I know, I know. I said I was bringing our monthly recaps back and then quickly fell off my game. Instead of doing separate posts for June and July, I decided I’d recap our whole summer (June-August). In the past, we’ve had pretty uneventful summers and we’re not warm-weather people, so summer was just a holding period until Fall. This year we had more time for some trips and enjoyment, so let’s get into it!
Jewelry Making
Carli and I really want to make a habit of finding more hobbies that don’t have anything to do with working. We do enjoy cooking but we cook less in the summer because of the heat. We had seen some really cute beaded necklaces at & Other Stories and set out to make our own. We went to The Bead Factory in DTLA and picked up several strands of beads, with no clear vision in mind. The rest of our supplies we got on Amazon (linked here). One afternoon we watched Mean Girls while we made necklaces and it was absolutely delightful. We’ve been looking on Etsy for more beads but if you have any bead store recs let us know!
Trip Home to Wisconsin
We try to go back to Wisconsin every summer and then our mom comes out here in December. I just want to say that it is SO expensive to fly back to the Midwest when there are no direct flights. If you live in the Midwest and are looking to move elsewhere make sure there is a direct flight! I’ll get off my soap box now. Because our schedules are more flexible these days we went home for a whole week. It was so nice to spend time with our mom and see all of our girlfriends. We didn’t feel rushed to do anything and the weather was actually so beautiful. We got to see our family (on both sides), and overall it was one of the best trips we’ve had as adults! I also want to mention we used Turo for our rental car. It’s way cheaper than using Enterprise, Hertz, etc., and couldn’t have been easier!
New Bar Cart
This may not seem monumental for most of you but I have a marble bar cart from Target that was probably seven or eight years old. It was not my style anymore and always got so incredibly dusty. We’ve been doing fit checks on Instagram Reels and having the bar cart in the background was becoming a real eye sore. So I decided to invest in a new one, however, we are on a budget these days so I knew I couldn’t spend a lot. I had this cabinet saved from Target for years but I knew I had to wait for a sale to pull the trigger. It was randomly 30% off one day and I stacked that with all of my Circle rewards dollars so I ended up getting it for $65! I love how the alcohol bottles can be hidden on the sides and I can display some of my nicer glassware on the open shelves. The styling isn’t perfect but it works for now. I also love this print we got on Etsy. Shop the setup here.
Darren Criss Concert
Being a Gleek is a personality trait for Carli and me at this point. We love Glee and everything that’s associated with it. So when we saw Darren Criss was playing at The Ford we immediately bought tickets. We had seen him and Lea Michele a few years back during their LMDC tour and they were both incredible, so we knew this would be a good show. The venue is outdoors and on the smaller side so it felt intimate. This was the first show Darren had done since his brother tragically passed in 2020, so he dedicated a lot of songs to him. It was an emotional show and entertaining all in one.
Trip to Las Vegas
My boyfriend’s family has a timeshare in Vegas so they go every year for a week. I was never able to make it work in the past so I was excited to tag along this year. I hadn’t been to Vegas in about 8 years so I needed a refresher on what it had to offer. One morning Tommy mentioned he was craving pizza so I suggested we walk over to Secret Pizza at the Cosmo. He had never had it and the pizza ended up being his “high” for the day! A few more highlights were the High Roller, which I loved, and we also went to Awakening which was very entertaining.
Trip to NYC
If you follow us on Instagram you would have seen all of our stories from our trip to New York, but it was worth the wait! We went specifically to see Lea Michele in Funny Girl on Broadway. The show was incredible as expected! We’ve been to NYC several times so this trip we really just walked around, took in the sights, and ate to our heart’s content. We were saying usually we are sad to leave the city but we were actually really excited and ready to go home this time. Maybe that just means LA really is our home. We vlogged the whole trip- you can watch that here.
Best Friend Visit
Our best friend Alyssa usually comes out here to see us every January when her husband has a work conference, but thankfully this year he also had a work trip in August so they both flew out early to spend a couple of days with us. If you have a long-distance BFF you know it can be so hard to make time to see each other so we were so grateful she came out to see us, even if it was just for a day. They flew in late on Friday so we got In N Out and there is nothing like a good In N Out feast at 11 pm lol. On Saturday we woke up and headed to Wake + Late for breakfast burritos. They were out of this world!! Lake Hollywood was closed due to the imminent hurricane so we walked to Beachwood Cafe instead and ended the day at Lemon Grove for dinner.
Dyad Anniversary
We celebrated FOUR YEARS of Dyad Candle. We honestly can’t believe it’s been four years since we started this business. It seems like forever ago and yesterday, all in one. What started with four candles is now six- plus perfume oils and eau de parfum. Working on the fragrances with our fragrance houses has been so creatively fulfilling for us. We love to think of a potential scent and see it come to life (over many iterations). To celebrate our anniversary we made the most delicious Almond Cake. We even froze the last bit of it because it couldn’t go to waste. We’re working so hard to get our fall fragrance out by October!
We know it’s technically not fall yet but September feels like autumn with all the pumpkin treats and football season. For more of our day-to-day life follow us @thegarsowtwins 🙂
xx, Britta