Tag Archives: the best ever

Best Blanket EVER!!

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Best Blanket EVER!!

Howdy!! Every weekend, I have been diligently wrapping away at my cache of Christmas prezzies. I also got the very last gift I needed on my shopping list this past week at Elysian Nails. GREAT SUCCESS! On Sunday, I decided to finish my gift wrapping in its entirety and it was so nice to get some floor space back in my office once all of the packages had been opened! To my surprise, one of the boxes I opened contained something I didn’t remember ordering for myself at all. I questioned if I did some drunk Amazon shopping, but then I realized it was a Christmas gift from my A1 blogging bestie – Kate from Live In The Nautical. Check it out:

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One thing about Kate and I is that we are massive freeze babies lol. We are both literally always cold and Kate loves to cocoon in her heated blanket. Wrapping up in a warm hug of a blanket is something that is most appealing to me, but it’s something I would never buy for myself. So, Kate took matters into her own hands and I have an inkling that she has known exactly what to spoil me with for Xmas since this October. We had a massive drop in temperatures in Ohio and my apartment complex didn’t turn the heat on so Johnny and I were basically living in an ice box for a week. Kate is the most spectacular gift giver because she is constantly taking mental notes of situations like this and provides a remedy for it. ❤

My heated blanket was actually the last package I opened before it was a wrap on wrapping presents. As soon as I saw it, I ripped the box the blanket came in open and was ready to reward myself with a day of becoming one with my couch after a successful holiday shopping season. And become one with my couch, I did. From the comfort of my new heated blanket, I had a Degrassi marathon and vegged TF out. I live for a good Degrassi binge sesh and it was further enhanced by this Bwarm blanket because it is the freaking BEST. It is SO soft, SO comfortable, and has six different heat settings so you can adjust the temps as needed. I opted for a healthy “four” and it literally felt like I was wrapped up in all the comforters on my bed. It was also so soothing on my arms and back which tend to get a bit achy from never ending work on the computer. 12/10 Highly recommend!

Huge shout out to my main boo for this top tier present!! I have a feeling I am going to be living in this blanket as soon as I get home from work every day!

What is your favorite item that brings you comfort? Are you always hot or always cold? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Cleveland (Clinic) Rocks!

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Cleveland (Clinic) Rocks!

Hello! In the greater Akron area, there is honestly not too much to do lol. For the people who think Ohio is basically just corn; you’re spot on! In fact, the most exciting thing that has happened was a literal dumpster fire outside of my apartment this past winter SMH. Having said that, there are tons of perks to living in my neck of the woods and that includes being about forty-five minutes away from Cleveland. Of course, I love my outings at Playhouse Square, but the most important thing is being close to some of the best medical care on planet Earth: the Cleveland Clinic.

For the past two months and change, I have essentially been living at the Cleveland Clinic as a loved one has been a long term patient. I now consider my family to be a CC staple and jokingly call ourselves the mayors of the Clinic every day. It never gets old! Although this current situation in my life isn’t great, we take immense comfort in knowing our loved one has access to treatment from the absolute best doctors, nurses, and staff.

99.99% of the people we have interacted with that are employed by the Clinic have been nothing short of amazing. This doesn’t just go for the doctors and nurses, but everyone from maintenance to housekeeping, the art and music therapists and anyone in between. My family is always greeted with smiles, chit chat, and the pleasantries that make us feel a bit more at ease in a difficult time. One of the things that I adored was this sweet surprise in my loved one’s room compliments of the housekeeping staff and I got to take it home in honor of Mel and Pen:

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^^^ Seriously, how cute is that?!

Saying that we are eternally grateful to the Cleveland Clinic is the most severe understatement of the century. They have done more for my family than words can say and have been with us through each hardship as if they were our family too. My life has been turned upside down and on its head this past year, but being around the CC staff who I now interact with as old friends makes things a little easier. We are in awe of everyone’s expertise and will never forget everything that they have done around the clock to help our loved one. They are all angels on Earth and as much as I enjoy their company, I’ll be happy when I never have to see them again lol. 🙂

Life has been rough for Lil Red for a while now, but I can’t think of a better place for my loved one to be than the Cleveland Clinic. Like the Olive Garden, when you’re at the CC, you’re family too!

What is a great thing about where you live? What is something that you can only find in your neck of the woods? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Best Chocolate EVER!!

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Best Chocolate EVER!!

Hello! Whenever Johnny’s amazing Aunt Elaine comes to visit from Boston, she always comes with delicious treats from Phillips Chocolates in tow. For Easter, Johnny and I returned home with a huge haul of chocolates from Aunt Elaine and I just had to share them with all of you. Of course, the chocolate tastes divine but they are so pretty I almost didn’t even want to eat them! Lol, check it out:

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My Johnny has a huge sweet tooth. Myself, on the other hand, prefers more savory and I always would rather have more dinner than save room for dessert. All bets are off when it comes to Phillips Chocolate, though, and I seriously think that I could eat an entire box full. They are the most decadent, rich chocolates that I have ever had and, now that our supply is gone, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I miss them. 😦

The box of truffles we got literally made me gasp when I took off the lid. They were so beautiful and before Johnny and I took a piece, I had to take pictures of them. I apologized to Johnny for momentarily standing in the way between him and chocolatey bliss but he told me he would have done the exact same thing. Is he the best blog husband, or what?

The truffles were all chocolate filled and they were melt in your mouth heavenly. My favorite thing from Phillips, however, is the assorted box which features chocolate turtles, caramels, nougat, fruit, nuts, and all of the chocolatey goodness you can imagine. Johnny and I worked our way through our favorites in the box then, when they were gone, we started telling each other to “surprise me”. As long as it wasn’t a fruit one, we were fine with whatever!

If you are looking for a gift for a special occasion, as a thank you, or just because, I can’t recommend Phillips Chocolates enough. Just be sure to order a couple of boxes for yourself too! 😀

What is your favorite sweet treat? Do you prefer sweet or savory? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

 

NYX Matte Lipstick – The Best Ever!!

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NYX Matte Lipstick – The Best Ever!!

Heyyyy everyone and happy Hump Day! I hope this week has been treating you well so far! Thanks to a recent trip to the grocery store with my mama and the NYX cosmetics being thirty percent off, I’ve officially found my new favorite lipstick brand. The NYX matte lipsticks are simply to die for! As you guys know, I only wear my lipstick in matte form – I hate shiny and glossy too much for words. I’ve been using the Revlon matte balms for a while, but they just haven’t been doing it for me lately, so the hunt for the perfect matte lipstick began. Unfortunately, everything I tried just wasn’t cutting it! From Covergirl to Loreal, from Maybelline to Rimmel NOTHING was good enough! All of them just felt too sticky, still looked too shiny, and the color was nowhere near as rich as I would want it to be. Luckily, on the fateful trip to the grocery store last week, I found the most perfect lipstick I could imagine. The NYX matte lipsticks are truly amazing. The color is SO rich and pure and goes on perfectly matte. The lipstick is long lasting and the consistency is creamy enough that it doesn’t dry your lips out, like some recent matte lipsticks have done to me. I initially bought three lipsticks for around four dollars each (they were originally around seven dollars each), but once I got home and tried them out I just had to get more…that’s how happy I was with them. So the following day I returned to the store and bought two more colors that I couldn’t stop thinking about. Here’s a picture and description of each new color that I added to my collection:

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Perfect Red: Aside from my flaming red hair, another reason why I earned the nickname “Lil Red” was from constantly wearing red lipstick. I’ve been painting my lips red for years now, and I can’t get enough. From fire engine, to ruby, to the deepest blood red, there is something so sexy to me about a red lip. I always opt for the brighter reds, but I really like this vampy, darker shade! I’m really excited to wear this color during the fall (even though that’s forever away!), it’s the perfect autumn shade! Until then, I plan on pairing this blood red with an all black everything outfit, and strutting about like the vampire I was in a past life. (Which I’m totally convinced is true, but that’s a story for another time!)

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Street Cred: I rarely wear non-red lipstick, but I thought this medium pinky shade was so pretty!! It’s going to be such a sweet color for wearing out and about during the spring and summer time. Even in my early days of experimenting with different lipstick colors, I always shied away from the hot pinks…they just never looked quite right on me – so I was very happy to find this lovely shade of blush that I actually really like. Of course I’ll never wear this as often as my signature ruby reds, but it will be fun to change it up on occasion!

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Indie Flick: Not gonna lie, I was pretty ambivalent about this red orange shade, but it’s safe to say after a few days of giving it a trail run that I’m obsessed. I love how this color pops against my pasty pale skin and my hazel eyes. My favorite thing is when my eyes change to this awesome Edward Cullen-esque gold while I’m wearing this shade…the result is striking. I tried out a Maybelline lipstick one time that claimed to fall under the red orange color range, but it was so obviously orange and I was so disappointed. I’m so happy that NYX’s Indie Flick still has the red tones in it that keep this color in my comfort zone.

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Shocking Pink: Fuchsia lipstick either looks really good or really bad on me. I’m not quite sure how much I like this shade yet, but we’ll see! Everything about my look for the day has to be working perfectly for me to be totally in love with a fuchsia lip. Luckily, my sister Kristen looks amazing in fuchsia lipstick (jealous!) so this color will probably be added to her makeup collection. What I do like about this shade is that it’s not quite pink. If you see it in real life and on the lips, it has a really gorgeous lavender undertone, which makes for a cool and unique color. Like I said, we’ll see – but don’t expect me to start rocking fuchsia lips on the daily any time soon!

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Pure Red: Ahhhhh! This one is my absolute favorite!! So sassy, so bright, so fun. NYX’s Pure Red is the perfect shade if you’re looking for a super bold “look at me” lip. I could rant and rave about this color for hours, but just trust me when I say that it’s gorgeous, perfect, striking, stunning, and literally everything that you could want if you’re looking to rock a red lip. So in love, so obsessed and absolutely NEVER going back to my original Covergirl red lipstick. Yeah…it’s that good.

To all of my lipstick lovers out there – I urge you to give NYX’s lipstick a try! Their matte colors are incredible, and even though I personally don’t like shiny lipstick, I’m sure those options are terrific as well!

What’s your favorite lipstick color to wear? What’s the most embarrassing lipstick mishap you’ve ever had? Red lipstick all over your teeth during a date? Smeared lipstick on your chin after lunch that no one told you was there? (Bastards!) I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Happy Wednesday! -Sarah