Today I’m linking up with Mama Knows, Honeychild to tell you about five of my favorite things! (Don’t be thinking Sound of Music here!)
1.  Yves Rocher

No, I am not on their payroll, although I would do a sponsored post for them is a second if I thought I could get free things.  Because I buy stuff from them through the mail EVERY MONTH.  I don’t really wear makeup except on the most special of occasions (maybe I’ll blog about that some time too).  But I anoint myself liberally morning and night with beauty products from Yves Rocher–it’s my one self-indulgence and I’ve been indulging myself for close to 20 years, off and on.
I think I first discovered the company in one of those get-so-many-free-things-it’s-too-good-to-be-true ads in a magazine, and then I was hooked.  Because although their deals seem too good to be true, they ARE true.  Shopping with them brings me a constant supply of free samples, sales, and fun gifts.  Pretty much all of my luggage came to me as free gifts from Yves Rocher.  I’ve also got coffee mugs, blankets, and a lot of jewelry.  And their products are great!  In fact, I think I’ll do another five favorites post on my five favorite products!
Finally, it’s a French company and when you call customer service (they have good customer service, by the way, and they give you three months free credit automatically!), the people all have French accents.  So that’s pretty cool.  I’m always tempted to speak to them in French but then they might start talking really fast and that could be embarrassing.
2.  Hanna Andersson

Buying clothes at Hanna Andersson is my only indulgence on behalf of my kids.  I’ve always been happy to dress my kids in consignment sales finds, hand-me-downs, gifts from relatives, and the occasional necessity grabbed at Wal-Mart or the like, but I make an exception for hannas (as we call them around here).  William spent most of his babyhood in Hanna Andersson clothes and it just kills me that I won’t have those to hand down to grandchildren one day.  Because I totally could.  Yes, they are expensive, but they last forever.
Since I discovered zulily, which often has Hanna Andersson sales, I’ve gone a little crazy buying them for Lorelei.  She loves them to, because she is itchy and they are soft.

 
3.  Deb

Emily recently introduced me to this shop at the mall.  They have great sales, and they have plus size clothes that are not frumpy.  If you aren’t plus-sized, you have no idea what a big deal it is to find the combination of inexpensive and non-frumpy.  I have, for example, been trying forever to find some capris that don’t look like someone’s grandmother would wear them.  These are the ones I bought last week at Deb:

Also, I have a very hard time finding jeans that fit correctly.  I’ll spare you the details. 🙂  But I found a brand at Deb that does.
4.  Janice Holt Giles
I just posted about Janice Holt Giles in my What We’re Reading Wednesday post, but she deserves more than that.  My mother introduced me to her books years and years ago, one summer when we were visiting the library, and I think I read them all.  Hers are historical novels, with that sense of place that is so important to me as a reader.  Many of them are part of a series in that the characters are related to one another, but they can be read separately.  I think The Believers, which is about the Shakers, is my very favorite.
I am a terrible library patron.  Invariably, I start off with the best of intentions, then forget to turn in my books, run up a huge fine, and am banned until I pay it (or wait until the day when I can be forgiven by bringing in cans of food or school supplies).  Right this minute my card and William’s card are non-functional, but we still have Lorelei’s!  So I’m not a regular visitor to the library, but every summer we try again, because of summer reading.
And every summer I look to see what Janice Holt Giles books, long out of print, remain on the shelf of whatever library we are visiting, and I check some out.  We went to the downtown library last week, and I was rewarded with this:

This was published posthumously in 2005 (Giles died in 1979).  I haven’t started it yet and I hope I like it!
5. South Knoxville Urban Wilderness
I hope y’all aren’t tired of hearing about this yet because I intend to plug it every chance I get.  It’s getting national recognition and if you are local and don’t take advantage of it you should be ashamed.  Here’s just one picture (more to follow) of our walk in the wilderness last weekend:

And that’s the end!  Check back next Tuesday (yes, I am a day late!) to see more of my favorite things.