Top Five Friday : Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone!  It's been quite a while (almost a month) since I've done a Top Five Friday post, so I'm happy to be sharing some favorites with you all today!  This weekend I'll be spending time with my family for the holidays.  I hope you all have safe travels if you're going somewhere, or just enjoy some time with loved ones.  And if you don't celebrate the holidays- I hope you have a great weekend and get some time to relax!!


linking up with Erika, Heather, and Friday Five 



Song

Leslie Odom Jr. - Simply Christmas
If you're looking for a great Christmas album to really get you into the spirit, look no further.  Leslie Odom Jr. has SUCH an amazing voice (if you listened to the Hamilton soundtrack you would know him as Aaron Burr, sir) and the spin he puts on classics is just perfection.  I think he sounds a lot like Sam Smith, who is one of my favorite singers, with a mix of John Legend.  I absolutely love him and can't stop playing this CD around the house! 


Podcast

Ali on the Run Podcast
I've been listening to this podcast (and following the blog) for a really long time, but lately Ali has just been killing it with her guests!  Not only is she bringing on huge names in the running community (Molly Huddle, Kara Goucher, Neely Spence Gracey), but also interviews amazing people that you might not have heard of before/didn't know they were runners (blogger Janae Baron, Full House's Andrea Barber).  I love her interviewing style and the great stories that she tells.  It's my favorite running podcast, and I always look forward to listening to her episodes on my long runs!


Product

Trader Joe's finds
I go through phases with different grocery stores (one month I'm all about Aldi's, then I only shop at Whole Foods, etc), and this month is definitely Trader Joe's!  It's hard to NOT shop there when they have all kinds of amazing treats and products for the holidays.  A few favorites that I recently picked up are the Almond Milk Nog (which I add to coffee for the perfect amount of holiday spice), face mask trio (which is making irritated winter skin feel baby soft), and the Kale, Cashew and Basil Pesto (perfect addition to a vegan "cheese plate").


Show

The Great Family Cooking Showdown
You should all know by now how much I love the Great British Bake Off, and I was really sad to finish the latest season on Neflix.  In order to fill that England-sized hole in my chest, I was really happy to find the Great Family Cooking Showdown, which is hosted by one of my favorite past winners (Nadiya).  The format is different from GBBO and features families that are cooking meals rather than just desserts, but I still get the same warm fuzzy feeling when I watch it.  I actually binge-watched the entire first season on my plane ride to Hawaii and was in the best mood ever!  (I do have to admit though, I kind of hate the judges on this show because they don't compare AT ALL to the perfect Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood).


Random

Oil Diffuser

I've been wanting to try oil diffusers for a while now, and finally bit the bullet and bought one (on sale!) at Target a few weeks ago.  So far my oil collection is super tiny, with a "sleep" blend as well as lemon/eucalyptus (my favorite!!), but I'm loving it!  I have trouble sleeping, but as soon as I switch this on and smell the amazing oils, I immediately feel calm and have been sleeping much better.  I don't know how much I believe about all of the amazing health claims yet, but as far as relaxation and sleep goes- these definitely work!


Traveling anywhere for the holidays?
Have you tried diffusing oil yet?

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 22, 2017 at 5:03 AM

    Wait, those products are from Trader Joes????
    GOING THERE NOW
    Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fairytales and FitnessDecember 22, 2017 at 5:22 AM

    I have an oil diffuser that is also a blue tooth speaker. How cool is that? I am always looking for new podcast. I have heard of this one on someone else's blog recently. I need to finally download it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. deborah @ Confessions of a mother runnerDecember 22, 2017 at 5:34 AM

    have not been to TJ's for a long time but I had no idea they had those facial products they look great. Thanks for the heads up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. KookyRunnerDecember 22, 2017 at 8:32 AM

    I haven't been to TJ's in a few weeks - I see it's time for me to make a trip up there. I would love to try those products you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gretchen BraunJanuary 2, 2018 at 9:37 AM

      HIGHLY recommend them. There's so many great things out now :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relationship Rules I Broke (and WEDDING PHOTOS!)

Image
Happy Thursday everyone! Today I have a different type of post to share today.  I don't talk about relationships or my dating life much on the blog, but I'm switching it up today!  I got married last Friday, and I thought it would be fun to share some relationship rules that I broke while Dan and I dated. I'll also be sharing some wedding pictures!  We got married at the Butterfly Falls at the Hidden Valley Inn in Belize (more on the Inn in upcoming posts!), and the pictures turned out absolutely amazing.  Since we had a "just the two of us" ceremony, there's not much to talk about the actual wedding.  In lieu of a full post on that, I'll be sharing some background information on our relationship, along with wedding photos and some #ThrowbackThursday pictures.  I hope you enjoy (and I promise- back to running stuff next week!) Guys are immature, so date someone older I've always read in magazines (which, by the way, have the worst datin...
Read more

Review- Group Power

Image
Happy Weekend everyone!  Today, I'll be doing a review of another group exercise I do at my gym called Group Power !  Let's get right into it. First off, the description in our program guide is "This 60-minute barbell program strengthens all your major muscles in an inspiring, motivating group environment with simple, athletic movements such as squats, lunges, presses and curls." I don't exactly look like this when I'm curling..but you get the idea! Let me tell you, this is one intense workout!  For the entire 60 minutes, we're constantly moving and lifting and by the end I'm a pool of sweat!  We work out all the major muscle groups - Legs, Chest, Triceps, Biceps, Glutes, Shoulders, and Core with light to moderate weights.  We also use a step to do exercises like chest presses and split squats. For each song, we focus on one muscle group, and do a variety of exercises with lots of repetitions, set to the beat of the music.  The tempo of the ...
Read more

Top Five Friday #46

Image
Happy Friday everyone!  Today I have a beefed up Top Five post for you all.  I feel like I've been skimping on these posts lately, so I made sure that this one is packed full of all my favorite products, some recent outfits, new songs, and TV Shows. I've got it all today, and I hope this makes up for the past few weeks!  As I mentioned yesterday, Dan and I finally got our offer accepted on a house, so the past few weeks have been really hectic.  Now that all of our applications and inspections are done, it should (hopefully) be smooth sailing from here!  Wish us luck, and now let's get to the favorites! Empty Products In the past, I've dedicated entire blog posts to reviews on empty products (you can see them here ).  I know that some of you don't like beauty-focused posts, so instead of completely nixing these reviews, I wanted to incorporate them into my favorites! I'm going through lots of products now that I'm on a spending freeze, so I thought...
Read more