Today I’m sharing just a few of my favorite things from 2021. Enjoy!
Usually, I do a favorites post once every three months or so. But I just kept pushing it off in 2021…and now my last favorites post is from 2020. The things I’m talking about today are the very best of the best from the past 12 months.
Cassette tapes t-shirt. I went down a rabbit role on Amazon looking at vintage-inspired t-shirts and ended up getting this cassette tapes shirt. This shirt has been the best. I love that it’s just a graphic print without any words and that it comes in heathered color options.
Vintage Brand. In case the cassette tapes t-shirt wasn’t enough, I also picked up a few shirts from Vintage Brand. I saw another mom wearing this Milwaukee Bucks t-shirt when I was out with the kids and tracked it down on Vintage Brand just a few weeks before they won the championship. I’ve since bought a couple more designs from Vintage Brand. The shirts aren’t super soft but are still so comfortable and feel really good, even in hot weather.
Katie’s Daisy’s 2021 shirt designs. The other new shirts I’ve had in regular rotation this year are a couple of Katie Daisy’s shirt designs from her spring 2021 release. I’ve loved Katie’s work for years and already had two of her shirts. I was so excited about her spring release. The photography is amazing, too.
PNAEONG nightgown. I’m dating myself here when I tell you that all of the shirts from college that I use as sleep shirts are 15+ years old. Needless to say, they’ve all seen better days. I have spent years searching for nice pajama sets and nightgowns that are actually comfortable for sleeping and appropriate to wear around kids. The PNAEONG nightgown is by far and away the best. It is really comfortable for sleeping and comes in so many fun prints and colors.
I linked the exact one that I have. If you search PNAEONG nightgown on Amazon, you’ll find a couple more very similar nightgowns with even more color/pattern options as well as their other sleepwear, which includes long-sleeved nightgowns and pajama sets.
The Stitch Fix app. I finally took the plunge and tried Stitch Fix when a friend got a $100 off code to offer new users. Unfortunately, my first few fixes have been really disappointing. BUT the shopping feature on the app has been awesome. I’ve done a ton of closet cleaning during my time at home the past couple of years, and I’ve found a lot of new items through Stitch Fix that I really love.
Barefoot Dreams blanket. I finally gave in to the hype and got a Barefoot Dreams blanket. It has actually been an add-on option through the Nordstrom Trunk Club a few times this year, which was the perfect way to try it out. The blanket does live up to its reputation. It’s the only blanket I claim as my own and put away during the day, so the cats and kids don’t use it.
Stacking birthstone rings. After Olivia was born, I knew that I wanted some sort of birthstone family jewelry. I finally settled on a set of stacking birthstone rings from Alaridesign on Etsy. I love that the rings are so lightweight. They’re very well made with beautiful stones. They fit more snuggly together than any other stacking rings I’ve ever tried on and without a lot of twisting.
Jewelry storage organizer. I don’t even want to tell you what I was using to store a ton of my bracelets the past decade or so. I do have a nice jewelry box. But it isn’t nearly big enough for everything I own and doesn’t have ring storage. So the whole thing has been a mess. I couldn’t be happier with this jewelry storage organizer. It’s so pretty and has room for all of my rings and lots of other pieces.
Mini naan. The Stonefire mini naan has been a game-changer for me this year for easy breakfasts. I love to top one with a fried egg, lettuce/greens, green onion, and tomato. At some point, I may post the recipe. But there really isn’t much to it.
I’ve tried all of the current varieties of Stonefire mini naan, and they’re all good. I buy whatever is currently available at Target or Festival Foods.
Traeger. I promise that I was not sponsored or compensated in any way to talk about our Traeger. I just love it so much. Jake actually got the Traeger for his birthday this summer. But I’m the one who’s been doing almost all of the cooking on it since then. There are so many recipes that I never would have attempted otherwise, like brisket and pork tenderloin, that have been so easy with the Traeger.
Obviously, as with anything, there’s a learning curve. But the Traeger has been so much less intimidating for me than a gas grill.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I haven’t had nearly as much time in the car for audiobooks in 2021 as I have in previous recent years. But I made it through a handful of audio titles in 2021, including These Happy Golden Years to finish out the original Laura Ingalls Wilder series. I had read parts of the series growing up but never all the way through in its entirety. It was so nice to listen to them all in order, and Cherry Jones is such a fabulous narrator.
Concrete Rose and On the Come Up. Hands down, the best books I’ve read thus far in 2021 were Concrete Rose and On the Come Up, both by Angie Thomas. I really liked The Hate U Give and thought her writing was just as good in both Concrete Rose and On the Come Up. We get back story on so many different characters in Concrete Rose, which I loved. I hope that she’ll write more books about these same characters.
The Last Dance. Literally, the only show I watched in its entirety in 2021 was The Last Dance. We’d been curious about it for months. We finally made it a priority when it came to Netflix. I know that most of you don’t know that I grew up in Chicago and was a freshman in high school when the Bulls won their final championship with Michael Jordan. The entire series is steeped in so much nostalgia for me. I loved reliving so many iconic moments, and I learned a lot, too. Jake is not a basketball fan at all, but he really enjoyed it as well.
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