Summer days... 🌊 seaside adventures, baking & trip prep!

I hope you are well. It has been a true whirlwind of a week. That is the best, the best way I can put it. We had a family health scare last week or a few days ago. I don't even know how many days. Everything's just been kind of a blur, but it definitely shook us up a bit. It was the whole thing, 911, ambulance, hospital, but thankfully it was resolved super quickly and everyone's okay, but moments like that just really give you perspective and really give you pause and definitely wreck you a bit. I think of just all the first responders and nurses and doctors who go through scenarios like that every single day. It's just, wow, so humbling and just wild to think of, but we're so thankful to be on the up and up. As all of that was happening and I was feeling so just frustrated with God and weak, I thankfully was reminded of the story of Elijah when he is just so done. He is over it all. He feels incredibly weak, lack of faith, and instead of God just being disappointed in him and reprimanding him, he meets him where he's at with an angel and provides warm food and water and rest. It was a very tender reminder that even in hard scenarios, I'm not expected to be just like, oh, it's all going to be okay because I trust in God's plan. It is so natural to feel scared and shaken up and weak because we are just humans trying our best. Anyways, I don't mean to start off on such a heavy note, but I feel like every twice a year, I need to just remind us all that I do not live in a la la land and I try to keep things as positive and light as possible, but there's our quarterly reminder that it is just, we're all human and all dealing with something on or off camera. So anyways, I hope you all are well and happy though. We are celebrating our son's birthday this week. He's turning two and we're going on a family beach trip. So we actually keep joking that we're running a bed and breakfast because each night a different family member or different family members are going to come stay at the beach house we rented. So we're really excited. And this one's coming with us when we thought about what would be our son's like ideal birthday scenario. It is at the beach with his plumber. So with his furry friend. So today I just want to spend time crafting, prep, prepping, cooking. What is going on? He was like, okay, let's go. Let's go to the beach. So I have a list going right here. We got to do a Costco run. I have some DIY ideas and we'll have a full kitchen and everything at the beach. But I just love to do a bit of meal prep before like I did this for our RV trip and it was amazing just to have like a bunch of stuff prepped and ready to go. So that's the plan. I'm going to try to do that and hopefully make it a beautiful, beautiful week. Finally spotted a zebra longwing in our garden. I've been hoping to spot one for quite some time. I have the host plant for the zebra longwing. They love passion vine, but I typically just see the swallowtails lay their eggs on the passion vine. But hopefully this beauty lays some eggs because this is actually the Florida state butterfly. So it feels extra special and their wing shape is so unique. Another cutie thing I did was order these coffee beans from this coffee shop we like in Fort Lauderdale. It's called Wells's Coffee Co. So we'll have our Wells coffee every day at the beach. And I think we're going to bring our Chemex per usual. We travel with this thing. It's just, we love pour over coffee. The thing is, I think it can make eight cups. So I don't know if that'll be enough for everyone. We might have to do two batches, but that's okay. Brandon, I like it too. Just the art of doing the pour over. And then I asked him because these beans aren't ground yet. So I asked him, should we just grind them all and pack them up in the bags before we leave? Because we don't want to forget a grinder. And he said, no, we should just bring the whole grinder. So that's the thing when you're just, you're kind of doing a staycation or you're not traveling super far. It is so tempting to just pack everything because you have space in the car, but then it really accumulates. So I'm trying to be mindful of that, but I'm also like, Hey, it is kind of nice to just take all your creature comforts from home if you have room. So we shall see. But anyways, it's iced latte time. I really have been loving a splash of vanilla extract in my espresso. Another cute thing I want to do that goes on theme with running a bed and breakfast is make little welcome bins to put on the beds before our guests arrive. Okay. Here's what we're working with for our little gift boxes. So I bought a bunch of little travel size, um, shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, just a bunch of goodies. And then I also printed out photos of wells in each family member and got these frames. So the idea is to put the frames, some of the toiletries and some snacks. And then I also made these stickers because I just love a custom sticker. I got these from staples. It's really easy to do. So I'm going to put that on the top or maybe the side or the front of the little bins, but hopefully it comes together. I don't know if I'll need tissue paper or anything. I didn't really think of that, but we'll see how it turns out. I'm just going to make a mock one and then I'll probably just pack them up there because it'll be easier to transport in the back. Okay. Cute, cute, cute, cute. I definitely want to put some tissue paper or fill this blank space with snacks. I'm sure yet having a nap break while I get some computer work done. I finally did a roundup of all of our little happy hour on the porch recipe inspo. And it's on my website. Now I've been wanting to do this for a while. Many of the recipes are so simple. Like I am hesitant to even call them recipes because they're that simple. They're mocktails. So I feel like you really can just kind of customize them to your taste, but hopefully it provides some inspiration. If you have some gatherings coming up or you just want to soak up these long summer nights in more ways with something yummy to sip. And you can find that on my website. And I'm so thankful to partner with Squarespace for this portion of today's video. I have had my Squarespace website for so long. It is really grown with me. I created merch and Lightroom presets that I used to sell on my website. I created a little portfolio and then had that on my resume when I was applying for jobs. I really am just so thankful for this space where I've been able to share more intricate things that I can't always share on social media. It's just been a great platform for me to use and for additional ways to connect. So if you're in the market for a website, definitely check them out. They optimize each website with index meta descriptions, auto-generated site maps. You can also purchase your domain through Squarespace. You can sell custom merch through Squarespace. So many different resources and ways to expand your business or brand. So if you're interested, you can head to squarespace.com for a 14-day free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash Alison Biggerstaff to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So I love to add little things here and there. And I also have a bunch of recipes on the lifestyle section of my website, which they are, the way I have it formatted right now is very homey and simple. I just took a photograph of each page of our family recipe binder. And then I just wrote that out. So I don't know how helpful that is. Hopefully it's helpful enough. I actually quite like, I follow so many different websites online by all these talented chefs, but something that is a little frustrating is when you just have to scroll so far to get to the actual website or know the actual recipe, which a lot of them have the jump to recipe button, which is great. But you know, with these, you can just screenshot, screenshot the recipe, and then you're good to go. But that's because they're all incredibly simple. But anyways, speaking of recipes, I want to keep doing some beach meal prep. I want to make some cookie dough, some cookie dough, but just the thought of having fresh cookie dough and making freshly baked cookies every night after a day in the sun at the beach. We definitely need ice cream too naturally, but I don't want to get that at Costco because transporting that doesn't really make sense, but we got to make sure our sweet treats are covered. Okay, back home. Let's do a quick speed round haul. I put a few things in the fridge already. Let me show you these tortillas we got actually, because we've had them before and they're so yummy. We plan to make fish tacos every night, pretty much as much as we can with some fresh fish. So these are perfect. Diced tomatoes. We're not taking these to the beach. We just needed a restock. Some squash and zucchini. They are in season for summertime, so I'm trying to enjoy lots of those. Olive oil, beef jerky. I personally am not a fan, but I know lots of our family loves it. Sardines. I, first of all, love the packaging and branding of these Fish Wife sardines, but I personally have never had them. Which are these sardines? Actually, so sorry, they are not sardines. They are tuna. Oops. I thought they were sardines. I know they have sardines, but this is tuna. I actually got these for my Grammy because she likes sardines, but now I don't know what to do because they aren't sardines. I feel like she'll still really like them though. And then I got two packs because I'm thinking the family would like to have some too. Some bread. Some tortilla chips. And then I love these lime tortilla chips. A jalapeno lime late July. Some hummus. I got three packs of this hummus. It's so delicious. Some butter. Some turkey. Cheese. We love this coastal cheddar cheese from Costco. Eggs. We'll definitely need to do another grocery store run at Publix, but it's nice to have a starting point. I've never had this yogurt before, but I'm very curious. It's Bulgarian yogurt. We typically get Greek yogurt, so this is a bit different, but it also has some great health benefits. So I figured we could try it. Whole cashews. Pecans. Pumpkin seeds. I am so excited to try this. Grillos. Pico de gallo. And how yummy does that sound with the lime chips? I'm very, very intrigued. I'm And then some just regular grillos. Oh, these snacking mozzarellas are great for a little on the go snack. Some salsa. Cucumbers. Dates. Bananas. Mango. So good starting point, I would say. Oh, I also got a big thing of sparkling water that we just left in the car. Oh, oh, oh. And I also got a ton of blueberries and strawberries because we love some fresh berries. I'm going to put all the non-refrigerated stuff in this bag so that we can easily just pop it Starting to just lay things out on our dining table, and we all know I love a theme. So I'm dubbing this weekend Wells's Wave Co. Kind of like a beach club theme. I'm not doing a ton of decorations really, but I just, I made a logo because that's really fun for me. So basically, I have this sign that I'll either put on the door or somewhere. Maybe I'll tape it on the door when people come over and then I'll move it inside because it's just a little sheltered from the weather. But here's our little sign. Wells's Wave Co. And then another thing I did was print out over 200 photos and just add them into this photo album. It's not really on theme, but it's quite beautiful. And basically, I just thought this would be nice to flip through whenever we're just hanging out in the house and reminisce on all the memories. So that was a fun project. And I just love the feeling of having photos printed. I used to scrapbook more, but I really haven't been scrapbooking much. And instead of just like peer pressuring myself to scrapbook, this felt like a good, a good way to just get some photos printed. And then I also made some stickers with the same little logo. And I'm going to use these for a variety of things. And then one of the big crafts I want to do today or projects is customize these floaties. So I have this, I have this big yellow one and then a blue one. And I want to use my Cricut to cut some vinyl and add on like one of the little stripes, Wells's Wave Co. So I think I need to blow them up beforehand because even though this is a pretty flat surface, I know it'll change once it's inflated. So I feel like it'll be wise to blow it up and then we'll just deflate it for the drive over. But I'm excited to see how that turns out, but I'm a little nervous. I haven't used my Cricut in a while, so I gotta brush up on some tutorials. Okay, here goes nothing. I'm going to put on the little vinyl we made. Brandon had to blow this up with his air, with his own personal air. I thought we had a pump, but turns out we don't. I actually ordered one though. So I'm going to wait to do the second inner tube until the pump comes in so that, you know, he doesn't have to use all his air for these inflatables. I'm sure we'll use the pump at the beach too. But I am wondering if I even really need this inflated. That's so cute. Okay, hopefully it'll peel off perfectly. I can't really press it down too much because it's full of air. Ta-da! Oh my goodness, I love it. It's the details. I love how it turned out. Also, it's kind of fun that the brand of this tube is Fun Boy and I love the cup holder. I'm excited to float in the ocean. So I'm realizing I forgot to get chicken for the chicken salad I was planning to make a big batch of. So we have some in the freezer. I'm debating if I want to just deal with cooking it from frozen. I've poached frozen chicken breasts before and it wasn't too much of a hassle. You just have to have it cook longer. So I'm debating, but let's go ahead and make our cookie dough first priority. And then I think making some fresh granola would also be really nice for yogurt bowls and quick snacks. So we'll do that. I'm trying to think what other things I wanted to prep. I made a bunch of hard-boiled eggs yesterday. Those are just great like healthy protein snacks. And then, oh, I can make like a garbanzo salad. I think I only have two things with garbanzo beans. But, oh, I also want to make a taco sauce. So whenever we make fish tacos, which I used to not even like fish. Here I am. I absolutely love fish now. Not the canned, the tinned fish, but maybe that's my next step. Also sushi. I don't like sushi yet or I don't, I don't gravitate towards sushi yet. And I'm not, I'm a very novice sushi eater, but that's also my next step is tinned fish and sushi. But fish tacos, absolutely love them. So we plan to get fresh fish while we're by the ocean and then make fish tacos on the grill. And so we'll probably get like cabbage and toppings, but I want to make the sauce ahead of time. It's made with yogurt. I probably could use that new yogurt I got because it's supposed to be like more tart, which I feel like would work well with the fish sauce. And then you put sriracha, which let me show you the sriracha we have. This is the yellow bird sriracha. I love it. Oh, someone's calling me. My Grammy's calling me. Hi Grammy. Hello, my darling. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? Oh, sweet. Yum. Update. I talked myself out of prepping the fish taco sauce ahead of time. It's just mayonnaise, sour cream, except instead of mayonnaise and sour cream, I've just made it with the plain Greek yogurt. Maybe I mix some mayonnaise in it too, but it doesn't really matter that much. Lime juice, garlic powder, cumin, the sriracha, and salt. So it's pretty simple. I just, now I need to decide, do we pack our favorite spices? Because we don't know if the house will have it and you know, we could get them all at the store, but it seems kind of wasteful. So decisions. I will ponder on that. Granola is finished and wow. Oh wow. I wish you could smell it. Is it crazy if I pack our pans? I feel like it'd be so nice to have our skillet and pot because they're nonstick. They just are the best. I feel like I'm going to do it. We were making a salad and found a ladybug in our spinach container. Going to release it in the garden. Good morning. Happy beach day. I'm packing up my stuff and then we're going to hit the road pretty soon. Our check-in for a rental home isn't until 4pm, so I guess we're not going to rush out too quickly, but we're excited. Feeling pretty organized. Again, it's like a staycation, so it's not like we need to prep too much, but I have fun with the prep. To me, prepping for a vacation is part of like the whole excitement of vacation in general. So we are soaping it up and savoring it, but I'm going to go ahead and end this vlog here. I do plan to share some of our little beach adventures, so stay tuned for that, but thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you and yours are well, and I'm excited to see you next. Bye!