Let’s just shake it all off a minute, shall we? Let’s just be silly and light for a minute. If you’re not feeling silly and light right now, just bookmark this post til you need a silly minute and then come back. I am going to include here a mishmosh of happy, easy things, including recipes, things I’ve bought, accounts I follow, etc. I am not an InFlUeNcEr and don’t do sponsored things (not that there’s anything wrong with that!**) so these are just things I like.
**Once a lesbian law school friend said something about a friend she thought was gay who turned out to be heterosexual and I quipped “not that there’s anything wrong with that!” and she started into this careful, gentle speech about gay rights and how reverse discrimination is not a thing and I was like “no, no, no, it’s a Seinfeld joke, get it?” and she did not get it. That’s when I knew I was an entirely different generation from all of my law school classmates.**
- These cute little spoon rest/jewelry tray things from a potter on etsy. My boys broke my spoon rest quite some time ago and I’ve needed one a while, and decided to get these. They’re on the smaller side – about the size of the palm of my hand – but I love them. I bought two – one for each side of the stovetop.
- This total stunner of an olive oil dispenser. In line with my apparent theme here, my son recently broke my olive oil dispenser (shattering it, sending olive oil and glass shards all down the counter and into the kitchen drawers and ALL OVER my phone, while I was on an important zoom call and the Prof was not home, it was absurd). I went to amazon to just buy another similar one, one of those cheap tall green square glass bottles with a metal pouring spout thingy. But then I remembered that this is the second tall green square glass bottle oil dispensers that my children have broken, and that perhaps I should choose one with a heavier bottom and more solid construction. I started looking on amazon but switched back over to the potters on etsy and found so many stunning selections.
- These healthy quickbreads/muffin recipes, which I made in bulk this weekend and froze and have tried and love each one: double chocolate banana muffins (made this into a quickbread instead of muffins, it never fully cooked through so we just eat it all fudgy with a fork), lemon chia oat muffins (made with WW flour as I didn’t have oat flour), pumpkin chocolate chunk muffins (made with chocolate CHUNKS, none of this mini chip nonsense). The Prof likes them too, and Craiggy snuck tons of bites of the double chocolate one.
- Zillow Gone Wild, a relatively new insta account that curates the craziest zillow home listings. You just have to click through each one, lots of times they start relatively normal and then BLAMMO, there’s a jail cell or a sex dungeon or a crazy pink shag carpeted sunken master bath.
- Please Hate These Things, similar idea, been around a lot longer, she finds insane design features like the shotgun handrail, covered wagon bedroom, toilet on a platform. The comments are the bestt.
- Lasagna florentine – lag liv recommended this recipe and I made it last night and my husband was like BEST LASAGNA EVARRRRR. I did use cottage cheese, whipped up in a blender, and I may use that as my default “ricotta” from now on since it worked really well and was so much cheaper!
- Smarterinasec – Julia’s a relatively new instagrammer but she curates some fun stuff, including riddles, weird foods, interesting articles. There are a squillion influencers out there and I don’t follow many of them, but I like her authenticity and her silliness, and her unique content.
- This Tweet of a TikTok. Loud NSFW language, but we’re past pearl-clutching.
- Finnish salmon soup – so as you may recall I have made lots of whole fish lately – bones and scales and heads and all. I had boiled the bones/heads to make fish broth a while ago and froze it, and I’ve been wanting to use it, so I searched out a recipe. Guys, this was so good. I did put a lil’ Parm cheese in there to liven up the broth, and a little bit of hot sauce, but otherwise stuck with the recipe (using my pre-made broth made this a quick weeknight dinner). We will have this again.
- Crap Wildlife Photography. It is exactly what it sounds like. Some of the worst wildlife pix you’ll ever see, with the best (and one of the most tightly moderated) comment sections on the internet.
- Cheat Day Eats. A gorgeous personal trainer eats ridiculous food, often in fun locations (during pandemic, she’s pivoted to making absolutely over the top recipes at home) (part of her schtick is really cute fun nail art, and I love that too!)
- Instant Pot Coconut Tandoori – I might’ve lifted this recommendation from my sister’s pinterest. This gets ten stars for being one of the easiest things I’ve ever made. One note – it says to just dump everything in the pot and cook. Don’t be a dummy like me – I literally did just that, sprinkling the spices on top of the chicken, and when it came out there they sat, un-mixed in. It worked ok, I just stirred it up and boiled it on saute for a bit, but maybe stir up the spices and the coconut milk a bit in there so it’s good and mixed.
- In my continuing retail therapy, I have put this witchy tarot deck in my amazon cart. I’m not sure if I’m gonna press Buy, but I’m tempted. I still pray the divine hours every day, up to 4x per day (though sometimes just once), but I love mixing a little pagan magic in with my Christian devotional.
- Santa brought this light up mask for Liam. It was too expensive but it just fills me with delight every time he wears it. (It’s not a particularly good mask for protection so when he wears it outside the house, we put another one underneath.)
- I made myself a Shutterfly easel calendar for 2021, to take the place of the desk calendar I would normally have if I had desk space. It brings me a lotta joy, and I actually use it a lot when setting depo dates, etc. (The Prof and I share a desk and we have fitted it out with a standing desk platform plus this cool tech that lets us push a button to switch the monitors/keyboard between his computer and mine so we can each take turns using it, but anyhow it’s small and totally covered with keyboard/monitors so no room for a desk calendar).
- I got a fitbit! What breaking tech! I probably only love it because it’s new, but I do love it. The little buzz! The step reminders!
- This turmeric ginger tea from Rishi, which my sister got me for Christmas. Who says you can’t buy happiness? This tea is really helping me stick with my (mostly) dry January. It’s a real treat.
- Babyboydrummer. He’s a baby boy, and he drums. He’s stunning, and his lil sister is coming up behind him.
- Awkward Family Photos has an instagram! Who knew??
- My suspension trainer has been getting a lot of work these days. I also bought a simple yoga strap and I mostly use it to loosen my shoulders (I googled and tried to find some of the stuff I do, this article seems to describe it although I’m not familiar with the site).
- Rubystarsociety – dangerous if you know how to sew a little bit and want to make a quilt which is way beyond your skill level.
- Posy Gets Cozy. A Portland-based fabric artist who still blogs – like me! – and I buy her embroidery kits way more often than I actually finish them. But her posts are always soothing to me, and so pretty.
- GBBO – Derry Girls version. I almost choked to death watching this, I laughed so hard I cried.
Well, there you go. Some of my favorite things lately. If you’ve got anything light, escapist, soothing, etc., please post in the comments!