So sorry for leaving y’all hanging for a couple of days. I usually write my blog posts over the weekend, but I wasn’t in the mood to write this past weekend and knew if I forced myself to do that, then I wouldn’t be very pleased with the final result and instead told myself it was ok to step back for a minute and work on this post once I felt like it. Taking a breather like this is something I’d love to be better about when it comes to blogging since it is, after all, a hobby and not my full-time job, but I often put a lot of pressure on myself to be incredibly consistent. Hopefully, a few days off just made y’all that much more excited to see something new from me!
I don’t know why I like to analyze whether or not I felt like a month went by fast or slow as soon as it ends, but here I am doing that again. I really can’t decide with January since, in some ways, it feels like Christmas and New Year’s Eve just happened, but it also feels so distant. I guess it doesn’t really matter since now February is here. I mentioned this in my post from Saturday, but every February, I find myself in a bit of a funk at some point during the month. In a lot of ways, I think it’s because I’m ready for winter to be over (I truly don’t know how those of you in super cold places do it), but this year I am going to do my best to embrace it and hopefully avoid feeling funky.
As a strategy to avoid potential bad moods, I am ready to share some of my favorite items from January with y’all. Since I never got around to sharing a December installment of this, many of these items would have fit the bill for then but have now been moved over to be shared this month! There are a few Christmas and birthday presents mixed in, and I even thought to share what I read this month at the bottom of the post in case anyone was interested.
With most people from our office being remote day-to-day, it seems as though our work attire has become so much more casual. The other day our HR head walked through the breakroom in leggings, so you could say that as long as we are getting our jobs done and wearing our masks, we get to be pretty flexible with our attire. I’ve stuck to mainly wearing jeans and sweaters but realized that I didn’t have a particularly neutral pair of sneakers (my gold and white New Balance ones are neutral, but sometimes I want something less athletic looking), which led me to purchase a pair of Tretorn sneakers during Tuckernuck’s Black Friday sale. I’ve worn them a ton since buying them and think that the camel detail has made them particularly nice for winter. Because they are faux leather, it did take a few wears for me to break them in, but now they are perfectly comfortable. Nell just informed me that Nordstrom Rack has some that are half off that I’ve linked below, but I’m particularly drawn to this pair and this pair.
Like many people, my skin becomes much drier in the winter, and this year I really wanted to find something to help combat the problem. My eyelids are especially problematic as they can become really red and itchy, so back in November, I was on the hunt for a product that would be gentle enough to use all over my face and thick enough to feel like it was making a difference. I had seen someone post on Instagram about a dupe for La Mer, and it was this Nivea Crème. I was so excited when it came in the mail and shocked to see how big the container was for it costing less than $10 (currently on sale for about half-off). After using it for a few months now, I can confirm that it was exactly what I was looking for! The consistency is thick but easy enough to rub in, it hasn’t broken me out, and it is gentle enough to use on my eyelids. It’s marketed as an all-purpose cream, so even if you have a favorite face cream, this may be worth looking into as a body lotion if you’re in the market for that!
Every season there seems to be a new “it” bracelet, but this past year there was one style that seemed to stay in style. Gold beaded bracelet sets seem to be everywhere nowadays, and I am here for the trend, given how classic it looks. My friend Eleanor started her online storefront, Shop Anne Murphy, and gifted me her Classic Luxe Stack, which I’ve been wearing daily. The quality of the materials she uses is excellent, and I love the various size beads used on each bracelet. One of her stacks would make a really great gift, or you could even go a more custom route with her wit and wisdom bracelets!
For me, 2020 seemed to be the year of board and card games, given how much time was spent at home, and I’m hoping to keep up the game playing into 2021 too. For Christmas, I asked for a backgammon board since it’s one of the few games my family will play with me, and I found one that was especially cute. In the time between Christmas and going back to work after the New Year, I played so many rounds of it with Hunter, and we even played it the other night while waiting for dinner to finish cooking. It’s easy to step away from and come back to or play while having a conversation or watching TV, and I don’t see myself getting sick of it anytime soon. The board I have doubles as a checkers board, but I much prefer to stick to backgammon.
I received this vacuum for Christmas and was shocked when I opened it since I didn’t expect to get it. It has been everything I had hoped for and did a much better job of cleaning my room than what my roommate and I had been using previously. The only thing I don’t love about it is the max suction setting because of how quickly it drains the battery, but the high suction setting does a good enough job on its own that I don’t really see a need to ever switch to max suction. It’s easy to empty, lightweight, and not having to deal with a cord is a game-changer when it comes to how quickly I can get the job done.
This is another Christmas present I really loved this past month. Despite having only received one box so far (I think my next one will show up tomorrow or the beginning of next week), I loved having some unique coffees to try out! It came with fifteen pods, and I think this month I need to be better about pacing myself and only using one each day so that it lasts longer into the month. I’m interested to see which flavors are included since some of the ones last month wouldn’t necessarily be ones I would have gravitated to in stores but loved sipping on!
This month I was much better about reading, and I hope to keep that up as 2021 continues. I’ve found myself opting to listen to audiobooks on walks and while getting ready in the morning, which helped me to have read more this month.
What I Read This Month:
What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles
Everything Beautiful In Its Time by Jenna Bush Hager
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin
I’d love to know what items you’ve been loving this past month so that I can potentially try them out as well!
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