#AMonthofFaves: These Are A Few Of Our Favourite Things

Today's theme for #AMonthofFaves is our "favourite things" from 2021. The suggestions were "to wear, smell, see, do, enjoy, best purchases, most used gift received, most used purchases, something crafty you made." I'm linking up with Kim and Tanya at Girl XOXO again. So settle back as I recap some of our favourites from this past year.

Let's start with things we wore.

Sadly, it appears that masks are here to stay for awhile so, while masks themselves aren't a favourite, the ones we get sure are! I bought a bunch of new ones for the new school year and my friend, Melinda, makes all our masks and they are so great! She has the best patterns!!!

 

I bought two items of clothing off Amazon this year -- and I almost never buy anything off Amazon!

I love my striped sweater and I loved my pineapple shirt this summer. And those denim shorts I'm wearing were another favourite purchase. However, they came from Old Navy. I was inspired to wear denim shorts by my daughter, Rachel, who basically lives in them in the summer and I wore mine so often, I think I'll invest in another pair for next summer.

 

 

And I don't know if this counts as "wearing" but the kids spent months snuggled up in these blankets! We gave Sam the fuzzy tortilla blanket for his birthday and they got the two fuzzy ones in February.

Another favourite thing was the man in our church who brought us pies all year. He started gifting them to families during online learning and I think we've gotten almost a pie a month from him since then.

Best of all, when Rachel learned to bake a chocolate cake by herself, this man and his pies inspired her to give away chocolate cakes to people. I think she's made, and given away, about twenty of them already.

 

Speaking of food, I was thrilled to get local eggs almost all year. And just when all our previous egg providers stopped selling them (for various reasons), I found out that a new coworker sells eggs so we'll have them all winter too!

Speaking of favourite things to eat, we started buying the slightly more expensive cheese at Costco this past summer, and now I don't think we'll ever go back. I LOVE the 2 Year Balderson Cheddar and Sam and I both loved the Double Smoked Balderson. Yum!!!

Our family also got into flavoured fizzy waters this summer. In fact, we drank so much of them, the kids encouraged us to invest in a Soda Stream. That was a favourite purchase for sure!

 

Other favourite purchases we made this past year include our super awesome beach towels (from Costco) and my lunch bag. This lunch bag replaced the 12 year old Kindermusik cooler bag I used for lunches all last year!

And for those of you who were reading the blog last January through March, you will not be at all surprised to hear that my favourite things to buy in those months were TULIPS!!! In just three and a half short weeks, tulips will be back in stores! Whooooo hooooo!!!

 

The puzzle love, all of which we acquired from the same local shop, continued. And we got some good ones this year!

The last category is crafty things you made/things to do. I discovered The Conqueror Virtual Missions last year but finished two of them this year. I finished my first one (Camino de Santiago (772 km (480 miles))) in March and then a second one (Kruger Game Park (412 km (256 miles))) in July. Now I'm working on the North Coast of Scotland (806 km (500 miles)). I'm kind of addicted to these things :)

Another favourite (and this one proves I'm a boring adult), is our weekly housecleaning night. When I got permanent hours at work, I told Dave I wanted to hire a house cleaner. Then we ran into friends who commented that having a house cleaner wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Thus, we decided to spend money on easy suppers and implement a "house cleaning night."

So every Wednesday, we have an easy supper (store bought lasagna we throw in the oven, grocery store sushi, fast food take out, etc) and we all clean our house for a few hours. I'm so excited that our house is cleaner, we're all pitching in, and we're not spending as much as we would on having a regular cleaner.

In May I discovered the world of focaccia art. If you search on Pinterest you will see a ton of beautiful bread art. Both of mine were inspired by other people. I really need to make more of this because it was so fun to create and delicious to eat.

And this last thing was inspired by a commercial we saw last year while watching Hallmark movies. Dave, Rachel, and I spent an entire afternoon making a village of snow people. I LOVED how long they lasted (about six weeks before I finally threw them out) and how much fun they were. I think I'll bring them back this January because they were definitely a favourite :)

So there you have it -- a random, eclectic mix of favourites -- some things to buy, some things to eat, some things to make, and all of them things to enjoy!