With just a little over a month before our wedding, we had a rare free weekend to stay at home and chill. So in addition to cleaning and errands, it was the perfect time to catch up with friends!

First, Friday night was spent at the movies to watch Jurassic World. We're trying to get our money's worth with our Moviepass before it inevitably tanks. Plus, we were hardcore craving movie popcorn after I gifted this popcorn maker and flavor set to Jordan for his birthday. Nom nom nom.

Kat and Jeff came over for Saturday morning brunch, spoiling us with acai bowls and brie toast as we worked up an appetite for homemade Nutella crepes. We even got to meet their new doggy, Pepper!

We decided to start playing Pokemon Go again so we took an afternoon stroll catching Pokemon and stalking the property value of houses in the neighborhood. Then at night, Steph and Dennis joined us for homemade carbonara, drinks, and Porto's.

Sunday morning was spent at Costco, as usual, followed by a stroll around Sawtelle for more Pokemon and a stop by Daiso for wedding supplies. We cleaned, cooked, balanced wedding deposits, and checked off a ton of things on our to-do lists. Things are starting to ramp up so we're trying to get everything in order before my bachelorette weekend (thank you, Rachel and Léna!), Mike and Melanie's wedding in mid-August, and our Bali trip in exactly one month!

We're 2/3 done with our busy summer! 

To rewind a bit, we spent our first 4th of July by getting a ton of errands done. Cleaning, Costco, lunch at Chipotle, planning seating arrangements for the wedding using post-its on the ground, sewing flowers onto my party dress, dinner with Alex’s mom at the Westfield Century City, and fireworks in Culver City… followed by glimpses of a few fireworks in the distance from our living room windows.

We've been experiencing some LA heat waves which Chef is loving. But our house doesn't have air conditioning, so we've been cranking the bedroom fans and opening the windows for a nice cross-breeze. Ryan and Shelley also gave us an extra air conditioning unit which we've been using in the living room and bedroom. It reminds me of Eve from Wall-e, and of course it freaks Shabu out. 

I got promoted to Senior Copywriter, and to celebrate, and I another set of lobe piercings! We also purchased our wedding bands. One more thing off the wedding checklist!

Alex's mom took us out to celebrate with an omakase (my first one!) at Okumura and gifted us our first set of Calphalon pots and pans. We finally threw away all our old pans from IKEA!

Amara also gifted us this beautiful Crate & Barrel wok, and we've been using it to cook up all kinds of yummy things.

Then the big highlight of July was our Bali in Cali party on the 14th. Since we never had an engagement party, we wanted to have a celebration here in LA to spend time with those who won't be able to make it to Bali. We ordered catering from King's Hawaiian, decorations from Amazon, Ryan and Shelley set up their photobooth, and Alex and I wrote a very ridiculous speech/performance.

My dad flew back the day after, but my mom stayed for the week to enjoy time with us and the dogs, home-cooked meals, Disneyland with Leslie, and the Getty. With the convenience of the guest room in our house, it was one of the more comfortable trips my parents have enjoyed (still feels weird to say it though).

Next on the agenda, we're finalizing our honeymoon plans and paying off our vendors. We have about one month to go before we're on a plane halfway across the world!

Searching Pinterest for beautiful home remodel inspiration is so much fun!... and a huge pain.

On one hand, there are so many possibilities! Everything looks amazing! It matches my style perfectly!

But then you realize it’s super expensive. Or that a lot of the fixtures don’t meet certain requirements (i.e. California’s WaterSense specifications that only allow 2.0 gallons per minute). Or your pipes just aren’t arranged the right way to handle certain configurations. It’s beyond discouraging and frustrating to see something that’s so close in a photograph, yet so far away in reality.

My biggest piece of advice is to use Pinterest in the beginning of your remodel, but wean off of it as you start to work more closely with your contractor, especially towards the end. Your contractor will be able to tell you what’s actually feasible so you can stay within budget and have a result that works for your space.

Here’s a look at my Pinterest board. As you can tell, we were actually able to pull some of it off in our house. Other photos were purely inspirational… or we’ll save it for the next house. ;)

I’ve been keeping my eye on dining tables since the beginning of the year, trying to figure out the best style to suit our needs and hopefully land a sale. With five of Alex’s family members and his grandmother in town from Bangkok, we felt it was necessary to finally buy one instead of gathering around the kitchen island.

I always loved the idea of a round, white table. It fits perfectly in our dining area, and I like having a round, inclusive table instead of something rectangular because no one ever wants to sit at the head of the table. A few that stood out:

Room & Board

IKEA

But then I started to like the rectangular ones. We could pair it with a dining bench or easily extend it to seat more guests.

West Elm

Crate & Barrel

Luckily, I was able to find a hybrid of the two. This beautiful, round West Elm table can seat four people but comes with an leaflet so the table can extend into an oval and seat up to six people. It’s mid-century modern, easy to clean, and was delivered fully assembled.

This summer is going to be one of the busiest of our lives, and we’re ⅓ of a way through it.

Alex’s family from Bangkok has been in town for the past couple weeks. We set up the guest room for Popo, including painting the walls in one night, cleaning and priming the wardrobe cabinets, installing our IKEA curtains, and moving Alex’s old bed into the room. We even had our very first cleaning lady stop by to help wipe down the counters, showers, and floors.

We still need to trim the curtains because they’re way too long (and I’ll use the remnants to make cloth napkins), but all my crafts will have to wait until after September.

On June 16, Ryan and Shelley got married!

This past Sunday, we took Alina to The Bazaar and went super extra by ordering the "dessert graffiti" — literally $80 worth of desserts, carefully assembled tableside on top of a mirror.

We've gradually gotten back into the routine of running, and we took our very first laps around the neighborhood!

I just finished up a super busy week at work (being on 3 pitches at once…), and Alex has a couple work trips to SF and Arizona lined up for tomorrow and next Monday. We’re also going into full planning mode for our July 14 party where we’ll celebrate with friends and family, some of whom will not be joining us in Bali. The food is ordered, the rental furniture is booked, our speech has been written, and our decorations are in progress.

Two weeks ago, we were in Bangkok and Bali... followed by a week of jet lag.

A few things on our packing list that we'll need for our wedding in September:

• Activated charcoal for healthy tummies

• UV umbrella to protect my porcelain skin

• Travel steamer for our wrinkly wedding attire (also SUPER useful for our everyday clothes)

• Dry shampoo for the long flight

• Extra adapters just in case

This week, we’re organizing and cleaning the house at full force because we have family coming over for Alex’s brother’s wedding this weekend!

After spending Saturday morning renting a U-haul to move the last of Alex’s things out of his mom’s house, we unloaded it in our garage and then mustered up the energy to paint the guest bedroom.

Then at night, Leslie and Matt came over with Rhys for a steak dinner. Since we were also dogsitting Charlie, we had a new record of 4 dogs in the house!

On Sunday, my coworkers/friends Rachel and Léna came over for lunch: homemade kalbi, kimchi fried rice, dumplings and noodles, and cheese corn.

Then we got our ears pierced! Because it will be too hot and humid to wear a necklace comfortably in Bali, I plan to wear earrings to balance out the look. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for the past 6 months, and it was the perfect time to finally get it done!

Tonight, we need to hand-wash the sofa covers and blanket (we don’t have a washer/dryer and it’s full of dog fur), put the mattress and sheets in place in the guest bedroom, and start priming the guest closets. I don’t think we’ll have time to apply a coat of paint on top of it, but we’re happy as long as the icky stains are covered up.

After going down a deep YouTube rabbit hole of minimal home tour videos and discovering Pick Up Lime’s 30 Days to Minimalism blog post, my coworkers and I decided to give it a try. I always find that the more stressed I am, the more that clutter and disarray builds up around me… which only adds to the stress and chaos. We have the incredible opportunity to essentially start with a blank slate and establish new, healthier habits.

We started with the living room and kitchen. Because we have an open layout and this is our most-used space, I knew I wanted to keep the tables and countertops as clear as possible.

Everything has its place, from the pantry to a spice drawer to cabinets dedicated to storing baking supplies. We even have a cupboard for both of our juicers (Alex and I each had one prior to dating). Loose pasta is stored in a glass, airtight container. Random seasonings are in small mason jars. We just need to pop the cabinet doors back on, and then the kitchen will be complete.

Our living room table (from Amazon) lifts up to include storage for almost all our board games. Electronics and remote controls are placed inside the TV console. The wires will soon be organized behind it, and a long power strip provides plenty of outlets.

It’s a long process, but day by day, the house is getting cleaner and our minds are getting clearer.

We’re trying not to buy any furniture until we’ve saved up more and researched exactly what we want. However, we made an exception with the living room rug because the dogs were sliding around too much on the laminate floors. We were looking for one that was white and/or gray and at least 8’ x 10’. Here were some of our favs!

Source: Wayfair

Source: West Elm

Source: Room & Board

Source: Restoration Hardware

Source: Wayfair

Source: Wayfair

Source: Wayfair

Ultimately we went with this one from Amazon because of the price and pattern. I’ll admit that the fibers feel synthetic, but it serves its purpose and the dogs love the plushness.

Source: Amazon

Over the weekend, we had our first guests over! We spent Saturday morning deep-cleaning the kitchen and organizing our pantry. It was the first time we’ve ever properly cleaned off the countertops. At night, we had a steak dinner with Arya and Sandra + wine + Atticus pies for dessert. Then we watched Deadpool 2 at the nearby Cinemark.

On Sunday, we had Sharon, Jordan, Rose, Charlie, Olivia, and Donovan over for a dumpling-making lunch party.

Our house is now starting to feel like a home, and it’s so great to finally see our friends gathering around the kitchen island with us and making themselves cozy in our living room.

We made a ton of progress this weekend. If you'll recall, I made a pretty aggressive painting schedule to keep us on track.

Our Saturday morning started with an appointment with ADT to set up security sensors around the house. It took way longer than expected (a little over 5 hours), so we got a late start with painting. Luckily, we had taped off all the corners and floors during the week at night, so once the ADT dude left, we set up the painter's plastic and got to work with the remaining daylight we had.

Alex, his mom, and Kristy helped with the living room and dining area. Months ago, we chose a Valspar paint and primer from Lowe's in Silver Dust. We're keeping the baseboards in Ultra Pure White to match the kitchen. Since the paint is quite thick and we have a lot of other things to still take care of, we're only applying a single coat and re-applying any small touch-ups after it dries (unlike the kitchen where we did two coats on the walls and two coats on the cabinets because we wanted it to withstand more wear and tear).

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Meanwhile, I was in the bedroom working on the wardrobe closets. The sooner we can get them cleaned and painted, the faster we can unpack our clothes and start getting organized. The wardrobes are in the same condition as the kitchen cabinets: worn, stained, and dirty. So just like the cabinets, we removed the doors and hinges so I could apply a coat of primer. We also had to remove the nails and staples from the bottom of the wardrobes because they used to have carpet inside. Then I painted a layer of Ultra Pure White.

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Tonight, I'll work on the upper cabinets and add a layer of clear coat to the wooden closet bar so we don't get any splinters when we hang our clothes. We're also going to start taping off the hallway so we can get that painted this week.

Everything is still super dusty so last night, we got on our hands and knees to scrub the floors. Since we have two dogs, I didn’t want to use anything with tons of chemicals. So I brought home an orange from work, saved the peels, and put it in an old Lysol wipes container. I added 1 cup of vinegar and let it sit for an hour. Then I diluted it with hot water to bring out some of the citrus oils. Most people let the orange and vinegar solution sit for two weeks before using it, but we needed something fast and this did the job flawlessly.

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We’re on our way to a fresh, clean home!

One of the first things we did when we moved in was create a DIY compost bin! I know it sounds strange, but there are so many dead leaves cluttering the backyard that I wanted to repurpose them for something useful, especially since we plan to make raised vegetable beds in the backyard. Also, compost bins are a great way to keep stuff out of landfills.

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The City of LA sells compost bins for $20 at their mulch workshops in Griffith Park. Costco also sells them in the range of $100+. Since we neither have the time nor money, we decided to DIY our own for $14. Ultimately, there are 3 basic elements for compost to thrive: moisture, oxygen, and warm temperature.

We started off by buying a big, 32 gallon trash bin from Lowe’s. I gave it a big hug, then Alex drilled holes along the bottom, sides, and top. The more holes it has, the better the materials will aerate and decompose.

Ideally, the compost bin should be filled with 50% brown materials (leaves, dirt, sawdust), and 50% green material (grass clippings, veggie scraps, tea bags, coffee grinds).

So we shoveled heaps of dead, dry, dusty leaves for our first layer. We have TONS of this. We barely made a dent in the backyard. I smooshed the leaves down with the shovel to make room for more and help shred them. After the bin was filled halfway, I brought the hose over and added water until it was moist, turning the leaves with the shovel as I went.

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The next layer were grass clippings. Again, we have tons so I put the gardening gloves on and proceeded to rip out the dying grass by the fistfuls. I know I looked crazy, and I couldn’t help but think of all the little communities I was uprooting (a la A Bug’s Life) who will now enjoy their new home in our rich compost bin. I topped it off with soil, then added a little water and kept filling until the layer was ¼ deep.

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The final ¼ of the bin was for veggie scraps. I had saved the pulp from our juicer along with eggshells and veggie stems from our dinner. Then I closed the lid, and now we wait for it to heat up and decompose. In a few weeks, I’ll use a shovel to turn the compost. The lid to our garbage can also locks, so some people prefer to put it on the ground and roll it around.

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I know there will be lots of bugs and icky things, but I’m ok with it because it will all be to help the materials break down into rich compost!