It’s been very busy over here so I apologize that these Loving Lately posts aren’t exactly every two weeks like I originally planned. I still plan to put them out on a regular basis, though!

I am loving lately . . . my new favorite everything bagel in Charleston, a local artist, something that’s helping me fall asleep faster, a robot vacuum, and an Instagram account that really helps me choose less toxic and cleaner options for food and household items.

Bagel Nation Everything Bagel

I almost consider myself a bagel connoisseur. I’m originally from Connecticut and the Northeast knows how to do them right! They are one of my favorite foods and I have tried many, many different ones here in Charleston. I have to say, I am impressed with several that I have found down here. My latest discovery is Bagel Nation on James Island. They have a West Ashley location as well. They sell bagels and other breakfast items.

I got the everything bagel (my go-to) and I was very pleased with the amount of salt on it. Salt is clutch on an everything bagel IMO! You have to check them out. If only I lived closer to them!!! Actually it’s probably best that I don’t.

Other bagel favorites: Normandy Bakery (Downtown and West Ashley) and Charleston Bagel (Mt Pleasant)

Local Watercolor Artist: Angie Scharrer

Angie has done several house portraits for clients for me over the past couple years and even though I know she is incredibly talented, I am still so pleasantly surprised by her work every time!

She also does other architecture pieces, landscapes, pet portraits and more. Her talent stems from her full time work as an architect but I know this side gig of hers is her true passion and it shows.

Check out her Instagram for other examples of her work and her Etsy shop to place a custom order or order a print.

She has a house portrait half done for me while we decide on a color for our front door and shutters. Hopefully my husband and I tackle this project soon so she can finish this piece for me! :)

Headphones Headband

Ever since having Wyatt, I just don’t sleep like I use to. I sleep with one eye open and one ear awake. Lately I have been having a hard time falling asleep. I tried taking magnesium and melatonin but it didn’t really help.

Sometime told me recently that they wear a headband with speakers to bed with a mindless TV show playing to help them fall asleep. I figured that would be worth a try! I got this headband (happens to be only $20 for Prime Day) and I have the Headspace app so I have been playing their sleep stories or wind downs when I go to bed and it has actually really helped!! It distracts me from my thoughts enough to help me settle down and relax.

Roborock Robot Vacuum

How have I lived on my own for 11 years, always with at least one dog, without one of these babies?! This is by far one of my best and favorite purchases in awhile.

When I put a call out in my Instagram stories for their favorite robot vacuum with a mop, someone mentioned she loved this one: the Roborock s6 Pure (40% off for Prime day). It had great reviews and happened to have a weekend sale coming up so it’s the one I went with.

I’ve had this vacuum for about 3 weeks and I have run it every other day, if not every day, since. All the things I’m loving about it:

• I am really impressed with how good the suction is! The dust bin is always full when it’s done cleaning (also goes to show how much our dogs shed, ew).

• It’s only gotten stuck once.

• You can just close the doors to any rooms you don’t want it to clean and it navigates around it.

• It goes back home when it’s done and charges back up.

• You can pull up the app on your phone and just hit “CLEAN” and it’ll start cleaning when you’re away from home!

• You can see on the map in the app how efficient it is. You can also see in this photo that we closed the master bedroom door and guest bedroom door so it wouldn’t clean in there.

For reference, our home is about 1450 sq feet and it can clean the whole house on one charge. It says it can clean up to about 2100 sq feet on one charge.

I haven’t tried the mop function yet but I will report on that ASAP!

The ONLY con is that it’s not super quiet. It’s not loud, but loud enough that I prefer to run it when we aren’t home.

Overall, 10/10!!

@Just.Ingredients Instagram

I am always looking for ways to “clean up” our food and household and beauty products. The Just.Ingredients Instagram account has been so helpful for me, not only showing some clean swaps, but also discussing different toxic ingredients and why/how to avoid them.

She posts a lot of “swap this for that” images like below that are easy to read and digest.

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