A few of my favorite things

One of my oldest blogging friends is Melissa from 320 Sycamore. Melissa is one of the kindest persons on the planet, and when she asked if I'd like to join her for the 10th anniversary edition of her Favorite Things party, I jumped at the chance!

While most of us agree that our favorite things aren't things you can buy, it is helpful (and fun) to know what some of our favorite buyable items are, don't you think? Here are some of mine.

This year has included many exciting events for our family—a college graduation for our youngest son, a graduate school commencement for our middle son, a U.S. Navy winging ceremony for our oldest son, and a wedding! Wow. I have to confess that never before have I cared so much about my appearance. But I'm one of those women with hair that really reacts to humidity. So I was thrilled to find this weatherproof humidity resistant finishing spray. It's kind of expensive, but I purchased a can in June and am still using it. It doesn't hold your hair in place, but it protects your hair from the frizzies better than anything I've ever tried. One note: it's very heavily fragranced. The smell dissipates from your hair quickly (I promise), but it kind of hangs in the air where you spray it. So I spray it and then leave the room quickly.

Here's a photo of me with my middle son at his master's degree commencement. Isn't he the cutest? I'm not a midget; he's a giant (6'8" in his sock feet!). And although the day was hot and humid, my hair isn't frizzy!

Of course, it took some doing to get my hair this smooth in the first place. I have really thick hair, and it's just wavy enough to be irritating, if you know what I mean. Not gloriously curly or even chic beach-style wavy, just—blah. So a flat iron is a must-have tool for me, and I've tried them all. Once I even spent over $200 for a fancy salon iron, only to ruin it when I took it to Europe! This year I discovered this flat iron and I couldn't be more pleased. It's less than $40, heats up quickly, retains heat, and it's 1.75 inches wide, which is great if you have longer hair. Highly recommend!

I've finally found a perfume that I love to wear, but it's expensive. The most economical way to buy it is to purchase a large bottle, but then I can't take it with me when I travel. But recently I found this
travel atomizer that is just wonderful. It's a little glass vial inside an aluminum tube. It holds enough for quite a few days' worth of good smells, the perfume is kept fresh inside the glass vial, and the aluminum tube protects glass from getting broken. AND the whole thing is small enough to slip into my purse or into my quart-size plastic bag for going through airport security. It's sold in a package of six, so it's really affordable. Win-win-win!

I hate to admit this, but I've never been able to use headphones. I've tried airbuds (they won't stay in my ears) and expensive Beats headphones (they hurt my ears so badly I can't stand it!). But this year I had the chance to record an audiobook (the audiobook edition of my own book, Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison). The headphones I wore for three days in the studio never hurt my ears at all! Can you believe that? And it turns out that they're not nearly so expensive as other headphones I've tried. They're called Sennheiser HD280PRO Headphones and they're very comfortable to wear. I know they're large, and honestly I look a little goofy wearing them, but if you've ever struggled to find comfortable headphones, I know you'll appreciate these!

Here I am pointing to my book on the bookshelf at Barnes and Noble. Talk about a surreal experience! I have to admit that Mythical Me is my favorite book this year. If you struggle with constantly comparing yourself to others, then you'll want to check it out. And if you'd just like to read a little more about the book, click here. Or leave a comment and I can email you the first chapter to read to see if you're interested!

Around the house, I can honestly say my favorite things lately are light fixtures! Does that sound silly? Well, we moved into this house in 2005, and some of our light fixtures had become pretty dated. So we got a new chandelier for the dining room, new lanterns for over the kitchen island, and a new hanging fixture for over the kitchen table. You can see the complete kitchen remodel here, and just look at these gorgeous lanterns! All my new fixtures came from Wayfair, and I can't say enough about their excellent prices and their amazing customer service.

I love kitchen gadgets, of course, and one that we use every single day is this Nespresso milk frother. We also have a Nespresso original line espresso maker, and we love it, but the most important part of making specialty drinks is frothing the milk. We've tried other machines, and nothing has ever come close to the quality of this frother. It's not just for coffee, either—I make myself chai lattes by brewing an extra-strong cup of chai and adding milk prepared in this frother. It's just amazing! While this frother is a bit of a splurge, we use it multiple times every single day and it's still as good as new.

Another gadget I find absolutely essential is at the opposite end of the spectrum—it's inexpensive and not very fancy! My oldest son lived in East Asia for a year, and when he came home he told me flatly that I had to get a rice cooker. As you can see, it's not very fancy, but it cooks rice to perfection with almost no effort. I don't usually keep "unitaskers," as Alton Brown calls them, but this one has become essential for us. Believe it or not, when we get Chinese take-out now, we prefer to cook our own rice in this rice cooker!

One last favorite thing comes from the kitchen of our little place in the mountains. That kitchen has a single-bowl black sink. It's a big, beautiful sink, but honestly I find single-bowl sinks to be not very practical. If you run a sink full of dishwater, where are you supposed to rinse the dishes? The answer, of course, is to use a dishpan, but I didn't want to put an ugly dishpan in my pretty sink. The solution I found is this cool gray dishpan and drainer made by Joseph Joseph.

This dishpan includes a drain hole and a tight-fitting plug and a drying rack that lifts out of the dishpan. Look how nice and neat it looks in my black sink:

Honestly, sometimes the littlest things end up being some of my favorites!

Hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into my everyday life this year. Now you'll want to hop right back to 320 Sycamore, where Melissa's amazing sister-in-law Christine will be sharing some of her favorites. Or you can see everyone included in this year's line-up here. Thanks so much to Melissa for including me!

Now tell me: what are some of your favorite things?

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