Summer Bucket Lists, My Review of Living in Fremont, A Breakfast to Scare off Edward Cullen
Often Barefoot — Weekly updates and roundups coming to you from the Emerald City of Seattle, WA
01
Welcome back.
It’s officially July and my oh my does it feel like summer here in Seattle! Michael and I went to the Mariner’s game last night and when we were walking back to the car at 9:30pm, it was still light out and a warm 77 degrees. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how long the days are here — it’s quite lovely. Especially when you get off of work and you still have daylight to spend time outdoors.
I’ve been releasing these newsletters on Fridays, but I’m going to be playing around a bit with new dates to release them on, so stay tuned! I personally think receiving a mid-week roundup is a fun way to look forward to those days rather than just breezing through the week to get to Friday and the weekend. Let’s enjoy every day this summer, week day or not, and enjoy the beautiful sunshine that we’ve spent all winter praying for.
02
Updates + events + more
I just dropped off the keys to our Fremont apartment yesterday and I thought I’d feel a lot more sentimental, but I feel like there’s just been so much going on that I haven’t had the time or space to think about it more than a brief tear when we closed the door for the last time.
Whenever I post an “Ask me anything” prompt on my Instagram story, I almost always get someone asking about neighborhoods I’d recommend in Seattle to live in and I can wholeheartedly say that Fremont was such a fun place to have our first apartment together in Seattle. We lived just 3 blocks from the center of Fremont and it was such a joy having so many restaurants, coffee shops, and a PCC so close. It felt like I was living my best Euro life being able to walk everywhere I needed to go. I oftentimes describe Fremont as a continuation of college… There are a lot of people in the age range of 20-30 who live there and we would frequently run into people we knew and it made it feel like such a community. I’ll certainly miss it and its character, but it’s not a goodbye, it’s a, “See you later when we want Made in House, Fremont Pizza (RIP Ian’s), Kamakura, or Lucky Pho.”
Aside from moving, I’m constantly sitting with myself trying to figure out how to have the summer of my dreams. My best friend from childhood, Isabella, and I have a podcast together called The Melt: Uncut and on our most recent episode, we talked about our summer bucket lists and what we want to accomplish this season in Seattle. I do know for certain that I will be striving for slow mornings, afternoon miles or swims, and home cooked/fresh meals.
For anyone who is reading this post and is not on social media, I host a community walk club here in Seattle and we meet usually twice per month for 3-4 mile walks together. You can join our club, Out and About Community Walk Club, on Strava for free and you’ll be emailed every time I post a new event to get first access to RSVP! If you decide that Strava is something that you enjoy tracking your walks on, they provided me with a discount code for you all - just apply SARA20 at checkout for 20% off a premium membership.
Planning some walks for the summer is on my to-do list today (Tuesday), so by the time this post goes live, there *hopefully* should be an event or two listed!
03
The barefoot weekly - week 27
What I’ve been loving, obsessing over, and admiring this week
1. Pane Cunzato
I feel like I share about this occasionally online, but I was raised in a Sicilian household and it is a deep part of my identity, so being able to connect with my heritage via food is something that brings me joy! One of my favorite breakfasts or snacks recently has been pane cunzato, which translates to “seasoned bread” in English. To make it, I like to toast some sourdough bread until it’s nice and crispy, grate some raw garlic directly on top on it (enough to scare off Edward Cullen), add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, then top with freshly diced tomatoes, basil, and salt! There are a lot of variations for how to prepare this, but this is my go-to method that’s perfect for summertime.
2. Woodland Mod
One of my absolute favorite shops in Seattle that takes all my money!! Woodland Mod is a beautiful, airy, and light space thoughtfully curated with Hygge and Japandi designs and items for the home. They’re the perfect spot for gifts - whether for others or for yourself - and are located in the heart of Ballard. So if you find yourself at the Sunday Market, pop on in and support. (This isn’t sponsored or anything, I just really love them and supporting local businesses is molto importante to me).
3. Biking instead of driving
Okay so, yes, this isn’t a concrete thing, but I’m challenging myself this summer to use my new e-bike as much as possible this summer to limit my time spent behind the wheel. This also is not a sponsored post, but I wanted to touch on it because I fear that biking has changed my brain chemistry and I want to influence you, if you’re able to, to consider it, too! There’s something so freeing about riding a bike and connecting with your surroundings in a way that driving a car doesn’t allow for. I will say, I had a day of errands that had me driving around King Country yesterday and it wouldn’t have made sense for me to do via bike - so of course, ride a bike within reason and whenever possible! I did a 15-mile bike ride to Pike Place last week and I had the BEST time zipping around. I made an Instagram reel for the e-bike company, Heybike, so I’ll share it here if you want to see a recap of the day, but they did give me a discount code/link for $100 off their Rover S bike, the one I have, so check them out if you’ve been considering an e-bike. Again, talking about them in Substack was not a requirement - I’m just posting here about them because A. Biking is fun and energy-giving and B. I have a discount code that I don’t want to hide lol
4. Free People Movement
I’ve had this outfit on repeat for the last month and it’s toooooo good not to share. My friend, Amelia, and I stumbled upon the Free People Movement store in SoHo when we were in New York and I fell in love with their athletic/athleisure line. There is a FPM in Bellevue (Bell Square) and I think it would be so fun to get a community walk collab with them in the future! LMK interest!
That concludes our newsletter for today - thanks so much for your support here and for all the great feedback. It means the world to me to have such a wonderful community, both on and offline <3
See you soon and come say hi on Insta!
From my soles to yours,
Sara xx