Happy Friday! I’ve found myself jotting down notes about new-to-me things I wanted to be sure to share with you, and what better time than a Friday Favorites post to do just that?
If you follow me on Instagram (especially stories) you may have seen some of these already, but a few are things I haven’t shared there! Here goes…
- I had a lululemon gift card and wanted to get some new leggings, and I went with these Super High Rise Wunder Unders. This is a big deal for me because I have never owned anything camo or animal print, although I’m feeling ready so this was a way to dip my toe in the water. I LOVE these leggings — the extra high waist is so comfy — and the length on me is perfect (I’m 5’7″). Fun fact about lulu, though, related to length: They’ll hem any pair of lulu pants for free!
- Speaking of clothing…how amazing is this What Would Dolly Do? tee from Draper James? And I mean, it’s a pretty great lens to look at life through!
- I have a goal to make one new recipe each week this year, and so I grabbed a couple of cookbooks to add to my collection to help with this endeavor. The one I’ve been digging into so far is The Colorful Family Table by Ilene Moreno of The Colorful Kitchen blog. (You can learn more about her via this recent episode of my podcast!) Her book is a collection of family-friendly, plant-based recipes that are broken up by season, which I love. So far I’ve made three great recipes from the winter section of the cookbook, and I have another one I’m going to try this weekend!
- So…after being a digital calendar-only person for years, I’m becoming a paper planner girl again for the first time since college. And you know what? I’m LOVING IT. I’m using the Hello Day planner, and so far it’s been an amazing tool to help me plan my days with intention. Some favorite features: you set three main goals/tasks each day, it helps you track other things like exercise, meditation, and water consumption, it has places for longer-term goals (weekly, monthly, annually), and I find physically writing things down is becoming a favorite part of my daily ritual. I’m still using my digital calendar, too (it’s particularly helpful to share things with Kevin that way), and I’m finding this is such a nice complement. I don’t have to choose one or the other — I can make both work!
- I made my first batch of homemade elderberry syrup yesterday, and it was SO easy. We’ve been big fans of elderberry syrup in our house for a while, but I’d never made my own. Turns out it’s simple and requires just a few ingredients. (You probably have everything on hand minus the actual elderberries, and you can order those dried from Amazon!) This is the elderberry syrup recipe I used, and I didn’t have fresh ginger on hand so I used about a teaspoon of dried ginger instead. It tastes great! (Oh, and that single bag of dried berries will make TONS of batches of syrup! I popped the rest in the freezer to keep them extra fresh for future uses.)
- This isn’t new to me, but it’s a rediscovered thing. I ordered this water bottle from Amazon a couple of years ago to use for smoothies, and it turns out I didn’t like it too much for that purpose. (I like big smoothies, and this bottle didn’t cut it for that.) BUT, recently I pulled it back out of the drawer and have been loving it as my main water bottle. While I love my S’well bottle (especially from a portability standpoint), I find I drink lots more water if I can easily drink it through a straw and if it fits in the cup holder of my car. This water bottle meets both those criteria, so it’s been a constant companion of late. (I also love how affordable it is!)
What about you? What have YOU been loving lately? (I love to hear, so please share!)
Hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead. Kevin’s mom will be here with us, which means fun with Gram AND a date for Kevin and me tomorrow (complete with a couples massage that I’ve been looking forward to for SO LONG). Wahoo!
