Friday favorites- merry everything addition once again

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals for this blog post. 

It's been such a great week, but it's gone by so fast. If you know me at all, you know that I always dread my birthday because when it arrives on the fourteenth of this month, that means December is almost over and that Christmas day is quickly approaching. You also should know that it's not the actual day of Christmas that I love, but the entire season and I really would love if time would just hover right here in these days before Christmas. Truth be told, I'm always a little sad on Christmas day.

Well, having said all that, here are a few of my favorite things from this week. I thought I'd start with actual items that I love right now and that I use in my daily makeup routine.

I'll start with the Cerave moisturizer. Here is a link for it on Amazon, but we buy it at Costco in a pack that comes with two. I use this stuff first thing every morning and last thing every night after I've washed my face. 

That leads me to what I use to wash my face with these days, this Jojoba oil I also bought on Amazon. It was something recommended by my Amazon purchases and when I first got it, I wasn't too sure about it—but now I love it and use it all the time. I wash my face with it at night and use about four drops in my hand, then I rub it all over my entire face (even my lips) and I wash it off with a hot washcloth. In the morning, I use another two drops of it and mix it in with this illuminating face primer by the Elf brand  (but it never costs that much, it's usually less than $6) and a drop of my foundation, which is Fit Me foundation by Maybelline. I rub that in just using my hands, then I use this blush by Mellani. (It's the best blush I've ever used.) Using the jojoba oil has helped my dry skin so much, which is why I use it twice a day now. 

I set that with the Laura Mercier transluscent powder that my sister gave me as a gift when I was with her in Colorado back in October, and it is my new favorite powder. Eyes are next and I use two palettes everyday, one for eyeshadow, one for eyeliner and eyebrows and then mascara is the last thing I put on. This seems like a lot of makeup, but it really isn't— and all of this only takes me five minutes. I believe that for every expensive brand of makeup, there is an inexpensive brand that is equivalent. I'm no beauty blogger, that is for sure, this is just my humble opinion. 

Moving on, now...

I saw some of my favorite people this week, including their sweet Mommy!

Missy and I met one of my best friends Abbey, her daughter Everly (on the left in this picture above), and her son Asher on our town square today for them to have a picnic lunch while we sat and caught up. I haven't seen Abbey since Asher was about three months old, which would be mean I haven't seen her in an entire year. Stupid covid.

It was so good seeing them all and catching up, and little Everly seemed to remember me. I told Abbey that they're my favorites.

Our his and hers Christmas mugs of hot chocolate last night were my favorite, as Todd and I sat and watched The Voice Christmas special and the episode from Monday night. Isn't my tea towel cute? Tea towels are also one of my favorite things and I use all of mine all the time. 

I did not take this picture above, a man named Red Bardes took this a few years ago, when it snowed like this one day before Christmas. I think this was three or four years ago Tuesday—isn't it beautiful? Our town square is already one of the most magical of places and one of my favorite things to go see all year, but at Christmas and with snow and lights? It's almost too much. I love it here in my little (big) town of The Ville—have I ever told you that I grew up in this town?

Sunday was my favorite day of the week because of these three pictures above. We went to a beautiful wedding that afternoon at a gorgeous venue called Heartwood Hall. Holly was one of the first teenage girls I got to know at our church when we were new there and she was always one of my co-counselors at kids camp. We love her so much and she was radiant that day as a December bride. This handsome fella is my favorite and forever wedding date and Christmas weddings are DEFINITELY my favorite out of all the weddings.

Christmas shopping with my sister and mom is always a favorite thing to do and this was us doing just that on Saturday. 

I've been writing for an online magazine for over a year now and the words in this picture above are just a snipped of my latest article on Jesus as our hope and the light of the world. This image is one of my favorite that I have yet to see.

My happy place is also my favorite place and I visited last week to get some new books to read before Christmas. 

Monday night we celebrated one of our favorite guys of all time—Bill, also known as Big Daddy to the boys. These are all my guys—aren't they handsome? Left to right are Jonah (17), Graham (21), Drew (20) and Noah (17). I love all their smiles.

These pictures above are a couple of my favorites—this is Stacy, my oldest and dearest friend from as far back as I can remember. Wednesday was her birthday, so I shared these on social media and tagged her in the post. Weren't we cute? ;)

My beautiful mom and I went Christmas shopping on Tuesday and this was as close to a picture of us together that I remembered to take. I shared these on social media and got lots of compliments on my hair, which is very sweet. I'm letting it grow because it's curly and I don't know what else to do with it for the time being. I don't know how long this will last before I'll want to get some cut. I am going Friday the 18th to get a trim, some long layers put in again and fresh blonde highlights. I can't wait! Hair day is my favorite day.

My mom-in-love and I also went Christmas shopping this week and we made a run through Starbucks for some of our favorite seasonal drinks. She got a peppermint mocha and I got an Irish cream coldbrew. On Thursday night we had dinner with them at their house so I was able to see all their beautiful Christmas decorations. 

I had such a fun and unexpected thing happen on Monday. When I came home from shopping that day, this beautiful journal was waiting for me in the mailbox. My friend Rhonda sent me this personalized journal—and most of you know that journals are my favorite! She wrote me the sweetest letter and I immediately sent her a text to thank her. Unexpected things in the mail are always so much fun! 

Don't look too closely at the slightly differing heights of the two pictures at the top, but I've been hanging some of my favorite pictures upstairs all week. (I never measure, I just eyeball.) The two pictures at the top are Todd's grandparents (on the left) and my Mammaw and Pappaw on the right. I love this wall! I have plans to hang a few more things on this same wall, so I'll show you that when I get around to hanging it all. 

How's your week been? I'd love to hear from you! 

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

Love to all—Jen.