DAY IN THE LIFE ⧸⧸ CHRISTMAS DECORATING 2025 ⧸⧸ CHRISTMAS IN JULY 🎄

Hey friends and welcome back to my channel. I just finished breakfast with the kids and now we're gonna head out to the garden. I have a really exciting day to share with you guys. If you're new here my name is Lauren Nicholson. I love to share all things homemaking and if you're returning it's so great to see you. Okay we have a lot to do so let's jump into this beautiful day. So we've done some major cleaning out here. We got rid of these beds because they were far too shallow. Nothing was growing properly so we repotted the rosemary. We have some oregano. I have some harvesting to do today. We've got some beautiful squash blossoms coming in. Look at this our first eggplant. My husband kind of cleaned all of this up so that more could be growing in here. It was overwhelming. We relocated the string beans and added the peppers that were kind of getting lost in the tomato beds. But look we have another eggplant. And over here I did harvest the tomatoes yesterday because I'm going to make some gazpacho today. But look at these. We got all of these trimmed up. We'll go ahead and harvest these padrones today so we can have those tonight as a little appetizer. And then look in here at these beautiful cucumbers. I think we have a couple, not a ton, but I think we have a couple in here. Anyway these are very spicy. I thought we relocated these but I do need to relocate those. Look in here and see oh here's a couple more. We can pickle these. Here's another one. These are all delicious. Oh there's bees in here too. Gosh we're so lucky. Okay so there's that and then over here relocated some basil and we've got tomatoes. We trimmed off a lot as you can see so hopefully we will be able to push this type, oops sorry, push this type of growth out instead of like this type of growth. We don't want that. We want to have fruit growth. This here. So I hope that helps. Thank you for all your comments about it. We're very hopeful. And then over here our peppers. We're kind of doing the same thing so now that we've spaced them out my hope is that they'll start having more of this type of growth here and less green growth. We want vegetal I think is what they said. Here's like one here but we want more. A little guy here. Anyway there's that. Cilantro is very happy. These are slowly starting to turn red. Hi Pepe. And then in here a little bit of growth finally coming through. That's all very exciting. These peppers are good. We did test a couple and they were very sweet and we don't want that because these are Fresnos so this is what I would make like a hot sauce with. So we definitely want that to get a little hotter. These here are the jalapenos right there and then we have serranos over here and habaneros. So very hopeful for all of that. My little area over here. We've got our mint here. A little bit of dill. Hi girls! Hi babies! Um we moved the green beans into these which should be fine. And we've got lots of strawberries coming out. I'd like to have more. We talked about maybe getting a couple more for up here. Let's go see how Blankey's doing. Blankey blues. Oh hi girls. I see you pretty girl. Look at you two. Hello. Oh I just love these girls. Hello pumper. Oh you're just gonna eat straight from the source? Okay I'll allow it. What a baby girl. Oops. Yesterday we found a couple of like really overgrown zucchinis so we gave it to them. They weren't big fans but hello. You want to get out of there? Huh baby girl? I love you Blanca. I love this coop. All right I'll put this here pump so you can enjoy. You can enjoy your little feeding there. No Rooney. All right let's get a little harvest going. Tuna! Did you come out to join? You did? Oh such a sweet girl. So today I want to do a little harvesting. Clean out whatever we have growing in this garden. I'm going to be taking a bunch of this zucchini and I'm going to tempura some of it. We're also going to be making a squash lasagna or like a zucchini lasagna. It's so so delicious. My mom used to make this and I can't believe I forgot that she used to make this but I was going through her cookbook and I was like what am I going to do with all of this squash and she has some great great recipes. I'm going to share that today and then I know you're probably wondering why is there Christmas music in the background and today I wanted to share with you that it is officially Balsam Hill's Christmas in July sale and I absolutely love Balsam Hill. I have been collecting items from them for a long time. Speaking of my mother I inherited most if not all of her holiday decor and I just love that the pieces that she collected are pieces that I can keep and pass down to my children as well. So I am going to put down in the description box a Balsam Hill sale is going on right now. They're offering $50 off in order of $250 and up using code LaurenJuly. We're also going to be decorating for Christmas so definitely stick around to the end of this video because I will be putting up my first touches of Christmas today. I'm actually really excited. I love how it turned out. I kind of did the Nancy Meyers vibe of Christmas. This is unlike any other Christmas decoration I have ever done in my life or on this channel so you'll have to stick around to see how that turns out because it's quite beautiful. But anyway to get started we are going to be making some lunch. I am starving so I decided to just throw together a quick ratatouille for lunch and then do some deep fried squash blossoms. I saw in a comment down below in my last video saying I can't believe you don't make squash blossoms. I make them all the time for whatever reason I've just never I've never recorded them like recorded me making them because most people don't have squash or zucchini in their yard so I just assume like it's kind of a rare thing to come you know to come about but if you have them they're extremely delicious and very very easy to make so I did pull a couple out of the yard. Things I like to tempura just on the fly. Zucchini, broccoli is one of our favorites. I like to tempura squash blossoms and I also love to tempura just like peppers from the garden. I think padrones or shishito peppers even poblanos all very very very good if you want to tempura them. So to tempura you just add I do two-thirds of the cornstarch and two-thirds of flour with a little bit of salt and some water or excuse me some sparkling coconut water and it's so so delicious. But to get started I wanted to get dinner going while I was making lunch just to make life easier so in one of these Pyrex I'm just going to throw together a very quick and simple ratatouille which is just some San Marzano tomatoes since my tomatoes haven't come in. I'm using tomato paste as the bottom that gives it that really rich flavor. Season that with a little bit of Italian seasoning and then I'm just going to throw in stuff from the garden like bell peppers and some onions and our zucchinis and then for dinner we're going to do something quite similar. I'm going to take these zucchinis I'm going to mandolin them real thin almost to look like lasagna and we are going to put that in the oven so by the time I'm done decorating for Christmas today we will be able to have a nice dinner without anything else to do except curl up watch a Christmas movie and enjoy summer. I am so excited we are coming to the end of July and it is officially almost getting into back to school season. I have all of my fall stuff at the house ready to go. I want to say in the next video or two you are going to definitely start seeing a lot of fall around the house. I will say it's so funny so I have the Christmas tree up right now my balsam hill tree just because I did a reel for them. I'm so excited I work I've loved balsam hill for years but I do make like content and stuff for them and I had some friends come over for like a girls night and they were like why do you have a Christmas tree up in July? I'm like well I make content creation and so it's nice to get kind of a head start on that stuff especially now because July is when they have their largest sale of the year. So if you are looking for one of those beautiful trees you guys I highly recommend do it now because you're going to hate to pay the full price when it comes when everybody wants it. But anyway so I was telling my girlfriends like oh I have it up and then I we just love the ambient lighting and so the kids have been like we're keeping this up for the rest of the year which I don't think we're going to do because we host a giant back to school pool party every year at our house and I think that would be really awkward but maybe we'll do it. Maybe I'll start a new fun tradition with all of our friends but anyway it was just kind of funny that sometimes people don't realize that when you're a content creator that you kind of want to be again a couple months ahead of what's going on and I just want to help promote the sale that Balsam Hill has because I think if you're going to buy a really beautiful Christmas tree that's reusable for years and years if not generations you want to get something that is really nice affordable now's the time to do it. So everything I'm going to show you later in this video you can get right now which is a great great discount and a great deal. It's probably the best that they ever have better than any other sale they have during the year so definitely check that out. Anywho so what I want to do now is get all of my fall up I'm definitely wanting to do lots of things and I was having a really rough time so you guys know that we changed that big bonus room that used to be my office into a media room and then my husband and I moved my office into like the kind of hallway I guess I'm in the hallway we're just going to call it the hallway. So I cannot work from there I have been working non-stop on launching our new wine brand and it's just been a non-stop project and I literally cannot get anything done so for the last two days I am literally sitting in my backyard right now overlooking the pool and the cats hi Tuna hi Enzo and I will tell you I was like I can't do this I need space so my husband and his team are literally building me an office right now so in two days I will have that done I will take you in there to see it all they walled off where like the balcony up above is it's it's gonna be magical and it's where I can like have all of my stuff do my voiceovers do my wine work do my you know keep the kids schedules all of that stuff will be in one place I'm really really excited about it and you guys know that we ordered that giant projection screen thing for the media room and it finally came okay so thank you to the lady who signed for it at the wrong address it went to she finally took it back to FedEx and it made it back to my house which was super lovely kind of a cluster but anyway I digress so the one thing I want to say is making squash blossoms you cannot go wrong put ricotta cheese in there you put cream cheese in there I'm using goat cheese today and it's really good southern spicy cheese add a little bit of water just to get it so it's a little bit or warm it up and then I just put into a piping bag or really just any bag works and just pipe it right into the middle only go up probably you know three quarters of a way and then I twist the tops just very ever so gently and then we're gonna dip those into that tempura mix again tempura you can tempura anything okay it is so good but all you have to do again add it two-thirds of a cup of cornstarch and then two-thirds a cup of flour add a little sparkling water some people like to add beer but I love doing the sparkling coconut water because it just gives it that oh it's just so good and a little bit of salt that's all you need and keep it on low and slow I always say low and slow with tempura it's not going to brown like a um like if you're using bread crumbs like if you're deep frying something it's not going to brown like so definitely don't leave it in there too long because it's going to remain a very kind of creamy white color it's not going to turn into like a brown deep fried color when you're using cornstarch anyway super delicious I also finished up our lasagna which is the same lasagna I always make it's super easy the only difference is I just slid in some of that zucchini hide it the kids didn't notice and it was so good so I always make half and half a little um vegetarian and then a little with the meat in it and all my kids ate it this way and I was like okay well then I'm just not gonna make meat anymore because half my kids don't even like it and the zucchini was so delicious I just love this time of year just popping out to the garden grabbing some things making the super easy lunch I'm telling you Ratatouille makes about I don't know six seven dishes and it takes about five minutes just to chop it all up throw it in put in the oven for 45 minutes it's the most delicious and then to top it with these wonderful little squash blossoms was just amazing the one thing I've noticed over this summer is that I have teenagers and I have lots of kids and people in the house and I have been cooking non-stop I am slightly exhausted from cooking but I feel like when the kids are little I could just make whatever and put it in but as they're getting older especially like my teenagers they just like have more of a sophisticated appetite so I've been I mean my kids all sat down and ate this I could not get I could not keep the squash blossoms that every time I would finish one they'd eat them so I will tell you this was very good for our family but I'm looking forward to kids going back to school because I feel like I'm cooking like this all day long my husband said that we should put a camera in the kitchen so you guys can see because I probably only film maybe one percent of the things I make I mean I do a full breakfast every morning it's different this morning I did croissant sandwiches and then we smashed gosh what are those called the cinnamon rolls we smashed them in the waffle maker so good but look how beautiful for lunch that turned out I mean my goodness very easy to make beyond easy to make did not take me any time at all and it was so good I had to wash some of the eggs because the chickens had like one had cracked kind of got the rest not all of them messy but some of them so I decided to give them a good wash and now that we're done with that I want to tidy up the house so I'm going to remove quite a bit of like excess decor from around the house while we let the lasagna cool down that's going to be for dinner tonight which is so nice I'm already done cooking for the day you guys it is lunchtime and I am done cooking how amazing is that it is ready to go so now I'm going to focus on doing a little cleaning and decorating so today I wanted to put the balsam hill tree up because I'm going to post that on Instagram and if you don't already follow me there please do I would say one of my favorite parts about our community here on YouTube are many of you or you know my the folks that really enjoy my channel we actually DM each other a lot of memes during the day and like funny reels and this and that and I will say I get I get like if I get time to like at night when I lay in bed after like I just can't go to sleep sometimes I will just watch some of the reels you guys send me and I absolutely love them I most notably love that those of you have picked up that I have quite a silly sense of humor which I don't always share on here but those of you who like kind of know me or know me know me know that my love language is laughter so and I have a very silly silly sense of humor I'm very quick-witted very silly sense of humor so I do appreciate that again don't really share that over here but so if you want to head over to Instagram it's just Mrs. Lori Nicholson over here all right guys so I've completely lost my mind and we are decorating for Christmas okay we're doing it I don't care what you say it's happening if you don't like it trigger warning okay trigger warning we're decorating for Christmas but I want to do something I've never done in here which is a very minimal Christmas this is for all of my girls out there they're like I don't want to do a lot but I want a little bit to go a long way this is all you need for Christmas we're gonna get this tree these ornaments this ribbon this garland that's it it is so simple but it transforms the space and it made the whole house honestly like even the kids like it made the whole house feel like Christmas and then my daughter came in and was like you mom this is a beige Christmas where's all the color I was like I know but I'm we're trying something new okay so if you guys are looking for a very simple elegant again I'm thinking this is very Nancy Meyer like it's just like a nice very simple beautiful way to bring the essence of Christmas in without the noise and the loudness which again is not what we're going to be doing when Christmas comes around the other thing that inspired today is I wanted I found the tie backs I want for the curtains we have so I'll be sharing those they're also from Balsam Hill they're beautiful I am not changing them out I'm keeping them all year long because they're perfect so the tree that I like to use is this nine foot this is the red spruce but what I love about this is this is slim I always get slim trees just because I think if you're going to get a full tree you may change spaces and they can get very very thick but I love the slim so this I will link all of them down below obviously and the code so if you guys are looking to save money before the holidays this would be a great way to do that but what I like about this particular tree is you can make it full or you can make it a little bit more like I would say like an alpine fir which I love I don't always find the right kind of ratio of needles for an alpine fir especially if you're getting a real one that can be very very charlie brown but I love an alpine fir I think they're beautiful but what I love about this particular tree and this is the one I have in you guys see I have two 15 foot versions of this tree is how you can make it thicker or you can make it more like an alpine fir which I think is really really fun here is the ribbon I purchased to put on all of my curtains I love it it's perfect it's timeless red goes well all year round and then these are the ornaments that I love I've shared on my channel many many times this particular set has a beautiful vintage antiquing to it it is very delicate so if you have babies don't recommend this if you have cats that climb your trees don't do it don't just keep on keeping on but for us my cats don't seem to bother with this and the way that I tuck them deep within the tree they do well we only lost one out of this entire bunch and I think I've had that for two years so I highly recommend if you are looking for a beautiful set of antique ornaments these are by far my favorite I just love how beautiful this tree turned out so I'm going to be tucking in some ornaments and then I'm going to use a little bit of that ribbon that I purchased for all of my curtains and just tuck it into the tree I'm going to do like a fun little reel on that over on Instagram which will be kind of fun just to show folks like hey there's this really great sale I know lots of other creators have been posting their discount codes I don't care whose you use I just highly recommend if you're going to purchase something for the Christmas holiday especially an heirloom piece like a balsam hill piece definitely use those codes oh and I think you could probably use them for like fall and Christmas that's where I get those big bushes of mums and I have lots of stuff I picked up for Halloween from there it just happens to be one of my favorite spots to find pieces and I've had those beyond like I've had those for years when we lived in the Victorian so I would just say like I've had those five six years and they still still the same trees I use still the same ornaments I use still the same everything where when I purchase things from other places I've talked about this before on my channel but just if you buy really nice things and take good care of them they will last a long time versus just constantly rebuying stuff that is low quality you'll end up spending more money doing it that way than just buying the one nice thing the one time and taking good care of it but anyway let's get decorating I'm going to do this tree and then I thought it'd be fun to show a very simple beautiful mantle that I'm telling you is I'm sitting here in my backyard it is 78 degrees and it is Christmas in my living room but let me show you how this whole area comes together tell me in the comments down below have you started thinking about decorating for fall or halloween yet and which are you going to decorate first making our Christmas memories I've been working so much lately I can barely find the time to sleep yeah spend my time running around keeping people pleased but this is my favorite holiday it's a chance to start over new because I missed you so I'm letting go of everything but you these are the good times with you baby this year it's just gonna be you and me hang by the fire and chill isn't this how it's supposed to be making our Christmas memories oh and I've been long to hold you close forget about everyone else isn't this how it's supposed to be making our Christmas memories oh making our Christmas memories I've been wrapping presents for you I've been hanging marbles in the tree and I lit my house with Christmas lights so you should come back home to me and when we wake up in the morning I'm gonna play those carols that you love we'll be singing all the melodies until the sun comes up these are the good times with you baby this year it's just gonna be you and me hang by the fire and chill isn't this how it is if you are looking for that incredibly full beautiful garland that you see all over instagram all over tiktok all over the place it's super full it cascades down this is it other than that you are going to be buying multiples of these and adding them together it will end up costing more than you just buying one really really good piece I highly recommend these they come in a two-pack I will link them down below again you can use my code to get $50 off they are so beautiful I use the same ones every year you guys and look after years and years of use they are still perfect and then I also have this countdown which is so fun because you can click a button and turn each day off until you get to the last day which is Christmas Eve which is roughly 150 days from today I cannot believe it you guys we are almost there I have so much more I'm going to be sharing about Christmas this year and one of the fun things I will tell you which is kind of fun tradition since I have been doing Christmas in July for gosh it's probably we're going on my fifth year doing this every year we do one gift and our name on a little piece of paper with all the kids and my husband and I and we do a secret Santa the gift has to be $10 or below and we all add something in there and we do a fun night where we basically watch Christmas movies play with all of the Christmas decorations that I put up for the Balsam Hill July sale and then we all give each other a sweet little gift it can either be handmade or you purchase it and I'll tell you this year everybody handmade their gift which I thought was so sweet and wonderful and it's just kind of a fun tradition especially if you're at home and there isn't a whole lot going on and you aren't traveling and you aren't doing like lots of you know camps and this and that it's kind of a fun thing it's kind of like camping in summertime in the backyard doing Christmas inside is kind of lovely especially if the weather isn't great where you are I know there's crazy weather all over the United States right now it was in the low low low 70s today and very very thunderous and overcast so it was a perfect day to cozy up by the Christmas tree and it's just kind of a fun tradition so if you're looking for fun silly things to do this summer with your family highly recommend doing a summer uh Christmas in July but if you are looking to pick up an heirloom piece for your family definitely check out that sale because I wouldn't want you to miss out the last thing I wanted to do was clean up it was starting to get very windy out here and I noticed that um this is kind of a crazy thing I don't know how this happened but we had some glasses sitting on this table and I think they actually the sun hit them and burnt like something into the wood on I don't know what happened I we're still investigating what happened but it was very strange so I wanted to clear everything off of this since that seemed to be a little bit of a scary event that happened out here and just put something simple I found these little pots at home goods and thought I'd just add them out there but I'm gonna take you on a little quick tour and show you what Christmas in July looks like I will tell you like I'll be honest even maybe the husband and I talk about this all the time especially as our kids are starting to venture into high school and soon college when we don't have kids at the house and they're all married and doing things am I still gonna decorate like this I said I probably will because by then they'll be visiting and we'll have grandkids and all of that but I will say if it was just the two of us this would be a perfect little vignette for Christmas but let me take you on a quick tour I think it turned out beautiful um baby this year it's just gonna be you oh this was such a fun thing to do today I have to tell you I am getting so excited for the fall and Christmas season summer is not my favorite I am not shy about that the only thing that keeps me going in summer is the garden and having my kids home I have to say that would probably be the only two parts of summer I actually enjoy thank you so much for joining me on today's video and I have so much more to come if you're looking for some fall decorating inspiration hit that subscribe button because it's coming up next okay guys see you next video real soon bye