Day 17 and 18 and a bonus 19 of My Favorite Things

Playing catch up here!  It's been crazy these last days leading up to Christmas.  Kids are now out of school, finishing up on my last minute orders and getting ready to go to Renegade in San Francisco for a couple of days. 

My Day 17 Favorite Thing is Divine Twine! 

I use this stuff for everything--gift wrap, tags, mini banners, crafting, jewelry packaging.  All the colors just make me happy!

 

My Day 18 Favorite Thing is Washi Tape!

You might be asking, what the heck is washi tape?  Well I'll tell ya!  It's Japanese masking tape and comes in yummy colors and patterns.  I love, love, love it!  I've got quite the collection going.  Like the Divine Twine, I use this stuff for everything.  It's perfect for various jewelry packaging needs becasuse it peels off easily and doesn't leave sticky residue. 

My Day 19 Favorite Things is all the kawaii Japanese imports! 

In Japan, kawaii basically means "cute" or "adorable".  Hello Kitty would fall into this category.  I do like Hello Kitty but I LOVE all the other Japanese cuteness stuff out there!  I have a mini collection of notepads, pencils, stickers, mini bags, etc of Japanese imported items that I just love to look at.  It's a bit of a reversion to my 8 year old self, but so what!?  I've bought some things online but I recently found out a friend locally has begun selling all things Japanese and it makes me so happy! 

My daughter started a little business over the summer called Kawaii Belle and many of the cute stuff she created definitely fits this bill...so cute!

 

 

 

Day 16 of My Favorite Things

I told myself that I was going to keep my "25 Days of Favorite Things" list to material items only...reason being I could fill the 25 days easily by listing my family members, friends and other important people in my life.  As shallow as it may be I wanted to only talk about "things."  Well I broke that rule for Rob Thomas (Favorite thing number 12-though a friend reminded me that I've spent enough on him that he's basically a material possession!)  and I'm going to break the rule again...my favorite thing today is my hair stylist-- Goddess Amy P! 

Each time I (and definitely my daughter) have gone to her, it's been magic.  Today I had her lop off a good 12 inches of my hair today and while it could have been 'traumatic', I couldn't be more thrilled!  In fact...I actually want to go shorter!  She is AWESOME with hair cuts but downright genius with color.  Check out that color--the red pops are incredible! Not to mention she is such a fun person--her laugh is infectious! 

Please go check out her page on Facebook....Goddess Amy P.'s Page of Beauty and Inspiration

Let her know I sent ya! 

Here's a couple of peeks at my hair this morning....

 

Day 15 of My Favorite Things

10 days to go, woo hoo!  My day 15 favorite thing is my Ariat Fatbaby boots!  I am not a cowgirl kinda girl but these boots are seriously my most comfortable pair of shoes/boots/slippers.  I can go all day without taking them off or even thinking about taking them.  Rare for me! 

Day 14 of My Favorite Things

  I didn't know this was my favorite until last night but OH MY GOSH it's a major new favorite!  A pure extravagant indulgence but OMG.... Vintner's Cellar of Redding's Cocoa De Dolce.  Last night I attended a wine tasting event which is funny because I'm not a wine drinker-at all.  It was a wonderful evening and while I didn't care for pretty much all the wine we tasted, learning about the different wines and tasting them with various food pairings was actually quite fascinating.  And then we hit our final wine--a chocolate port.  All I can say is "WOW" and "mmmmmmmm....."  Given that I have never bought a bottle of wine before and the first bottle I buy is $40, I think it's best I don't become a wine drinker.  But our Christmas dinner will have an excellent finish.  :-)

Day 12 of My Favorite Things

Many know about this obsession but many do not.  Time to fill them in...Day 12 of My Favorite Things is Rob Thomas.  See that photo at left?  I took that.  With my camera.  See how he is singing directly to me?  Yep, it's true.  He loves me. 

And in the spirit of Christmas I leave you with this....

Day 11 of My Favorite Things

My absolute favorite movie is Almost Famous! 

I think I may have unfulfilled dreams of being a band groupie in the 1970's....sigh....

Day 10 of My Favorite Things

My Day 10 'Favorite Thing" is the color Turquoise!  What's funny is turquoise also happens to be the "official" color of the year as determined by Pantone, the world-renowned authority on color.  Did you know there was such a thing?  :-)

Turquoise only has about 20 more days to be the reigning color before it hands it's title over to Honeysuckle.  But it will always be tops in my heart. 

For a little eye-candy of this beautiful color, check out this awesome blog.... House of Turquoise.  I visit often for bursts of inspiration. 

Day 9 of My Favorite Things

 

Give me a Grande Chevy's Strawberry Margarita blended and I am in heaven....

Day 8 of My Favorite Things

Rhonda Allison Pumpkin Cleanser!  My esthetician, Stephanie Stika of Faccia Bella recently turned me on to this cleanser and I simply love it.  A tiny bit goes a long way and I feel like it cleanses my face way better than anything else I've tried.  Plus it smells heavenly!

Day 7 of My Favorite Things

  My Kitchenaid mixer!  I am not a good cook and lately do it very rarely but I do like to bake and this baby is the best.  My Mom bought it for me for Christmas about 3 years ago and I love it! 

Tonight I had a little Christmas dinner with my girlfriends and I whipped up this coconut-chocolate cake with my handy dandy mixer!  I found the recipe for the cake here....Family Circle.Com  It was yummy if I do say so myself!

 

Day 6 of My Favorite Things

The TV show Dexter on Showtime!  We don't get Showtime but as soon as the season is available on DVD we sit and watch them all. 

And now....all of you will receive your own copies of Season 1-4 of Dexter on DVD!  Yeah not really, but I wish  I could do that.  ;-) 

Day 2 of My Favorite Things

I have an incurable lip gloss addiction. Have to have lip gloss with me at all times.  I love to buy it but I'm also a picky lip gloss user.  I go through phases on my favorite, but for the past year my very favorite has been Stila Lip Glaze. 

I love the applicator and they're just pretty.  I don't have a favorite color but I'm onto my second box set and have loved them all!

25 Days of Christmas--Well I'm gonna try!

Let me preface this by saying over the years I have been OBSESSED with Oprah's Favorite Things shows.  I looked forward to it every year and especially loved it in the early years when things were ACTUALLY affordable for me to purchase!  I remember one of the first years she did a wine garlic mustard from a company called Singing Pig and it is still one of my favorites.  The company was based out of the Sacramento area (looks like they've moved) and they would come up to Redding to various craft shows and I would stock up on their products (they are ALL good).   Anyhow, I digress, the last few years I haven't enjoyed it as much--in fact a sort of jealous rage and irritation at the insane women in the audience builds inside me, but yet I still can't turn away! 

Another side track-my obsession with the Favorite Things show even morphed into an incredible event that one of my close friends, Stephanie and I put together for 5 years straight.  We've been on hiatus for a couple of years, BUT we might have a new event debut in 2011 so stay tuned.  The event that we put together was called the Annual Basket Party and began in 2004.  It took place in a local restaurant with about 18 friends where we exchanged baskets that were filled with our 'favorite things.'  5 years later the party had morphed into a huge event held at a local country club with hundreds of people in attendance over the years and thousands of money raised for the Oprah Angel Network and causes close to our heart!  We are both very proud of what we accomplished. 

So, anyhow, back to my point with this whole post!  I'm going to attempt to post daily an item that is one of MY "Favorite Things".  I was going to just do a top 10 later in the month but I was inspired after reading Heather Armstrong's Blog this morning and she is doing a post for 25 days straight.  Be sure to go and check out her blog and see the beautiful family portraits she has posted in her first entry!  :-) Maybe one day I'll be in the position to give away some of my favorite things just like Oprah does! 

Now that my long winded intro to this endeavor is done....look for my favorite thing #1 to posted later today!  Thank you and feel free to leave me a comment telling me what your favorite things are!