A Few of My Favorite Things {February 2018}

Even though February is the shortest month of the year, it often feels like one of the LONGEST months for me. We’re over a month past the holiday season and still 2 months away from Spring Break. Plus, February is often cold, snowy, dreary, and dark.

That said, we are one month closer to spring… which means I can start working outside again (one of my most favorite activities)!

Today I’m sharing a few more of my favorite things — one of which I’ve been waiting for months to share, since I really felt like it fit so well with the month of February!

DISCLOSURE: None of these products are sponsored; however, some of the links below are affiliate links — which means that at no cost to you, I may get a small commission. Please know that I use these products daily in my own home and life. Read my full disclosure policy for more information.

Personalized Thank You Note Cards

After Christmas, I got a coupon code for $15 off any purchase from VistaPrint — and as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I do NOT always pounce on all those “freebie” offers as the shipping costs can be pretty high.

However, I was on my last Thank You card and decided the few bucks of shipping was worth being able to design and personalize my own Thank You cards.

So, I spent 15 minutes coming up with a VERY simple design, ordered the cards, and they arrived a few days later.

I love writing Thank You notes to people… and I love that I now have a personalized set for only a few bucks of shipping!

I was thinking that personalized Thank You cards (or really any type of personalized note cards) would make really nice teacher gifts — something they might not necessary buy themselves, but also something fairly frugal.

.

Zutano Baby Booties

Before Clara was born, we were gifted a pair of grey Zutano baby booties… they were used, but still in really great condition (and so cozy looking!)

After Clara was born, I quickly realized that these Zutano baby booties were the ONLY booties that actually stayed on her tiny feet without ever falling off.

Now, 4 months later, she still wears these almost every single day (although they are getting a little snug on her!)

I looked them up on Amazon a while back, hoping to find more in a bigger size (they sell sizes up to 4T!) and I noticed they are definitely more expensive than other baby booties you might find in stores… but after using them daily for the past 4 months (and after not using them with any of my other 3 babies) I can confidently say they are worth the price!

These were a fantastic addition to our winter wardrobe and have kept Clara’s feet toasty warm for the past 4 months!

.

The 5 Love Languages Books

I’ve wanted to put these books on my Favorite Things list for months — but I’ve been saving them for February, due to all the talk about love around Valentine’s Day!

I first read The 5 Love Languages when I was in college, after Dave and I got engaged. He read it too — and we quickly realized we have very opposite love languages!

Over the years, I think both of our love languages have morphed and changed a bit (I’m totally “acts of service” now, and I used to be more “gifts”) but I can’t tell you how valuable it was for us to not only learn the other person’s love language, but also realize that we both had very different love languages.

I think it saved us lots of frustration in the early years of our marriage — and even now.

There is now an entire collection of 5 Love Languages books on the market today — for men, women, singles, children, teens, etc. etc. And while I haven’t read all of them, I’m fairly confident they will all be helpful for any of you who want to learn more about your own love language or the love languages of people you love.

Your local library should have these books — so look there before buying one new!

.

Printable Pearler Bead Patterns

Nora got her first HUGE set of pearler beads for her birthday back in November… and then more for Christmas a month later!

She had already done some pearler beads at our neighbor’s house over the summer and fall, so these beads had been on her wish list for a few months already and she was THRILLED to get a bunch of them this year!

And even though she is actually really good at following a paper pattern, she often wants me to look up ideas online (she made an amazing boxer dog for Dave’s dad for Christmas, thanks to a pattern I found online!)

When I find a pattern online, she can’t seem to follow it from the computer to the table, so I tried to draw it out for her, but my drawings weren’t always “to scale” which messed her up even more.

Then, one of my Facebook followers share a link to the FREE Printable Pearler Bead Patterns on Kandi Patterns — wow! Amazing!!!

I can simply print off the exact template Nora wants to use, and then color in the little dots following whatever design she wants to make. All she needs to do is put her pegboard directly over my drawing and duplicate the design with beads.

This is SOOOOOOOO much easier than me sitting next to her telling her which one to do next.

.

My Upper Cabinet Lazy Susan

When we renovated our kitchen 5 years ago, I was adamant that we were going to have lower AND upper Lazy Susans.

Our designer actually tried to steer me away from Lazy Susans because apparently they aren’t stylish anymore and they don’t hold as much as just a normal cabinet — but I didn’t care.

I wanted the ease and convenience of simply spinning the Lazy Susan to find exactly what I needed, versus trying to dig way to the back of an awkward corner cabinet to find something.

It’s amazing how much I can fit in my upper Lazy Susan — it’s most definitley one of my favorite things about my kitchen; and a feature I would highly recommend to anyone revamping their kitchen cabinets.

Even if you’re not revamping your kitchen but you’d just like to make better use of a deep corner cabinet, you can actually purchase something VERY similar to mine on Amazon!

.

That’s all for me this month.

Make sure you check out my previous month’s favorite things — and feel free to share some of YOUR favorite things in the comments below!