july: a summertime sensory feast

monthly creative curations on a theme

Welcome to my succulent + summery smorgasbord!

Summer officially began about ten days ago, and it’s the friggin’ best season… (uh, until autumn arrives). Everything feels funner in the summer! (I’m well aware that funner is not a word, but I deemed it a “summer word” long ago. 🪄)

These round-up style posts come out on the first day of every month, and they include my curations of music, art, fashion, beauty, and/or other areas of expression. The full content of the monthly posts (including a monthly Spotify playlist!) is accessible only to paid subscribers, but everyone gets a sprinkling. 💦

We’re just a little over a week past the summer solstice, bringing its bright, juicy, expansive, fiery, outward, visible, fulfilled, lush, and lively energy! ☀️ Here, I’ve gathered a collection of 11 of my best-loved summery goodies to indulge every single one of your senses:

1. 🍉 What I always bring to a summertime potluck: This super fresh watermelon-cucumber salad is magic, and it’s made with just 4 ingredients: cubed watermelon, sliced cucumber, torn mint leaves, and freshly squeezed lime juice — ratios to to your liking. I could eat this every single summer day.

   

2. 🏊‍♂️ Pool parties: I don’t have a pool anymore, but I’ve had them a few different times in my life — like the pic at the top of our pool in our last place in California. I don’t miss the maintenance, but I miss pool parties! In high school, I used to have an end-of-the-school-year pool party every June (because school ended in June on the east coast in the 90s). As a winter solstice baby, I’ve dreamt of celebrating my birthday on the summer solstice instead so I could have a pool party. I haven’t done it yet… but maybe for my 50th next year…somewhere…?

   

   one of my high school pool parties, circa maybe june 1992…?

3. ✨ Fireflies, sparklers, starry skies: Summer feels extra glittery and magical. This is a note to self to remember to make use of stargazing on my roof deck this summer! Also, fireflies are one of the top ten things I miss about the east coast.

   

   i’m not a fan of the 4th or full-on, loud fireworks, but a little sparkle can be magic

4. 🌺 Scents that remind me of summertime: If I’m going to choose essential oils to diffuse in my home or hints of fragrance for my body, these are some notes I choose in summertime: citrus, salt, coconut, mint, jasmine, blue tansy, plumeria, and gardenia. There’s this very specific warm-beach-towel-in-the-sunshine scent that tickles on every nerve of peaceful nostalgia in my body, (and lucky for me, my girlfriend somehow smells like this!?!)