August Favorites
Orange wine, detective novels, and other things to help pass the dog days of summer.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always kept a running list of my 10 favorite things in my iPhone notes app. It started as a way to remind myself to be thankful for little things that make my life better, and I’ve found myself maintaining it just because it’s fun.
So every month, I’m bringing you a list of 10 things, in no particular order, that have earned a place in my life lately. Don’t expect a theme and don’t expect pressure to overhaul your entire routine - just 10 things I’ve genuinely been loving this month, and why.
1. Pottery Barn Organic Percale Sheets
Texas has been relentlessly hot lately. Like, high of 105, low of 90, three showers per day hot. Every afternoon feels like opening the oven door, and by the time I crawl into my bed at night, all I want is to feel cool again.
I’ve tried what feels like every sheet set on the market over the years, and I always come back to Pottery Barn’s organic percale. They’re crisp but not stiff, cool but not slippery, and they get softer the longer you own them. The only other sheets I’ve found that come close are 2x the price; these are worth every penny.
Not only did I put these on our wedding registry, we registered for 4 sets - which may seem insane, but honestly, I’d do it again.
2. Gulp Hablo Orange Wine
Kevin has been on a wine kick recently, which means many of our evenings have turned into conversations about grape varieties, regions, and whether we can actually taste the things people claim they taste in wine.
This has been our summer bottle.
Orange wine sits somewhere between a white and something a little more interesting. It’s crisp enough for August, but it has just enough personality and “funk” that it never feels predictable. The Gulp Hablo Orange Wine from La Mancha has become our default - our local gourmet grocer sells it in a one-liter size for surprisingly good value, and it disappears faster than we’d like to admit.
If your summer wine rotation is starting to feel repetitive, this is where I’d start.
3. A Deck of Playing Cards
One thing no one tells you about getting married is how weird it feels when the wedding is finally over.
For months, every free hour belonged to seating charts, vendor emails, playlists, and other tiny details and decisions that, for whatever reason, felt enormously important. Then suddenly, on a Saturday in late June, Kevin and I had an entire weekend with absolutely nothing to plan and nothing to do.
We ended up on a bar patio watching soccer, looked at each other, and realized we had no idea what to do next. So I walked to a gift shop down the street, bought a deck of cards, and we taught ourselves gin rummy over afternoon beers. We've been playing ever since.
Sometimes it's nice to remember that entertainment doesn't always have to involve a screen.
4. My Holy Grail Night Cream
If I had to reduce my skincare routine to the bare essentials, I'd keep tretinoin, sunscreen, and this cream.
I am an unapologetic believer in tretinoin. If I ever write an entire skincare post, it will probably just be a love letter to tretinoin. But tret only works as well as your skin barrier does, and this is what keeps mine intact.
Every night I lather a ludicrous amount onto my face after applying my tretinoin. This cream goes on white (the active ingredient is zinc) so I look completely ridiculous climbing into bed, but by morning my skin is glowy, calm, and noticeably brighter.
This is one of the least glamorous products in my routine, and maybe the most important.
5. Le Labo Ambroxyde Candle
My friend Madison brought me this Le Labo candle as a gift when she visited on Nantucket over the Fourth of July. I'd never burned Ambroxyde before, but it's become the scent of my summer.
There's something about lighting a candle in the evening that makes an ordinary weekday feel a little more intentional. This one smells warm and clean without being overly sweet, and lately it's been burning while we cook dinner, read before bed, or sit on the couch doing absolutely nothing.
It's a small luxury, but one I've appreciated every single day.
6. Good Writing Pens
A few weeks before our wedding, Kevin and I handwrote more than 130 letters.
Every guest found a personal note waiting at their seat during dinner, and afterward has come more than a hundred handwritten thank-you notes.
Needless to say, we've spent an archaic amount of time writing with pens this summer.
These gel pens made the entire process infinitely more bearable - might I even say, enjoyable. They write smoothly, they don't smear, and they make your handwriting look cleaner than it actually is (which is a huge win when Kevin is responsible for 1/2).
I'm looking forward to the day we're no longer writing letters every evening, but I'm equally convinced that handwritten notes are one of those old-fashioned lost habits worth holding onto.
7. My Clothing Rental Subscription
I genuinely love clothes. I also genuinely hate spending money on clothes.
After a year that involved a wedding, showers, bachelorette weekends, and a million other events that all required new outfits, I reached a point where I couldn't bring myself to spend money on one more article of clothing.
Nuuly has saved my life since then. I still get the fun of wearing something new, but without overstuffing my closet or convincing myself I need another dress I'll wear exactly once. It keeps my wardrobe feeling fun and fresh while giving me permission to be choiceful about what I actually buy.
8 . The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
I grew up obsessed with Harry Potter, so J.K. Rowling's writing will always feel nostalgic and familiar to me.
Her detective novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, couldn't be more different from Harry Potter. No magic, just modern-day London and wonderfully complicated mysteries.
I've been making my way through The Hallmarked Man, and it's reminded me how much I missed having time to read. The books in this series are long, which I actually love. Just when I become attached to the characters, I don't have to say goodbye after two nights.
Whether you agree with Rowling or not (my feelings are very complicated), her ability to build a world people want to spend time in remains unparalleled and unchanged.
9. Free People Movement Never Better Set
No profound story here, this one is just really good.
I've been wearing this set constantly lately - I own it in white, and I like that the color is a little unexpected for a workout set.
It’s comfortable, super flattering, and one of the first sets I reach for immediately from my weekly clean laundry.
10. Simon Pearce Ring Holder
This was an engagement gift from two of my best friends, and for a long time it was simply where I kept my ring at night. Then Kevin and I got married.
Kevin spent months during our engagement insisting he wasn't going to like wearing a wedding band. He wasn't used to having anything on his hand and was convinced it would bother him.
Now he hardly ever takes it off.
At night, sometimes I find both of our rings sitting on the same little ceramic ring holder before we go to sleep, and I find myself smiling at that more than I expected.
