November Favourites

What I really should be doing right now is cleaning my house to prepare for people to come over for dinner, but instead I have been watching Youtube videos and drinking coffee (at 5pm). Plus, I was thinking about my blog and how much I have (not) been writing. Really, I have been on a crazy work schedule and have had literally no time to do anything but exercise and work. I was living off of Cliff bars and mandarin oranges for about 2 weeks straight. Talk about healthy…yikes.

This of course got me thinking about my favourite things this month (or I have just been watching too many videos telling me that it is the end of the month where everyone talks about their monthly favourites). Do I follow this regime? Not really. But I will try.

1. Clif bars

Sounds crazy since I have been eating a ton of them, but really they have been getting me through a lot these past few days so I have to appreciate them for what they are. If you don’t know what they are, they are basically just protein bars that actually taste like food. You can get the crunchy bars (which are like Nature Valley bars) or the chewy bars that I personally enjoy more. My favourite has to be the Chocolate Almond Fudge bar that comes in a pack of 18 from Costco. Generally these bars range from about $1 (on sale) to $2 and up (pretty expensive, I know). In the pack from Costco though they are about $0.83, so I have two boxes that I am working my way through.
I generally keep these bars in my purse and work bag for the times when I am really hungry, but don’t have any food (which happens more often than I would like to admit). I really recommend trying these bars for sure. They are very tasty, and satisfy hunger effectively. My husband and I also took these when we were in Hawai’i on our 7 hour hike on the Napali trail. Since it was so hot and you didn’t want to carry a lot, these really came in handy.

2. Sleep

Weird? I think not. To be honest, you know there are people who love to sleep? They could just stay in bed all day and sleep for countless hours. I am not one of these people. Personally, I don’t like sleep very much and I only sleep because I have to. But sometimes I feel like I really under-appreciate sleep. Because I work strictly nights only, I can range from sleeping about 4 hours to 7 hours in between nights. That is like sleeping from midnight to 4am. What have you really gained there? Not much.
I have to say that I can definitely function very well for a few days on very little sleep, but when you work 5 shifts in a row, that completes about 60 hours, on 4 hours a “night”, you aren’t really able to sustain that. So I like to sleep when I can, especially on weekends. Appreciate the little things.

3. Coffee

Have I talked about my love for coffee? Likely not enough, even if I have written an entire post about coffee on this little blog. Hell, this has been running through my bloodstream all month. My husband and I actually have a Nespresso maker (the one that lots of celebrities endorse). It is really popular in Europe, and it makes amazing coffee. You buy capsules, put it in the machine, and out comes a perfect espresso. It is similar to a Keurig, or Tassimo, but better (because what comes out is stronger and tastier, in my personal opinion). Since it is a faster option to having coffee, with that lovely little shot of joy, I definitely haven’t been skimping on having them this month with all of that sleep that I haven’t been getting.

4. Soap and Glory Handfood

I wrote about this hand moisturizer in My Favourite Moisturizers post, and I do really love this stuff. I have been using it so much that I basically have barely any left. I am scraping the bottom of it for sure. I have to really squeeze the bottle to get a little bit out. Hopefully I get more for Christmas (or else I will have to buy more). My hands have been suffering a lot this month for sure from washing my hands continuously. Hopefully work won’t be so bad this month like it was in November. So I definitely have been enjoying this stuff. Definitely makes a difference and the scent is heavenly. Certainly not too strong, but pleasantly gentle. God I love this stuff.

5. Wunderlist App

If you haven’t heard of this app, you don’t know what you are missing. This one has been awesome and totally essential to my Christmas shopping. (Yes, I have been Christmas shopping for a few weeks already and I only have a few left to buy). I usually end up forgetting my list somewhere, so having it on my phone has been really helpful (I always have it on me). So, my husband actually got me into using this and it has been really great. It links up from my iPad to my iPhone very easily, and I can add as many categories as I want. If you haven’t checked this one out, go for it. Plus, it is free!

So, this list was definitely the more simple and practical of lists, but I haven’t had too much time to get any new products and really try them out. That will be saved for December. Should I do a gift giving guide for this month?

I Heart Coffee

If I have one great love in my life that I really couldn’t live without, it would be coffee (that isn’t really true, but jeez I love it). Coffee makes me so, so happy, I can’t even tell you. I don’t mean the sugar-flavoured coffees that you get from Starbucks, I mean the brewed coffee with a little cream and a little sugar. The wake-up-in-the-morning-to-the-sweetness-that-is-life.

Brewed coffee is by far the best. What is more amazing than being able to refill your coffee with more coffee? You can make it hotter, a little more bitter, and you can just have more by adding it in because it is there. If I am home by myself I could probably drink an entire pot in a day just for me. Those slogans that say “Just give me an I.V. of coffee”, or something silly like that, I always repost because it just rings true. This doesn’t mean that I cannot survive without coffee. I love it, but I won’t die without it. I just REALLY like it. It reminds me of Sunday mornings too…at home, watching t.v. with my husband and making breakfast. I don’t get that many weekends off, but when I do, it is really nice.

When I was little my parents would take us camping in the summer, and if you know anything about camping, it can be cold, even in a trailer, but boy is it cozy. There were 5 people sleeping a trailer built for 3. I loved it. In the mornings my mom would always make coffee on the Coleman stove outside, and I would wake to this beautiful smell of percolating coffee. Just thinking about it brings back wonderful memories of summer, swimming, and the sun. Ahhh…

Sorry about that, lost in my little world there. As you can see, I just have a deep and personal relationship with coffee, and subsequently, coffee mugs. I like drinking coffee in only so many of my favourite mugs (this is very important, no cheap mugs). I really like the nice ones that are fun and colourful, or personalized. When my husband and I travel, we especially like to look for new mugs that really remind us of our trip. (The only exception was when we went to Germany and we bought beer glasses, surprisingly).

Some of my favourites in list form include:

1. My fox mug that I recently bought in Portland, Oregon. This is currently my go-to mug right now. It is absolutely adorable, and I just feel so happy when I am drinking out of it. I don’t know why, but I love foxes right now – so cute!

2. My “L” mug from Chapters, which I bought at Christmastime last year. I got this mug in a pair with a “K” mug for my husband. It is so simply and cute. It has a small cursive sized letter on one side, and a capital cursive letter on the other side. It is black and white, and small, and very sweet. Plus then my husband and I don’t get our drinks mixed up. Bonus!

3. Next, is my “Little Miss Naughty” mug that I got when I was in New York this year, at The Strand Bookstore, which was by far my favourite bookstore in New York for sure. I think that in total I went in there about 4 times, and spent several hours just looking around and reading. I don’t know, but I loved it. And this mug is equally adorable. Just the name seriously defines me to a “T”. It even has a little saying on it that says, “Looks like a nice day for being naughty!”. It makes me smile.

4. Last, but not least, my blue Starbucks mug is a favourite as well. I got these mugs at my bridal shower before I was married, and they were the first expensive and beautiful mugs that I had ever gotten. They are this beautiful blue (yes, we got 2 matching ones), and they remind me of my first years of marriage. I love them. Plus, they are perfectly sized and just really sleek mugs.

Did I just write an entire post about coffee and coffee mugs? Yes I did. That is how I feel about coffee. I could go on, and on about it for an entire blog post. Probably more if I let myself. Anyways, thanks again for reading!

L.