Well, I’m barely squeezing by on this month’s faves and in fact, I’m going to cheat and backdate this entry. BOOM! That being said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this month’s faves and am excited to share them with you. Admittedly, they are a bit random but that’s often how favorite things go. Enjoy!
1. I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to anything “beauty gadget” related. At-home hair removal and lasers and stuff like that just terrify me. When I first saw the Clarisonic brush hit the market, and then saw the outrageous price, I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” But then I started seeing it all over magazines, beauty blogs, YouTube and just about everywhere I turned and everyone was touting it’s benefits and praising the glow of their now-luminous skin. Without sounding like a total narcissistic witch, I actually have pretty good skin and as the monster of age has crept in, my skin has dried out a bit, which has lead me to use some stronger moisturizers and a few more products, but it has also lead to me almost never dealing with breakouts or other skin issues. My skin while pregnant was the best I’ve ever seen it look, to be honest. After delivering Little C, I was feeling pretty “punk” and needed some perking up. Sephora was doing one of their 20% off discounts and I picked up the cheaper but still effective model called the Mia (now called the Mia2). Ladies and gents, I have to tell you… it really is amazing. It provides gentle exfoliation, cleans every bit of dirt, makeup and grime from my skin without stripping my skin of the good stuff. After a few weeks of usage, my skin really started to have a natural rosy glow, even without makeup. I officially love this thing.
2. One of the cardinal rules, in my book, of being a woman is that you can never have enough jewelry. I realize some women aren’t into accessories, but am very pro-accessory. Accessories always fit, add sparkle to the most mundane of outfits and days, and can be a fun form of expression. I stumbled across Alex and Ani bangles recently and fell in love. They have so many different styles, colors and finishes and they look SO GOOD stacked together. This whole “arm party” trend is very big right now. I love the charms line that they have and the unique story you can tell about yourself through these bangles. It reminds me of a modern day charm bracelet, and I love that! They regularly release new designs and are all about positivity. I was torn between building a silver or gold collection but went gold and got a charm bangle as well as one of their stacks/sets. I am looking forward to building a little collection and having a little sparkle on my wrists this spring and summer.
3. Those who know me pretty well know that I’m a closet totally open and unashamed Justin Timberlake fanatic. I’ve loved him since his N*SYNC days and have been following his career since the beginning. I am obsessed with his appearances on SNL and the other movies/shows that he’s been on. BUT… I am completely and utterly obsessed with his music. It’s been 7 very long years since his last album, so needless to say, when The 20/20 Experience came out I was one of the first to snatch it up. Oh, who I am kidding, I PRE-ORDERED. I heart JT. The album is awesome, worth the wait, and is now my summer jamm for 2013. How lame do I sound right now? Don’t care. Love him.
4. Okay, this one is a weird one, but I found a recipe on Pinterest a while back for a sort of tangled thai salad that looked and sounded really good. Problem? It required a spiral vegetable cutter that I had never even heard of. The wonders of Amazon lead me to the Gefu Spirelli Spiral Cutter which I purchased and promptly started shredding the crud out of every veggie I could find. This thing is very cool. I love veggies and don’t really struggle to get them in my diet, but this thing has opened a whole new world of possibilities. Zucchini noodles? Spiral carrot salad? I’ve done them both and have loved the results. Who knew that cutting vegetables in a creative way could be so exciting!?
5. I’m actually not much of a game player, especially on my phone, but there have come times when instead of making awkward eye contact with strangers in the doctor’s office waiting room, or when waiting for someone in a restaurant and not wanting to look alone and lame, I have defaulted to looking at my phone just to look busy. Then I found this little gem of a game called 4 Pics 1 Word and got so severely addicted in April. It’s simple, it’s fun, and I like to think it’s somewhat stimulating and educational. The concept – 4 pictures display different things, but all relate back to one word. It sounds simple but some of them are INSANELY tricky. There is a feature where you can share the pics on Facebook to solicit help from your friends. I haven’t done that yet but I’ve seen some of my friends get stumped and it’s fun to see what people come up with.
That’s all for now… stay tuned for my May faves.
These are subtly sweet, buttery and delicious warm from the oven with a pat of butter melted in. Mmmmmm…muffins.
