The Absolute Perfect Picnic — HAZE OF SIMPLICITY

I consider myself an introverted extrovert which means while I love spending time by myself, I still now and then crave interaction and meaningful conversations with people that I love. So, while quarantine hasn’t been super rough on me, I have missed interacting with my close friends and family.

A few weeks ago, my sister-cousin and one of my favorite people, Kayla, reached out to me expressing that we needed to hang out and of course I agreed! We hadn’t seen each other since our trip to Jamaica in January and a month and a half later Covid-19 showed its ugly face. She mentioned having a cute picnic in a park. I thought it was a great idea and the rest is history! While location scouting, we realized all parks in Pennsylvania were closed to Kayla decided to open her home to host our picnic instead.

We equally missed our little friend group so we told everyone to block out August 1st and we got to planning. One thing that people don’t know about me is that I love decorating. I love interior décor and creating beautiful, calming, and comfortable spaces. Other than being tasked with decorating my family’s new home, I have never really displayed my skills for other people to see. I was excited to be tasked with handling decor and I wanted to create a perfect experience to enjoy with my friends and family but of course on a budget. I started googling picnic inspo to get ideas of exactly what I wanted and just took it from there. I created a picnic experience that I didn’t even know would turn out as lovely as it did.

Most of the décor Kayla and I ordered from Amazon. This included the pillows, cotton table cloth (used as a blanket), napkins, paper lanterns, wine bucket, plastic wine glasses, name tags, and plates. The cutting board and charger plates I already owned and the second blanket and woven basket belonged to one of our friends who attended the picnic. The wooden pallets we used; Kayla was able to snag from Home Depot for free! The first guy she asked told her $15 and the second guy she asked told her to pull up out back, gave them to her for free, and wished her a successful picnic. Super thankful for him! Our friend Eamari volunteered to provide the food and she did an awesome job! She prepared a blueberry watermelon salad, Greek salad, buffalo chicken wraps, cheese, and meat platter and homemade cookies. She also brought frozen grapes for wine and seltzer water. Everything was delicious!

Kayla and I thought it would be a great idea to also support black businesses and incorporate some of their products in our picnic. The wine you see above is from the McBride Sisters Collection. We tried the Black Girl Magic Bundle which included a Rosé, Riesling, and a Red Blend. I am not a red wine drinker so I wasn’t a fan of the Red Blend but the Rosé and the Riesling were amazing!

We already know black skin naturally glows *flips hair* but for an extra glow, we used Black Girl Sunscreen for protection and 24K Body Highlighter by Agrestal Beauty for a nice soft glow. They are awesome products for our skin that will leave you looking radiant and kissed by the sun. Kayla’s green romper outfit was also from a black-owned brand called Girl Next Door.

All I can say is that I am grateful for my friends and family. The picnic turned out great but overall it was just truly a blessing to see everyone together, in good health, and having fun. We all live in different states so being able to make this work during a pandemic all while being safe was the biggest blessing. The afternoon was filled with great conversation, laugher, and dancing that rolled into the night. Currently sitting here with a thousand mosquito bites but it was all worth it!

We are all living through very difficult, strange, and unpredictable times but it’s very important to make time for the people you love and have a little fun too, of course, while taking the necessary safety precautions.