Most Used Entertaining Items

While we are not doing a whole lot of entertaining at this time, I have been enjoying setting the table, using the 'nice' dishes, etc. I thought I would share some home items that we have been using a ton that will also come in handy in the future when we are able to have parties at home again!

Chilled Wine Sleeve// We don't really drink white or rosé but we do drink a lot of champagne! This sleeve is just beautiful and truly keeps champagne chilled without needing a messy ice bucket. It looks beautiful on a table but also feels 'civilized' when you're just drinking champagne without a whole dinner party. 

Silver Tray// Trays, in general, are so useful. I like to keep mine out as decor and then pull them as I need them for entertaining. I usually set up a 'champagne' bar where glasses and napkins and champagne are set out and it just makes for a beautiful presentation. Sometimes I use them when we don't have guests over to bring over a 'snack tray' from the kitchen to the living room! 

India Amory Printed Tablecloth// I'm obsessed with India Amory tablecloths. Her prints and the colors bring me so much joy and I just love setting my table with one. I just got my first one last month and I absolutely love it! 

Bud Vase// This is easily one of my most-used vases. It's little but beautiful and looks great basically anywhere since it matches with everything. You can also do an easy, low centerpiece with a few bud vases which I think looks so cute and is good because you can easily see over it! 

Cocktail Picks// We love these for our martinis, but you can use them for meat and cheese boards or really anything. They're so cute. 

Cocktail Napkin Holder// I have a few cocktail napkin holders and keep one full so we can pull it out when needed. These are so handy and pretty. 

Linen Cocktail Napkins// I love linen cocktail napkins. We don't really use them as actual napkins but rather coasters! 

Candle// I have never smelled an Otherland candle that I didn't love. I have an entire drawer in my house for candles and love these. 

Wine Aerator// This gets a ton of use. You can aerate your wine without having to pour the entire bottle into a decanter. This is like ~$10 and makes a great little hostess gift, too. 

Decorative Platters// I love meat and cheese platters. We make them for dinner sometimes for just the two of us! I love smaller, rectangular platters like the one pictured. Besides ceramic, I love wood boards like this. They're definitely more casual but I think they work so nicely for meat and cheese. We also have a few marble boards and the reason I love them is that you can chill them in the freezer for a bit before you add the meat and cheese. It then keeps your meats and cheese chilled for a bit after serving!

Silver Nut Bowl// I have a small silver bowl and I use it ALL the time. I have no idea where mine came from but it is great for serving things like dips and nuts but I also love it as a bowl to eat my own snacks. It's the perfect portion control bowl...so I put things in there like chips or whatever and it feels nice to be eating out of something pretty but also is helping me to not go through an entire bag of something in one or two sittings. They don't have to be silver, I just have a silver one and love it but there are plenty of other 'dip bowl' options! Love this hammered copper trio. I also love these glass bowls. 

Pedestal Glasses// I love these for serving water at a seated meal but also love these for just pouring in my seltzer and feeling a bit more civilized. I really love these because they are dishwasher safe! 

Tea Spoons// We use these every day for our coffee but they're also great little serving utensils for dips. I also have the Christmas version and love those just the same! 

Leather Coasters// I got this idea from staying at Zero George in Charleston. On each bedside, every night, they had water bottles and under them would be beautifully worn leather coasters. The coasters kind of blended in with the dark wood of the bedside tables and also soaked up the condensation so there was never any water droplets on the table. Now I'm a huge fan of leather coasters. I just think the way that they age is beautiful and they make such a nice gift. 

Votive Candles// I use votive candles several nights per week. I just think they're inexpensive and a really easy to way to dress up a table or make it feel cozier or more romantic! This brass set on sale is SO cute. 

Canape Plates// I love tiny plates to set out as use for cheese plates but also again, as the nut bowls, tiny plates are great for everyday portion control! 

Preserved Boxwood// I use these as decor around the house. I'm not a fan of fake flowers but preserved flowers are similar to fake in that they last quite a while but are real and don't look fake at all. They have very little maintenance and what I love most is that you can use them in a centerpiece without having to run out to the store to buy fresh flowers. 

Small Crystal Bowls// I love using small crystal bowls to store things like matchbooks around the house in a pretty way, but it also makes eating chips a much more 'elegant' experience. Even if it's just a Wednesday and I want a snack, why not put my chips in a beautiful bowl?! 

14 Days to Whiter Teeth

Today I’m partnering with Crest 3DWhitestrips to share with you all how I keep my teeth white! I drink a lot of coffee (every day!) and red wine so my teeth definitely need to be brightened up from time to time. Plus, when my wedding was right around the corner (or so we thought), I was very focused on having a white smile! I had both my fiancé and I using Crest 3DWhitestrips to brighten our teeth. I have used Crest 3DWhitestrips for years so I know how amazingly powerful they can be. They can remove 10 years of tough stains. My fiancé had never used them before, so his teeth definitely had way more than 10 years of stains built up. It was amazing to see his teeth brighten up SO quickly. Mine did, too!

With Crest 3DWhitestrips you notice results by day 3 and by day 14 your teeth are pearly white! The results can last 6+ months. If you have never used Crest 3DWhitestrips, they’re super easy to use. They take just seconds to apply and have an Advanced Seal Technology, so they don’t slip and slide around in your mouth. They truly stay put and you can even drink water when you’re wearing them. Another great thing is that they use the same whitening agent that dentists use so it is safe for your enamel. Check out the quick and easy steps below!

Step 1. You peel the Whitestrips off of the backing. 

Step 2. Apply the strip over your teeth (gel side) to cover the area you want to whiten and fold over teeth for a secure fit. 

Step 3. Wait 30 minutes! 

Step 4. During the last 5 minutes of your 30-minute whitening session, you can use the LED light for a brightening boost! When 30 minutes is over, peel from the back of teeth for easy removal! Smile!! 

One thing that I love most about how easy it is to use Crest 3DWhitestrips is that you can truly whiten your teeth while doing a million other things. Doing chores around the house?  You could be whitening!

Working out? Yes that, too! I love that I can drink water while wearing them so it’s amazing to be able to work out and wear these. I also frequently go on walks with Henry while wearing them. You wear the Crest 3DWhitestrips for 30 minutes once a day so it’s nice to be able to time my walk with wearing the Whitestrips! It’s a really easy routine to get into!

Even my teeth, which are typically pretty white because I am good about using Crest 3DWhitestrips throughout the years, brightened up! These photos are completely unedited/not at all retouched.

I could not recommend these more. I get asked a lot via Instagram DM about how my teeth are so white, which is truly flattering and I’m always happy to share that it is thanks to Crest 3DWhitestrips!

Reader Recommendations Needed: Cars

Today's post is all about me asking you all for your recommendation on... cars! I am so not a car girl... they are not something I really care too much about and have never really been into brands or anything. I'd just personally much rather save the money I would have spent on a fancy car and spend that on trips, dinners out, shoes/bags, our house, retirement, etc. than a car.

So here's my situation...I've been pretty loyal to Volkswagen for my adult life. I've had 2 Passats (which is a roomy sedan). I never really wanted or needed an SUV as I lived in the city and didn't want to have to parallel park something larger (I'm just not good with big cars). 

Now that I live in the suburbs, parallel parking is not as often of an occurrence. I also go to places like Costco and those trips have me desiring a larger trunk space (the toilet paper takes up a LOT of room hahah!!). 

So, I think I'm ready to move up to a small SUV... I think it could potentially suit my current lifestyle better. In December, I went to VW to get a small SUV. I've always loved VW and just assumed I'd be a customer for life. I went in thinking I would get the Atlas. It is their SUV. When I saw it in person, it was HUGE. It was way too much car for me and just so much larger than I realized. In fact, when I went in, the sales guy just assumed I had children because it's more of a family-sized car. I wouldn't know how to drive it or park it and although I loved the look of it, it was immediately clear that it wasn't for me. 

So, I looked at the Tiguan which is VW's smaller SUV (no third row). I loved the new design of it, loved the size, and pretty much everything about it. I was ready to purchase right then and there... except... They don't offer it in a tan color interior.

The ONE thing that I have loved (so much) about my Passats is the look of the interior. I have a beautiful tan interior with dark brown piping. The ceiling is tan, the doors are tan. Basically, everything is light and bright and that's how I have always liked my cars. You can see the interior of my car in the photo above. It also has heated front and back seats, moon roof, connects to my phone, garage door built-in button, ambient lighting, plenty of storage areas/cup holders, the front seats adjust in a bunch of different ways, special storage slot for skis, auto-dimming mirrors, emergency braking, backup camera, auto-cruise control, blind-spot assist, keyless, remote start, etc. Basically, when I got it, it had way more than I even cared about or even needed but I do love all of those features (they're not deal-breakers, though). 

You can see the Tiguan with the gray interior in the photo above. I actually don't mind the gray seats and could be fine with that, but it's the black ceiling/doors/everything else that makes the interior feel so much darker. Black interior is just not for me personally. I know it's the most popular, hence why most cars are always available with a black interior.

VW doesn't make the 2020 Tiguan in their tan color. The tan that I love so much only comes in the Passat or the Atlas. This is so sad to me because the Tiguan was exactly what I was looking for!! 

So I couldn't bring myself to pay (more than I am now) for the Tiguan when it wasn't truly what I wanted. So now I'm back at square one and I'm torn. I lease my Passat so I have to get a new car in just a few weeks regardless and I'm slightly freaking out because I can't really go in-person car shopping right now! I hadn't looked too much before because I hadn't had the time with our wedding coming up so soon. I had started browsing in December but thought I had plenty of time left to look. I had the plan in my head that I would get married on April 25th and then finally have a lot of free time during the month of May to shop around... obviously that is not how life happened.

So my option right now is that I could buy my current Passat... I'm honestly leaning towards just buying what I have now because I truly do love it. It has everything I could ever want in a car: heated seats, moon roof, it's roomy, it looks pretty inside (to me at least), and I've never had issues with it and then reassess a few years from now. The idea of no car payment is very appealing in this situation... and I guess the saying rings true here, 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'. 

But the reason I feel so conflicted is that I think if I stick with my Passat, I might regret not sizing up to a small SUV... even just for the hatchback trunk alone... that would be nice to have!

I've been looking around online for small (5-seat) SUVs to see what I like since browsing in person is obviously not an option right now. So I thought I would ask all of you: do you have a small SUV? If so, what is it, do you like it, and would you recommend it? If you have something and don't love it, let me know that, too! 

I have been looking at:

- Toyota Rav 4 XLE Premium (this is my top favorite so far)

- Land Rover Discovery Sport S (I love that you can pick the ceiling color on this one)

- Lincoln Corsair (this is another top contender for me)

- Acura RDX
- Volvo XC60
- Kia Sportage

A lot of brands and models that I have seen online have been cut out of the running because there was too much black in the interior (even when they offered tan colored seats). I also cut some out of the running because oddly enough, the 'cabins' of the smaller-sized SUV's actually feel smaller than my current Passat when I get inside. A few years ago, I was looking at cars and I ended up going to check out Mercedes' smallest SUV/crossover and I didn't love it because it felt smaller (when I was sitting inside of it) than my car. I mentioned it to the sales guy and he said it was actually larger than my Passat but the dimensions of the interior were smaller than my Passat... totally threw me for a loop because I would have always just assumed that all crossovers/small SUVs were bigger than my Passat. 

The only thing I really care about is that it has a tan leather interior, but more importantly, the ceiling of the car has to be a light color (I know, I know, I'm particular). I'd like to have a moon roof, heated seats, etc. but honestly, the light interior is my #1 priority.

It's frustrating figuring out this car situation when I don't know when I'll be able to hop around to browse all of these car dealerships. I fully understand these are champagne problems and I am not complaining at all. I am lucky to have a car and options!!! I just don't want to make a big decision like this in haste. 

Please leave me recs in the comments below...if you've seen the Tiguan and know of something super similar, let me know that, too! And if you are looking for a roomy sedan, I would highly recommend the VW Passat a million times over.

Also, if you have a suggestion on a website that you like to use to browse/shop for cars, let me know that, too! I've been looking at the car brand websites and also just Googling car interiors, but also have been browsing sites like Carvana to get a better idea of what cars hold their value, etc. Thank you guys so much!

Lately

This week was pretty boring and I felt so frustrated all week since it has been SO cold. We are talking puffer coat cold. Normally I get out of the house to walk or whatnot, but it's been too cold for me to even enjoy long walks. We need our warm weather back ASAP! They're calling for snow flurries Saturday morning and I am SO over it. This weather might be normal for April but now that it's May it's rarer for it to be this cold! We did have a wonderful weekend, though (pics above from this weekend) so I'll take it and it looks like it is supposed to warm up a little by late next week so I am certainly looking forward to that!

Other than that, we've really had a boring week here. I worked, I cleaned, we played some games, drank some wine, watched some shows. I will say, I've loved chatting with you all via DM on instastories... so many conversations over there about different state's alcohol laws and Father of the Bride, ha

Sweater// Jeans

Wearing: I have been wearing these Jeans non-stop. They are SO comfortable. They are truly sweatpant-like and I can't get enough. I'm also loving this Sweater... it reminds me of Nantucket in a way and that brings me happiness!

Reading: A peek inside Tory Burch's Southampton home. Dreamy.

Phone Case// Phone Ring

Sale-ing: I have been using these leather iPhone cases for years now and my phone case went on sale so I got a new one! If you have an iPhone xs or xsmax, they are on sale! 

Sale-ing II: This Nespresso is currently on sale for $126. That's SUCH a deal. 

Watching: I just watched 'The Movies That Made Us' on Netflix and loved it. It's a series and I just watched the 'Home Alone' episode, but they are all episodes about popular movies that have been made and facts about the making of them. It was so interesting! 

Listening:

Loving: Tula just launched a larger size of the face blurring primer. This is the stuff I swear by and use in place of foundation. The size you normally get is pretty small (although still lasts quite some time) so the larger is double the product for 20% less cost. When I need more, I'll be ordering the larger one! Use code SYDNEY for 15% off your purchase. 

Loving II: Love love love this sweater. It's so summery/beachy and I think it would look so chic with white jeans! 

Wanting: This sweatshirt is inexpensive ($30) and looks like another sweatshirt that I paid way more for from Athleta. I'm not a huge fan of the tie-dye trend but I don't mind the super subtle neutral tie-dye like in this sweatshirt! 

Quoting: 'But even if I am weak, I can still be kind. For true power is in giving instead of taking.'// See more of my favorites, here.