Tag: favorite things Friday

Black Friday

For as much as I like to shop, I never go out shopping on Black Friday. I hate crowds. However, this is not to say that I won’t veer into window shopping on the internet today. Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! My favorite things for today are my Merrell hiking boots. We got a pair of Merrell hiking boots for each of our family members, five years ago, before we were embarking on a trip out to California that we knew would entail a lot of hiking. Since then I have clocked hundreds of miles on my same pair of Merrells in all kinds of terrain, in the United States and abroad. They have never let me down (nor let me fall down), and my Merrell hiking boots are in good enough shape to wear, for quite a few more rocky trails, for sure. I look at Merrell hiking boots as an investment, and a good one.

Black Friday is a good day to get yourself a pair. Merrell is even putting their best sellers on sale for 30 percent off. If you have made having more outdoor adventures for yourself, a solid resolution for the new year, you NEED a nice pair of Merrell hiking boots. Show the Universe that you mean business.

www.merrell.com

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with your loved ones!

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

That Friday Look!

Happy Friday!! I’ll get right to my Friday Favorite for today because Ralphie and Trip are modeling them for me. (Josie, our rough collie, has too much mane to don an original Daisy’s Dog Collar) Our boys are looking fancy with their new seashell collars that we recently purchased for them at a local beach fair. These cowrie shell, patent-pending woven collars are unique, attractive, waterproof, guaranteed for life and such a fun conversation starter with other dog lovers and enthusiasts. The owners of Daisy’s Dog Collars are recent empty nesters from New Jersey, who sold everything and now sell their collars at various venues all over the United States. They also give a portion of their profits to animal rescues all over the States, as well. Good product. Good cause. Good people. Good looks. Good dogs!

You can get your favorite canine a Daisy’s dog collar at their website:

https://daisysdogcollars.com/

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

Make Your Bed, Friday

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! Josie, our collie, “helps” me to make our bed every morning. She has this innate sense when I am doing it (there’s no set time – I’m all over the map in the mornings) and she considers it her sacred duty to rush into our room in order to help me to complete this task. It is a big bonding time for us (without her male counterparts). I don’t know what I would ever do without her help (and this has nothing to do with making the bed). Dogs will always be one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES.

My favorite item for this particular Friday is the Bamboo Trading Company beaded club bags. These lovely pieces of art are reasonably priced, they come in an enormous variety of styles and themes, and they are the perfect sized, crossbody bags to carry your phone, keys and wallet for a day of walking around town, without breaking your back. For the attention to detail, and the massive variety available, these bags are reasonably priced and addicting to collect. And you feel good about purchasing these items because this is the Bamboo Trading Company’s mission: “We work with communities around the world to lift families out of poverty. In the process we create on-trend, affordable fashion that is collectible, fun, and inspiring.”

You can buy your own Bamboo Trading Company beaded bag (or 12) at their website, on Amazon, and you can find them at many smaller gift shops around the States.

Club Bag Collection

Have a wonderful weekend, my loyal friends and devoted readers! See you tomorrow!!

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

Tula Friday

Hello!! Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! I am extremely excited because we have a new mattress arriving today. (these are the things that get you really revved up, when you are in your 50s) It’s long overdue, so I am anticipating a particularly wonderful, restful night’s sleep tonight. (Fingers crossed) In other news, I saw two coyotes last night when I went outside to turn off a Halloween decoration, before we went to bed. They were bigger than other coyotes I have seen in the past and they were walking across my neighbor’s yard, who lives across the street (these particular neighbors don’t have any pets, thank goodness). Supposedly, the Navajos believed that seeing a coyote was an omen of good fortune. Works for me!

Today’s favorite on my favorite day of the week, is Tula Blue jewelry. I recently purchased a Tula Blue bracelet at a local store and I liked it so much, I ordered more from their website. https://tulabluerope.com/ The creator of Tula Blue is an active young woman who has always lived in beachy areas. She created this line of jewelry to be versatile, timeless, complimentary with other jewelry styles, and to never have to be taken off when taking showers or when swimming in pools or in the ocean. Tula Blue jewelry is comprised of semi-precious stones knotted on tough, tan-colored mariner’s line. There are so many styles and lengths to choose from, it’s hard to pick just one. If you have the time and you want some inspiration, read the “About” section to see just how far this wonderful jewelry company has come from its very beginnings. Tula Blue also still has an Etsy store if you prefer to buy the jewelry from there. (Interestingly, “Tula” means balance. We are in the middle of two eclipses, so this is a wonderful, clearing time to figure out what is out of balance in your own life. What do you need more of in your life? What do needs to be let go of, in order to create more space for what you need more of, in your life? I, myself, do not need more jewelry, so I guess that I will have let go of some of my older jewelry, so that I can make space for some more jewelry. 😉 And at this moment, I need more coffee, in order to feel more balanced and alive, so good-bye! Enjoy your day! See you tomorrow.)

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

Nutty Friday

Friday is the day for surfacy, lightness on the blog. Fridays are for favorites. On Favorite Things Friday, I share one of my favorite things and I ask you to share your favorites. Before I actually get to sharing one of my favorite physical things, I want to share a great quote by the author Byron Katie:

Don’t be afraid to question your own beliefs. Make sure that these beliefs are truly yours, and that they from that all-knowing, wise, comforting voice from inside of yourself and from the depths of your own heart.

My favorite for today is Skinny Dipped Almonds. They are chocolate covered nuts which are thinly dipped with just a light covering of chocolate. They are just the right mix of sweet and salty. In my mind Skinny Dipped Almonds are amazing-tasting-candy-with-less-guilt. My favorite flavor would be the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter variety. So good!

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

    Pumpkin, It’s Friday

    Hello!! Happy Friday!! On Fridays, I keep it on the surface and I discuss the stuff that I like. Fridays on the blog are all about my favorites. Please add your own favorites to my Comments. We all love the joy of finding new favorite things to help us to enjoy life on an everyday basis! It’s all about the little things, isn’t it?

    Sadly, we don’t have a Trader Joe’s close to us, but we were visiting my daughter at her university last weekend and she and I could not resist a visit to one of our favorite shops. True to the season, Trader Joe’s is not immune to the pumpkin craze. There was pumpkin everything, everywhere you looked. So, my daughter and I loaded up the cart with pumpkin stuff (and even an actual, real pumpkin for her balcony). My favorite out of this lot (and my daughter’s, too) is Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Body Butter. Surprisingly, this body butter does not smell like pumpkin. In fact, it has very little scent. The secret ingredient, however is the pumpkin seed oil, on top of coconut oil and shea butter. These ingredients combined make this cream easily absorbable, long lasting, and particularly emollient. As usual when it comes to Trader Joe’s, this big jar is a bargain at only $4.99!

    Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!!

    Credit: Courtney W. May, Pinterest

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

    Sentimental Friday

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE428ovk0Uk

    Good morning! Happy Friday!! I’ve already been to the vet and back for Ralphie’s annual physical. That’s never fun for neither he nor me. A 99-pound (yes, he has to go on a diet again), nervous, energetic, drooling labrador retriever does not make for the best car partner. If you ever want to make sure that your adult kids are still alive, just text them something about the family pets. You’ll hear from them all immediately. When I texted Ralphie’s exam report, our three sons made fun of his weight gain, and our daughter texted a sentimental picture of Ralphie and my husband in a creek, looking like the cover of a Cabela’s catalog. Speaking of sentimental, you may have already watched my favorite for today. The commercial above is a commercial by Publix, which is our local grocery store chain. I don’t think that I have ever watched any Publix commercials without at least choking up. (the Thanksgiving ones are killers) And I think that the commercial above has to be one of Publix’s best. This commercial is my favorite thing, this Favorite Things Friday on the blog. We don’t have any step-parents in our family or in our extended family, but as a mother of four, I have witnessed many kind and wonderful step-parents of my kids’ friends and I am in awe of them. It is often a thankless position. Watching a good step-parent in action is a real witness of unconditional love, without expecting anything in return. If you are a loving step-parent, bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You make the world a better place.

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

    Friday C.R.A.P.

    credit: THE-KEEP-CALM-O-MATIC

    Here’s a couple of really good perspectives, for going into the weekend:

    “When things are at their worst, you are at your best.” – what the extraterrestrial said about us humans, after visiting Earth, in the movie Starman

    “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

    Happy Friday!! Happy Best Day of the Week!! On Fridays, I keep the deep thoughts for Jack Handey. (If you ever need a deep belly laugh for laughing at a statement that shouldn’t be funny, look up some of Jack Handey’s deep thoughts. They are hilarious and ridiculous and easily a favorite of mine, when I’m in the right snarky mood for them.) Anyway, today’s favorite is a technique I heard about in a podcast. It’s a way to get rid of your negative thoughts and worries and ruminations, devised by people who study neuroscience. It’s called the C.R.A.P. board. C.R.A.P. stands for Conflict/Resistances/Anxieties/Problems. If you write all of the situations down in your own life that would fall under any of these categories, on to a piece of paper, and then do a few relaxing things like yawning, stretching, deep breathing, while looking at your C.R.A.P. board, supposedly this tricks your brain into believing that it can stop ruminating on, and trying to fix all of your C.R.A.P. because your C.R.A.P. is “stored”, and really not such a big deal. The three minute video below by the creator of the C.R.A.P. board, Mark Waldman, goes into more detail with it. I’ve only started mine this week, so I can’t attest to how well it works, but it was a worthwhile experience for me, just to put my own C.R.A.P. into perspective. For instance, lately I have been telling myself and anyone who is willing to listen to me, just how “stuck” certain things have been in my life. Interestingly, though, when I took a relaxed, detached look at “the stuck list” which I had written on to my C.R.A.P. board, I noticed that nothing there on the list was truly stuck. Every situation on the list is progressing, just not as quickly as I deem it should be going. The experts on the podcast I was listening to, kept repeating the idea that our beliefs and our stories that we tell ourselves are just thoughts that we keep thinking repeatedly, until they become embedded as our beliefs and stories about ourselves and life in general. Making a C.R.A.P. board can help you to find and weed out some of the faulty belief systems you may have programmed into yourself with your repeated, unexamined negative thoughts.

    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153317002418658

    Get rid of your C.R.A.P. and have a great weekend, friends!! See you tomorrow!

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

    Somebunny’s Friday

    Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit. Happy Friday!! Happy Labor Day Weekend!! Welcome to the best day of the week!! Fridays on the blog are devoted to my Favorite Things! I’m not too much in my head on Fridays. On Fridays, I’m a lighthearted, material girl. As I was walking past this little antique desk we have in a little alcove in our home this morning, I remembered to change the beautiful, cardstock, glittery desk calendar to “September”, on its easel. I’m an old fashioned gal. I like clocks and calendars everywhere. (I like my reminders of time in the tactile form – the prettier the better.) Anyway, the calendar had a reminder page for me to order my 2024 set. And so I just did. I just love these calendars. It’s always a lovely surprise to view what artwork was created to highlight each month, all painted with a light touch of glitter. The last two years I have purchased my refills from Stevie Streck. In years past, I have bought them from the equally lovely Karen Adams. (Both can be purchased on Amazon) I also noticed that you can get a personalized pet version from Stacy Claire Boyd. Be true to the little things that make you happy, friends!! Add a touch of beauty to your desk and get a monthly surprise of delight, when you change to each new month. Blessings to all of us this September!!! See you tomorrow.

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

    Hip Hoppity Friday

    Yesterday, during a text conversation with friends, when one friend remarked about how it is interesting to note the things that really excite us now, as we are older, which may not have excited us as much when we were younger, I enthusiastically agreed and I then sent this picture (above) to the group. This big boy decided to visit me on my side porch, out of nowhere yesterday. And yes, I got excited. Really excited. I decided that the toad was a good luck sign. Then, my very practical friend, who has lived in Florida a lot longer than I have, warned me that it looked to be a poisonous Bofu toad, whose poison could easily kill my dogs if they messed with it. So then it became obvious to me, that the only good luck was that our dogs were inside when the Bofu showed up. I was reminded of the Chinese parable about the farmer who goes through a series of experiences that show that good luck can be bad luck and vice versa. As my husband often likes to say, “Don’t get too high with the highs, and too low with the lows.”

    Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! My favorite for today, is supposedly an old, classic beauty secret which I only recently discovered. It’s called Bio-Oil Skincare Oil and it has been used for scars and stretch marks for decades, but what I find its best use to be for me, is for my legs when I shave them. The skin on my low legs has become thin and dry and so lately, when I was shaving them, I ended up with itchy scrape marks. Bio-Oil Skincare Oil took care of that problem for me. (Just be sure not to get it on your clothes, for it will leave oily stains.) The nice thing about Bio-Oil, for an oil, it melts into your skin fairly quickly and it leaves long-lasting moisture. (perhaps my toad friend could use a bottle of Bio-Oil)

    Have a wonderful weekend! See you tomorrow!

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