Two Years of HDWD!

Guess what? I've been blogging on Have Dog, Will Drive for over two years! I bought the domain name in April of 2017, launched the blog publicly in May of 2017, and really got in the swing of blogging that summer. Keeping up with this blog is one of my favorite hobbies, and I'm so thankful for those of you following along. This blog has had some different stages within that time frame, going from being strictly focused on camping and dog-related posts to now being more about everyday lifestyle. I love them equally—some of those early posts were so lovingly/painstakingly crafted, and they’re cool to look back on, but I also love the simplicity of many of my blogs now. They also fit with my life at this stage and make it easier to post frequently when I’m not necessarily going camping every month like we used to.

Probably my favorite type of post to write is recaps of trips! Just recently I went back and read all of my honeymoon recap posts, and it was so fun to remember little details I 100% would have forgotten by now if I hadn’t blogged/journaled about them. I like to think of my blog as like a “journal plus.” I love paper journals and have kept them for years, but it’s nice to blog because I can weave pictures, links, and more depth into my stories and share them for others to connect with.

Which brings me to my absolute favorite part of blogging—the people I e-meet and connect with! In the two+ years I’ve been blogging I’ve had people read my blog from every US state and over 100 countries. I’ve emailed with dozens if not hundreds of readers, shared happy and sad times with people, given trip advice, and just gotten to hear the stories of so many interesting people. I’m so grateful to everyone who has written to me over these two years! Other than weird spam messages (sorry), I have responded to every single inquiry on my contact page, and I love to hear from people :)

I like to think that the common thread running through my blog, no matter the type of post, is just to embrace the sweetness of life. To reflect on how a getaway, big or small, can refresh your soul. To remember to love on our people and pets every chance we get. That’s my goal, at least!

To wrap this up, I want to link a few favorite oldie-but-goodie posts that you might not have read if you only recently started reading my blog:

The Life of Casper - our first dog (the original dog in “Have Dog, Will Drive”) who passed away a couple of months after I started the blog

Engaged in Alaska (and really my whole Alaska series)

The stories of how we ended up adopting Willie and then Bean

How to Make your Camping Experience a Little More Martha Stewart (this one isn't necessarily one of my most-read, but it's SO me, and I personally love it)

My best photography advice

Our Santa Cruz Mountains getaway - a special trip that ended up being exactly our one year to the day pre-wedding anniversary (but we didn’t know it yet, since we weren’t even engaged yet much less had planned our wedding!)

A recap of making Grace’s Red Rover music video

Last but not least, A Heart to Heart

Whether this is your first time reading my blog or you’ve been reading since 2017, thank you so so much for your time. In a world of emoji Instagram captions (which, don’t get me wrong, I love), long-form, old-school blogging is where my heart is in terms of sharing on the internet. It means a lot that anyone reads, let alone all the sweet people I have gotten the privilege of hearing from.

Here’s to the next few years of Have Dog, Will Drive!

My Spring Bucket List

What a wonderful SPRING we had this year! I was actually traveling for a good chunk of it for work, but just looking back at pictures from those months (during the time I was home) makes me so happy.

Seasonal bucket lists have been one of the sweetest parts of this first year of marriage. Links here to my Autumn and Winter bucket list recaps. Lately, I have loved the simplicity of life so much. For the past few years there has always been one big thing or another happening in my life: in 2016, I was graduating from law school and taking the bar exam. In 2017, I was working full-time for the first time, then taking a break from working full time (haha) and traveling, then Grace asked me to marry her. In 2018 I was planning a wedding, getting married, and honeymooning. In 2019, I’m so happy to just be going with the flow and enjoying each season (literally) as it comes.

I’ve always been enthralled by changing seasons. As a kid, one of my favorite children’s books was about how each year brings the same patterns and traditions in sequence, and then we repeat it all (wish I could remember the name of the book—thoughts, mom??). Some might think we don’t have seasons in LA, but we totally do! Just no cold weather, which I am more than happy to have left behind.

With my Spring bucket list this year, I tried to evoke the wonder of Spring. Springtime is like waking up from a long nap and feeling delicious. Everything is tender, bright, and new. I want to share some photos of my Spring bucket list activities, but at the same time, a lot of them (I’m realizing) are too fleeting, dreamy, and ethereal to really have (good) photos, in the moment. Making wishes on a dandelion. Seeing a rainbow. Waking up on Easter morning and going to our sweet little church. My first strawberry of the season, herbal tea before bed. Such good gifts :) But not a lot of photos on my phone from those.

However, I did manage to capture a few favorite moments from the season! First, here’s my list (with the accomplished items highlighted in pink):

And some of the best memories from Spring:

Dyeing Easter eggs (Grace’s first time!)

Spring time at our favorite “secret” beach in Malibu

We got tulips twice! Once bought (on the bucket list) and once from some sweet friends (unexpected but even sweeter).

String lights in our yard! I’ve LOVED having these up.

We also added some outdoor furniture, and it’s been super sweet having breakfast out there some mornings.

And of course, eating plenty of Cadbury eggs.

I’m so thankful for this Spring. One for the books, for sure. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through July! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen that I posted a Summer Bucket List too! I’m already working through it and having such a good summer. Here’s the list—recap to come in a couple of months!

Have you ever made a seasonal bucket list?

Grace Appreciation Post

Friends, since this is my little corner of the internet, allow me to get real sappy for one post. Lately, I’ve been feeling so proud of and grateful for Grace, and in the 2+ years I’ve been blogging, I haven’t ever written a post just bragging on her a bit.

Grace is the most multi-talented person I know. I am biased, but I love her music so much and am so proud of how she’s pushed herself to make more of it in the past couple of years! When we met in college, mutual friends of ours would occasionally convince Grace to play us covers of songs on her guitar late at night at college parties. But it wasn’t until a few years later that she really poured more of herself into music, and I’ve loved getting to see that. Some favorites:

• Her newest demo, “Drifting,” which is honestly one of my fav songs of hers ever!

• My song :)

• Red Rover, that I got to be in the music video for wayyyy back before we were even engaged

• The lyrics to Grace’s song “When I Go” from her album Six Feet Under All the Same are probably my favorite that she’s written

And lots more. But moving on—I am SO incredibly proud of the content Grace and our best friend Tina are making for Refinery29 in the web series State of Grace. The first episode (on identifying as queer and Christian) is linked here, the second episode (on sex ed in abortion-ban states) is linked here, and the latest episode was released today! It explores faith and commercialism in the context of Los Angeles megachurches. This series is so well done (I can say that because I’ve had absolutely no part in it, haha) and is touching lives, which is the coolest thing.

I’m not one to hype up online like “big things are coming”—so that’s not what I’m doing here—but I WILL say that Grace always has a million ideas and irons in the fire, and I’m so excited for all that is to come.

Recently, I got sick (only a little virus) for the first time since getting married, and Grace was so sweet in taking care of me. That’s what gave me the idea to write this post about her. Grace has such a heart for serving others, no questions asked, and it’s the best quality I can think of in a person. She is the first person to offer you a ride home, a shoulder to cry on, or promote your new creative project to the world. She is too humble sometimes so I’m here to ramble about how great she is! Chances are, if you found my blog, you probably found it through Grace and already know all of this. But if not, check out her music and/or documentary work. I’m so proud!!

Thanks for reading :)

Weaning Our Dog Off Puppy Food + Puppo Food Review

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but at almost 2 years old, we’ve FINALLY weaned Jellybean off of puppy food. When we first adopted Bean, he was only 4 months old, so we started feeding him a puppy formula that he did well on. Puppy food is really supposed to be fed only for the dog’s first year, but once that milestone came and went, we just kept feeding Bean the same food . . . whoops! Changing dog food can be tricky, and to be honest, we hadn’t made it a priority to change him to an adult dog formula.

Right around the time I was thinking about making the switch and contemplating the best way to do it, Puppo reached out to me to see if they could send us some food for Bean to try! Puppo is a personalized dog food delivery service, and with their help, Bean is finally eating adult dog food. We loved our experience with Puppo and today I wanted to share a bit about it.

As you can see from the picture above, Puppo is totally personalized and our bag of food even came with a cute picture of Jellybean on it!! I answered a few questions about Bean online to start, including the basics like his age and size and then more specifics like what we’d like to work on: weight loss/gain, fresh breath, digestion, etc. Thankfully, Bean is at a super healthy weight (so we just want to maintain that), but his breath could ALWAYS use some extra help so I definitely checked that box on the quiz :) Puppo is a delivery service, so you sign up for a subscription and then the bags of food just automatically come in the mail whenever you’re running low. More than once in the past I’ve run out of Bean’s puppy food and had to feed him some of Willie’s food for a day or two, so it’s nice to just have the bags show up on our doorstep and never run out.

Based on my answers to the online quiz, Puppo formulated a recipe for Jellybean with a base of lamb and rice. The bag has all the nutritional breakdown and feeding instructions right on it. We drop Jellybean off at daycare (and overnight boarding) every now and then, and it’s really nice to have his name and the feeding instructions right on the food so we can be sure it doesn’t get mixed up when he’s at daycare! The last time I dropped him off with his bag of food, the staff commented how cute (and easy) it was for feeding time when I picked him up.

If Jellybean’s needs change, we can always go in and update his formula online. Overall, we’ve had a great experience with Puppo.

Bean taking a mid-morning nap after eating his breakfast of Puppo food! :)

In terms of actually weaning Jellybean off the puppy food he was used to, it was a matter of slowly switching over, by feeding a blend over a series of days. The Puppo starter kit we received included a nice little laminated flashcard explaining the ratio to give, adding about 10% more of the new food each day and 10% less of the old food. Over a few days, your pup is acclimated to the new formula. Switching cold-turkey is hard, and we VERY much wanted to avoid any, ahem, digestive problems from Jellybean. Now that we have him eating adult food, we joke that he’s a “grown dog” and isn’t a baby who needs his moms anymore. But of course, he’ll always be the baby of the family at 12 pounds, haha!

If you are interested in trying Puppo for your dog, they’re running a promotion right now for two weeks’ worth of food for just $9 so you can see if your dog likes it. Click here to get started.

Disclaimer: Puppo generously sent Jellybean three free months of food to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

How We Do LA Pride

For West Hollywood residents, Pride is one of the happiest times of the year. Grace and I have been lucky enough to live in WeHo for the last few years, and slowly we’ve perfected how we like to celebrate Pride. As you are probably aware, Pride month goes for the whole month of June, and in WeHo there are events all month long. But what we think of as “Pride” is the day of the parade that goes through our city along Santa Monica Boulevard. Together, Grace and I have been to six West Hollywood Prides, and this past Pride (just a few weeks ago) was one of our favorites yet! For the past few years we have hosted a pregame and breakfast and then everyone walks from our house (or Grace’s apartment, before we got married and lived together) to where the parade starts, since it’s just a couple of blocks away.

There are a lot of different ways to celebrate Pride in LA. There are a million parties going on, there are ticketed and non-ticketed aspects of the parade day, and of course some people are actually IN the parade itself on a float. Grace and I keep it super simple, and we love this formula! Starting at 8am the day of Pride, we open our doors to anyone and everyone who wants to join us. We have mimosas, bloody marys, and breakfast, and we blast Cher and other gay icons on our speakers. A bit before 11am, which is the start time of the parade, we do a last call for drinks and then we head into the street!

We like to just set out a bunch of stuff and let people mix their own mimosas and bloody marys.

This year, with the help of my best friend who has a culinary degree, I made the yummiest six-layer rainbow pride cake!

As we head out to the parade, we usually make a game plan as to where we’ll meet in case anyone in the group falls behind (the streets can get really crowded and hectic—but it’s always fun). We love Micky’s and that’s where we all met up this past Pride.

We hang, we drink more, we dance, and then by mid afternoon we usually are ready to hit up Shake Shack (don’t know why, but it’s a Pride tradition!).

One of the best things about Pride is the afternoon nap. I know some people stay out all night, but I absolutely love coming home around 4pm and napping and then waking up, cleaning the house, and ordering pizza. It’s just the best end to the sweetest day! This year, of course I also ended the night with an extra slice of Pride cake.

To end this post, I just want to say that if you haven’t yet gotten to experience the joy of attending a Pride parade/celebration or feel like you can do so safely or openly, my prayer is that one day you get to be yourself in vibrant, joyful community. The joy I feel on Pride is something I hope every LGBTQ+ person gets to experience, and I’m so grateful for West Hollywood. If you don’t know much about West Hollywood’s history, I encourage you to read this article (or many others) about how WeHo decided to incorporate as its own entity in 1984 and become a self-governing gay city separate from Los Angeles. We love living here so much.

4th of July in a Vintage, Dog-Friendly RV!

Grace and I just got back from the sweetest Fourth of July getaway and I can’t wait to share about it! This past spring has been busy for us both, and we haven’t gone on as many little weekend trips and quick getaways as we usually like to. We have kind of a crazy month coming up in August too (in a good way), so we’ve both been thinking of July as our “month off” (even though we are both very much still working) and hoping to spend a lot of time this month relaxing and making fun summer memories.

To kick that off, I booked an AWESOME vintage RV in the desert as a surprise for Grace as a Fourth of July getaway! We booked through Hipcamp, and you can find the link to the RV here. If you’ve never used Hipcamp (similar to Airbnb but for camping/glamping), you can click here to use my referral code and get $10 off.

How cute is this place?!

The RV is totally off the grid in the desert, out in the Lucerne Valley. We’ve been to the Lucerne Valley several times and always enjoy the natural beauty of the high desert. Given that it’s July, I was very happy the RV had air conditioning! Everything is solar powered, and it worked like a charm. The temperature outside cooled down a lot at night, but even during the heat of the day the inside of the RV was crisp and cool—it’s such a small space that the AC cooled it off within minutes after we arrived and turned it on.

The interior of the RV is super cute, with an overall retro style and cute vintage touches.

Our getaway was just one night long, but it’s so good to the soul for both of us to get out of town every now and then. We loved looking at the stars (they’re SO bright way out in the desert), cooking our dinner on the grill and making s’mores with the fire pit, and being able to bring Willie, who loves adventure so much. We boarded Bean. Sadly, Bean has severe car sickness, and he’s never been on a car ride more than a few minutes long where he hasn’t thrown up. I also get nervous about predators like hawks out in the desert, since Bean is so small. Thankfully, he has a great boarding place near our house that he stays at when we go on road trips. But Willie loves coming with us on car rides SO much, it’s his favorite thing!

After we got there and got settled, Grace started up the grill and I chopped veggies to make homemade cole slaw! Perfect Fourth of July food :)

The beginnings of the best cole slaw in the world—mine (actually my mom’s, but in California, mine)

Thankful for my grill master.

We had an all-American feast of (vegetarian) hot dogs, cole slaw, and chips!

Funny enough, because it was the Fourth of July the grocery store was sold out of hotdog buns! So I had to use hamburger buns instead, which was fine :)

It was sooo pretty once the sun started setting, and we took some pictures.

Thank goodness for self-timer, or we would never get pictures on vacation!

Once it was dark, Grace made a fire and we roasted marshmallows for s’mores. I am actually not the biggest chocolate fan, so I usually just eat plain roasted marshmallows instead of making a traditional s’more. But to kick off summer, I had to eat at least one.

The stars were so gorgeous. It’s obviously hard to get a good picture of a starry sky on an iPhone, if not impossible. But the stars were so bright my phone actually managed to pick them up!

The city lights at the bottom of the picture are probably Apple Valley, CA, but I’m not sure since I’m not very good at directions and am not sure which way I was facing when I took this photo. While we were standing looking up at the stars, we also saw a shooting star! And both made wishes, but didn’t tell each other what the wishes were, out of superstition :) We also saw some Fourth of July fireworks in the distance!

It is so quiet out in the desert, and we both slept great. We woke up the next morning to head home, and took in some last rays of desert sunshine.

We loved all the cute, dog-friendly touches, like this doormat. This was our first time staying in an RV, which I have wanted to try for a long time. Seeing how spacious they are (this one also had a bathroom, which I forgot to take any pictures of) made me think I could totally live in one for weeks or even months while traveling. I think it’s so cool that people live in them long-term, too. I can see the appeal!

We had such a special, romantic trip (even though it was short), and I totally recommend renting the RV. It was adorable. Here’s the link to book again and my Hipcamp referral code again. Happy glamping!

July Goals + June Recap

Oh my my, it’s July (in 2 days)! Lately I’ve been feeling in such a “the world spins madly on” state of mind and state of being. Every day feels like it lasts 6 hours instead of 24. Life has been full, good, bitter, hard, happy, sad, fast-paced, and all-consuming. If you follow this blog closely at all (thank you!), you might have noticed that this was the month I was going to write at least five blog posts, claim inertia for myself and get going. I got going on a lot this month, but blogging was not one of them. That’s okay! That’s what I love about blogging—it’s MY space to use how I want—but my ultimate goal is to update and write and keep it going. That’s why I’m going double or nothing for July and setting a goal to write not 5 but 10 blog posts!! Go big or go home.

I want to write a post about all the things that have been keeping me busy lately, kind of a Naming the Good Stuff post and a Life Lately post all in one. So keep an eye out for that. A few of things that made June the rollercoaster that it was:

• Grace’s sweet, sweet grandfather Moby passed away and we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him, looking at old photos, eating his favorite snacks, and remembering

• Taking a really fun, short trip to Paso Robles (see the one-minute video I made about it here)

• Hosting my little brother in town for a week

• Celebrating Pride!!

• Grace being out of town on and off filming State of Grace, her show with Refinery29. The latest episode came out today—watch here :)

Aside from not blogging 5 times, I did decent on my goals this month! Here’s a recap of my June goals:

• Blog 5+ times (not including this :))—unfortunately no

• Organize/rearrange our guest room—yes! I might do a blog post on this!

• Make our summer bucket list—came up with the list, turning it into a cute printout later today (and it’s June 29th today so I’m sneaking this in at the last minute)

• Host my brother for a week—yep! So fun

• Make bread from scratch—YES and it’s life changing! I’m gonna do a roundup post about adventures in bread making

• Celebrate Pride month!—yes. One of my favorite prides ever. Will write a blog post about it for sure

• Yoga with Grace (we’ve been very into doing yoga together lately. Want to keep it going!)—yes, when we were both in town! Grace actually got me a custom designed yoga mat as one of my birthday gifts so I’m excited for more of this

Next up: July goals:

• Rest & savor summer

• Cross things off our summer bucket list

• Save a certain amount of money

• Write 10+ blog posts

• Yoga with Grace

• Spend time every day specifically praying for the core people in my life

I hope your summer has been off to a beautiful start!

Lessons from Dad

Happy (almost) Father’s Day! My dad isn’t much of a recreational internet user, but if he reads this post because my mom tells him to, hi dad!

This year, my birthday is the day after Father’s Day, which is exactly how it was the day I was born! I was supposed to be born the day before Father’s Day, but I was born the day after, so my dad had to wait a whole year to “officially” have his first Father’s Day (since I was his first child). Sometimes through the years my birthday falls on Father’s Day itself too, and I like to think this among many things contributes to the special relationship I have with my dad. This time of the year is always a happy one, with my dad’s birthday and the Fourth of July falling just a day apart a few weeks later. Summers were always the best times growing up. Lots of holidays, birthdays, and time spent at our favorite place on earth.

I know Father’s Day is also a bittersweet time for a lot of people, and in my family (now including Grace’s side), we have lost a lot of our fathers or father-figures. So we remember them this weekend too. It’s also kind of strange to think that Father’s Day won’t be “typical” for my future children, if I am lucky enough to have them, but I know their lives will be filled with the best father-figures AND two amazing grand-dads.

So in that spirit, I wanted to share some of the best fatherly wisdom I have gotten from my dad through the years, and that I know as a grandfather he will teach too. I was about to type “fatherly advice,” but I don’t really feel like my dad doles out advice from an armchair the way I imagine dads in movies do. Instead, he has taught me so much by the way he just lives his life. I think he teaches by example rather than by lecture, which I personally think is the best way to learn! Here goes:

1. Be prepared. Yes, this is the Boy Scout motto, and yes my dad is proudly an Eagle Scout (both Grace’s and my brothers are Eagle Scouts too!). One of the “legends and lore” of my dad is that when he was a little kid, he packed one glove on a family trip—just one—in case he “needed to pick up a turtle.” While I think my dad would NOT advocate for overpacking, he does advocate for thinking things through and being prepared for every situation, to the extent possible. I think most who know me would agree I tend to be this way as well, and my dad was a major influence in this way of thinking (which I believe has gotten me pretty far in life!).

2. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. This is definitely among my dad’s favorite sayings, and it’s just true (though I’d change it to “makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise” :)). My dad is the hardest worker I know, and although a LOT goes into that, waking up early and going to bed early always sets you on course for a productive and meaningful day. I don’t always do this, but I know my dad is right about it so I try to!

3. Home cooking is the best food there is. Growing up, my dad always preferred my mom’s cooking to restaurant food. And my mom’s cooking is very very good. But more than just that, it’s a recognition that our bodies and minds will feel best when we make our own food from scratch. I love Trader Joe’s frozen mac and cheese more than I care to say, but the older Grace and I get, the more we do really just crave home cooked food above anything else. Being on the road a lot this spring reinforced that even more, and I got so sick of eating at restaurants.

4. Save as much money as possible. This is one where I don’t really remember my dad telling this to me, but it is so evident in the way he lives, and the life he has been able to give our family. Becoming an adult has crystallized this for me more than ever, and I can only hope to be as good at saving money as my dad! But I’m on the right path knowing the deep and inherent value in saving from a young age because of him.

5. My dad has made the same New Year’s resolution every single year: grow in his faith. In a world where goals and resolutions (including mine!) tend to be about reaching career milestones, looking a certain way, or “achieving” something tangible, my dad has kept it real with the same goal (and the only goal that really matters) year after year. It inspires me so much!

Thanks for these lessons, dad! Love you. I’d love to hear what others have learned from their fathers or father-figures!

June Goals + May Recap

I’m back!! I think May 2019 was the least I posted in the history of having this little blog. I sort of didn’t see it coming (even though I should have), but May was a monster of a month. I was out of town for work the majority of the month, Grace also traveled out of state, one of the only weekends we were both in town we ended up taking a road trip for a friend’s birthday, and just. so. much. happened. I am really proud of everything Grace and I both accomplished this past month, and my only regret is that I neglected this space.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is the concept of inertia. It really is so true-we are just inclined to keep doing what we’re doing (or not doing). If I’m already cleaning the house, then going for the deep clean behind the kitchen appliances doesn’t seem so crazy. But if I’m scrolling on my phone and sitting on the couch, I want to keep doing that. Same with blogging here—little posts like this don’t take much time, but I can easily spend hours writing and taking pictures for a more in depth post. It is a lot of work but I love it so much, and when I’m in the habit it’s easy to keep going. It’s kind of related to the concept of the longer you stay in a pool, the less pleasant it becomes to get back out of the water because it feels freezing. I want to use that thought as momentum, to jump two feet in this month. Because once I get moving it is so much easier to keep going! So that’s kind of a guiding thought for me this month (and I wrote it at the top of my goals list to remember).

First, how I did in May:

• Celebrate two years of Have Dog, Will Drive! I just paid the domain name renewal so that means I’ve had this little blog for two whole years.—no I didn’t have time! I’m going to make a two-year post this month (belatedly) though!

• Research and buy solar string lights—yes and I am IN LOVE with how they look in our yard. So long overdue.

• Make bread from scratch—no, lol at me thinking I’d have time to do that in May. Moving it to the June list!

• Book our anniversary weekend—yes, we’re spending a weekend in one of our favorite places in the world.

• Garden with Grace—yes!

• Convert my Jetta lease—yep!

• Complete a major career milestone that is very cool!! Just not in the habit of sharing work details on this blog, otherwise I’d say more :)—YES!! Done & done.

Here is what I plan to make happen in June!

• Blog 5+ times (not including this :))

• Organize/rearrange our guest room

• Make our summer bucket list

• Host my brother for a week

• Make bread from scratch

• Celebrate Pride month!

• Yoga with Grace (we’ve been very into doing yoga together lately. Want to keep it going!)

Happy June, friends!

Birthday Wish List (Gift Ideas for Friends, Girlfriends, Wives, Etc.!)

Recently Grace asked me what I wanted as a birthday gift for my birthday coming up next month, and I was stumped! For Christmas this past year, I made an old-fashioned Christmas list for Grace, and she asked me to make something like that again for my birthday. I ended up finding some SUPER cute things, so I decided to share the love and make my birthday wish list a blog post so others can get ideas. For June and July babies, or a just-because gift, I hope these inspire you:

I have been dreaming about these PJs (pictured above) ever since I saw them. I love that you can add a monogram - EHB for me! The pink and red is so cute.

Speaking of cozy, everyone has been saying I need to read Where the Crawdads Sing! I would love to settle into a new book this summer.

Also high on my list: a new pair of sunnies for our big summer trip in August/September. I love these, these, and these. Tortoise shell in classic shapes is always my go-to.

Another summer accessory I’ve been admiring: hair scarves! This set of two is so pretty.

Image via Anthropologie.

I have been thinking about treating myself to a new blush (mine is in crumbles, but I’m making it last for now), and this one looks so summery and sweet!

Diptyque’s candles have to be my favorite ever, although they are a splurge. I’d add the Roses and Tuberose scents to my wish list.

Image via Diptyque.

I don’t wear a ton of jewelry, but I actually love fun pieces. Lately I’ve been admiring this cool crescent moon necklace, and also this cool moon and star necklace.

Image via Sequin Jewelry.

Last but not at all least, I have been in such a mood of adding plants to our house, so a plant as a birthday gift would be a dream! This monstera plant has my name written all over it.

Image via The Sill.

I hope this gives you some ideas for gifts for your loved ones! Or, if you’re Grace Baldridge, for me!!