I came home from sunny California last Friday night to rain and cold. And it literally has not stopped since. I suppose that is fine – I have been working non-stop 12 hour days since then. My job is feast or famine :-) On the bright side, since I’ve been cooped up at home, I’ve been enjoying some of my winter favorites!! I share a version of these every year and feel like it is that time…
This little heating pad is filled with cherry pits. I pop it in the microwave for two minutes and use it for various things – just staying warm under a blanket on the sofa, tucking it in the bed while I brush my teeth to warm up my spot, etc. Mother and I both have the oh-so-lovely cat fabric, while sister favors the dog fabric. Function over form, people. These aren’t lookers, but they are great!
After having tried boxes upon boxes of grocery and specialty store teas for years, these are my very favorite. We brew this tea by the pot, drink it hot, and always add sugar. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to reaallllllyyyy cut back on that part though. My top three flavors are:
Paris – a fruity black tea with a hint of vanilla and caramel
Hot Cinnamon – three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves
Wedding – white tea with a hint of lemon-vanilla and pink rosebuds
You might try them in the tins first and, if you enjoy, replenish with the bags as they are much cheaper. (both shown below)
This was a Christmas gift from Sister a few years ago and I am sitting under it on the sofa at this very moment. It does have a shut off after 3 hours, has 3 heat settings and is machine washable. I have washed it and it did fine. Follow the instructions for drying.
Even more amazing than the heated throw is my heated mattress pad!! You read that right! This was my Christmas gift last year and I have no idea how Honey will ever top it. You can read a lot more about it here.
These might in real life be the “ugg-liest” shoes ever created, but they are SOOOO warm! I’ve told the story before on how I finally got a pair, but it’s funny so I’ll share it again. I won a giant Victoria’s Secret gift card at Haven Conference one year. I spend money on some things but undies is just not one of them. So I sat on it for days, weeks, months. Summer went. Fall came and went. And then it got cold. So imagine my supreme surprise and delight when a VS catalog arrived and I was paging through it for some good fleece jammies and I saw that they sold Uggs. With BOWS!!! I promptly ordered them up and waited on them to arrive. Honey got home before me that day and received the GIANT package from VS. He was grinning like the Cheshire cat when I got home. “Sooooo, what’d ya get????????????????????” OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I think I fell on the floor laughing. I opened the box and pulled them out as a look of sheer disbelief and horror fell across his face. “You got boots from VS? The ugliest boots ever made?” Yes, yes I did. And when I slipped my feet into them and headed out to a frigid baseball game all was right in the world. :-) They have been my favorite winter boots since that day.
I never in a million years dreamed this would go on my list, but here we are. Haha! I was never a bath person – likely because mine was navy blue and 40 years old. But I’ve been converted. I love the Dr. Teal’s lavender bath salts and bubble bath as well. I still owe you a reveal of the bathroom but I’m having trouble with my camera. And then I got side tracked by Halloween. And now I need to put up Christmas. It’s coming soon-ish! See more of my bathroom here.
I picked up the three holiday blends and have been looooving them. The new intermittent holiday diffuser lets me enjoy them all day long. And yes, the Christmas china is out and in use already.
What are your winter necessities? I always love finding little things that feel luxurious in everyday use!
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TGIF Amanda!! As a fellow GA girl, I am so excited to see the sunshine today and no rain!! Your UGG boots story with Honey cracks me up!! Love all these little luxury ideas cause its all about the small things, have a great weekend!!
Lindsey
Hi Amanda,
Love your list! I embarrassed to tell you that I have 4-5 pairs of UGG boots and a pair of slippers. I couldn’t survive winter without those ugly, WARM boots. You must try their slippers, if you’re a slipper girl, too. Me and my toes love them!
I laughed again reading the VS boots story!
This year I started wearing fleece fingerless gloves INSIDE the house to keep my always-cold hands warm. I also pull out a little tub of Soap & Glory’s The Righteous Butter hand cream to counteract the incessant hand washing I do! I took your suggestion and tried the Harney & Sons cinnamon tea and love it. I had been using an amazing cinnamon tea that I first discovered at the Pike’s Place Market in Seattle, but the tea bags didn’t seem to keep their freshness for long enough. The Harney ones have been great!
It’s nice to see this cozy post as I sit here looking out at about 7 inches of snow on the ground! I am a big tea drinker so I will have to check out those flavors. Love that bathtub – can’t wait to see more pics in there! Enjoy your weekend!
Shelley
We are kind red spirits. I sleep with a heating pad that shuts off after an hour. For travel, I take 2 old fashioned ho t water bottles and fill them up with ho t water from the tap or coffee maker. They are great to sleep with and are flat so they don’t take up much room.
I also have several pairs of super soft fleecy socks that I adore.
As for tea, I love “Constant Comment” (orange spice) tea.
The one thing I couldn’t live without in the winter is my humidifier!