My goodness, it’s been nearly a month since I’ve last checked in here or on Instagram. I’ve been so focused on spending time away from a screen when I’m home that the blog hasn’t neared the top of my priority list. I’ve been soaking up this past month of summer visiting with friends, enjoying cocktails on our deck, attending Madison’s outdoor concerts, mastering our new grill, going for bike rides (even if I still haven’t lost the 10 pounds I gained in Portugal), and working on projects around the house that require nicer weather. It’s actually been really nice to take the self-imposed pressure of blogging off my plate so I can enjoy those perfect little moments.

Time away has also made me think about my relationship with blogging. I’ve been sharing my thoughts online ever since LiveJournal was a thing. When you’ve been “curating content” for that long, it’s easy to get discouraged by the numbers and the algorithms and the unbearably slow growth. I never wanted to make this my career, but I didn’t exactly want it to become stagnant. I really started to question things after coming across a disparaging comment about myself online that made me wonder whether or not any of this was worth it. I won’t get into the specifics, but it’s been a contributor to why I’ve pulled back.

Beyond that, I’ve been thinking about the content direction of this space. When I lived in an apartment, I wanted a blog that was focused on clothes and jewelry — and shopping for said clothes and jewelry. However, my interests have evolved in the past two years. Don’t get me wrong, I still love clothes and accessories (and just bought this perfect frock for summer), but I’ve been looking at purchases through a more sustainable lens. I really want each item I buy to be special and to earn its space in my closet; not just chase a trend or be an impulse buy. Plus, the majority of my online shopping time is now spent browsing for house items and debating things like window treatments and searching for the perfect vintage fill-in-the-blank. I think the natural progression of things is to have a blend between home- and style-related content, plus travel. Those are ultimately the three pillars that make me feel creative and fulfilled, and the aspects I’d like to write about and share with you. (On that note, I’d also like to be better about cross-posting house content to Curated Couple, which fell by the wayside, so that becomes a diary of our home that we can look back on.) I guess the only way to get my feet wet again is to jump in and create posts with topics that speak to me and hope you find inspiration or insight from them, too. We’ll see how this shakes out!

And, to catch up on a few random things:

• While it seems wildly indulgent, we booked another trip to Europe this year. We’ll be heading to Brussels for the first week of December for Christmas markets and to restock our supply of Belgian beer (priorities).
• We spent a weekend with Dave’s parents, sister, and brother-in-law up at his parents’ lake house in central Wisconsin. I’ve pretty much decided that anything that includes a fire pit and mosquitoes is camping.
• Bacon has been more affectionate ever since his near-death experience back in May when he was extremely ill. He has also developed hairballs for the first time in his 11 years of his life. We’ll take the bad with the good.
• I just ordered artwork for the bedroom, which I’m pretty darn excited about. Dave thinks it’s too moody, but I find it peaceful.
• When we moved in, one of my biggest annoyances was that the screw covers were never installed on the trim of our patio door. From afar, they looked like black polka dots in the border of the windows. To make matters worse, I couldn’t find the manufacturer of the door anywhere on it. I thought about replacing the door entirely, but uh, a double patio door is effing expensive. Anyway, I randomly came across them when looking through a box of things we pulled out of the junk drawer on closing day. The joy and relief I felt were indescribable. Haha.
• The most recent season of Veronica Mars?! Whoa.

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This is the busiest time for me at work, which I’m sure you’ve gathered given my radio silence so far this week. It’s hard to set aside time for a hobby when a couple of hours to get through a post means I’ll be burning the midnight oil later that night on the work that pays the bills. Instead of staying completely mum this week, I thought I’d share some of the photos on my phone from the last few weeks. Most of these aren’t edited (our living room walls are white and not that weird cream color), but, hey, I’m crunched for time. 😉 And with that, a little peek into the life of Dave and myself over the last few weeks:

• Our bar cabinet finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier with it. We haven’t had a chance to style it, but that duck lamp is totally staying on top. (Sources: bar, lamp, pumpkin, planters)
• Enjoying lazy weekend mornings at home. The blanket isn’t cheap, but it’s such great quality. And I’m loving my new robe.
• Trying on Halloween masks at Target. I’m still tempted to go back and buy this one. We’ve been throwing around a few costume ideas, but we haven’t settled on one yet. This would make dressing up so much easier. (I can’t wait for our first Halloween with trick-or-treaters!)
• I think we’ve picked out our wallpaper! We’re going to hire someone to hang it because we’d hate to screw up something so expensive, so I’m going to wait a couple of months until I feel like we won’t be straining our budget to make this happen. (During the flurry of buying things for the house, we also ordered this media console.)
• We went out for afternoon drinks last Saturday at one of our favorite bars. While I was snapping that leafy photo, a tornado unexpectedly touched down roughly a mile from our house. I’m so thankful that our house is fine. (It was a weak tornado, as far as those things go, and most of the damage was done to trees, signs, and awnings. Phew.) The shoes are from Madewell and required no break-in time.
• There’s a random tomato plant that sprouted up in the small grassy area between our house and driveway. It’s been producing quite a few cherry tomatoes. It’s a fun surprise, even if it’s not the best place for it!
• I casually suggested we buy a record player some day so we could adorably play vinyl as we cook together. Apparently when you express an interest in electronics to someone who loves technology, “some day” came awfully soon. Dave bought this turntable, and we’ve now been scouring flea markets and record stores for albums.
• That bottom middle photo is pretty much what I come home to every day now and I love it. I love when the cat runs to greet me. I love our bar. I love the floors. I love that piece of artwork … that we still need to hang.
• And our couch arrived!