Best Things I Bought from Amazon Prime 2019

2019 saw a lot of Amazon orders for our household. We've become increasingly more reliant on the benefits of Prime for a lot of our cleaning and toiletry basics, as well as gifting and shopping as we live in a pretty small town {plus, I hate going to the Wal-mart}. A few of the things I purchased last year have been somewhat life changing so I wanted to share with you!

Key-less Entry Deadbolt--this was a Christmas gift to CJM, but was really a gift for both of us! This has eliminated the worry of "where is the key" when we leave or have someone staying at the house to watch the dogs. You can set up to six unique identifying codes, it can be programmed to lock on it's own after a few seconds for safety, and was pretty easy to install. There are fancier WiFi enabled options, but this one has worked really well for us in combination with our Ring doorbell and Blink video system.

Faux Fur Wrap--with two winter weddings, I wanted to find a fashionable and warm wrap. This one is beautiful, inexpensive, and warm! I'll be wearing it again this weekend actually!

Packing Cubes--my sister in law informed me I was traveling all wrong, and boy was she right. If you don't want to check a bag, packing cubes are a must. Even if you're not flying, this has helped all my items stay much more organized, and I can actually pack more things in every bag. A win win in my book!

Revlon One Step--I actually bought this for myself in 2018, but loved it enough to gift in 2019! This is a blow dry brush that doesn't rotate, is really large so it provides a shiny, sleek look to any length of hair. I always get compliments on the volume of my 'do when I use.

Jewelry Organizer--another way to step up the traveling game. This pretty blush organizer has tons of pockets, holes for earrings to go through, and folds up to keep everything together. No more tangled necklaces here!

Micro-needle Acne Patches--I have hormonal cystic acne, and I'm allergic to benzyl peroxide. I can only use salicylic acid products, but topical treatments really don't work on cysts. These micro-needle patches gently infuse the medication into the cyst, greatly reducing the inflammation/pain/and time you spend dealing with those suckers. My little brother has also had great success with these!

Make Up Rags--Who else has ruined white rags with mascara stains? There's a lot of different make up removing cloths out there these days, but I just wanted a regular one for after washing my make up off with my preferred soaps. I found these cute black ones pre-embroidered and they've been a great addition to my bathrooms.

Amazon Essentials Sweaters--I LOVE these sweaters. They're not too thick, very stretchy, and come in a million colors. I love the for work and weekends, and the price/quality can't be beat. Perfect with black slacks for a solid "office uniform." Go get 'em!

Brightening serum--I have been struggling with some dark marks {thanks, cystic acne} this year that I didn't have in the past. I looked into some more expensive skin care lines {R+F in particular} but can't use the whole line due to allergies and sensitivities. So I tried to find a similar product with the same ingredients and stumbled upon this one with tons of great reviews. This is an intense formula--it WILL dry your skin out. But it will also actually work. I had a few spots that looked like freckles under my make up and they're totally gone or on their way out. This is basically an at home chemical peel so be sure to use good SPF and read the instructions! If you have any questions, let me know.

Cooler--"Knock off Yeti" is what we'll call this one. When our fridge died at the end of the year, this Christmas gift was a life saver. Keeps your ice, doesn't leak, isn't heavy. Need I say more? I bought a cool Georgia Southern sticker to cover the China logo.

Microfiber sheets--a million great Amazon reviews, and I need to add my own. So soft, the right 'temperature' and we both love them. No need to spend hundreds of dollars to get great sheets. Will be ordering more!

Top LiketoKnowit Items of 2019

To shop the items above, simply hover and click over each one!

2019 was my first year using LiketoKnowit, which is an app that allows you to shop for the exact and similar items that I have while allowing me to earn a very small (usually less than 10% of the item's price!) commission. It's been interesting getting a little behind the scenes glimpse of what the "real bloggers" use to make the big bucks...like thousands and thousands of dollars a year. While I'm not there, I do appreciate those who have shopped with me and through my links! It's such a sweet surprise when people will message me on Instagram asking for a link to something they want to buy, that I haven't necessarily even shared yet.

Earning a little bit through LTK lets me continue to blog and share things on Instagram. I find it incredibly helpful to see how different things fit on a variety of body shapes and sizes, and I think it helps others too. Anyways, here's a round up of the most popular items from my LTK in 2019! Ya'll loved dresses and vacation wear so I'll be sure to keep that coming in 2020. And as always, thanks for visiting my Instagram and LiketoKnowit pages, every little like/comment/share/save/shop helps.

One Word 2020: HOME

What do you want your life to look like?

I think we all have pictures of this in our head, but have you ever sat down and actually taken the time to think about your life and what you want it to look like? How you want the people to feel when they interact with you and the things you influence like your family, your work, and your home? I started thinking about a word for the year on the last day of December, and what I wanted my life to look like for 2020. Overwhelmingly, the word "home" kept popping up.

We've spent a lot of time in 2019 working on parts of our physical home and we plan to continue this in 2020. But "home" felt like something that could be broken down into a lot of little pieces that kind of encompassed a lot of my thoughts at this point in my life. So I started asking myself a lot of questions about the intentions I had for my space, things, life.

• Inside my home: I want the spaces to feel cohesive. Right now, our upstairs and downstairs are like night and day and it drives me nuts. I dread going upstairs because it just feels so different than the first floor. Our first floor is clean (for the most part), organized (or at least getting there), inviting, and a place I enjoy being. Upstairs is where we dump and hide all of the things. It's not been painted since before we moved in so it visually doesn't match the curated look of the rest of the house. It's also cluttered, which I'm working on, and there is too much visual stress and mental weight to enjoy being in any of the spaces. I want my upstairs to feel just as good as the downstairs. I imagine a home where I never stress when people drop by and the whole space is fluid and open.
  
  
• Inside myself: Similarly, I want to experience the same feelings of curation, organization, and welcome in my heart that I experience when I step through my front door. I want things to make sense: does this outfit reflect how I feel; does this activity or organization complete or deplete from the image of who I want to be and who God made me to be. Do I make people feel welcomed? Am I organized in my behaviors, with my things, etc.? It's a lot when you start think about it! A lot of it boils down to being intentional.  I want to feel put together, so I have to be intentional about establishing routines and opportunities for that feeling to even exist. I don't feel curated when my house is a cluttered mess and my closet is a mash up of random 'in the moment' interests. 

I know a lot of this may come across as setting an unattainable goals, but I think you have to sit down and figure out what you what your life to look like as some sort of guide. Otherwise it's all a clustery mess! I want people to feel welcomed in my home and in my life. I want to feel put together on the outside and the inside, like everything has a place and that it all belongs, just like a home. I need things to be organized and uncluttered at home and at work to free my mind from stress and be more productive.


So what do you want your life to look? How do you want people to feel when they're around you? How do you want to feel when you're in your space? Do you feel like you're at home? If you have a word of the year, let me know!