Favorite Things 2018

Sweet friends, good morning! I’m thrilled to join the darling Melissa from 320 Sycamore this year for her annual Favorite Things Blog Series which invites us to share some of our favorite things from the year. Can you believe it’s even that time of year where we’re thinking about the holidays and New Year?

My word it’s gone by so quick. But what a refreshing way to decompress–to think about my favorite things, anything from gadgets and gizmos to sweet memories and moments. It’s been a beautiful year with some lovely recaps and fun finds to share with you all.

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Make no bones about it–I am no style icon or beauty guru but I do get asked ALL the time what curler I use on my hair. And you know what. I love it. In the post-2nd baby haze of 2016, I decided to try one of those wand curler thingies that you have to wear a glove to use. Seems absolutely not worth it and a safety hazard…I have no idea what motivated me to try it (sleep deprivation anyone?). BUT, it’s knocked my socks off and I’m never going back.

I no longer blow dry my crazy thick hair but go to sleep, wake up with a wavy mess the next morning and it takes 15 minutes to knock out a whole head of curled hair that then lasts several days. A-mazing. Mine even stopped working a few months ago after an international trip, I tried two replacements: a cheaper and a more expensive alternative just to see and then rebought old faithful. Here she is in all her glory, Sultra the Bombshell 1.5 ” rod curling iron.

And on the beauty note, I don’t have much to share other than my love for Beauty Counter lengthening mascara and some nice face products I invested in this year. I’m not one for fancy face cream but these feel good and smell pleasant and surprisingly last awhile.

2018 saw the end of our major renovation on our old victorian farmhouse outside of Boston with Cutting Edge Homes. It took awhile to get to the finish line but we now have a pretty kitchen, open to the family room. I took the opportunity post-remodel, to organize the kitchen to perfection, drawers with cubbies for everything, even a baking corner with a special Kitchen Aid Mixer lift so it doesn’t have to sit on the counter. Any day now the Container Store is sure to nominate me “most valuable customer.” I know I am WAY overdue on getting you all a full kitchen reveal blog post with sources (you can see our kitchen range here) but here are some of my favorite finds for my new kitchen.

When it comes to kitchen gadgets, I like to invest in good ones that last and then keep my counters as clutter-free and simple as possible. These white farmhouse canisters on our counter are pretty perfect. I have the medium and large for sugar and flour.

Here are some more staples in our kitchen. I love the tea kettle on the stove and an antique bread board, some good linens and a pretty soap dispenser. This one from Target is a nice heavy glass, has an unique spout that doesn’t clog and is just perfect sitting on a tray by the sink. And although it doesn’t make dishes magically easier, it just feels nice and substantial and ups the “pulled together” look to the kitchen.

A few short days after the kitchen was completed, our home was featured on the Wellesley Kitchen and Home Tour, which was such an honor. While preparing for that with design boards and product hunting, I fell in love and decided to splurge on a new rug from Potterybarn.

It is the most asked about rug in our home and for good reason. It’s beyond wonderful. Hand-knotted perfection, stains come right up, and it’s a perfect blend of a vintage-inspired print with an ideal palette of greys, beiges and soft blues. I fell so much in love I threw in the towel trying to find the perfect vintage runner and instead bought the same rug in runner form for the kitchen.

As I look back over the year, some of our most memorable moments were the sweet parties I love to plan for friends and family. I believe we all walk through difficult days and trying times, so when presented with some of the really lovely parts of life, man celebrate them wildly.

We had Kai’s 3rd birthday this last Saturday (stay tuned for some cute rocket ship party highlights) but his Brown Bear Party is definitely one of my all time favorites and was featured on the blog, Inspired By This. Ruthie’s baby shower was my first girl party I’ve gotten to throw and was just featured on 100 Layer Cakelet. Something about embracing pink and flowers I just don’t get to indulge in with two little boys. Cade’s 4th birthday was thrown during our “under construction” remodel season and was an adorable penguin theme.

Over the years I’ve found a few really great party staples I use time and time again. I have this 60″ folding table I got last year at Walmart. My goodness for the number of times we’ve already used this for the dessert table, it’s worth every penny and it’s really reasonably priced. It folds in half so it takes up very little space.

I also love a really great cake stand. From cookies to a pretty cake, they make parties look really pulled together. I have these milk glass cake stands in all of the sizes.

This May we went through a frozen embryo transfer and are now 27 weeks pregnant with our 3rd little blessing. We had a hard time getting pregnant years ago with our first son and had to go all the way through IVF to have him. This was one of two remaining embryos from that IVF cycle almost 6 years ago. (Our 2nd son Kai was a big fat natural surprise). My little boys are 2 (almost 3) and 4 years old, close in age and best friends. So I’ve been out of the little baby phase for almost two years now. But here are my continuing favorites and new finds this pregnancy around.

I almost cringe to add the Uppababy Vista to my list because it’s pricy but I’ve had this stroller since Kai was born and for multiple kiddos, it is my absolute must-have baby product. For the miles I’ve walked during the baby colic days, the ease of use and the cute factor, it’s worth every penny in my book. I’d go without other baby products to have this stroller.

To finish up my favorite things post, I can’t help but share my favorite gadget. I’m soooo not a tech person, my hubby is but I’m quite tech challenged. So when I had the opportunity to test out the NixPlay Iris a few months back I was a teeny bit nervous and assumed I would hate it. But I’m such a fan and set the whole thing up myself.

In a nutshell, it’s a digital photo frame but what I love about it is the ease of use and how pretty it is. You download an app that lets you transfer pictures from your phone right to the frame. Let’s face it, if you’re like me, you take 90% of pictures with your phone. This frame makes displaying those images easy. This would make a perfect gift for the holidays.

Next up on the 9th Annual Favorite Things Tour is Kara from Life With Fingerprints, click to see some more favorite finds.