My Favorite Things I Discovered in 2016.

Yogi Teas. I’ve been singing the praises of the honey lavender stress relief tea, but that’s just one of many Yogi teas I discovered last year. They have a tea for everything. Some of my other favorites are vanilla-spice perfect energy and the pomegranate green tea. Bonus: All of the tags on the tea bags have little sayings like fortune cookies. 

Mrs. Meyer’s Baking Soda Scrub. I discovered this when we were moving out of our apartment and were trying to make sure we left everything super clean (AKA, we wanted our security deposit back).  To be completely honest, I’d never really deep cleaned anything before without my mom telling me exactly how, so I kind of just went down the cleaning aisle at Target and threw one of everything into my cart. This stuff is some sort of black magic. Our sink, our shower, our oven…this took care of all of them. I’m telling you. Black magic. 

Bubba Tumbler. This was maybe my best purchase of 2016. That’s saying a lot, because I bought a bunch of stuff last year (hello, new baby and new house). I am constantly raving about how I find drinking more water to be literally life-changing. It probably annoys everyone I know, but whatever. 

As everyone knows, the best way to make yourself drink more water is to 1) Have a cute cup, and 2) Have a straw. This has both, and the straw is silicone, which I’d never seen before. It’s so easy to carry around, fits in cup holders, and keeps your drink cold. It’s awesome. 

It’s 35 ounces, which means just filling it up twice gets you past your recommended 8 glasses a day mark. I easily fill it up 5 times a day. I will probably buy these as gifts for the rest of the year, if that gives you any idea as to how obsessed I am with mine. 

Essie Gel Couture Polish. I am a nail polish hoarder. Until I moved in May, I still had nail polishes that I had bought while in college. Let me just explain to you how much I love this polish: I threw away all of my other nail polishes. I can get ten days of wear with this one. It’s worth it.

Yoga with Adriene. I’ve never really been a yoga person. I’ve been to a few classes and done a few at-home videos, but it was never something I just really loved. After I had Jack, I tried yoga as a way to ease my body back into being active (because, ya know, growing an actual human for 40 weeks really does a number on you). I discovered this youtube channel and loved it. 

Over the fall, I started doing one of her videos every day, and (warning, I’m about to sound like a giant, crunchy hippie here) it did wonders for my stress levels. It’s also the first workout I’ve ever done where I could really see myself getting stronger day-to-day.  If you think you’re not a yoga person, try these videos. There are hundreds to choose from and something for every skill level.

 

LulaRoe Leggings. Before pregnancy, I was not a leggings person. I just wasn’t. But then I discovered maternity leggings and proceeded to wear them for 9 months. And then as long as I could get away with them after Jack was born, too. Then I realized I should probably buy normal leggings, since I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I started seeing Lularoe pop up on social media and loved all the different patterns (I’m a bright colors & pattern junkie). 

Embarrassing story: I had never purchased any LulaRoe, but when I moved to Gainesville, I didn’t know anyone here. I joined a local facebook group and a girl who was also a part of the medical community posted about selling LulaRoe. So naturally I literally bought a pair of leggings so I could pick them up and meet her and we could become friends. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work. BUT it did leave me wanting more of these leggings. So when I saw my sweet friend Janelle opened her own LulaRoe shop, I was so excited. She was made for this-she takes such joy in putting together outfits and helping people find something they feel wonderful in. 

I’m not lying when I tell you I wear these leggings at least once a week. They got crazy popular for a reason. It weirds me out that people call them “butter leggings” because that’s such a weird image, but honestly, I get why they do. They’re so soft. 

I told Janelle I was going to be blogging about this today and she offered to give away a pair of leggings (because she is the sweetest). I’m gonna jump in with her and give away a pair. Enter here: