I honestly can’t believe it is already August! Would you believe me if I told you that July just might be my least favorite month of the year? Fall is our favorite season, and August just seems to be a little bit closer to welcoming those cozy months… and it also happens to be my birthday month 😉

But, July was fun around here… filled with thunderstorms, sharing our summer living room, revealing our Firepit Patio, testing so many new summer recipes, and finally checking off an easy DIY we have been talking about doing for years now. More below!

Shop The July Edit

July Posts

1. Summer Living Room
2. Backyard Firepit Patio Design Board
3. Backyard Firepit Patio Reveal
4. Summer Glow Video
5. How We Transformed Our Backyard Video

Shop Our Favorite July Purchases

1. Cotton-Linen Pajamas – currently 30% off! Thanks to a friend for recommending these, these have become my favorite lounge pajamas and WFH pieces to mix and match like I did here.
2. Vintage Canvas Converse – I finally got these in and love the vintage colorway of the soles, cannot wait to style these with some fall looks.
3. Stainless Steal Flatware – I got these in last month and Justin and I love them! They are rustic, classic, and beautiful! I love how the patina is irregular making them look like they have been a part of the family for generations.
4. Peter Pan Collar Top – Wearing this in the photo above and in this Reel, absolutely love the sleeve details. Wearing a 00 for reference.
5. Farmstead Serving Bowl – Love the texture and finish on this serving bowl, and it’s the perfect size to hold your favorite pasta dish!
6. Outdoor Lounge Rocker – We revealed these in our Backyard Reveal just last week, but we love the size and comfort of them and the beautiful gray wash in the wood!
7. Vintage-Inspired Rug – You can see how this rug looks in our living room here, and here. We love the neutral tones in this rug.
8. Flameless Candles – I talked about these in this post, and we usually aren’t a fan of anything but the real thing, but these look really realistic when on with the flickering ‘flame’ and we love using them outdoor so we don’t have to worry about bugs getting stuck in melted wax.

Eats

July was definitely the month of testing new and old recipes… with lots of tomatoes 😉 We mastered a homemade pizza dough that we absolutely love and will be sharing the recipe this month, I tried my first calzone and fell in love, made our first homemade pasta sauce using cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs from the garden, changed a couple of things in our banana bread recipe and it is now 10/10, and made a really simple summer dessert that we all love and are sharing below!

Have I ever mentioned that photographing and publishing a cookbook has been a longtime dream of mine? I have an entire list of recipes that I would include, the name of the book, and so much more… maybe one day! For now, you can find some simple recipes in our Eats highlight on our Instagram page!

Simple Strawberry Dessert Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• Strawberries (chopped)
• Fresh Sweet Mint (chopped)
• 1 c Heavy Cream
• 1-2 tablespoons Powdered Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• Lemon Juice

INSTRUCTIONS

Whip heavy cream until peaks form either in a stand mixer with whisk attachment or by hand, about 3-4 minutes. Once thickened, add in vanilla extract and powdered sugar, mix until combined.

Cut up Strawberries, squeeze lemon juice over and stir to coat. Add in chopped fresh Mint and stir.

Serve Strawberries and Cream together in a bowl for a delicious and refreshing summer treat!

DIY AC Screen Cover

We have been talking about doing this for… years! Our AC unit has always sat crooked and since the pad it sits on is hollow underneath, you can’t really level it easily… so we decided to hide it!

What you’ll need…

• 2 2×2 Cedar Posts (ours are approximately 4′ tall)
• 2 of these slotted angles 36″ in length
• Screws & Washers
• Cedar Planks (1 x 60″)
• Leveler
• Nails
• Scrap piece of wood to use as spacer
• Mallet or Hammer and scrap piece of wood

1. Determine your size, we sized our screen 4′ tall by 5′ wide.
2. Justin attached 12″ of the angle to the bottom of the posts leaving 2′ to go in the ground.
3. He attached the angles to the posts with 1.25″ screws and washers.
4. He drove the angles into the ground using a scrap piece of wood and a hammer and hitting the top of the post until a little bit of the post was in the ground.
5. Once both posts were in the ground, we took a board and placed that on top of both posts and used a leveler to ensure the posts were level.
6. Justin attached the planks to the posts with brad nails and a nail gun. We used a scrap piece of wood as a 3/8″ spacer when attaching the next rows. (see below)
7. After all of the boards were attached, I stained them using Sherwin Williams WoodScapes Mountain Ash which is the same stain we used on our firepit posts and our front porch posts.

Current Projects

Garden- Now that it is August, it is time to plan for our fall garden… we are planning to try and grow Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Beans, and Onions. This past month we learned about an entire ecosystem we didn’t even know about, lost our pumpkins, bush beans, and cucumbers- but learned a lot and are excited to try planting in this next season.

Sunroom- we finished painting the floor in our sunroom and now all of the walls need to be painted… we are trying to decide between keeping the walls a warm white or trying a soft charcoal for some depth, stay tuned!

Living Room- we have an exciting delivery happening this week… we have a lot of plans for our living room this fall and hopefully it will start taking shape this month.

August’s Room- It is almost time to transition baby girl into a toddler bed. Inspired by this IKEA toddler bed makeover, we are planning on making August a bed to replicate a vintage-inspired pine bed!

That’s it for now, friends! Hope you all enjoyed this recap and are looking forward to this new month!