June Weekend To-Do List

With Memorial Day Weekend behind us, we're officially gearing up for summer. It was my boyfriend's birthday over the long weekend so we tried to be adventurous and headed to the pool (with about 10% of our entire apartment complex and their *screaming* children) to cool down from the heat. While there we debated on renting out the club house for my birthday later this month - there's a nice area right next to the pool that has a TV, kitchen, seating and a BBQ area that's situated nicely by the pool. I figure since we have these amenities, we might as well make good use of it. Most of our friends live in the city where it's horrible to get to / difficult to find parking. The perks of living in the suburbs is the ample amount of parking that also happens to be free. Win-Win. My birthday isn't until the end of the month so I have some time, but I thought I'd put my little to-do list down since I like having a reference to go back to at the end of the month to see what I can check off.

1. Plan the birthday shin-dig. I need to contact our leasing office to see which weekend/day would be free for me to rent. Luckily my birthday falls in the middle of the week so I suppose I can choose either weekend before/after to celebrate. Hopefully it's early enough notice for my friends so they can come too. // I've got a slot and just need to stop by the leasing office to sign an agreement and put down a deposit! Just gotta send out invites soon too :)

2. My boyfriend headed off to a bachelor party this weekend so I had the apartment to myself with Ollie. It was a whole weekend of cuddling with him and although I thought he'd be waiting at the door for T to come home (sadly, I am not Ollie's favorite), he actually didn't.  I'm definitely going to use the weekend to catch up on blog photos and tidying up my work space. The amount of PR packages I've received has been substantial and I've fallen quite behind on organizing, photographing, and writing about the products. I've also been clearing out products so friends - come over because I need you guys to raid my stash again.

3. Oddly this time of year happens to be when my family (immediate and extended) have experienced some loss. My uncle passed away from cancer last week, and as the first one in that generation to pass, it's definitely been something to reflect on. It's definitely a note that our parents are aging and we need to appreciate whatever time we have left with them. Per this blog, it's pretty understandable that I love photography and taking photos of everything and anything. I'm usually the designated photographer at family gatherings as well and usually snap a few photos. My cousin has asked me to go find some photos of her dad and of course I'd love to help. I'm kinda kicking myself for never being organized with photos because I probably easily have over 200k photos to sift through. (h e l p m e)

4. Re-arrange the apartment. T wants a new longer desk so I think we're gonna be making an Ikea run sometime this month. I've also been wanting a new dresser because the teeny 3-drawer one we have is not cutting it. I also want one that's long enough to nicely hold my mirror because currently my mirror extends beyond the length of the dresser and it is not cute. I saw someone post one of the Ikea dressers and change out the knobs, and color me inspired because I definitely want to do the same. While I would love to have a West Elm dresser, I just don't think it's financially responsible to splurge on it. Maybe when we get a house - because T made a very good point that I'll be really sad if all my furniture gets damaged in transit when moving from place to place. (So sensible that one.) I think it'll be a nice alternative and in the future I can always utilize it in guest rooms / in my office. (Lol bold thinking that I'll even have a place that can have a guest room.)

5. Get. Some. PEONIES! I LOVE peonies and I haven't been to Trader Joe's or a Farmer's Market since peony season began. It's so short-lived so I need to head over to TJs soon and pick up some bunches. Especially if I do so earlier in the week, they'll be nice and fluffy by the time the weekend rolls around - just in time for some mini photoshoots. // Update - I got someeee! Sadly one bunch was more bloomed than the others and it was a tad sad/limpy by the time the weekend rolled round.

6. Clean out the closet. I'm slowly starting this and have been folding up some winter clothes and storing them away in boxes on the upper shelves of our closets. I know I have a lot of stuff but sometimes I feel overwhelmed at the amount of stuff I have since T is verrrrry minimal. Like 90% of the house is mine, 5% is Ollie's, and the rest is his lol. That may be a small exaggeration but also not really. Anyways - there are a lot of things I don't like to wear anymore and I've gained some weight so some things just don't fit me as well as they used to. We've had a donation box sitting in our closet since we moved in (8 months ago) so I think we really need to purge and just take that over to Salvation's Army ASAP. I also need to throw out some shoes that are beyond their lifeline that I really just need to toss. (Update - I tossed out THREE pairs this weekend and it was very freeing.)

7. In line with the above, clean out the beauty hoards. Since I want to get a new dresser and have all my stuff displayed on that instead, I'm gonna try and eliminate as much stuff as I can that I just don't reach for. I've actually been sent a lot of makeup products lately and if it keeps going at this rate, I'll need to purge more regularly like I do with my skincare. I also want to purge a lot nail polishes as I've had a lot since high school *EEP* that need to be tossed. In general, I've been mostly using 7-free, 9-free, 10-free polishes - you get the gist. Basically nail polishes that are better for me! I have a lot of LVX polishes that the brand has sent me over the past few years and a looot of OPI/Essie ones that I should probably boot soon. I'll probably see which ones are past their shelf life, and take the rest to my office. I've done this a few times and my coworkers all quickly swiped the products! And of course, I need to have a regular clear-out of skincare products. I'm having dinner with some friends early June so I'll be taking a bag of products to let them rifle through. I'll probably also have some other friends over soon so they can take a look too! After shipping off all 4/5 of my giveaway packages, I felt such relief. And the little plant corner in my living room was finally freed up from the pile of boxes. Also getting rid of so many products to go to great homes made me feel so much better too knowing products wouldn't go to waste. (Any friends that know me IRL - if you need anything, holla at me so I can pass things off to ya!)

8. Get a BBQ grill. There's something about Summer that just makes me want to get out and grill. I looove burgers and have been wanting to experiment with making some from scratch. We're trying to be healthier and cook more at home, so we're thinking grilling up meat and veggies will be good. And Ollie loves to sunbathe outside so it'll give all of us a reason to sit outside on our patio a bit more.

9. Plan up some recipes. I'm slowly trying to get better with cooking regularly and I think we're finally getting into the routine of it. My bf and I ate out a lot in the beginning of our relationship and it's been quite an adjustment to cooking at home. After a little over half a year of living together, I'm finally getting used to the "stay at home, cook at home" routine. While I won't say no to a quick pop out to get In-N-Out, tacos, or pizza, we try our best to cook. My bf isn't a fan of Italian cuisine (aka pasta) and I'm not a huge fan of Asian cuisine (lol), so we struggle a lot on agreeing what to cook. I've been pinning some recipes and have been looking into some recipe books (hello Joanna Gaines & Chrissy Teigen - I'm probably coming for both of your cookbooks)! If you have any suggestions for good recipes, send them my way! Also I know this is a long shot but my bf and I are the furthest things from vegetarians and having a plant-based diet, but I've read so much on how much better it is for the environment if everyone goes plant based for even a day each week. No guarantees - but we'll see how that goes! // Update, I've ordered the Magnolia cookbook and I'm so excited for it to arrive! Thanks to Amazon Prime, I should be getting it today :)

10. Cut back on waste. This has been something I've been trying to do for a while, but alas I'm not the best. I try where I can, but it's hard. I've been trying to use less paper cups and have bought myself a Keep Cup (in the medium size so I have to get up more to re-fill / drink less coffee). I really need to get a re-usable fork/knife/spoon set to keep in my lunch bag because I feel kinda guilty using a disposable fork everyday at lunch bc the ones at work are kinda grimy (I don't really trust other people to clean stuff properly). I also really want to get some re-usable straws because I LOVE drinking through straws, and I really know they're not so great. I also want to get some new Tupperware because we always seem to run out. We also don't have any small ones so it's hard when we just want to save something tiny. We should also get one of those "onion" keepers since we usually half an onion and throw it in a Ziplock bag (whoops). // Update, I've since ordered reusable straws so we'll see how that goes :) I'm usually a germaphobe about cleanliness and don't really trust how well reusable straws can be cleaned well, so we'll see.

What are some things on your monthly to-do list?

Are you able to knock things out during the weekday? Because I usually can't be bothered / am always exhausted - but I'm trying!. And things usually get saved for the weekend.