With being a work traveler, unfortunately my time in the kitchen is reserved for Thursday night – Sunday. And if I’m being realistic, Friday night – Sunday. Tonight as a prime example, I was just too tired to cook anything. I try to have leftovers ready to be thawed or reheated if possible on Thursdays – tonight was lasagna. 🙂 Not terrible, but there’s no time in the kitchen usually.
Thus – tonight’s post is dedicated to something else, some of my new favorite things that I encourage any readers out there to check out or explore. (Other than number two being a relative of mine, none of the folks below have any clue who I am. I just love their stuff and as a content consumer, want to share with the world how much I love them!)
1) Birchbox. I discovered this only a few months ago after reading about it on a few blogs. Birchbox is a great site for anyone who loves health and beauty products and trying new brands. I’m not too much of a high-end brand person, but I love the idea of trying sample sizes of different brands – plus, they’re travel size (which I need)! The way Birchbox works – you pay per month or per year, and you receive a box each month with usually 4-5 sample products. They vary from makeup to hair accessories to (and in the case of my first box) teas! You’re able to try out each of the items and you can rate them on Birchbox’s website to help earn reward points (which when you gather enough reward products, you can buy the full size versions). You can also decide you really enjoy XYZ nail polish and dang it, you want to buy more! You can go out to Birchbox and you can order the product in the full size version. Either way, in my opinion, it’s a win-win. You learn about new products and you may even find a great treasure. My first Birchbox came last week – check out the great items:
Items in my box include:
- Color Club Nail Lacquer (in He Loves Me)
- Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint
- Harvey Prince Ageless perfume
- Orofluido Beauty Elixir hair treatment
- stila Smoky Eye Card
- Tea Forte Skin-Smart Teas
I can’t wait to try each of these products over the weekend! Maybe there’s one that I’ll end up buying more of…I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.
2) etsy. Etsy.com is FANTASTIC if you love finding unique items and getting ideas for things you could create yourself. Whether it’s art, clothes, food, gifts or my personal favorite, jewelry – etsy has many great shops with more products than you have time to look through. I love to get ideas from the great artists and crafters on there or even make some purchases! Two shops that are my current favorites:
My aunt has a great shop for anyone that needs some beautiful art on their walls: Gillyflower Cottage. Whimsical flowers, delectable pears and even some creatures with personality are currently featured.
Another one of my favorites is the Elisabeth Ashlie shop. They sell handcrafted jewelry that is right up my alley (and perfect for the earring chain). I recently made a purchase from their shop receiving these cute, springy pair of earrings:
3) The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Food From My Frontier. This I have yet to purchase but have been looking forward to it for months!! I am planning a trip to Barnes and Noble (or B&N as I fondly refer to it as) in the next few days to have a tasty chocolatey beverage and look through this new volume. I’ll then buy it. Go to the grocery store. Come home and make more food than I can consume by Sunday night. (This is a terrible pattern I fall into). But it means it’ll be a perfect weekend. 🙂
The post the above link brings you to on her website gives a little sneak peek and will show you, simply from her verbiage and pictures alone, why I love her blog so very much.
Those are the favorite items I needed…had to…couldn’t not share with you. Whether they’re interesting to you or not, perhaps one person out there is intrigued enough to learn more.
I found out about ALL of these items via a blog. (Serious.) I hope I can help pass along the great finds other blogs have provided to me, to anyone who happens upon this one.
Spatulas & Buttons 
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