favorite things Friday Archives - Page 10 of 23

COVID is Not a Favorite

Happy New Year Memes 2022 - Celebrating The End Of 2021

I’m not going to lie. This COVID illness has hit me harder than I ever expected it to affect me. I am 51. I am not obese. I do not have any underlying health concerns, and I have had a double dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I’m ashamed to admit that I did not get the booster shot. I have a bad cough, a bad headache, the sweats, aches and pains and overall fatigue. This first-hand experience has given me a newfound respect for the coronavirus. Be safe and careful, friends. This is not fun stuff. It’s going to be a very quiet New Year’s Eve for me. I’ll be popping open a bottle of the Nyquil. Party time. Ha!

Fridays are all about my favorites. I typically list three favorite products, websites, TV shows, books, movies, etc. and I strongly encourage you to share your favorites with me. Many of us now have Christmas money and gift cards to play with. What should we spend these on? Here are my favorites for today:

Burning Bowl Ceremony – If you are a going to end up with a quiet, at-home New Year’s Eve, like I am this year, perform a Burning Bowl Ceremony. I LOVE this tradition. My family and I have done this many years, even during the years when I have not been sick. A good explanation of this intuitive, purposeful ceremony can be found here (but feel free to add your own “rules” and versions and touches, to make it an intimate experience for you):

Start the New Year Fresh with a Burning Bowl Ceremony!

Jane Davenport Art Supplies – This website is deliciously beautiful. If you love art supplies, this is a one-stop shop. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be “artsy”, you will love perusing Jane’s beautiful website, full of color and whimsy and beauty. Go here and enjoy, and make a purchase from Jane’s self-proclaimed hoard of supplies: https://janedavenport.com/art-supplies/

Owen Barry products – Although I live in the southern United States, and I have for most of my adult life, a part of my heart will always belong to my northern roots. I miss wearing winter clothes regularly. I have shared this Owen Barry website before on the blog. Owen Barry is a manufacturer of luxurious, well-made, leather products from Britain, but they have expanded their offerings and their website is better than ever. For cold days, you must own something from Owen Barry. You will have purchased a top quality “forever item.” Here is their website: https://www.owenbarry.com/us

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

See you all in the new year, my friends! May 2022 be just the delightful, hopeful respite which we are all in need of, in these otherwise strange and stressful times!!

Is This Really Friday???

credit: @MrEd315, Twitter

Today I am not feeling my usual Friday vibes. I have already spent most of my morning being a crazed “Karen” (justifiably so) to Verizon’s customer “service”. So, while I typically list a few of my favorite things, or beauty products, or food items on Favorite Things Friday, I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling it today. It’s going to take a brisk morning walk in beautiful nature to get me back to my usual Friday mojo. So, instead, here are a few of my favorite snarky posts that I’ve seen this morning online:

@MastersRex, Twitter

@woofknight, Twitter

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday, It’s Your Birthday!

Birthday on a Friday - Win Baby | Meme Generator

*****Happy 21st birthday to my baby boy! If there was ever a year that highlighted just how precious you (and your siblings and your father) are to me, this is the one. I’m in total awe of you. You are amazing. Let’s rock this birthday!

Happy Friday to everybody!! Happy “Favorite Things Friday!!” On most Fridays, I try to keep up with the fluff n’ stuff in life. On Fridays, I list three favorite products, or TV shows, or songs, or books, etc. that wow me. On Fridays, I’m a material girl living in a material world. If you are so inclined, please share your favorites in my Comments section. This time of year, we could all use some gift ideas. Here are my favorites for today:

A New Day Fuzzy Pearl Slippers – I’m currently rocking these babies on my feet as I write this blog post, and they. are. wonderful!! You can get these fun, fabulous slippers (if they aren’t already sold out) at Tarjhay (Target). I bought mine in beautiful powder blue, but they come in other lovely colors, as well. These slippers are incredibly comfortable and hilariously cute. They are made of faux fuzzy sheep’s wool, adorned with rows of faux pearls. These are the type of slippers that I may even buy two pairs of, because I know that I will be so sad when this pair wears out. Treat your tootsies! Your feet deserve this holiday gift, after a year of reliably getting you all around, to all of your places.

Lay-N-Go Magic Cosmetic Pouch – I haven’t even gotten mine in the mail yet and I already know that I am going to love it. In my experience, cosmetic bags are either too small (I need a lot of products to make this face come alive) or they are too large and clunky. This pouch is a cloth bag, that when opened, expands to be a cloth tray, so that all of your products are laying out, easy to find on a tray. Then, when you are done making up your face, you just pull the drawstrings and the tray turns back into a pouch, holding all of your magic elixirs. Brilliant! You can order one from Target, Amazon or Claire’s.

The Closet Safe Hanger – I recently bought this stealth contraption at a craft fair (and you can find cute ones on Etsy, or more industrial ones from Amazon). It was the last one left, because they were selling so quickly. This is a coat hanger that doubles as a place to keep things like your jewelry or your cash or your passports, well hidden from any would-be thieves. It has a zipper pouch to hold these items in it, but you would never know this, once a coat is hung on to the hanger. It is a good thing to bring along on a trip, to hang your coat on, at a hotel. Shifty and Nifty!!!

Enjoy your Friday, friends!!! See you tomorrow!!!

39 Funny Friday Quotes To Activate Your Weekend Mode

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Fried Egg Friday

Happy Friday!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!!! Typically, on Fridays (when I am in a good, happy mood) I share three favorites of mine: movies, songs, websites, products, books, pet stuff, etc. Today I am in a good mood. I choose to be in a good mood. I choose to pick the thoughts that support my good mood. From experience, I can tell you that my mood is usually a choice. Today, I choose to feel good. Now in reality, my regular readers know that I am a big proponent of feeling your feelings. I am a big proponent of being real and authentic. I also understand that sometimes, our dark emotions are caused by messed up chemicals in our bodies, which is out of our control, and may need some serious intervention. And of course, we all know that repressed feelings are not good for our bodies or for our psyches. Still, in my experience, in many cases, you can choose to move past your darkness. I’ve earned the right to say this. We’ve been going through hell with my youngest son’s epilepsy the last few months and I have definitely let myself feel the pain, but I have also crawled back to the light. It feels better in the light. Today, I choose to bask in the light.

In a text chat earlier this morning, a friend reminded us of another matter-of-fact, practical friend’s wise words of advice, “It’s only a big deal, if you make it a big deal.” Be choosy about what you make to be the big deals in your life, friends. Not everything has to be a big wave. Help yourself to give yourself some smooth sailing.

My favorites today, are all in video form. I was introduced to two new songs this week, which really moved me. They went into my playlist. See if they speak to your ears. My final favorite for this week, is a link to a video series by a young man who is a travel vlogger, named Drew Binksy. Drew has visited all 197 countries in the world, in the span of ten years and he has made some amazing videos about his adventures. In his latest video, he talks about his eight biggest “takeaways” from this experience. Here are my favorite two insights of his:

+ “The world is safer than you think and 99.9% of people are good people.”

+ “Food is the ultimate connector because everyone needs to eat.”

Choose to have a great day today friends. It’s a precious day in your life. Feel the feels, but then let them go. Here are the links to my favorites for today:

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Black Pepper Friday

20 Funny Black Friday Memes That Will Make You LOL

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! Happy Black Friday!! Honestly, I have never shopped “in person” on a Black Friday. Usually on Black Friday, I think of things and products that I have been meaning to buy, or that I buy regularly, and then I check on-line to see if there are any steals to be had on these items. I haven’t come across anything amazing so far, but at the age of 50, I already have too much stuff. The incentive to shop a lot (even on-line) on a Black Friday just isn’t there for me anymore. In fact, my favorite thing in the world, is to spend time with my family and my eldest son is flying back to his home tomorrow, so I’m going to keep this post short. No favorites today, I’m sorry! I’m going to savor being with my favorite people today. I hope that are able to do the same. See you tomorrow.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

The Subtle Art of Friday

Happy Friday, readers! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! What a great Friday we have here, with anticipating Thanksgiving right around the corner. Fortunately, our two older sons will be coming home, so all six of us will be enjoying our holiday together. This makes me feel extremely grateful. In other good news, Ralphie, our Labrador-who-is-quite-unhappily-and-totally-against-his-will-on-a-diet lost 11 pounds in two months. (much better than I did) His diet is clearly working! Ralphie still has about 10 pounds to go, and he still tries sneaking the other fur babies’ food every chance that he gets, but he is looking healthier and trimmer every single day. We are so proud of our Ralphie! While not trimming much off of any of my own body fat, I did trim 17,000 emails out of my inbox yesterday (and that is honestly, an understatement). I never bothered to delete emails for quite some time and then I started getting warnings from Google that I was running out of storage. I hemmed and I hawed but I finally just hit the delete button and I trashed 17,000 emails. Honestly, once I got past my nervousness, it felt incredible liberating and freeing. If only cleaning out my closets and drawers could be this easy!

Yes, I notice that I am quite chatty today. What can I say? It’s my favorite day of the week. Here is what you really came for, my three favorites for this Friday. Please check out more favorites in my previous Friday posts and please share some of your own favorites in my Comments section:

LitezAll COB LED magnifier – I’ve reached the age where magnifiers are easily in my top ten favorite things category, all of the time, and this is the best magnifying glass which I have ever owned. Why is this one so great, you ask? Because it is huge, lightweight, and because it has three bright LED lights that shine on whatever you are trying to see. And what’s even better, it’s cheap. I got mine at Ace Hardware but you can order one from Walmart or Amazon, as well.

n:p beautiful volumizing dry shampoo – Even when my hair is perfectly clean, I use this stuff. I love how full it makes my (honestly, kind of thin and fine) hair seem to be. In the words of my mentee (5th grader), “I want fluffy hair, like yours.” (What can I say? I grew up in the eighties.) Seriously, when you apply this dry shampoo, it sounds like you are taking a blow torch to your head, but the results are terrific (if you like fluffy hair, like mine). And even better, it doesn’t flake, like a lot of dry shampoos have the tendency to do.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson – This book is really good, but it is not for the person who blanches at the f-word. The f-bomb is used in this book, as often as the word “the” is used in my blog. It’s a fun, light read with the key message “to lighten the F%ck up!”. The book was honestly recommended to me by my 17-year-old daughter, who had the book recommended to her, by one of her best friends, who was given the book to read, from her own father. (We love this friend and her family. I think that my daughter’s friend’s father knows that our girls are a tad high-strung and a little over-achieving at times, to the point that it crosses over to slightly unhealthy. At first when my daughter told me about this, I was like, WTF?!?, but after starting to read the book, I was like, “F@ck yeah!”) Here is an excerpt:

“Then, as we grow older and enter middle age, something else begins to change. Our energy level drops. Our identity solidifies. We know who we are and we accept ourselves, including some of the parts we aren’t thrilled about. And in a strange way this is liberating. We no longer need to give a f@ck about everything.”

Happy Friday Friends!! Only give a f@ck about the stuff that matters! Thanksgiving is great time to ponder what really matters to you. See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday Dance!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Good Morning Happy Friday Fun Stuff Pinterest #nLQ3GY - Clipart Suggest

Happy Friday! Happy Best Day of the Week! Happy Favorite Things Friday! On Fridays, I try to “keep it in on the surface.” On Fridays, I try to list three favorite things, or websites, or books, or movies, etc. that have made my life’s experience just a little more enticing. Please add your favorites to my Comments. Especially around the holidays, we are all in need of other people’s favorites to become favorites of our own and favorites to gift to our favorite people. Sharing is caring! Here are my favorites for this week:

Blue Tree boutique – Would you like to go window shopping at a fancy, unique boutique in NYC, right from wherever you are sitting? This is not a meditation experience. Go to Blue Tree’s website and peruse all sorts of interesting and unusual items – the types of things typically only found in big city emporiums. Blue Tree is owned by the movie star, Phoebe Cates (who is also the long-time wife of actor, Kevin Kline). This is how Phoebe describes her shop: “to have it be like a general store but according to me.” 🙂 A surprise around every turn . . . “ I absolutely love shops like these. After looking at the cute and curious items for sale, watch the funny video Phoebe and Kevin made together, in the shop (in the “For Fun” link) The website can be found here: https://bluetreeny.bigcartel.com/

TL;DR – I love this acronym. It means “Too Long, Didn’t Read”. Sometimes we all get a little long-winded and mired in the details, correct? If you write a really long email or another correspondence to people who are pushed for time, add a TL;DR. It means “here’s the bottom line” or “here’s the gist of the story”. It gives people a general idea of what you are saying or requesting, and if they need more details, they can get to the meat of the story, in the paragraphs above. Sometimes it feels good to get out on paper everything that we need to say, for the benefit of ourselves in order to better collect our own thoughts and feelings, but in reality, most everyone else just needs “the point” of the story. TL;DR – an explanation about an acronym that indicates a summary.

ComfortingKeepsakes1 – I had the serious misfortune of having to find a sympathy gift appropriate for two little girls who had suddenly lost their mother (my cousin’s daughters, ages six and nine). ComfortingKeepsakes1, on Etsy, sells a lovely personalized memory box package, so that children have somewhere to put things that remind them of their loved one whom they have lost. It’s like a treasure box for love. The package also includes a book about memory boxes, and stuffed animals, and a special little uplifting card from a special little girl, who also lost her father when she was very young (the owner of the shop’s daughter). If this isn’t an example of making something lovely out of one of the worst pains imaginable, I don’t know what would be. The owner of the shop is incredibly communicative, accommodating, kind, and empathetic.

Bad Situation Quotes: top 66 famous quotes about Bad Situation

TL;DR – “a general blog, but according to ME. A surprise at every turn . . . ” The gist – Love is everywhere, if you look for it.

Have a great weekend!!! Thank you for supporting me and my blog!! Love you!!

Favorite Things Friday

➕➕Miriam➕➕ on Instagram: “Endlich Wochenende... #schöneswochenende #freitag #friday #cozy” | Its friday quotes, Weekend quotes, Happy friday quotes

Many times my friends and family who read my blog, tell me that they really like my “Friday Favorites” posts the best. This tells me that people like to stay on the light side of things. It is fun to be in the frivolity of life. Life can be just too damn serious, at times. I like the light side, too. It’s just that lately, I have been in a simplify mode. I haven’t been wrapped up in my usual, lustful consumerism. The older I get, the more I know myself, thus, my favorites stay pretty steady. I know what fits, what tastes good, who my favorite singers and authors are, and I stick with them. It’s hard to find new favorites all of the time. So on that note, I am going to write about an article I read this morning that mentions our collective, favorite, “un-cancellable” celebrities. These are celebrities that have very few, if any, detractors. These celebrities are considered to be greatly loved by the masses. These celebrities are among our favorites of all celebrities. Here are some of the celebrities on the list:

Betty White, Dolly Parton, Mister Rogers, Julie Andrews, Alex Trebek, Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, LeVar Burton, Jim Henson, Jack Black, Dev Patel, Chadwick Boseman, Hugh Jackman

I look at this list of celebrities, and I think to myself, “It’s true, I’ve never met any of these people, but I do feel a fondness for all of them.” I have never heard anything hateful about any of them. And I ask myself, “Why are these particular people so well-liked?” Universally, on this list, I see people who appear (or who appeared to be, when they were alive) to be kind, true to themselves, in love with what they do in life, generous, full of purpose, self-deprecating, warm, gracious and grateful.

Considering some of the celebrities who are our collective favorites in life, I imagine we could all add a few more to the list, with smiles and appreciation. Sometimes the noisier, more outrageous, opinionated, brash, attention hound, “trainwrecked” celebrities get more of our attention, but our true favorites in life are not the people whom we “love to hate”, but more so, the people who personify love. They unassumingly love their lives, love their crafts, and they are grateful to have the support of the Universe to carry out their purposes. There is a wholesome goodness about these people that seems to emanate from their true cores – well beyond their images. What makes anyone or anything “a favorite”? Who are your favorite people and why? Remember that the traits that you really like about other people, are traits that you secretly like about yourself, too. A favorite person, place, or thing, is something that makes us feel deeply good, in the truest, non-fleeting sense of the word. A favorite anything, is consistently good, and true, and authentically and unapologetically himself, herself or itself. We love our favorites because they vividly bring out our favorite parts and attributes and inclinations, of our very own selves.

Favorite People, Favorite Places, Favorite Memories of the past... | Picture Quotes

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday Love

Love Friday Pictures, Photos, and Images for Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter

Good morning! Today is my favorite day of the week, not just because it is Friday, but because it is also our 27th wedding anniversary. I share a passionate, loyal, understanding, caring, dedicated love with my husband, the love of my life. I am incredibly grateful for the love and the life which we share. We have gone through many ups and downs, and all arounds, in our shared life experiences, but through it all, we have always been, and we will always be each other’s yin and yang. We fit together really well. I love you forever, J. Happy Anniversary!

Typically on Fridays, I list three favorite things or songs or websites or books, etc. and I strongly encourage you to list your favorites in my Comments section. Please check out previous Friday listings for more favorites. (some “favorites” might be good Christmas gift ideas). That being said, during these last two months, our youngest son’s epilepsy has been kicking our butts. (Don’t worry, we’re still in the fighting ring. We’re just a little beat up and bloodied right now. We will prevail!) So, today, I’m quite literally “listless.” That being said, one of my dearest friends, texted this excellent, life-saving tip to our friend group this week and I wanted to make sure that you, my beloved readers, have it, for your safety file. Here is my favorite tip of the week:

Have a wonderful and fun and thrilling (and safe) Halloween weekend, friends! Thank you for being here for me and having my back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday Nightbirde

Happy Friday Everyone friday happy friday tgif friday quotes friday quote funny friday quotes quotes about f… | Its friday quotes, Funny quotes, Friday quotes funny

Hi friends! Welcome to Favorite Things Friday. On Fridays, I typically keep things “light” and I list three favorite things or songs or TV shows or books, etc. that have added sparkle and excitement to my world. Please check out previous Friday postings for loads of my favorite things. Today, however, I only have one favorite to share. Lately, while trying to get my son’s epileptic seizures under control, and yet also trying to keep things as “normal” and as “sane” as they can be at this time for myself and for my family, my mind hasn’t been focused on the fluff and stuff of life. We are keeping a simple, quiet, uncluttered routine here in my realm, lately. We are taking things ODAT here (One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus). ODAT is what always works for me best in any crisis period.

So without further adieu, my favorite for today, comes from a post on Nightbirde’s Instagram. I have listed Nightbirde on a previous Friday Favorites blog post. Nightbirde is the insanely gifted and inspirational singer who is currently struggling to survive her third bout with cancer. While Nightbirde is a wonderful and talented singer and songwriter, I believe that her prose writing skills are devastatingly good. This post of hers is one of my most favorite pieces of writing that I have read in a long time. Enjoy:

A journalism professor in a long gray sweater taught me the difference between a story worth writing and a public relations stunt. A real story still has meaning even if no one ever hears it; a PR stunt only matters if people are watching.

And that became a new item on the list of promises to myself: That I would never let my life become a public relations stunt. My life would have meaning, even if no one ever knew it. I wanted to write a story I was proud of, even if nobody read it.

I used to dream that I’d grow up and dazzle the world. But time and disappointment chipped away at me until only the real stuff was left, and it wasn’t very dazzling. I just had some sad stories and a sack of regrets, and a new reverence for the pieces of me that survived.

All of these shipwrecks have stranded me in desolate places where I stared at my hands and realized that I couldn’t offer the world what I had hoped to. Dreams shatter, and eyelashes fall out, and lungs aren’t big enough to carry the song sometimes.

But I still wake up in the morning and draw my hopes on the sidewalk. And every time so far, they’ve been trampled over, or hosed off, or the rain rolled all of it over the curb.

But I pick more flowers, write more stories, dream more dreams. After all that’s been destroyed, maybe it’s foolish to still be speaking this way, but at least I’m a fool with a soul alive. I swing open the doors on my chest and I offer to the world the only thing that I can: myself. I get it now.

We are not all we wish we were, but we are here, and we are trying, and we are awake. We are not public relations stunts. We are stories worth hearing, even with no crowd in the stands for us. We are the heroes. We are the poem, we are the song, we are the gift.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.