My Favorite Things – March Edition

This is a  feature in which I want to share some of the things that have me obsessed from month-to-month, whether it is music, food, make-up, or anything else that makes me giddy during the month.

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Makeup –  As we move into warmer weather, I find myself leaning towards a softer lip palate. Enter NYX Cosmetics Butter Lip Gloss

. This is not a new product line, but I find it is my favorite lip gloss to wear. Not too sticky and surprisingly long-lasting for a gloss, it leaves my lips soft and adds the right hint of color. I have this particular gloss in several different colors, and I love how I can go brighter or more muted depending on my mood. They also make a great overlay for lipstick or lip stain. It is just a fantastic product.

Movies –  You all know I do not watch many movies. I have ones I want to see, but I almost never get around to watching them because I choose reading over sitting in front of the TV or at a theater. Still, when Jim brought home Spotlight

the other night, I made sure to take the time to watch it with him. I am so glad I did too. What a profoundly moving and upsetting story that hit this former Catholic girl hard. I knew the gist of the story, but I never knew the full details. It is the details which make the movie so compelling, and the cast does an amazing job of balancing horror with humility with professional eagerness at the scoop of a lifetime. I have not seen any other Academy Award nominees, but I can easily see why this won for Best Picture. It made me cheer and flinch and cry. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Music –  I suck. Well, I don’t suck, but sometimes the fact that I do not watch a lot of television or many movies really gets in the way of me discovering awesome new things. Take Pentatonix

. I had no idea who they were until Holly’s tap teacher selected one of their songs to use for Holly’s class. Within a few short minutes of listening to them, I was hooked. And embarrassed that they have been around for several years now but I am just now discovering them.

Organization – I used to be a Day Designer gal. I used to take several hours each week to decorate my planner and plan out each day. I still love my Day Designer, but after a while those hours spent planning became a chore. Enter the bullet journal system. I have been hearing about it for a while now, but it always seemed really complicated to me. However, with just a little research, I dove right in and have come for air refreshed and happy. I love it because it is one of the most forgiving systems ever. You do not have to stick with one format; you can make adjustments as you go. It holds all of those to-dos and wish lists and future lists all in one spot. You can decorate it if you so desire or let it be. It takes me minutes to set up the day and less than an hour to set up the month. When I have some extra time, I will add stickers and washi. If I don’t, I still with my colored pens. That way, I can still add a bit of color without taking hours to do so.

The system is easy enough that I have found myself using similar bullets system for my work notes and have modified that to be as forgiving and adaptable as my bujo. I like that carryover, and it only reconfirms what each bullet symbol means. There too I can keep it as simple or ornate as possible, but I really like this system for all of those odd notes that I take throughout the day from phone calls, quick requests, or the like. The bullet journal system has given me the freedom to do away with the myriad of sticky notes and scraps of paper upon which I used to jot down such notes. 

Even better is the fact that I not only adopted the bullet journal system but I combined that with my journal into a traveler’s notebook. I think the most famous version is the Midori, but I went the much cheaper fauxdori route via Etsy. This again is a system that confused and intimidated me until I started researching it a bit further. Once I realized that I could keep my journal and my planner/bullet journal all in one spot in a much smaller size than my large Day Designer and separate notebook, I was hooked. I have been using my fauxdori for a month now and will never go back to anything else. Not only is it convenient, I can add trinkets and other little things to personalize it. It is also adjustable, meaning I can add more filler notebooks if necessary or less. I started with five fillers and am now down to three as I refine my processes and what I truly want to carry with me at all time. My fauxdori is not as heavy as my planner nor is it as large, which means it saves me on purse weight and allows me to downsize purse sizes if I so choose. I seriously love it.

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These are just a few of the things which have made me happy this month. What are some of your favorite things for March?