10 DIY Projects for a Weekend at the Beach

The dog days of summer are coming. And, if you’re like us, you’re planning on spending the entire season at the beach (or the pool). So, to honor our favorite time of year and to get you ready to hit the shore, we’ve gathered some must-do DIYs for you to tackle ASAP. From sunglasses to bags, you’ll love these 10 updates and improvements to all of those items that are so Summer 2013.

1. Embroidered Sunglasses: Transform boring, predictable sunglasses into a fun display of personality and style by adding embroidered embellishments around the lenses. (via Honestly WTF)

2. Totes Adorable: Update a straw beach bag with some bright paint. This oh-so-simple idea will give your go-to tote a brand-new look in no time. (via My Trash and Treasure)

3. Ombre Tee: A little ombre goes a long way when it comes to beach style. Take your traditional, white beachwear up a notch while sporting a trend that’s super hot right now. (via I Spy DIY)

4. Studded Sandals: This seems almost too easy. Get some studs, grab some super glue and get to work! (via Thanks, I Made It)

5. Beach Towel Quilt: It’s so simple, yet so brilliant. Create a big beach blanket by sewing a a bunch of towels together. No one will wind up in the sand with this roomy quilt. (via My Material Life)

6. Fabric Flip Flops: Take an inexpensive pair of flip flops and give them a sassy upgrade by using your favorite patterned fabrics. (via The Mother Huddle)

7. Turn Any Yard of Fabric Into a Beach Wrap: The possibilities are endless with this super simple template for unlimited beach dress creations. (via Brit + Co)

8. Shorts Style: Doilies and lace are full of vintage excellence — perfect for a boho-inspired day at the beach. (via A Beautiful Mess)

9. Flower Sandals: We can’t think of a better way to celebrate a beach bash than with some flower power heels. (via My Precious Confessions)

10. Bleach Basics: Add some personality to your tank tops with a little bit of bleach and a lot of creativity. (via Decoration Advisor)

Which of these DIYs are you excited to take on? Let us know how you’re going to update last year’s gear in the comments below or on Facebook.

The Whole Foods Brown Butter Cookie Latte is back on menus, baby! The iced latte went ballistically viral last year not only for its low price (a true win in times of shrinkflation), but for the fact that it literally tastes like a cookie, in latte form.

Apparently I was living under a rock before I knew about the Brown Butter Cookie Latte, because I didn’t know Whole Foods had a coffee bar. After seeing its return to menus, I was ecstatic. I’m all for grubbing on a budget, so the drink is already Meredith-approved.

What does the Whole Foods Brown Butter Cookie Latte taste like?

Image via Whole Foods / TikTok

Though cheap, is the Whole Foods Brown Butter Cookie Latte *actually* yummy? The internet is divided. While others are saying it’s way too sweet, some report that it tastes like… nothing. This discrepancy could be attributed to the fact that no two Whole Foods stores are the same (at least in my experience), and the baristas could be making the latte differently across states. Nonetheless, I’ve landed on a very important inside scoop from one of the Whole Foods latte-makers themselves!

What's actually in the Whole Foods Brown Butter Cookie Latte?

Photo by Cottonbro Studio / PEXELS

In 2023, TikTok user and Whole Foods barista, Madeline, spilled the beans (get it?) on what exactly goes into the Brown Butter Cookie Latte – and it’s hilariously easy to make at home.

Contrary to what you’d think, the latte doesn’t actually have brown butter in it. It’s crafted from a mix of pumpkin and caramel syrup that work together for that deliciously buttery taste. Who would’ve thought? Not I.

She details that Whole Foods coffee bars use the 1883 Maison Routin brand of syrups to make their drinks. Of all the fantastic flavors they offer (pistachio! lychee! blueberry muffin!), the pumpkin spiceand caramelsyrups can be purchased online for around $9 each. From there, you can be on your way to Brown Butter Cookie Latte heaven!

How To Make The Whole Foods Brown Butter Cookie Latte At Home

Image via Whole Foods / TikTok

Ingredients:

  • 1-2 espresso shots
  • 8 oz cold milk, of your choice
  • 1 handful of ice
  • 2 pumps pumpkin spice syrup
  • 1 pump caramel syrup (Some reports differ, but the ratio of syrup to make the heralded latte is 2 pumps of pumpkin spice to one pump caramel. If you like your latte on the sweeter side, you can double the amount – or play around with different numbers of pumps.)

Directions:

  1. Using an at-home espresso machine, moka pot, or Aeropress (basically any device that can make strong coffee), pull 1-2 shots of espresso into a small cup.
  2. While your espresso is pouring, mix the syrup and cold milk together in a tall glass.
  3. Once finished, pour your espresso shots into the tall glass and stir.
  4. Top off with ice, and your latte is complete!

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Lead image via Whole Foods / TikTok.

This post has been updated.

This edible crescent-roll cornucopia is our way of making a normal cheese boardmore festive — and definitely more fun — during the holiday season. Our go-to this time of year is a massive cheese plate that can stand alone and be the main attraction, or the starter for a larger meal. Press on for the surprisingly easy steps to braid a breaded cornucopia.

Chris Andre

Materials + Tools:

  • 1 roll of tin foil
  • 2 packages of crescent rolls
  • 1 egg (for egg wash before cornucopia goes into the oven), optional

Chris Andre

Instructions:

Start by sculpting tin foil into the shape of a cornucopia (it looks like a cone with an upturned tail). Pro tip: Lightly pack tin foil so it's easier to remove later from your baked cornucopia. Crescent rolls should be buttery enough that this shouldn't be difficult.

Chris Andre

Your tin foil mold should look a little something like this.

Chris Andre

Pop open the crescent rolls and cut the triangles into strips. Pinch together the ends of strips to make strips longer.

Chris Andre

Braid crescent roll strips. You can make these as fancy as you want. Not a braiding pro? Skip this step and leave those strips alone.

Chris Andre

Wrap tin foil cornucopia with braids/strips. Make sure you cover all the tin foil. Leave a little wiggle room at the opening of the cornucopia, so that when you’re done baking you can pull some of that tin foil out.

Chris Andre

Use any extra dough to cover the bottom of your cornucopia. Pinch the sides and anchor those braids/strips in.

Chris Andre

Brush on egg wash before placing your cornucopia in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Take out of oven and cover spots of cornucopia that are already golden brown with extra tin foil. Bake for another 20 minutes at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chris Andre

Let it cool down until it’s easy to handle. Remove tin foil.

Chris Andre

Place cornucopia in corner of your cheese plate. Arrange cheese on your serving tray.

Chris Andre

Add crackers — we like to have two or three options.

Chris Andre

Don’t forget to fill up your cornucopia. It's called "the horn of plenty" for a reason. Fill with fresh fruit like grapes, apples, and pears.

Chris Andre

Add nuts like walnuts and pistachios to fill in any empty spaces. Garnish with fresh herbs like rosemary and sage to finish it off.

Chris Andre

Voilà! Invite over your friends, open a bottle of wine, and dig in!

Chris Andre

A cornucopia cheese board will become your new favorite holiday tradition.

Show us your crescent-roll cornucopias on Instagram and check out our baking classes (and our Easy Thanksgiving Desserts piece) for more holiday food inspo!

DIY Production and Styling: Paris Fried

Paris Fried: Paris loves any excuse to celebrate and throw a themed party. She loves experimenting in the kitchen and has a terrible sweet tooth. When she's not crafting in her studio, she's at the farmers' market buying seasonal produce or at her favorite local theater watching double features.

This post has been updated.

If you're a fan of adding a spicy kick to your dishes, then this guide is your passport to creating your own tantalizing chili oil from scratch. In this culinary adventure, we will explore the art of infusing oil with aromatic spices and fiery chili peppers to create a versatile condiment that can elevate any meal. Whether you prefer a milder heat or crave an inferno of spiciness, this step-by-step tutorial will empower you to customize the flavors to suit your taste.

What is Chili Oil?

Chili oil holds a significant place in Chinese culinary traditions, serving as an essential pantry ingredient. It combines the harmonious blend of oil infused with aromatic spices and fiery chili flakes, providing both a flavorful essence and a satisfying crunch. You have the freedom to select any variety of chili pepper, ranging from gentle and mild to intensely fiery and superhot depending on how you take the heat.

Homemade Chili Oil Ingredients

Photo by Karolina Grabowska / PEXELS

  • Oil: Ideally, a neutral flavored oil, such as vegetable, canola, peanut, soybean, or grape seed oil.
  • Spices: Some essential spices you'll need are star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns.
  • Salt: Very important as it helps bring out the flavor of all the spices and aromatics.
  • Chili flakes or crushed dried chili peppers
  • Optional spices and add-ins: Whether or not you want to add anything further is up to your personal preference. If you prefer a bit more flavor, you can incorporate spices such as black cardamom, cloves, fresh garlic, or soy sauce.

How To Make Chili Oil Recipe Instructions

Photo by Karolina Grabowksa / PEXELS

  1. Collect all the aromatic ingredients you intend to incorporate. Combine the chosen oil and aromatics in a pot. If you opt for using just the essential spices, approximately 1 ½ cups of oil will suffice. You may increase the oil quantity to up to 3 cups if you decide to go a bit more complex on the ingredients.
  2. Begin by placing the pot over medium heat and gradually reduce it to medium-low or low heat as the oil heats up. The goal is to reach an oil temperature of approximately 110-120°C, at which point you should observe small bubbles gently emerging from the aromatics. Allow the aromatics to infuse for a duration of at least 30 minutes up to 1 hour.
  3. Remove the spices first with a fine-meshed strainer, then heat the oil as it needs to be between 110-120° C when poured over the chili flakes.
  4. Prepare your chili flakes in a bowl that can withstand heat. You can experiment within the oil-flakes range, but usually, 1½ cups of oil to ¾ cup of chili flakes should work.
  5. With caution, slowly pour the hot oil through a strainer, allowing it to pass onto the Sichuan chili flakes. Give it a gentle stir to ensure the even distribution of the oil's heat.
  6. Incorporate the salt into the chili oil while giving it a gentle stir, and then let the mixture cool down. For safe storage, transfer the chili oil to airtight containers and keep them refrigerated. Remember to use clean utensils whenever handling the oil.

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Header photo by Roman Odinstov / PEXELS

Though Black Friday is traditionally the official start of the holiday shopping season, we argue that it’s been kicking since mid-October. We know, we know: it still feels extremely early to start thinking about the holidays, but they’ll be here before you know it! Plus, many brands and retailers are already promoting their holiday goodies with plenty of sales and discounts available right now.

If you’re ready to embark on your holiday shopping journey, but still need answers to questions like ‘when’s the best time to shop?’ and ‘where should I shop for gifts?’ and even ‘how the heck do I save money this season?’, you’ve come to the right place. Consider this your go-to guide for holiday shopping in 2024.

Scroll on for our best guidance on navigating this busy time of year and finding the best gifts possible!

When's the best time to do holiday shopping?

Kaboompics / PEXELS

The best time to do holiday shopping really all depends on your personal shopping goals. Do you want to get a jump on items you know will sell out soon? Do you want to save the most money possible? Do you want to focus on handmade, personalized gifts? These factors will undoubtedly influence your holiday shopping schedule.

Cottonbro Studio / PEXELS

Shopping early can be advantageous for all of the aforementioned goals. A lot of retailers start promoting their holiday products early on, giving you ample time to snatch up that limited-time lip kit or fancy water bottle you’ve been eyeing way before the holidays.

Plus, some of the best deals for holiday shopping happen ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – in 2023, Experian observed a surge in early spending in October, thanks to early discounts, a trend likely to continue in 2024.

Finally, shopping early can be especially helpful if your plan is to focus on handmade or personalized gifts, giving the artisan you buy from (or yourself, if you’re DIY-ing your gifts) plenty of time to craft the item with love and care.

Gallup reported in 2023 that one in four shoppers start shopping as early as September, a trend likely to continue in 2024 – so you might already be embarking on your shopping spree!

Mikhail Nilov / PEXELS

If right now is just still too darn early for you to start holiday shopping, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the best times to shop since so many retailers offer their largest discounts of the entire year. Plus, the late November-early December timeline can feel a bit more appropriate for the gifting season opposed to late October-early November, when everyone’s still recovering from Halloween.

The only thing to consider during this time is the shipping timelines for the items you purchase – but most retailers will typically advise their specific shipping schedules, so you don’t risk your goodies arriving late.

Where should I shop for gifts?

Ron Lach / PEXELS

You have three main options when it comes to where to shop for holiday gifts: online, in-store, and via our amazing gift guides. Of course, each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

Shopping in-store offers a tangible experience: the opportunity to hold specific items in your hands and gauge exactly what they’ll be like when you give them as a gift. The pitfall with shopping in-person is that it typically requires a commute and journeys through potentially very busy malls and shopping strips, which can add to the already-stressful holiday experience.

In-store shopping can be more physically exhausting, but it’s all about preference! Sometimes strolling through the stores that get all dolled up for Christmas is the best part of the season.

Andrea Piacquadio / PEXELS

Per Google, 65% of those planning to shop for the holidays say they will shop online more. Shopping for gifts online can be super helpful since you can centralize your findings in your browser’s bookmark tab or via virtual cart(s). Plus, shopping online can pose more opportunities for saving some money: lots of retailers typically offer discount codes for online users, especially if you sign up for their digital marketing channels (like email and text) and make a purchase.

Shopping online isn’t just shopping, either. The internet can be a stellar research tool to help you vet whether certain products are worth it, where they can be bought, and when they’ll be available. In fact, Google reported that more than half of U.S. holiday shoppers who went into a store last year say they looked up product reviews online and/or located an item in-store by checking it online.

Kaboompics / PEXELS

Last but not least, scrolling gift guides has to be our favorite place to shop for gifts – and not just because we write and publish them.

At their very core, gift guides help streamline the holiday shopping process, alleviating the stress that bubbles up when you’re wondering what the heck to shop for in the first place. Our gift guides are backed by real people, real experiences, and real opinions from our editorial team. We only promote products that we really love and believe in, oftentimes ones we’ve tested and reviewed ourselves.

We have gift guides for just about everyone on your list, with more on the way! Check ‘em out:

What are the best kinds of gifts to give?

Kaboompics / PEXELS

The best kinds of gifts to give are thoughtful gifts that consider the giftee’s interests, wants, and needs. These gifts can be sentimental, practical, or both simultaneously. What matters most in a gift is that it’ll be meaningful to them past just the holiday season, whether it’s helping them get through daily tasks, reminding them of a memorable trip or event, or giving them small doses of joy.

“Shoppers are increasingly looking for personalized and unique gifts that reflect the recipient's personality and interests,” says Mia Anderson, Owner of ChicSew. “With the rise of online shopping, many consumers are opting for curated gift boxes or experiences that add a special touch.”

Cottonbro Studio / PEXELS

Gift boxes, personalized items, books of interest, self-care goodies, and even gift cards can all be thoughtful gifts depending on the recipient. If you have no clue what your giftee is into, it’s not a bad idea to ask them what they want the most!

“My idea of a great gift is something that is in tandem with the recipient's interest and offers something new to the person, be it learning a new skill, enjoying a calming activity, or simply spending quality time with the family,” says Alfred Christ, Sales Manager & Marketer at Robotime. “This season, we encourage shoppers to shift their focus on quality and the memories their gifts will create and not just merely material aspects.”

When is Black Friday?

Sora Shimazaki / PEXELS

Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, Black Friday lands on November 29.

When is Cyber Monday?

Kindel Media / PEXELS

Cyber Monday is typcally the Monday after Thanksgiving. This year, Cyber Monday will land on December 2. Oftentimes, retailers and brands extend their online offers through the week (coined Cyber Week) after the event. Salesforce reported that 67% of shoppers in 2024 plan on shopping during Cyber Week!

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The holidays at Starbucks are creeping up on us, people! Peppermint Mocha season will return on November 7. If you’re a die-hard Starbucks fan, you know Red Cup Day is a whole holiday in itself – the frenzy for a free reusable cup is truly no joke. There’s even an entire website dedicated to counting down the madness! Even though there’s no official word on when Red Cup Day 2024 will be, there are several clues that cue us into the annual event. Scroll on for details!

What is Red Cup Day?

Starbucks

Red Cup Day is Starbucks’ highly-awaited annual event that marks the start of holiday beverage season at the coffee chain. For one day only (and while supplies last), customers who order any of Starbucks’ holiday drinks will receive a reusable red cup that features a bespoke design for the respective year.

Starbucks

Here’s a list of all the drinks rumored to be available on the Starbucks holiday menu starting November 7:

  • Peppermint Mocha
  • Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha
  • Caramel Brûlée Latte
  • Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte
  • Chestnut Praline Latte
  • Salted Pecan Crunch Cold Brew
  • Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai

What do the red cups look like for 2024?

Starbucks

Starbucks hasn’t officially announced when Red Cup Day will be for 2024, let alone what the famed red cups will look like this go-around. The one obvious point is that the cups will be red! They’ll also likely feature some festive motifs that echo the holiday season. Last year’s red cups boasted playful white and green stars and ornament-like shapes.

Why should I participate in Red Cup Day?

Starbucks

Red Cup Day = freebies, which can feel really rewarding if you’re really into receiving free goodies. Plus, it’s just a fun way to lean into the holiday spirit. The red reusable cup keeps giving beyond Red Cup Day, though! Every time you use the reusable cup for future Starbucks orders, you get a 10-cent discount as well as 25 bonus stars toward your Starbucks Rewards account to save up for more discounts on drinks, food, and merchandise.

When is Starbucks' Red Cup Day 2024?

Starbucks

Again, Starbucks hasn’t alerted us on when Red Cup Day will be for 2024, but based on previous Red Cup Days, we can infer it’ll land on the third Thursday of November. In 2022, Red Cup Day happened on November 17, and for 2023, it was November 16. The third Thursday of November in 2024 hits on November 21, so mark your calendars, everyone!

Additionally, check back here for official info as Red Cup Day approaches.

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This post has been updated.