The holiday season is definitely the thing I’m loving most this week. From festive cookie exchanges to beautiful decorations and twinkling lights, it really does feel like such a magical time of year. I can’t wait to hop in the car next weekend and head to my parents’ place in Jacksonville for the week!
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself… Let’s jump into our usual Friday fun and chat about what we’re loving this week. As always, feel free to share something that is making you smile in the comments section of this post… It just might count as an entry into today’s Happy Holidays Giveaway Week giveaway!
Things I’m Loving Friday
- A New Gym Job (…but I’m still keeping my other gym job, too!)
About a week ago, one of my favorite Pure Barre teachers passed my name along to the manager of a small corporate gym at a local business park. Then, earlier this week, I went in for an interview and am happy to report I’ll be picking up some more classes and working a few days a week at another small local gym! Both gyms where I’ll be working (the one I’ve been working at since November 1 and this new one) are very small and quite different from what I was used to when I taught at the YMCA in Ocala. I am enjoying the change and really like the intimate atmosphere!
These cookies are just the best. I made them for my cookie exchange party earlier this week and baked another batch yesterday before our last Girls On The Run practice of the season. The girls absolutely gobbled them up and raved about them which naturally made my heart happy. My grandma’s oversized, fluffy sugar cookies were my all-time favorite when I was a little girl and I always knew I could expect to see her big glass cookie jar overflowing with them whenever we’d go to Gettysburg to visit. (And yes, that’s Mimi’s handwriting on the recipe card above. Love!)
- Pandora Rockin’ Holidays Station
If you’re looking for an upbeat holiday Pandora station, check out the Rockin’ Holidays station! It’s full of energizing Christmas songs and I’ve been playing it non-stop since the day after Thanksgiving!
- Beautycounter Glow Sugar Scrub
Ryan and I had such a nice time with our friends Amii and Walt over dinner last weekend. As we ate Amii’s amazing baked ziti and sipped on fabulous wine, Amii told me a little bit about some of the beauty and skincare products she’s been loving lately since she’s heard me complain about my skin a time or two. She let me take home a few of her favorite samples to try from Beautycounter (she’s a consultant – and not pushy at all), and I quickly fell in love with the Glow Sugar Scrub and Peppermint Lip Conditioner. The sugar scrub is unreal (it smells like refreshing lemongrass) and only uses real sugar and pure essential oils to exfoliate skin for a healthy glow. The mineral-rich evening primrose, sweet almond, apricot kernel, and sunflower oils leaves my skin feeling soft and so, so hydrated which is much-needed since my skin cannot soak up enough moisturizer in the colder months. I’ve been using it when I shave in the shower and adore it!!
Our realtor is absolutely the best! Earlier this week, I arrived home to find the sweetest package of holiday chocolates sitting on our doorstep from Diane which made me smile. She’s so incredibly thoughtful and clearly has the best taste in chocolate because every single piece of Davidson Chocolate included in the giant solid-chocolate star box I’ve tried so far has been fabulous!
- Happy Holidays Giveaway Week Winners
Congratulations to Bre (grand prize) and Molly and Arianne (runner up), the winners of the Lorna Jane giveaway! And congratulations to Karen G. ($250 gift card) and Rachel W. (Skyscapes), the winners of the Reebok giveaway! All winners were emailed first thing this morning.
- Birchbox Giveaway
I first started subscribing to Birchbox, a monthly subscription beauty box, last year. Each box includes five beauty samples from high-end brands and my ongoing subscription has led to some of my all-time favorite beauty product discoveries, including theBalm Stainiac lip stain, Klorane dry shampoo, Dr. Brandt skincare and more.
It’s so much fun to receive a pretty little box filled with fun beauty samples each month and I think it would make a great gift for the beauty-lover in your life! Thankfully, Birchbox was kind enough to agree to host an awesome giveaway on the blog today in honor of Happy Holidays Giveaway Week!
One grand prize winner will receive a 6-month Birchbox subscription and a Cynthia Rowley Beauty Palette! And a runner-up winner will receive a 3-month Birchbox subscription!
To enter this giveaway, please answer one (or both!) of the following questions:
- What is one beauty product you’d love to see in your first Birchbox? Maybe you’re dying to try a new kind of eyeliner. Or perhaps you could use a better cleanser or lip gloss? Let me know!
- What is one thing you’re loving this week?
I will randomly select a winner next Friday. Good luck!!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
I would love to find the perfect moisturizer!
I would like to try some haircare products. I have my basic shampoo/conditioner regiment down, but I want to try more fun products to make my hair look better.
I would love to try a new blush! I am loving the fact it is FRIDAY and my office Christmas party is tonight 🙂
I just ran out of my favorite blush so I’d definitely want to see some of that!
I would love to see a nail polish color I wouldn’t normally buy on m y own. 🙂
I’m loving pastries this week! There’s a local bakery that specializes in all things french pastry and I just can’t get enough. sugar and butter overload for sure!
What is one beauty product you’d love to see in your first Birchbox?
W3LL bio brightening stick! I spotted a bright glow on one of my girlfriends and inquired about her newest product! Would love to try this!
What is one thing you’re loving this week?
One thing I’m loving this week…the book “All the Lights We Cannot See”. Fantastic work!
I need some new blush!
I would love to find a face cleanser that will help minimize my pores 😛
I could use some new lipstick! Loving that it’s fridayyy!
I would love a new face cream or mask. I need something to keep my skin looking fresh in the winter!
I would love a new color of lipstick .
I always love trying new face scrubs and masks. And something I’m loving this week is looking forward to weekend holiday parties!
I would love to try out a new face cream or lip gloss! And what am I love this Friday? The fact that it’s friday! Haha
I have been wanting to try dry shampoo!
I have been loving all of the great gift ideas the bloggers have been putting out there this week! So helpful when finishing up my holiday shopping!
I would love to try a new mascara!
This week I am loving how kind people have been as I have embarked on networking to find a job in a new to me city!
i’ve been wanting to try a liquid eyeliner that’s easy to use and apply! and loving purebarre..
I would love to try one of the Smashbox primers! My face makeup never stays for the whole night, and I’ve heard primers really help!
New MASCARA!!!! <3
I would love to try some great body lotion to help tame my flaky legs!
I just ran out of my daily moisturizer so I’d to sample one that could become my new favorite. This week, I’m loving delivering some of my holiday presents. ‘Tis the season
I love anything and everything anti-aging haha.
I would love to try your favorite stainiac lip stain and also skin care products for easily clogged pores!
I am on an seemingly everlasting hunt for an awesome mascara that DOESN’T FLAKE? Does it even exist?
I would love a new lipstick!
I’ve been loving the NTC app this week. I just started using it a few days ago and the workouts are amazing!
I’m still on the hunt for an affordable mascara..I think I’ve tried almost all of them!
I have heard a lot of people talk about using powder to shape and define their brows. I would love to get eyebrow powder in my birchbox to try it out.
One thing I have been loving this week? Christmas play lists on Spotify! I know a lot of people find christmas carols annoying, but I love them!
Skin care!!
Those cookies look SO YUMMY!!!!!
I would love a nude-ish lipstick!
I am loving the holiday season! From Christmas music in the office, to Christmas lights around the neighborhood and oh the Christmas movies on tv! It is such a wonderful and magical time of year!
I would love a good moisturizer! I have tried other beauty subscriptions. but not Birchbox and would love to win!
I would love to try a new eyebrow liner!
Love to try Lip stains that stay put without drying your lips.
Happy Friday! I would love to try a new blush! I love blush in the winter months.
One beauty product I would LOVE to see in my first Birchbox is a good foundation! I am not the most makeup savy — although I love wearing it! To see what a high-end brand foundation does to my skin would be amazing!
One thing that I am loving this week is the smells this time of the year brings — especially my pine & pumpkin candles. Mmmm.
This week I am loving looking at a Christmas tree with a bunch of presents wrapped below it!
I’m loving the build up to the holidays! I have all my presents wrapped and sitting under the tree and cannot wait to give them out.
I would love to see some eye shadow in mine, since I never really experiment with it and it would be fun to try out different shades!
Also one thing I’m loving are the Columbus Zoo Lights, a great way to get in the mood for Christmas. They’re stunning!!
I would love to try a new lip gloss!
This week I am absolutely loving the Pepperidge Farm Gingerman cookies. They’re pretty much addictive and the perfect little dessert to have with tea or cocoa at night 🙂 Also, it’d be awesome to see some kind of lip scrub in the Birch Box. My lips always seem to be chapped/ peeling and no gloss or chapstick seems to do the trick 🙂 Happy Friday!
This week I am loving all of the holiday celebrations at work! One thing I would love in my Birchbox would be either a new blush or bronzer, or new mascara!
I would love some new lipstick, it’s so hard to find a good one! This week, I’m loving all the holiday cheer at work, from the baked goods, to the outfits- an elementary school is a great place to work during the holidays!
Im loving moving this week! We move today out of temp housing and into our new condo in Chicago and Im super pumped about it. I should actually be packing up the last of our stuff from temp housing but am distracted by blog reading…
I am loving seeing all the christmas lights and watching the kids’ faces light up as they see and experience all things holiday! I would love to try a new exfoliator.
probably some nice eye liners or brow kits I need more help 🙂
Not your Mother’s Dry Shampoo! I tried it once and it was so affordable and worked awesome!