skin in addition to the tan you’re already getting from the sun!  I find that I tan the very best when I use this sunscreen, while also being protected from the sun, and that’s a huge win in my book!  And did I mention that this one is also only $6.99 per bottle?  YES, MA’AM.

 

T H R E E – Etsy Pouches

Brian got me a Barrington bag for Mother’s Day, and all of my perfectly organized purse dreams have come true!  I’ll probably dedicate a full post to it someday, but in the meantime, I wanted to share these cute little pouches that I bought from Etsy to hold some of my stuff. 

Since the Barrington bags are so large, the only way to store your stuff inside is to divide them into different smaller pouches, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to find a single thing.  I ended up having six different categories of items, so I needed six different pouches.  I already had three good pouches on hand, but a couple that I used in my old purse were falling apart and literally had holes in them, so I needed a couple of new ones.

Six pouches full of stuff is a LOT to put in a bag, especially if the pouches are bulky, so I set out to find something small.  These ended up being the perfect size to hold my items while also not taking up much space or adding too much weight to my bag. 

The lemon one holds my oils that I take on the go, the pink, green, and white one holds our masks (hopefully we won’t need this one too much longer!), and the yellow one holds my electronic items (Airpods, phone charger, and Apple watch charger). 

The pouches are the perfect little size to organize any purse or bag, they’re well-made, and they’re so cute!  The shop owner was also wonderful, and she answered my questions thoroughly and immediately.  And this isn’t sponsored or gifted or anything… I just love supporting small businesses when I can, and I love sharing them with you when I find good ones so you can support them, too!  :o)

F O U R – Sunflower Update

Have I mentioned that Olivia is growing some sunflowers from seeds?  I can’t remember whether or not I’ve talked about it here on the blog, but anyway, I thought I’d give a little update.  Back in May, Olivia was begging to plant some sunflowers – from seeds, mind you – so we bought a little pack of seeds and some potting soil from the nursery up the road and she planted one in each pot.  She planted the seeds all by herself and I thought FOR SURE nothing would grow because nobody in our house has ever been able to grow anything from a seed, so you can imagine how surprised we were when we had two little baby sprouts just a couple of days later.  Haha.  One perfect sprout in each little pot.  I was shocked!

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later, and they were growing like weeds right before we left for our beach trip:

While we were gone, my parents watered everything for us, but they accidentally forgot to water her sunflowers (oops), so when we got home, they looked like this: 

One of the storms that had blown through while we were gone had actually knocked the pots completely over, and the soil in the pot was so dry and cracked that it was basically a brick.  I thought for sure they were goners and Olivia was so sad.  We decided to try watering them anyway to see if we could revive them, and look at them today:

Can you even believe it?!  They’re almost as tall as Olivia now and we can’t wait for them to bloom!  Most mornings, the first thing Olivia does is head out to the porch to check on them and we’re all on pins and needles waiting to see signs of blooms.  Sunflower watch 2021 is on!

 

F I V E – Flashback Friday

This picture of Jacob showed up in my Timehop the other day and I about melted into a puddle.  Just look at those rosy cheeks, gorgeous eyes, and long lashes.  My gosh, I miss him being this tiny.  My beautiful boy.

Friday Funnies

Pretty much!  Haha.

Me, this week, trying to get back in the groove after vacay.

One of my favorite episodes!

On the Blog This Week

 Our 2021 30A Summer Beach Trip by the Numbers

 2021 30A Summer Beach Trip - Days 1, 2, & 3

Happy Friday, y’all!

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.