Monthly Musings: June 2026
ft. Bean's baptism, my new favourite cake, and our usual ramblings
Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I hope this post finds you enjoying a moment of calmness, between meetings, or on a coffee break. I’m dropping into your inboxes this hump day morning for just a minute to share my Monthly Musings: June 2026 post with you! I, of course, had plans to share it with you last weekend instead of today — but we somehow ended up having the busiest two days ever and I just didn’t get the chance!? We had Bean’s baptism all day on Saturday, and then a huge wedding-style gathering with Husband’s extended fambam all day on Sunday, so our weekend was absolutely chock-full! The three of us were dead on our feet come Sunday evening, but thankfully everything went off without a hitch and Bean was a perfect angel on both days.
Our musings for the month ahead are listed below, filled with all the usual ramblings. A little baby update, some travel talk, a recap on what I’ve been reading and watching, and a few additional titbits for good measure.
Enjoy!
monthly musings:
In the baby world: so much happened in the last month! As of like two-weeks ago, we have officially stopped the dream feed and now Bean sleeps in her own bedroom all night! We put her up to bed at 8pm, and she sleeps the whole way through to morning! We, of course, are getting less sleep now because we’re checking the baby monitor 500-times a night — but this is huge! Also, we have our very first tooth stump! It’s her lower left front tooth and, as per instructions from our resident dentist friend, we’ve been brushing it twice daily, which is just adorable! We’ve also made great progress on the eating front, introduced Bean to her first ever baby friend, and still regularly get told she’s the smiliest baby people have ever met. She’s growing up so fast😭
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RE the aforementioned baptism: it was so lovely! We booked it into my childhood church — St Peter’s Church, Bray, the very one I was baptised in! —, Bean wore the exact same gown my sister and I wore, and we kept it really small by having only our immediate family and closest friends. There were just two other babies being baptised at the same time, and the whole thing felt so intimate and special. Bean was amazing during the ceremony; sitting quietly on my lap, listening to everything the priest said, holding her baptism candle, etc. — everyone was so impressed with her! For a little celebratory shindig afterwards, we had a special meal at the golf club with everyone and it was wonderful! Such a wholesome family day out filled with so much love for little Bean ❤️
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RE the aforementioned wedding-style family gathering: it, too, was so lovely! Husband’s uncle/godfather and his wife, who live half the year in Ireland and half the year in the US, organized a fun summer party for everyone! They hosted it at Cliff at Lyons and it was just so lovely! The setting was gorgeous, and the lunch — which was in The Orangery Restaurant — was easily some of the best we’ve ever had at a hotel? Would recommend!
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In case you missed it, two new travel guides hit the blog last month: One Day in San Marino, and A Complete Guide to Bologna, Italy. The former covers everything we got up to on our daytrip to the 5th smallest country in the world, and the latter is a massive bumper pack of a guide covering every single thing we know and love about Bologna — which, to be honest, is A LOT. I hope you read them, love them, and find them useful! Updated Nice guide and a little Antibes post coming soon, promise!
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Related: I’ve started dreaming up our next travels! Right around this time last year, pre-Bean and pre-emergency-appendectomy-at-29-weeks-pregnant, I was in the midst of planning a trip up north for a little exploration along the Causeway Coast. Obviously, everything fell through — but I’m hopeful we’ll be able to make it work out this year with Bean in tow! Husband has never been to the Giant’s Causeway, and I think it’d be so fun to take the ferry over to Rathlin Island for a few hours, so we shall see! Cross your fingers and your toes for us 🤞
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It just dawned on me this morning — this is Bean’s first ever summer! Which means it’s high time we get started on our summer bucket list!! I am well aware that she literally just turned 8-months old, but we absolutely won’t let that stop us from having the best summer ever! I’m thinking a day out at the beach and a picnic on the grass for sure, but what else should I add to the list? Let me know any thoughts and ideas you might have, please! In the meantime, you can read last year’s summer bucket list here.
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According to my StoryGraph, I only read one book last month: Jodi Picoult’s Handle With Care. Temporarily bookless for a moment, I just grabbed it off the shelf in the library, and I got a weird déjà vu feeling about halfway through that I might’ve actually read it before? It could just be that I’ve read a lot of JP books and her writing style is very familiar to me — but, either way, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend! I’m currently back on the Stephen King train with a standalone novel, Billy Summers, and am predictably hooked. What’re you reading?
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Did you watch anything good last month? We finally got to watch some of the Oscar big-hitters — Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and Sinners — and, while we really enjoyed the first two, we were both so underwhelmed and confused by everyone’s love for the latter?! Wild. Other new-to-us highlights were: Project Hail Mary, which I loved, and Send Help, which I enjoyed for the sheer wackiness factor. To follow along with our movie watching in real-time on Letterboxd, click here. TV-wise, I somehow convinced Husband to watch Off Campus with me and I loved the sheer cringey-ness of it! I thought the last two episodes sucked, but I will 100% be watching S2 when it comes out, and I’ve obvz requested the books from the library. Awkward teen romance shows are apparently my ideal way of unwinding — who knew!
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The only recipe I zeroed in on from around the web this past month was this Fancy Lemon Drizzle Cake on Kitchen Projects. I’ve been eyeing the recipe up since Nicola shared it in June last year, and Bean’s baptism was the perfect excuse to finally bake it! Three layers of light and airy lemon chiffon cake, sandwiched together with layers of (homemade) lemon curd mascarpone whipped cream and (store-bought) raspberry jam, all wrapped in a soft swoopy coating of vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream. It was delicious! Would definitely recommend if you’re looking for an occasion cake!
And there we have it, our Monthly Musings: June 2026 post! I hope you found something to take away with you, be it a cheese-tastic teen romance or a fancy occasion cake! Let’s catch up again next month, yeah?
Hugs,
Vicki xo
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