My favorite things

I thought I would post some of my most favorite essential items in my life right now. And being that it is winter, many of them are posted because they are practical. Just so no one gets offended, people do come first, I totally believe that. This is a simple fluff post.

I adore my Hearthside slippers from LLBean. Warm, cozy, and slightly stylish. When I come home, they go right on.


philosophy's pure grace perfume. Clean, soap and watery fragrance.



My Judith Ripka pearl/Diamonique necklace. Love this for every day wear, can dress it up or down.

My Eddie Bauer 700 down fill coat (mine is chocolate and larger than this tiny available photo). This has been a seriously cold winter and this coat has kept me toasty warm.



Super soft and uber-comfy pjs. a must for me.


Tazo Passion tea. Full flavor, caffeine-free, perfect for evenings reading.



And as all of you probably know, Vera bags. This one, the Gabby bag in Hope Garden is my new fave.

So....share some of your faves with me!!

taking time to create

When I was younger I was never considered artistic. That was my brother. He is an incredible artist and I never had what it took to cultivate that. I was always the crafty one. I made friendship bracelets, lanyards, stamped cards, beaded jewelry, painted clam shells...and all of these I tried to sell as a little kid. My poor family members had to buy all the stuff...my parents still use the box stitch lanyard key chains for the boat :). But throughout high school I lost that crafty side. I don't even remember having many hobbies in high school that involved creating anything.

In college I met Freddy and his mom, Sandra started scrapbooking. I remember seeing her albums and thinking how amazing, cool, fun that hobby looked. Little did I know it would become a huge part of my life. I started taking way more pictures, switched to a digital camera, and started to look for fun moments to scrapbook. I love this hobby because I am creating for me and my family. I am not looking to sell stuff to people, but I am instead preserving memories. I am so fortunate to be on a design team at a local scrapbook store where I get to create even more cool stuff.

So today I encourage you to create something. It can be poetry, a picture, scrapping, some skill you are talented at already and want to develop further.

Here was my creation today. Simple, fun.

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