FAVORITE THINGS: JANUARY 2016

 

This January has been a good one! After our crazy busy holiday season, this has been a month of getting back on track, working on goals for the year, and settling into our routines.  I've been  working hard, reading good things, and loving more.

But let's be real, I'm ready for spring and don't need any more snow ever again this season.

 

 

 

 Here is a round up of my favorite things this month:

 

Favorite Things For An Organized Life:

 

 

This day planner was a stocking stuffer from the husband. I love that it has a year, monthly, and daily squares to fill in. // And this Moleskin cashier journal is perfect for keeping track of orders and inventory for the shop. // Ink Joy pens are my favorites and I love these pencils for pattern work.

 

Favorite Beauty Things:

 

 

I got the Urban Decay Naked Smoky eye palette for my birthday and it is the best ever, the end. // I've been oil cleansing for awhile now and I love this cleansing oil. It's by CoCo Lavish and it's amazing.//  I first heard about hair primers from The Small Things Blog and picked up this one on a whim while I was at the drug store one day. It's a total game changer. It cuts my dry time, it keeps my hair smooth, and it acts as a barrier to hair products so my hair doesn't feel heavy or sticky. Love it.

 

Favorite Thing I'm Wearing:

 

 

When we were in New York for my birthday, I went to J. Crew to browse and the husband bought me this coat as an extra birthday gift (He's a keeper, guys). This coat is beautiful and warm and maybe the most grown up thing I own. This cut is no longer available (online at least) but J. Crew has lots of beautiful wool coats here.

 

Favorite Things I Read:

 

Books:

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain (reading challenge book)

Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin (reading challenge book)

 

Websites:

Sarah R Bagley 

Putting Me Together

 

Favorite Things I'm Listening To:

Podcast: What Should I Read Next? by Anne Bogel

Adele 25 (When We Were Young, especially)

 

Favorite Things I'm Watching:

Downton Abbey (Of course.)

Making A Murderer (CRAZY PANTS.)

 

 

It's snowing-AGAIN-so we'll be snuggling, watching movies, and baking these last few days of the month.  Hope you had a lovely January!

 



FAVORITE THINGS FEBRUARY: EVERYDAY vs DATE NIGHT BAGS

On Valentine's Day, for the first time in about six years, the husband and I went out on a date, just the two of us (thank you most wonderful in-laws!). It was snowing and cold, but dinner was fantastic and the company divine.

 

I switched bags for our night out and realized that there is a slight difference in my everyday vs date night life. Observe my favorite things from both:

 



 

 

Clockwise, from left: Bag: Tory Burch York Buckle Tote  A bit pricey, but I only buy one purse about every 7 years. I splurge on quality and use it everyday.//Lotion: Bath and Body Works Shea Cashmere Hand Cream The scent is amazing, and it truly helps my dry skin, hand sanitizer because, it's a must with kids, Burt's Bees Lip Balm with Mango Butter Also smells amazing and really helps with dryness. (I have dry skin. And so do the kids. So moisturizing products are high on my list.), random little girl hair clip because her hair is always always in her eyes, tissues, Rapunzel Mini Tin This is an amazing toy. It's a slim metal box box (the size of a note pad) with an image of Rapunzel on it and magnetic dress up clothes. Ava plays with it when ever she gets stuck some where with me (the vet, Dylan's guitar lesson). It's a perfect size and nothing gets lost because it's all STUCK on, Priority Mail envelopes for shipping items from the shop, notepad and pen, Sunglasses (prescription),  Altoids (wintergreen), Phone with Rifle Paper Company cover (mine seems to be no longer available, but this one is similar), small mirror, water (usually reusable bottle but I grabbed this on the go), wallet (gift from the kids), coupon holder (Target, I use it for receipts), keys.

And Date Night:

Clockwise, from left: bag Libeskind Caelia Glimmered Wristlet from Anthropologie (a gift form the in-laws, seriously they are awesome), red lipstick (Maybelline Ruby Star), pen to sign the check, Altoids, Phone (see above for info).
 

THINGS I LOVE: SHABBY BLOGS

 

 

The blog is looking fancier these days.  And it's all thanks to Shabby Blogs.  Shabby Blogs is a blog design website, that is totally free! They have backgrounds, headers, buttons; all sorts of fun, beautifully designed things to make your blog pretty. They also have tutorials to help you with your design and making it even more uniquely yours.

 

Some of their designs:

 

Hooray for Shabby Blogs! Thanks for helping me make this blog a little more lovely.

THINGS I LOVE: MR.PRINTABLES

Egg People, Mr.Printables

Mr. Printables is one of our family's absolute favorite websites. It's full of fun, bright, smart paper crafts, games, and learning tools, all for free!

Here are a few of our favorite things from them:

Printable Mazes:

Math Flash Cards:

USA Map Wall Hanging (or for geography lessons):

And they have holiday crafts too!

We love Mr. Printables! If you have little ones in your life, check them out for good quality, pretty, smartly designed resources and crafts.

(Their Pinterest page is also full of inspiration.)

THINGS I LOVE: OUR SOUTHERN ROOTS

Biscuits and Gravy, Our Southern Roots



I recently came across the blog Our Southern Roots, and I am in love. My husband and I lived in Georgia in the years when we were dating and first married, and we loved it down there. We embraced the South and enjoyed all that it had to offer (my husband, may in fact, feel that he was born in the wrong region). Our Southern Roots celebrates all of it: the culture, the lifestyle, the food (and Southern food is reason enough to live there, see above). But what I love most about this blog is how it showcases the everyday things and this family's love for it. They show a real love of their home and their life, and that is something worth celebrating.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

"I've never quite figured out what I get from children's literature that I don't get from adult literature, but there's something." -Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

 

 

I love books. Everything about them. I will read anything. If I get caught somewhere, say at the doctor's office, with no book or magazine in my bag, I will read pamphlets about heart disease or old issues of Highlights magazine. It might be a bit obsessive. But there are worse habits.

 

And while I love books written for adults, I have a great love of reading children's and young adult literature. There is something there that is lacking in many adult books. Perhaps it's the fact that many children's books have the theme of good vs. evil, and the good will prevail, even in the darkest of stories. So many adult books seem to be focused on the flaws of the characters, showing us how evil does win and doesn't change and there is no hope, ever.  Children's literature shows the characters' flaws, but shows us how they come to terms with those flaws and what they must do to prevail despite of them.

 

I mean, is there a better character then Anne Shirley Blythe from the Anne of Green Gables series? (The answer is no.) This is a girl who inspires those around her to be better, who makes mistakes but readily admits to them and tries to fix them, who loves gossip but never speaks ill of anyone, who does her best to lead a good life and raises children willing to go out and try to make the world better. Can you think of any character in an adult book that that can be said about?

 

The Hunger Games trilogy might be the best thing out there written about PTSD and the effects of war. The heroine, Katniss, is flawed, and the books are insanely violent, but in the end, good prevails. It has similar themes to The Giver, another children's book that simply tells a story of what trying to achieve a "perfect" society can do to the real people living in it. The Harry Potter books also showcase a war against evil, and taking a stand for your beliefs. The characters are complex; those that seem completely perfect have faults, and those that seem to be horrible bad have some good in them. Even the most evil of them is given a human side in his background story. And Number the Stars (written by the same author as The Giver), is a fictional account of a true good vs evil story, where a young Danish girl and her family risk their lives to help their Jewish neighbors escape the Nazi round up of Copenhagen.

 

The Little House books are true American stories. Not just the stories of pioneers, but the simple life lessons in them: honesty, hard work, listening to your parents, not complaining or giving up when things go wrong. Farmer Boy especially provides such a good male role model, which many children's books seem to be lacking.

 

"Where is Papa going with that ax?" might hands down be the best opening line of a book, ever. And the story of Charlotte's Web is such a beautiful portrait of friendship, it is near perfection.

 

And yes, even the Twilight books. Which, I know. They are not the most profound books out there. But it's such fun. This was a series I got caught up in, and couldn't wait to see how it all ended. People complain about how ridiculous they are how, how backwards for woman. But a girl choosing what she wants, at any age, and knowing that it's what's right for her? Well, there's nothing backwards about that, no matter what those choices are. And that's what the character Bella does. She knows what she wants and goes after it in every one of the books.

 

There are so many more, with such wonderful stories. So read adult books, of course. But remember the children's books. They have so much to offer.