This Week's Loves and Links

Hi there! And just like that, October has nearly come to an end! The days are flying by as usual, but wanted to tell you about something we started last weekend to try to slow them down a bit. We did a tech-free Sunday. One whole day that we didn’t use our phones, iPads, or laptops. This was almost entirely an exercise for me and Sebastian since the kids (5 and 7) are too young to use much tech, save for an occasional game on an Ipad. The “rules” were that we could only use our phones for their original purpose: phoning! And we could use WhatsApp to communicate with friends we were meeting with that day. But for me, the most important thing was that we didn’t touch social media for an entire day. And no glancing at news stories just because I have a free moment to myself. It worked and I have to say it was wonderful. We’re going to do it again this weekend and I’m hoping to make it a standard routine in our house.
In addition to that, I am looking forward to some fun catching up with friends this weekend, meeting the new baby of good friends and making fresh bread, another new habit for us. I’m sharing that below. Here is that recipe and some other fun things I’ve found recently….

1 I love to cook, but bread was something I never even thought of baking until I read this fun book. So I gave it a go, making it a fun activity to do with my kids and we all loved it, even my husband is getting into it. Fresh bread is amazing and this recipe truly is super easy to make.

2. I am all about weekend lounging! Here you will find 12 examples of dreamy rooms to do just that. My fave is the room above. I just want to hang out there for days with my whole family, intermittently playing board games, reading books and watching movies like Home Alone.

3. And then after the kids go to bed, Sebastian and I will be sipping on these Apple Cider Moscow Mules. I’m not quite ready for mulled wine, but this could be a great transition cocktail into fall/winter, don’t you think? I found the caramel vodka and the mugs on Amazon. Make sure you use lined copper mugs, as the copper can leach into your drink from a pure copper mug!
 

4. I recently heard about this lovely book subscription called Quarterlane. I am a huge reader and collector of books, so this immediately caught my attention. It’s available in the US and basically, you sign up for a quarterly selection of books with a theme (e.g. fiction, travel, food) and every three months you receive a gorgeously packed box of books and an original art print. I love this idea and would love to subscribe, but I have to say I find it quite pricey for my budget (around $105 per box), especially because I typically buy novels on my Kindle and the price tag for the subscription would mean spending way more per book. It’s not an option for me since I live outside the US, but I would love to know if anyone has heard of something like this here in Europe?
 

5. One of my favorite styling experts and bloggers, Emily Henderson, has just done the thing I can only dream of someday doing. She has bought a weekend house in the mountains so she can create more content for her blog. Seriously, this is what dreams are made of. LOL! I can’t wait to see what she does with it and should be fun to follow along because she’s going to have her readers participate in the design decisions.
Have a wonderful weekend!
xo,
Nicole
 
 
 
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