New Year Faves!

Happy New Year, friends!  

I’ve been hibernating over the holidays. I always host several large parties between the middle and end of December, have family staying in town, and I really try to spend some quality time with my kids where I give them my full and undivided attention. They often get my divided attention from my desk when I am working at home after office hours, but that is definitely not quality time - for them or for me!

Everyone is buckling down and examining their goals for the year and trying to get healthy. I have an AWESOME recipe for a white chicken chili that is SUPER healthy and SUPER easy to make. I am all about ease and I love a meal that makes me feel good about what I’m putting in my body. I have a busy morning so I’ll post it over the weekend.

In addition, I also have some fabulous new faves for you today! Over the holidays I got the chance to test out a few things that I have been wanting to try. 

​FANTASTIC nail polish!

Ohmygoodness! I got a manicure sometime after Thanksgiving when I was having a gel manicure taken off and my manicurist used this brand polish - which she called semi-gel. IT IS AMAZING. I have written about my nail troubles before. My hands are small, my nail beds look like that of a child, and my nails are so flimsy that everything chips and peels for me. A life long struggle! ​

CND Vinylux. This stuff lasts for a week for me. For normal people this probably lasts way longer. The best part is that it is only two steps. 1) the color coat (of which I usually do two coats); and 2) the top coat. I guess the top coat bonds to the nail color which bonds to your nail and that is what makes it stay. I am totally hooked. ​

This color is my current fave because it reminds me of champagne and it is not very noticeable when it does start to finally show signs of wear. They have a bunch of colors which I usually pick up at Ulta or on Amazon. ​You can find the top coat here and there are a bunch of awesome shades online and in stores.

These wine glasses. 

I am obsessed with the style. Obsessed.  

I love the angle and I love the way it looks. I love it with white wine and I love it with red. They are fabulous. These are from Crate and Barrell and I cannot stop loving this sexy angle. 

Red, white, it doesn’t matter. Perfection. 

And now, for a question more serious in nature. 

How did anyone survive the Middle Ages without dry shampoo? 

Right? No showers for these folks they bathed like once a month. Think of how gross everyone had to smell all of the time and how vile and filthy their hair must have been. Even the 1800’s had to be rough. Every time I watch a period piece I cannot help thinking about the lack of hygiene.

Thankfully I live and blog in different times.

I am a recent convert to the dry shampoo loving community. Although I shower daily sometimes for expediency I skip washing my hair now that I have discovered dry shampoo. I love it for second day hair and I also love it for a fresh style that I don’t want stuck to my skin or looking greasy by 5:00 pm.  I have documented my woes of having oily skin. The struggle is real when you shower in the morning and look as if you combed your hair with a pork chop at 5:00 pm. 

So yes, I love my dry shampoo and I use it daily in the necessary spots. 

I have used a few brands and have loved them for different reasons. I was gifted a new bottle of Kevin Murphy Doo Over for my birthday (because only a true friend gets you the caviar of dry shampoo and loves you unconditionally for the Guy Fieri grease fest that is your temple) and I have entered a new realm of dry shampoo. 

This is the stuff that dry shampoo dreams are made of. In heaven with fluffy non-aerosol clouds made of dry shampoo.  

I found it on Amazon here, but I think you may be able to get it in salons. I also found it online at Wall-Mart but it is not actually shipped through Wal-Mart. My friend warned me that it is on the pricier side but it’s too late for me. I am hooked.

GLOW

My sister told me to watch this show. I have to admit, I was a skeptic. She said it was about lady wrestlers - not exactly my thing. But it’s an 80’s show, and I love 80’s shows. Plus, my sister is the one who got me watching Mrs. Maisel and I LOVE that show SO MUCH!  

I took her advice and I binge-watched both seasons over break and I LOVED it! There is a great story line and it’s funny. I even got Terry hooked on it! I can’t wait for the third season to be released!

Destress

Finally, one of my goals for this year and, honestly, for the rest of my life is to let go of stress at the end of the day. 

I have been gifted at least 10 bottles of essential oils or oils or smelly oils or whatever we are calling these things now, over the past couple of years. Apparently this is a thing that is not going away. So I finally decided to put said oils to use in a way that fits my lifestyle. 

I mean, I am not replacing traditional medicine with essential oils. No thanks. I am only alive because of the 5-6 times traditional medicine saved my life so I am not throwing out my epi-pen for this stuff. But I am 100% game for good smelling stuff. Maybe even 150%. 

So I got myself a diffuser on Amazon see below.  

It quietly disperses the heavenly smells of lavender or whatever oil smell I decide on for the night while alternating between calming lights. The noise is really light and the lights I can turn off (I made sure of because I like to sleep in the pitch dark) but I actually kind of like the alternating color glow that emanates from it. It reminds me of those “cool mist” sprays the pediatrician would always recommend for our kids when they were babies and too young for cold medicine or Benadryl, but a lot less aggressive, and with a nice smell.  

Curling up with a good book, the gentle mist noise, and relaxing smell has made the first week back to work bearable. After all, it is the little things that get us by.

Happy New Year, friends! TGIF.

Here’s the fun song my kids are asking “Hey Google” to play non-stop: Water Me by Lizzo!