Friday Favorites #200: Week of 4/20

Hi friends! I’m coming at you later than expected today, but I guess that’s what you can expect with a newborn’s schedule … or lack thereof.

I’ve been putting in some hours on drafted posts at night (which feels amazing), but I can’t seem to finish them without multiple days and attempts in short windows of time. Such is life with a new (fussy) baby!

In an effort of trying to get onto some sort of predicted routine around here, I really wanted to pop in and share some things that I’ve been loving this week. After all, today marks the 200th Friday Favorites post to appear on LIL!

Some of you might remember that I started creating regular Friday Favorites round-ups back in September 2013 (throwback to FFavorites #1)! I shared a new edition every Friday for years until we moved to NYC and I started working again. My goal with navigating what this space will look like in the future includes figuring out what I want to do with this series.

Do y’all still enjoy reading these on a weekly basis? Are you over it? Do you still want me to include the link-up? I’d love to hear your input and, as always, I invite you to share what you’ve been loving below, too.

Thank you so much for checking in today, and I’ll be sure to finish those drafted posts to publish on the blog next week. I’ve got a lot to talk about! Hehe.

Here’s hoping you have a wonderful Friday!

 

Friday Favorites #200: Week of 4/20

 

• Lenny & Larry’s Complete (protein) Cookies

I don’t think I’ve mentioned these on the blog before, and I really don’t know why. I found these Lenny & Larry’s Complete Cookies almost a year ago, and they became lifesavers for me at work during long shifts and specifically when I would crave something sweet after a meal or workout. The price tag isn’t cheap, but I think that the investment is worth it when you look at the ingredients and nutritional content.

Don’t get me wrong, these are still cookies, but if you’re going to be a cookie monster like me, you might as well get into a habit that’s somewhat better for you than endlessly sticking your hand in a box of Chips Ahoy cookies at night.

Over the past week, I’ve been loving a variety of flavors of these cookies, and I really only need half of one with a tall glass of almond milk to satisfy my cravings at night. If you haven’t given them a try, I highly recommend that you do! (You can find them online, or at retailers like Vitamin Shoppe, Amazon, Whole Foods, health food markets and more.)

 

• wind down walks

With our pediatrician’s urging, we started trying to implement some type of bedtime routine with Skyler this week. To be honest, it’s not going as well as I’d hoped, but we’re trying to introduce what “night night” means with repeated activities until he goes to bed for the night earlier than later. He’s still considered to be a newborn, so I still expect him to wake up multiple times a night, but I at least want us to get into the habit of calming down and enjoying the events leading up to bedtime now.

Since Scott usually works at night, I’m running solo a lot for this task, so we’re still learning the best way to take Roadie out for the walks he needs. For now, I put Sky in his  and Roadie in his harness at 7 p.m. We take a 20 minute stroll through the neighborhood and go back upstairs to change Sky into his pajamas, nurse, read him a book, and try to put him to bed in his bassinet. (I have it set up in his nursery to get him used to going to bed there with the white noise machine and then move everything into our room for the night when I go to bed a few hours later.)

After doing this for three nights in a row, I have to admit that the walk around the neighborhood might be my favorite time with both of them. I call them “wind down walks” because they are currently lining up with the time of day where the birds are chirping and the sun is setting. It’s so peaceful and refreshing after being cooped up all day.

Scott will then take Roadie for a quick walk when he gets home late at night, and then we share duties between the two of us for mornings and afternoons/evenings after that. If you can think of a better system when we don’t have access to a backyard that doesn’t always require me to bring Skyler down with me to quickly let him out that allows me to walk Roadie later in the night, I’m all ears!

 

• Ruggable

An ad on Instagram totally got me on this one, but I’m not mad about it. Ever since moving to New York City, I’ve had anxiety about people wearing shoes in our home because that comes with all of the dirt and what not from the streets and subways. I never really cared much about that in our other homes, but there’s just something about the City that always makes me want to wash my clothes and shoes as much as possible. It’s not exactly convenient to get your rugs cleaned here, either.

The last rug that we had in the living room never got cleaned, and the one before that got cleaned once because Scott carried it a few blocks to a shop. I know we could’ve had someone come to the apartment, but for one or two big area rugs without additional carpets, it seems kind of silly.

Diamond Dalia Beige Ivory Rug

That said, when I saw an ad about Ruggable, a company that designed a rug in layers so that you can put the top layer in the washing machine to clean when ever you’d like, I had to have one. I wasn’t highly impressed with the designs online, but I found a contemporary looking ivory rug that goes great in our living room. Funny story, we’ve had the rug for a little over two months and are just washing top layer for the first time as you’re reading this. So far, so good!

 

• Burger Village (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

I have been eyeing a local burger restaurant in our neighborhood since we moved here two years ago (<- um, whoa!). It’s (not so) conveniently located extremely close to another favorite burger spot of ours, so I never walked past that one to go to this one until my mom was visiting last week. (By the way, living where we do in Brooklyn, it feels like we will never be able to try all of the restaurants. You want Mexican? Options X, Y, and Z are blocks away. The same goes for Italian, Sushi, Thai, etc.)

Anyways, I finally decided to give Burger Village a try last week and took a friend back for another lunch again yesterday. I was initially drawn to the stroller-friendly space, but now I come back for the organic burgers, salads, and eventually I will try their shakes and sweet potato fries. So far I’ve tried the veggie and black bean burgers on top of a salad and they’re so good. It will only be a matter of time until I get an actual burger and fries, but I’m trying my best to get my veggies where I can.

If you’re ever in the Park Slope/Brooklyn area and are looking for a place to find a good burger that won’t make you feel miserable afterwards, you can find Burger Village on 3rd Street and 7th Avenue.

 

• metallic accents

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve had a thing for metallic home accents ever since we moved to Brooklyn.

This one is currently on sale for $12.95!

I always write about how much I love 3-wick candles, and my favorite scent (although it can be overwhelming at times) has been Mahogany Teakwood from Bath & Body Works since my college days. I only go online to buy the bigger candles and scents that are on sale from B&BW, and when I saw one that matches our living room perfectly I had to get a few. It’s probably not the best for fingerprints, but I’m loving the look of it. What’s your favorite candle scent?

 

Your Turn

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Have a great weekend!

 

Disclaimer: Friday Favorites is a series of posts that features items I genuinely want to share with you. Affiliate links are included, and the beginning section of this post is sponsored by Visionworks. As always, your support is much appreciated!