January days...🫖 tidying, harvesting, crafting, & creating healthy habits!

We are having ourselves a homey day, going to tend to the garden, going to tidy up. I am actually feeling a little bit inspired to do some cleaning, which is a rarity. So we need to capitalize on this moment, do some vacuum, mop, laundry, that sort of deal, which I know will feel nice after. After we complete it and in the garden, I want to go ahead and harvest more pumpkins. There's definitely ones that are ready. I've just been enjoying how they look on the vine hanging out there. So we'll go harvest some of those. And I keep joking, we haven't even tried one of our pumpkins yet. They just are so cute to look at. I've been treasuring them, but I also want to make like a moment out of it. So Brandon and I keep joking that we're going to have a great pumpkin feast. It just, you know, it feels more monumental that way. So we need to prepare for a great pumpkin feast and harvest our pumpkins, and also just some pruning, see what's going on out there. We're getting close to our frost date in our garden zone. So I'm also just daydreaming about the spring garden time, as I'm sure we all are, especially those up north who are having extra chilly days. I just got the Southern Seed Exposure magazine in recently. They always create the most dreamy covers. Like, look at these fairies everywhere. It's a work of art. I always save them, of course, and I order a lot of seeds from here. So I'm browsing through that. But what else, what else do I have for you? Oh, I also, I was thinking of doing a little field trip to the craft store today, because I want to redo our little library and give it a refresh, because it's still a gingerbread house. So I, I didn't make it to the craft store though. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow, along with a couple other errands and field trips. We'll see. But excited to spend some cozy time at home. There's a hawk in our backyard. Alert. We're going to do it for the rest of our vacuuming, but I've already filled up this whole tank. I just don't know how full it was beforehand. So we'll empty it and then see how fast it fills up again. One section that I need to vacuum that it's been a while is our stairs. It's tricky because stuff accumulates, but obviously it's way easier to vacuum a flat surface. And then I'm also going to mop, but I was thinking I've mocked the stairs before, but it's kind of awkward to do. So I think I'm just going to take a rag and a spray bottle and just spray each step, which sounds tedious, but I actually thinking about it, I don't think it'll actually take that much time. So let's do it. Brennan was tidying up last night. He found this rogue puzzle piece under the couch, which I believe was from our fall puzzle. And we had one missing piece. And I think this is, this is it. So that brings us some closure. And when we work on it next year, we'll have the full puzzle. So that's exciting. I haven't made that much of a dent on our national parks puzzle yet, but hopefully tonight we can do some tea time and puzzling. I'm putting that on our wishlist for post bedtime. I'll be able to save the sides. Well, if I can pull them off, okay. For next year. But then as you can see the top, the roof of the gingerbread house has something growing on it. Mold or some Florida humidity. I don't know. Yuckiness. Office space or desk anymore. I'm always bouncing around just a little corners of our home. When I'm editing and doing work, I typically gravitate towards the couch, but I'm feeling, I'm feeling ready to have a little desk today and focus. I'm currently editing a little Palm beach blog. We went this past weekend just for one night. So it was a short and sweet trip, but we went to some yummy restaurants and the farmer's market. So I have a cute little blog I'm working on. And I also have updated my website, which is exciting. It was a little overdue. I needed to refresh some photos. And then I, I typically am always updating the lifestyle section in the travel section. So that's always there for you, but I'm very thankful to be partnering with Squarespace for this portion of today's video. I've been honored to work with Squarespace for so many years now, and it truly is a dream partnership for me because I love creating for my website and having a personal website where I can share my life, my work, my ideas, anything like that. I think it's just such, we live in such a digital age, which is a really unique experience. So having a place where I can showcase different things that I'm able to share just in a cohesive, well-designed space is something that I love. And I'm thankful Squarespace allows me to do that. I love how Squarespace has integrated SEO tools. So every website is optimized with index meta descriptions, auto-generated site map, and more, which essentially means that you'll show up more often in search engines, which is really helpful that they just handle that all for you. And I especially love how they really take care and they're very design focused. So if you're not super well-versed in website design, which I certainly am not, they have these stunning layouts. So you can choose different templates that resonate with you and your brand or your business and create this stunning website that they've already curated and sort of given you this gorgeous canvas to work with. So I love Squarespace and I'm sure you will too. If you're in the market for a website, you can head to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash Alison Bakerstaff to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or a dummy. The weather has been so glorious. Palmer has just wanted to stay outside all day, soak up the sun in the nice weather. I wanted to update you on our grass because I have been keeping you updated. And as you can see, we're still struggling, but the whole grass used to look like that section right there, but I planted rye, rye grass, I believe is what it's called. One of our neighbors told us about it and it's better. It's better. It's not going to last throughout the summer. So this is a temporary solve, but hopefully in the springtime I can plant perennial peanut or clover, something that'll be long lasting. I'm still working through, or maybe I'll do a morning glory. I'm not really sure. We're not even that picky, but it's just been a struggle because I tried to plant different ground covers, but none of them really took. So this is where we're at for now. It's actually quite satisfying. This rye grass, it's very like soft and fluffy and the boys like it a lot. We get to harvest some lettuce soon too. Look how stinking cute they are. I love them. They're so adorable. I keep taking a million pictures and videos. I tried to keep a long stem because that'll help them last longer. Hello from the next day. I'm about to take a little man on a lunch date and then we're going to stroll around a park, see what's going on, see what's in bloom. Oh my goodness, the hawk is outside of our window. What is it looking for? What could it possibly be eating in our backyard? I don't think we have a nest. Hopefully we don't have a nest that I don't know about. It's like going in our grass. Anywho, we are going to go to Ledge Park and then the craft store. I've thought of a little bit of ideas for the little library. We might just do something similar to what we did our first iteration in spring or in January of, what was that, 2023 or something, and do some little butterflies. I want it to be very fairy-like and I also would love to look for some Valentine's craft supplies because I want to make Valentines from our son to our friends and family. So that's what's on the brain. We'll see what speaks to us once we're there. I'm always pretending to be a National Geographic photographer. It was super sweet. We were eating lunch and then some of our besties walked in. They actually own the restaurant, so I had a feeling they would be there today, but we didn't communicate about it, so it was a very serendipitous little lunch date with the kids, so that was lovely. And then the park was very beautiful and Hobby Lobby, we found everything we were looking for. I mean, like I said, I want to decorate the little library, make a little fairy situation, but I'm just going to kind of roll with it. I actually stopped on our way home too. In Florida, we pass by so much Spanish moss that falls from the oak trees. It's so beautiful. I think it's actually invasive technically, but nevertheless, it's very beautiful. So I scooped some of that up because I think I'll do that on the roof again, but I think I'm going to wait to decorate it for a few days because it's looking ominous outside and it's supposed to rain the next couple of days, so I don't really want to just redecorate it and then it all gets blown away and kind of dismantled in the rain. Every time I decorate the library, I know that's like going to happen a little bit, but might as well just let it breathe for a little bit. But let me show you what we found because we did find some Valentine's Day things as well. First for the library, we have some fresh windows that we'll paint to put on there, these butterflies that'll kind of nestle in the moss, and then I saw this little jam windowsill kind of shelf thing and I think I'm going to try to find a spot for this because it's so sweet. And then we have the actual flower windowsill, which I just have to refresh these every so often because of course the weather. And then my son picked out this little mushroom frog situation, so now that we added a little flower box to the base of it, we have more room to add fun little things like that. Speaking of, here's a few butterfly picks that are a couple butterfly picks that I'll put at the bottom as well, and then some more butterflies. I might not use all of these, but it's good to have extra to play around with and if not, I'm sure we'll find other crafts to use them for. So same with these sweet little ladybugs. And then as far as Valentine's Day things, I found these heart joy leaves which I think would be really cute to either make little Valentine's Day cards with or make a little hanging banner to put somewhere. I thought that would be fun. I kind of want to try watercoloring them and see how that turns out, like watercoloring them like pink and different shades of red and magenta. And then I have these two little wreath outlines, heart wreath outlines. The past couple of years, or has it been a few years, I would take sticks from our tree out in the backyard and I would use floral wire to create a little wreath outline and I love that. I love that commitment. I love that I did that, but your girl does not have that much disposable time anymore. So I purchased this this wire outline which will last us quite a while. So I definitely want to make a wreath and I'm wondering should we just do that now? I'm like itching for it because we don't have any wreath on our front door. I'm wondering if I should do like a layered situation or just one. I know I would find another little spot for this but I'm debating. I kind of just want to go for it. Cute. I love it, I love it. I had quite a bit of faux florals from past wreath DIYs. We added these iron butterflies that I had from our spring wreath from last year and I think it turned out sweet. It's time for some tea. I just got back from about an hour walk with Liz. We've been doing like weekly hour walks and I put my ankle weights on, I put my arm weights on, and we are just two ladies walking eagerly and it's been really fun. It's nice to have like of course the accountability like doing movement with friends is great but we've been doing it at night which it's dark out but you know in a well-lit area it's totally fine and it's very relaxing and quiet but also like good movement and a workout. So that was lovely and now I'm just making some tea. So we went into our spearmint tea. Just want to make that and then I'm going to set a timer and do my puzzle for 10 minutes before bed because I haven't done it in a long time and I want to work on it. So we'll set a timer and have some relaxation time. My mother-in-law gave me this microwaveable heating pad for Christmas and I don't know how I lived without it. It is so cozy. I use it 24 7. I'm just always having it. It's like my comfort heating pad. It's delightful and perfect for this time of year too when it's a little chilly. Well that's a wrap on this day and this vlog. All cozy in bed. I am excited for the chilly weather this week. I've been trying to piece together a beach bonfire for Friday night but it's been the- I love like the idea of it but then thinking of all the logistics kind of overwhelms me so I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it'll happen but I've been trying to make more spontaneous plans but of course being an adult there's lots of pieces to put together so we'll see but I hope you are having a beautiful January and making the most of winter time, the start of the new year, and just feeling- just feeling well. That's what I hope for you all and I really appreciate you watching this video and I'm excited to see you next. Bye!