These are a few of our Favorite Things - 2012

For the last several years I have hosted a Favorite Things party. The first year I did it because it seemed like a fun idea and I'd seen it floating around on Pinterest. Then, it was so fun and everyone loved it, so I did it again the next year. Then, it became a "thing" and people started asking me in the early fall about that year's party. So, its become an annual tradition for about 15 of us. One year we had an early snowstorm the night of the party and I had people walking in the snow for over a mile to get to my house because driving wasn't recommended. Crazy!

If you're not familiar with the Favorite Things Party concept, here's the deal:

Each person brings their favorite thing (anything you like... your favorite lip gloss, kitchen tool, gift wrapping supply, gift card for coffee, etc.). It can't cost more than $6 and each person brings 5 of that favorite thing. Everyone's name goes into a hat 5 times at the beginning of the night. Everyone draws 5 names out of the hat (making sure you don't have any duplicates and you don't get your own name). You each have a chance to tell everyone about your favorite thing and then you give the 5 items you brought with you to the 5 names you drew from the hat. Everyone will go home with five new favorite things to keep for themselves! 

Here are the items that we shared in 2012... (You can also click over to see the posts with our items from 2015, 2014 and 2013.)

Me - For the local coffee drinkers, I HIGHLY recommend visiting Carabello Coffee in Newport, KY. Justin & Emily Carabello hae this great little coffee shop but its about so much more than awesome coffee. Its "Coffee & Compassion in Tandem". They roast their own beans which have been grown and harvested ethically and purchased via Fair Trade. Then, a portion of their profits go back to support local nonprofit organizaitons through fundraisers, 2 children in Rwanda via Compassion International and an orphanage in Nicaragua. I chose to give small bags of Carabello Coffee in their Tres Fincas blend as my Favorite Thing in 2012. As of 2015 we are still supporting Carabello via our coffee habit!

Sandy - Essie brand nail polish. Essie has tons of fun colors and its not super expensive.

Stephanie - Method Bathroom Spray cleaner (smells so good it ALMOST makes you want to clean the bathroom - however I've had this same bottle since I got it at the party in 2012, so that tells you how often I ACTUALLY want to clean my bathroom). Stephanie also gave us Extra Gum.

Sushannah - a half bottle of champagne to make any old weeknight feel like something special with your spouse - or just for you! I LOVED this idea. The Hahns did a weekly champagne night in the middle of the week for a while and it seemed like such a great idea for other couples to try! Love that she shared it!

Susan - TAZO Awake Tea (she drinks this instead of coffee in the morning and its a great pick-me-up).

Erin - Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranate These are so good... tart, sweet, delicious. They have a mini bags at the checkout at our Target and that's a dangerous impulse purchase since I'm at Target almost every day. She also gave us these Olive Oil Cruet. I love using this in my kitchen. It makes me feel fancy even though I had no idea it was called a Cruet until I just looked this up on Amazon.

Bethany - Snack Factory White Chocolate & Peppermint Pretzel Crisps, She warned us that these were the type of snack where you would end up eating the whole bag if you weren't careful. I was skeptical. The flavor combo just didn't seem that great to me. I like white chocolate pretzels, but the added addition of the peppermint, seemed strange to me. I tried them nonetheless and I ate the whole bag. Case closed. This was the first year she introduced us to the e.l.f. products by giving us the e.l.f. eyelash curler, e.l.f. Liquid Lipstick and e.l.f. eye shadow. She also recommended hitting up the Contemporary Art Museum gift shop for unique gifts if you're local to the Cincinnati Area. I imagine that would apply to most any museum gift shop though. They always have cool stuff.

Jessie Daft - Target Limited Edition Pumpkin Soy candle. I am also a fan of their Evergreen scent for the holiday season.

Lauralee - Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. LL's husband is a Louisiana native and so she introduced us to this Louisiana treasure. You can use it in place of season salt or other "go to" seasonings in your pantry to give dishes a little kick. She also recommended the Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix. Lauralee is an amazing baker and she says people prefer these box mix brownies to her made from scratch brownies. I'm not sure I believe that, but the Ghiradelli brownies are REALLY good.

Stephanie - Starbucks Gift Card. Can you really ever go wrong with a Starbucks card?

Kelly - This was a funny year for Kelly. Almost every year is funny for Kelly. This was her first time attending the Favorite Things party and so she wasn't clear on the instructions. Instead of buying 5 of the same thing she gave away 5 different things. She totally make more work for herself. Here were her 5 items! Trader Joe's Honey Mango Shave Cream, Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Muffin Mix, Five of her favorite recipes, Trader Joes Gift Card, Funny Punny thank you cards, Half Price books calendar with coupons. Way to go Kelly!

Ingrid is a gardener. Like a serious gardener. The plantings in and around her home are a thing to behold and instill deep feelings of inadequacy when I look at my sad weedflowerbeds. So, Ingrid knows how damaging it can be for your hands to dig in the dirt all the time. She shared her secret - Crabtree & Evelyn Gardener's Therapy Hand Cream. This stuff is magical. I've been using it ever since she shared it with us in 2012 and I still love it. They also have a scrub called hand recovery that works great in combination with the cream.

Jen introduced us to the Cable turtle. Its a cool little thing to tame the electronic cables in your life. The small size here would be most helpful with keeping charging cords and earbuds under control. What will they think of next?!

Amy - Charlie Harper notecards are beautiful to send in the mail, but Amy had an even better idea... cut off the back and frame the front of the card as cheap wall art! Brilliant!

Lisa loves a good nut mix so she recommended Ferris Coffee & Nut Company Mixed Nuts with dried Cranberries. Yum!

Hope 2012 gave you some good gift ideas! What's your favorite thing?

P.S. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links to my Amazon store, so if you click through and actually buy something through my Amazon link, the Heindl Haven will get a tiny percentage. You get a favorite thing and you support the Haven at the same time. Again... everybody wins! Happy shopping!

These are a few of our Favorite Things - 2013

For the last several years I have hosted a Favorite Things party. The first year I did it because it seemed like a fun idea and I'd seen it floating around on Pinterest. Then, it was so fun and everyone loved it, so I did it again the next year. Then, it became a "thing" and people started asking me in the early fall about that year's party. So, its become an annual tradition for about 15 of us. In 2013 we had an early snowstorm the night of the party and the roads were basically impassable. I had people walking in the snow for over a mile to get to my house because driving wasn't recommended. I sent my husband out in our SUV to pick people up and another husband used his F150 to run a taxi to and from the party. The pile of snow boots and ski pants and coats at the door as people arrived was so awesome. All but two people came and one of those would have had to travel on the interstate which would have been really dangerous, so I totally understood (but she is from Wisconsin and KNOWS how to drive in the snow, so she would have been fine but the interstate was at a standstill because other people have no clue.)

If you're not familiar with the Favorite Things Party concept, here's the deal:

Each person brings their favorite thing (anything you like... your favorite lip gloss, kitchen tool, gift wrapping supply, gift card for coffee, etc.). It can't cost more than $6 and each person brings 5 of that favorite thing. Everyone's name goes into a hat 5 times at the beginning of the night. Everyone draws 5 names out of the hat (making sure you don't have any duplicates and you don't get your own name). You each have a chance to tell everyone about your favorite thing and then you give the 5 items you brought with you to the 5 names you drew from the hat. Everyone will go home with five new favorite things to keep for themselves! Hooray!!

Here are our favorite things from our 2013 party. Just in time for holiday gift giving! You can find the list from our 2015 party here and the 2014 party is here.

My favorite thing that year was inspired by a media fast I did as part of Jen Hatmaker's book 7. I hosted a group of women for a book club that fall and we read through and did the 7 Experiment all together. The week of the media fast, I send all the women a handwritten note through the mail. It was such a breath of fresh air, to put pen to paper and send them some personal words of encouragement that week. So, for my favorite thing, I packaged up a set of pretty notecards and stamps for mailing. I'm a sucker for stationery - and I'm an even bigger sucker for personalized stationery. These aren't the ones I used, but they're all so lovely...

Bethany brought us awesome beverage dispensers. There's no way she followed the cost limit rule this year, but I didn't even care because I got one of these and I have used it so many times. Here's a picture of mine. Its all heavy plastic and so its perfect for kids. Bethany said she kept it filled with water all the time so her kids could get their own water and getting it from a fancy dispenser like this is so much more appealing for kids than the plain old faucet.

Shonna loves to get her nails done and she has a thing about keeping her nails filed and cuticles neat. So, she's ALWAYS got emery boards and fingernail clippers at the ready.  

In keeping with the nail theme Stephanie recommended Nailtique Protein Formula polish for building strong nails.

Amy wanted us to be on trend with some charcoal colored nail polish. I don't remember which particular one she shared but I've tried one from Sally Hansen Called Insta-Dri in Slick Slate. She also gave us mini bottles of Wild Turkey American Honey bourbon. Kentucky is the bourbon capital of the world, so it seemed totally appropriate!

Sushannah has tried to convert me to the institute of Trader Joe's, but our closest store is 25 minutes away in a very congested area, so I can never muster the fortitude to make the trek. Regardless, I love the snacks she shares from TJ's. This year she brought Dried Mandarin Oranges! So tasty! She also brought us a travel sized bottle of CHI hair product.

Andrea from Oak Ridge Revival shared the awesome paper stripey straws. The perfect touch for a gathering! In fact I had some out for everyone to use that night, but mine said "made in China" on them. Hers did not.   

Kelly is another Trader Joe's devotee and she brought us his Honey Mango Shave Cream and his Gingerbread Baking Mix. The shave cream smells delicious and the bread tastes delicious!

Ingrid is my hair spirit animal. She can throw her hair up in a messy bun at a moment's notice and she always looks effortlessly chic. Even when she's digging in the dirt. The bonus is that she comes and helps me dig in my dirt sometimes. Anyway, her hair always looks good. Must be because she's mastered the use of dry shampoo. She recommends Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo.

Lauralee is always baking and cooking up something good. She shared a little trick she's been doing with chicken. The Beercan Chicken Rack holds a whole chicken upright with a can of beer inside so while the chicken cooks on the grill the beer penetrates and seasons the chicken. She gave us the rack and she also graciously gave us a can of beer!

Sandy is a tea drinker. Its the one area where we differ. She won't do coffee and while I will drink tea, I will always prefer coffee. She discovered Harney & Sons Tropical Green Tea at Fort Thomas Coffee. She also gave us a cute little plate with a teabag on it.

Erin is a woman after my own heart. I love nothing more than a good reusable straw cup. She gave us just that as well as a bag of Peppermint Bark just like William Sonoma.

That's it from the 2013 party! Hope it gave you some good gift ideas!

P.S. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links to my Amazon store, so if you click through and actually buy something through my Amazon link, the Heindl Haven will get a tiny percentage. You get a favorite thing and you support the Haven at the same time. Again... everybody wins! Happy shopping!