A Few of My Favorite Things...

I did a post a few years ago (have I been blogging *that* long) that listed a few things that I really like and I thought that maybe it's time to do one again. Mainly because it's fun :)

About a week and a half ago- the day Chloe's flu really started- she convinced me that she was feeling just fine and was absolutely well enough to go to the mall. So we went and all of the spring merchandise is out so we squealed and said 'isn't that the cutest thing' about 500 times. If you don't have daughters of your own you should borrow mine for a while because it really is fun to shop with them. But we headed into Body Shop to look for a little thing that I'll list later but what we stumbled upon was their Hemp Hand Protector! OK, I'm not a hippie and I've never owned or desired anything made out of hemp but I tried it and it is incredibly fabulous! It smells, well, earthy but not like patchouli- which I don't like- it's more subtle. Amanda says it smells like pot and it scares me to think that she knows what that smells like. But she did go to public high school. I bought it for Travis because he has seriously dry skin, but I haven't let him take it to work. It's on sale right now for $9 so I might have to buy another tube. And as an added bonus there's *no petrolatum products* in this product. I asked the sales girl if their products were petrolatum free and she didn't know so I can't say for sure that all of their products are.

Number two on my list is an oil burner. I bought one a couple of Christmases ago with a gift card that Amanda bought for me and I've loved it. Why? Because it works infinitely better than candles; it can even be overpowering at times in my little house. But since I have 3 cats (I can't stand the smell) I don't mind an overpowering *good* smell. You can get the burners pretty much anywhere but the oils tend to be a little pricey- $7.50 for .3 ounce. I bought Satsuma because Travis has wanted it forever and the orange smell is amazing. I find that Bath and Body works has the best deals though because they'll offer their oils for $3- I get their e-mails and stock up. I also find that cinnamon-ey smells last the longest. And any of their seasonal fragrances are fantastic- "A Perfect Autumn", "A Perfect Christmas", etc. What I don't think works all that well are their Scentport plug in type things- unless you buy two of them. I have one Scentport and one Wallflower- because I had a coupon for each and they were free or next to free- and they work well when you have the same fragrance in each. If you're at all interested in their stuff you should sign up for their e-mails, you get quite a lot of good deals. One time I bought about $40 worth of stuff for $12. I just signed up for Body Shop's e-mail so I don't know what kind of deals you get there.

Yankee Candle. I love it there. I dated a guy once (the one right before Travis) and he was allergic to everything. He started sneezing every time we went into that store- it would have never worked. I think I've mentioned before that Cranberry Chutney is my absolute fave but by this time in the year I'm looking for something a bit more springy. So on Valentine's Day as part of our date, Trav and I went to Yankee candle- because I had a buy 1 get one free for their jar candles. Yay! He'd already decided that he wanted Vanilla and lime but I don't really like it that much and this was my Valentine's Day present. So I decided that I'd pick one and he'd pick one and we'd compromise. We smelled every candle in the store, as usual, and I picked up Starfruit and Orange for the very first time. It smelled heavenly. More importantly it smelled Florida-esque so I was hooked. And Travis picked Mandarin Cranberry, still yummy although not as strong as what I picked out. Last time I bought a candle, I bought the slightly more modern looking jar with two wicks and the metal lid but two wicks just burn the candle a lot faster so I went with the more country looking jar.

I'm sure I stumbled across these Blumebuds by someone else's blog a while back so if it was yours then I'm sorry. But aren't these just the cutest little things? I've never actually done place cards before, mostly because I never have enough seats when I have people over. One day though, I'll have enough room and when I do I'll be happy I saved this little idea.

I also love this- how cool is it to make your own clock? I've seen the clock making kits at Joann's and I have plenty of canvases so it seems like it would be easy peasy to have a piece of art that's all you and tells time too. Fun.

(Edited to add)

And last but not least- caffeinated eye cream to get rid of puffiness. I was skeptical when I first heard about it but figured it was worth a try for those days when I haven't had enough sleep. I read about Moxie's Double Shot eye cream for men and Garnier's Eye Cream. Since Garnier's is easier to get (Wal-Mart) and the price is only about $13 I tried that one. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It's easy to put on and if you apply it repeatedly when you're really puffy it does help. It's supposed to help with dark circles over time but I really can't remember to use it every day.

Alright, I think that's enough for today. I still have tons of things floating around in my brain but I think I've been sitting here for about an hour now- I should check in on Halle.