These are a few of My Favorite Things

I love the Sound of Music.  You may already know that about me if you’ve read this post.  It is a staple in our house.  Even my kids, teen boy included 😉 … like to snuggle up and watch this classic especially during the holidays.  Tonight I’m headed to a little get together in my neighborhood.  It’s a fun idea for a party, called “My Favorite Things.”  Have you been to one before?  The idea is that you set a price point (in this case it’s $10) and then you pick your favorite thing that you can buy for $10.  You bring 3 of that favorite $10 item to the party, wrapped up all cute.  When you arrive, each guest writes their name on 3 slips of paper.  Those pieces of paper are collected and all go into a hat/bowl etc.  When you are ready for the game to start, all the guests sit in a circle.  You go around the circle and share what your favorite item is and tell about why it’s your favorite.  Then, you draw 3 names out of the hat and give each of those people one of your items.  When you leave the party, you go home full of ideas of cool new products to try, and with three new, fun things!

It gave me the idea to share my favorites here.  There are several things that I look at, refer to, or use almost everyday that I realized I have never told you about.  So, in the spirit of my “favorite things” gathering tonight, here are my favorite things that I can’t live without.  Affiliate links are included in this post.

I’m sharing my secret today.  I get comments/questions all the time on my instagram feed.  Questions about how I get my pictures to look the way they do, how I have such good lighting when I’m out and about…well, here’s my secret.  This camera, my favorite take it everywhere camera, is my favorite toy and it is SO fun.  Back in May John and I took a trip to NYC for a few days.  The thought of lugging my big camera around all over was not sounding fun to me at ALL.  But, the thought of not being able to take amazing pictures was worse. 😉  I started researching smaller cameras and found this little gem.  It has a large LCD screen, interchangeable lenses and gives me the ability to take amazing high quality pictures, and it’s tiny and light weight.  The coolest part?  It talks to my smart phone and lets me transfer pictures wirelessly from the camera to my phone for instant instagram uploading!  Isn’t that AMAZING??!!  It will never replace my big Nikon, but if you are in the market for something that you can carry around with you while traveling, stick in your purse, and takes amazing pictures…this is the camera for you!

You all know I’m a sucker for low aperture/bokeh or “the blur” in my photos.  So, I have an additional lens to go with it. This lens is the best equivalent of the 50mm f 1.8 lens that you may have for your big camera.  If you love your 50mm, then you will love this lens too.

I CANNOT live without this trimmer. I have tried SO many over the years…fancier ones, bigger ones, but I always come back to this one. It’s light, portable and inexpensive.

I don’t get a chance to curl my hair everyday, but when I do, this is what I use…and I LOVE it!  It’s different than a regular curling iron because it doesn’t have a clamp on it…and you curl from the top of your head down instead of the bottom up.  There is definitely a learning curve, but I love having some wave and texture up near the top of my head since my hair is so long!

Ash loves it when I curl her hair too, but in order for her to let me curl it, we have to brush it first.  That used to be a real headache…until we were introduced to this life changing brush by a good friend of ours who is a hairdresser.  Seriously, she used to CRY buckets when I would brush her hair and it was a total fight!  This brush saved our lives!  Now she uses it every night in the shower and then each morning to brush her hair.  The tangles are gone and so are the tears. 🙂

In the kitchen I have a few favorites too. this little tool is one of the coolest things around.  I use it for grating hard cheeses and zesting lemons and limes (you will NOT believe how easy it is!!)  It peels the skin off of citrus like buttah!

If you are a fan of soup, smoothies, shakes, or anything else that needs to be blended, than this will be your new best friend. A funny story about this blender…I got one as a wedding gift and didn’t know what it was. I thought, who wants one of these? And I returned it. About 10 years ago, when I was much older and wiser, I found myself buying one and now I don’t know how I ever lived without it!

Right now I am listening to Christmas music 24/7.  I can’t get enough of it.  But there’s one guy in particular that I can’t get enough of  this Christmas CD.  Another favorite on repeat is
That’s Christmas To Me .  Such a great album!  You can see more of my favorite must have Christmas Albums here.

Finally, my go-to reads for inspiration.  I cannot live without Country Living.    If you’ve never had a subscription, I promise it will not disappoint!  The photography is beautiful and the ideas are great!  This is a great time to ask for or give one as a gift subscription!

Well, there you have it!  My favorite things.  Not wrapped up in brown paper packages, but my favorites just the same. 😉

Have a great day!

Tammy