Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that December is almost over and tomorrow is the start of a new year. It’s been a wonderfully festive month and you’ll notice that many of my favorites are holiday themed. I share some of my favorite things from the past month with you in this post, ranging from accessories and beauty items to multi-media picks and food.
Clothes & Accessories
✻ Too Much Fun Dress in Scarlet Birds – I target=”_blank”>hauled this dress from Modcloth earlier this month, which I picked out because I thought it looked particularly festive and would be a nice option to wear to holiday outings. It’s also extremely comfortable which is a nice bonus! I enjoyed wearing it paired with a black cardigan and flats several times over the past few weeks.
✻ Jetsetter Mini Convertible Backpack – Another item from that haul, I’ve had my eye on the Jetsetter bags from Henri Bendel for ages, but the original size is a bit too big for my current needs. You can imagine my excitement when they introduced the mini! I’ve enjoyed wearing this bag so much over the past month that I actually brought it out to Utah with me for our winter visit. I will post a Bag Buzz soon featuring this beauty.
✻ Planners – My planners are a year round favorite for me, but I find them extra useful during the busy holiday season. I use my Erin Condren Life Planner specifically for my posting schedule and planning blog posts and videos. My Mulberry Pocket Book is my primary agenda where I keep my daily to-do’s and monthly calendars. I use the DIYfish Life Mapping System for my inserts. I will post a detailed update on both planners soon.
Beauty
✻ Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous Foundation – I have a new all-time favorite foundation in my life and this is it! I decided to try it out a couple of months ago after seeing so many rave reviews and I must agree that it is amazing. It provides effective medium coverage with a lovely natural finish and has great lasting power.
✻ bareMinerals bareSkin Perfecting Veil – This finishing powder is absolutely lovely! It offers light coverage with a featherweight finish that is the most natural of all the powders I have tried to date. I like using my Sigma F25 Tapered Face Brush to apply it.
✻ Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil – My new favorite brow pencil! The unique wedge shape makes it super easy to fill in the brows without need for precision. The Soft Brunette shade is the perfect taupey-brown for me.
✻ Make Up For Ever Brow Seal Transparent Eyebrow Gel – I’m always on the lookout for a good gel to help keep my unruly brows in place without being too crunchy. I really like the unique brush of this one which is longer and angled on one side for easy combing and setting of the brows.
✻ Berry Lips – I received the Smashbox Be Legendary Longwear Lip Lacquer in the pretty Bordeaux shade in my December PopSugar Must Have Box. At first I thought it was too dark for my preferences, but it’s actually the perfect berry stain shade for me when I just dab a bit on with my finger. It lives up to its long-wearing promise as well. Another berry lip favorite for me this past month is the Rouge Dior Baume in Coquette #660. It’s a bit more of a pinkish berry shade but also very festive. I like popping a bit of the CO Bigelow Ginger Mentha Lip Shine Shimmer (sadly no longer available) on top of each for a tough of gold sparkle.
I’ve enjoyed curling my hair more since my most recent haircut. My favorite tool to use is the Remington T-Studio Ceramic Pearl Curling Wand which is a 1″ tapered style wand. I like to spritz the Tresemmé Heat Tamer Spray on my hair first to protect it from heat damage. I wrap large chunks (2″ or so) of hair around the wand for about 6 seconds to curl, brush through once cool, then finish with Oribe Superfine Hairspray for an all day hold.
Home Goods
December wouldn’t be complete without my favorite holiday home scent! I love ‘Tis the Season by Bath & Body Works, which is described as “a festive medley of bright red apples, cinnamon, cloves and deep green pine notes.” It’s the perfect combination of bright and cheery holiday scents to me! I love burning the 3-Wick candle in our family room. It makes the whole first level of our house smell delicious!
Multi-Media
✻ The Kill Order by James Dashner – I didn’t make enough time to read this past month, but I did manage to finish The Kill Order, a prequel in the Maze Runner series. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I am glad I finished it.
✻ Holiday Movies – I did make time to watch some of my favorite Christmastime movies with Don, including my all-time favorite, White Christmas. It is our tradition to watch this the weekend after Thanksgiving every year. It really gets me in holiday mood and kicks off the season on such a festive note! My second favorite holiday movie this year is Arthur Christmas. My MIL introduced me to this treasure last year and I was instantly hooked. It is the cutest feel-good animated movie!
✻ Pentatonix – I like to search for new holiday music every year, which is how I was introduced to this amazing acapella group. I listened to their holiday album, That’s Christmas To Me, on repeat in my car all month long. They’re actually YouTubers as well, and their channel, PTXOfficial, is definitely worth a look (and a listen!) if you’re in the mood for amazing vocal talent.
Tasty Treats
‘Tis the season for cookies! I love baking any old time but especially for my loved ones during the holidays. I give most of what I bake away but always keep a tin for me and Don to enjoy as well. I’ve shared three out of the four recipes I made this year online already, including the target=”_blank”>Cream Cheese Spritz, target=”_blank”>Peanut Butter Surprise, and target=”_blank”>Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’m still tweaking the Oatmeal Raisin recipe, but it’s close and I hope to share it next year.
If you’d like to hear more about my November favorites, check out this video:
It’s giveaway time! I wanted to share the awesomeness that is Erin Condren products with you. The December Favorites Giveaway will run until Wednesday, January 7, 2015 at 6 PM CT. The giveaway is open internationally. All entrants under the age of 18 must have parental permission to enter. FIVE winners will receive a $200 electronic gift card to ErinCondren.com. You can enter by following the directions in the Rafflecopter widget posted below (check out this blog post for more information on entering Rafflecopter giveaways). I’ll announce the winners on THIS blog post and contact them directly through email, as always. Good luck!
Sometimes Rafflecopter experiences technical difficulties. If you can’t enter for some reason, try again later and it will probably work.
I would love to hear about some of your December favorites if you care to share. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Wishing you all the best for the new year!
* Post contains affiliate links. The Sigma brush shown was sent to me for consideration. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are genuinely my own. *
