Favorite Things 2014 edition

Last year I shared my favorite things I had discovered during the year. I had so much fun doing it that I am doing it again! I have teamed up with some other bloggers who will be sharing their faves as well. I could have easily listed twenty things or maybe even thirty. It was actually really hard to narrow it down. When I mentioned to Shane that I was writing this post again this year, he said he had some things he wanted to include. This is in no way a sponsored post but I did include a few amazon affiliate links. So here you go! Our top ten finds from 2014 :)

Stacy’s Picks:

The IKEA RANARP Lamp

I loved it the moment I saw it. I had been looking for a wall mounted lamp for my gallery wall above my couch. When I laid eyes on this (and its affordable price tag) I fell madly in love.

Who doesn’t love everything at Target? I could have just put “Target” as a favorite thing but I didn’t discover it this year. I am not sure I can really pick a favorite find fron there, but this Gold Box from the Nate Berkus collection is definitely one of my favorites this year! It adds the perfect amount of shine to any vignette.

O’Keeffe’s Healthy Feet and Working Hands

I have really dry skin. I have a “thing” with germs. I have passed both things onto my kids. They wash their hands a lot and in the winter it gets really bad. Like red & scale-y, bad. I tried our regular lotion on their hands for years with not much of an improvement. We sort of just suffered until spring hit. But I tried this stuff last year/beginning of this year and my kids’ hands were amazing all winter! It doesn’t have a cute bottle, or glitter, or smell like cotton candy (it doesn’t smell at all) but if you have dry skin, TRY IT!

HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer

Remember when my brother and I painted all the doors, trim, shelves, closets, and baseboards in his whole basement with this bad boy? Yeah, I still love it. It is great for furniture too. If you paint, it needs to go on your list. Period.

BHG Metal Bins & BHG Wire Baskets

These were a recent purchase and I will be showing how I used them in an upcoming post, but I have to say that these are A.) as cute in real life as online and B.) The best deal ever! The metal bin for a big one (16.0 x 13.0 x 11.0 ) is only $12.44 and the wire basket with chalkboard is only $9.94 for the big size (16.0 x 12.75 x 10.52).

Steam Machine Plus

If it cooked me dinner I would marry it. It has made ironing pretty much obsolete at our house. There are too many things this thing can steam and clean for me to count. Just look at those attachments! I will tell you my favorite thing about HomeRight. They make things that are practical. They don’t make gadgets just to make gadgets. If they ever make a travel sized version my life will be complete.

AmazonBasics 70-Inch Pistol Grip Tripod

If you own a camera, and use it, you need this tripod. Ohhhhhmaaaagosh! The pistol head rocks my world. Grip, squeeze, and move where ever the heck you want you camera to move. It swivels all around and is AMAZING. After the great tripod crash of ’14 where my only good lens perished, I was looking for a heavy duty tripod that would not tip over when bumped or when I had a heavy camera and lens on it. This guy weighs in around ten pounds. That is where I was sold. The pistol head ended up being a huge bonus. I will never go back to twisting little knobs again. PLUS this thing is so tall! No more putting my tripod precariously on a tote to get the high shots. But I think the best part was the price. $64.99 y’all! If you have shopped around for a tripod you know that is beyond a smokin’ deal.

Shane’s Picks:

Ryobi Battery Powered Mower

After using it all spring, summer, fall, and winter ( Yes, we mowed the other day!) we have continued to be impressed with this. I was skeptical in the beginning that it wouldn’t be as powerful but in the words of Shane “I feel like I am using a regular gas powered mower. It has the same power and ability to cut well.” My 13 year old actually uses it the most. He suddenly decided that he likes to mow. I feel like I should pay Ryobi an allowance or something. In fact when he was mowing the front yard the other day a friend stopped by. My son was showing off how it turned on with the press of a button and how quiet it was. It made me smile :)

Ryobi Compound Sliding Miter Saw

We upgraded to the sliding compound miter saw from the regular compound miter saw this spring. My little brother inherited the old one. I have been letting go a little and letting Shane help more with parts of certain projects especially while writing this book. It helps to have two people working on things at a time. Shane said he picked this as a favorite because it does about 80% of what we use to do on the table saw. For us, we have to store our tools inside our house since we had our garage broken into a few years ago. All our tools were stolen. So if we only have to drag out one big tool instead of two, it is a big plus. Man, one day I will have a workshop…..

San Francisco

So I realize that this is not something you can purchase really, but we had our first family vacation this year going up highway 101 and we all fell in love with this city. Shane was in heaven with the architecture and the way the city was laid out. We loved that most everything was accessible by walking or trolleys. If you have not visited, I highly recommend it!