Favorite things

I figure if Oprah is important enough to broadcast her favorite things, then so am I. I also believe that people should share their favorite items, in case someone else has yet to "discover" them. Besides, if you buy them they are less likely to be discontinued, therefore benefiting me as well! I should say though that some of my favorite things are unique to me and are special to me because of their history, so you can't buy everything in this post. Without further ado, in no particular order:

I love these plants.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: The one on the left I bought when I got my first "real" job after college. I had my own office with a windowsill that begged for greenery. This guy was a little scraggly thing near death when I rescued it from my favorite rack at Fred Meyer....the plant reject rack. I think it was $1. Second from the left is the African Violet that Bryan bought me while I was just in Boston because he missed me and wanted a gift for when I returned. Skip over the Garfield chia pet...that's Bryan's. Next is the African Violet I won at my best friend Maria's wedding shower two years ago. I won for correctly estimating a bucket full of household goods from Target. I rocked at it because I am a faithful Target shopper. On the right is an aloe vera plant. This plant was started at Sherri's house long ago when Lani was just a baby...so about 6 years ago. She had a sadly neglected aloe plant, so I repotted it and all of the "sprouts." This is a world-traveler plant. It has been to Portland and back by car. Now parts of the first planted sprouts also reside at Bryan's sister's house.

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The top plant here was a gift from my internship supervisor Tamara when I was finishing up my master's degree. It had these beautiful purple flowers, then looked like a weed for the rest of the year. When I moved to Rochester I was going to throw it away (it had been a year without any new flowers), and lo and behold it had 5 just budding flowers. The bottom plant I "won" in the gift exchange my first year at PRE, about 4 years ago. All of these plants have been cross country with me, so I love them. Each one has a story that reminds me of something important in my life.

I love these Nike flip flops.

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Why I love them: These are the MOST COMFORTABLE flip flops I have ever worn. So much so that when Bryan borrowed them one day at a concert, he immediately wanted his own. Now I have 3 pairs, he has 2, and our roommate Krista has been known to slip on some of ours when no one is looking! I wear mine so much I have tan lines from them.

I love this scrub.

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Why I love it: I could sum this up with "I love Bath and Body Works," as you will soon see. This scrub is divine. A light scent of lavender, subtle scrubby stuff, in a creamy paste. Delightful! Even better that it was on sale for $4 when I bought it.

I love this shampoo and conditioner.

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Why I love them: Not only is this stuff cheap (on sale for $3 a bottle at B&BW), but it smells fantastic. The first week I used it Bryan was constantly saying how good my hair smelled.

I love this lip gloss.

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Why I love it: This gloss comes in many different shades and glides on smoothly with no clumps. But my favorite part is the mint scent it has. So fresh and soothing. Totally worth the $7.50 price tag, although I have never paid more than $3 on sale.

I love raspberries, hand picked

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Why I love them: I truly think there is nothing better in this world than a raspberry. Sweet, yet tart. Seedy, yet smooth. I love that in New York there are TWO picking seasons...summer and fall. These berries I picked this week, along with some blueberries and gooseberries.

I love tastycakes, namely butterscotch krimpets.

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Why I love them: My friend Travis introduced me to these in college. They come from his home town of Philly, so every time he went home I would give him money to buy me some. These light cakes have a sweet frosting on top. They are delicious, and at 6 grams of fat for 2 cakes, they aren't a terribly gluttonous indulgence. I hadn't had them in forever, and literally squealed in a grocery store in Florida on our vacation when they had them. Imagine the squeal I had a few months ago when I found out Tops has them RIGHT HERE IN ROCHESTER.

Saving the best for last, I love this man.

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Why I love him: There are a million reasons why I love him, but as of late, it is because he is my pool hero. Although he is stupendously busy with school, he has spent COUNTLESS hours skimming, filtering, and vacuuming the pool. He was the first brave one today to jump in so he could scoop the last stubborn parts by diving under and using the scoop. I think tomorrow I might just jump in myself. Man I wish I had a picture of the DARK green swamp we had just a few short weeks ago.