Friday Favorites: Week of 9/25

Hi friends! We made it to Friday, and that is something to celebrate.

How have you been holding up out there? We’ve been doing pretty well around here, you know, just soaking it all in one day at a time.

This week, I thought it might be time to branch out of the normal quarantined-themed titles of Friday Favorites and get back to featuring more “normal” … whatever that means. I am very thankful for having the chance to do a few things that reminded me that our city is still a really cool and beautiful place to live, despite things that I’ve read that say otherwise. New York City is still very much alive and thriving, my friends!

I’m currently finishing this post as Skyler finishes his nap this afternoon, so I’m just going to dive in and get to the good stuff. Here’s what I’ve been loving this week, and thanks for stopping by to read!

Friday Favorites: Week of 9/25

• lightened-up pumpkin spice coffee drink

I am very basic when it comes to loving all of the pumpkin things. The funny part about this is that I used to dislike pumpkin, until I worked at a breakfast place that was known for their pumpkin pancakes. The day I tried one and fell for it hard was the first day of wanting anything pumpkin that I could get my hands on.

As you can imagine, I am a lover of the classic Pumpkin Spice Latte, but I’m not a fan of all of the sugar and bright orange color that usually comes with it. I’ve been trying to create my own lightened-up version to order over the past few years, and here’s the latest winning combination from Dunkin’.

Original Blend (regular coffee) with oatmilk and one pump of Pumpkin flavor swirl. FYI, a flavored coffee typically comes with three pumps of flavor, but you really don’t need all of them. Instead, I stick to one (whether it’s at Dunkin’ or at Starbucks) and enjoy the extra flavor that comes along with oatmilk or almond milk to mix in as well.

And, by the way, I’ve really been loving oatmilk in my coffee these days. More on this one next week!

• rooftop restorative workout — bodyART NYC

I have only been to Manhattan a handful of times since March, and two of those trips happened this week with a last-minute decisions to join one of my lifelong friends for lunch and a workout on two separate days. Let’s start with the workout because it included this amazing view!

I was more than excited for the opportunity to attend a group fitness class when I got the invite. It was outdoors and very small, so I felt safe in doing so. I took a quick train to the rooftop at the William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn yesterday, and it was exactly the breath of fresh air that I was looking for.

bodyART is a very unique physical therapy based workout that challenges your body with low-impact movements, flows, holds, meditations, and stretches. The workout is a holistic approach to movement that balances your endurance, strength, flexibility, and mindfulness.

I didn’t know what I was walking into, but I walked out of this rooftop class with my body and mind a lot looser. I really, really loved the format that went from slow to fast in flows with bouts of non-jumping cardio components as well. The focus is not on burning calories or throwing yourself around the room, but instead, to honor and restore your body with movements that compliment what it is supposed to do. It was very refreshing, yet challenging enough to make me feel like I got a full workout!

The class I attended was led by Ryan, and he was so great. Thank you for the morning zen and experience! I can’t wait for the next one.

• impromptu lunch date in the city

Backing up a day, Scott, Skyler and I met my friend Lauren for a catch-up lunch date to celebrate her birthday. Longtime readers might remember that I have known Lauren since middle school! She was my best friend who actually lived with my family for a few years, and it’s pretty great to be living in the same city again after all of these years.

She suggested meeting at The Bao in the East Village, and we hit a very slow hour of lunch as the only table dining outside. But it was so good! The restaurant is a chic Chinese eatery known for Shanghai-style bao soup dumplings, so we ordered those (not pictured) along with a few other staples to share across the table.

That was actually my first time trying bao, and it was delicious and only took two of them for me to figure out a proper eating technique. We will definitely be back and are now on the search for more orders of bao soup dumplings in the near future. Yum!

We promised ice cream to Skyler for being so good during our outing, so it didn’t take us long to walk and find gelato nearby. There were a few options to pick from, but we landed at il laboratorio del gelato.

Flavors ranged from classic to out-of-the-norm including bright colors and creations like butternut squash, basil, and beet (pictured in bright pink above). I let Skyler choose our flavors to split, and he went with both classic and different with one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of papaya.

He loved it, as did I. Gelato will always be my favorite summer treat!

• Schitt’s Creek

Okay, it took me longer than most to finally sit down and watch the now Emmy award winning television sitcom called Schitt’s Creek. After much encouragement from several of my friends, I finally gave it a chance and binged-watched all five seasons within a few weeks’ time. Each episode is only twenty minutes long, so it’s a quick watch and easy to do.

And it is hilarious!

The plot follows a classic tale of an extremely rich family suddenly left with nothing and how they cope. The only place they can afford to live is in a rundown motel in a very small and simple town called Schitt’s Creek, which was actually purchased by the family as a joke for the son’s birthday years before. Well, the family not only has to navigate living here, but also gets a taste of what “regular” living and working consists of, stripped of all the luxuries that they once knew. The characters are so overdone, but they are amazing, each one in a completely different way.

I am anxiously awaiting Season 6 to drop on Netflix (October 7th), and I am so excited for the cast and producers in their recent winnings.  The show dominated this year’s Emmy Awards with a total of nine wins! And I just love the father-son duo (Eugene and Dan Levy) that co-created and co-starred. I really can’t say enough great things. Congrats to all!

• clean beauty pick of the week

This is perhaps my favorite Beautycounter product, and it can do basically everything like moisturize, cleanse, treat, and soothe. It’s the most versatile product – as you can use it as a cleanser, makeup remover, moisturizer, or overnight mask. Seriously! I use this instead of my normal night routine about once a week. I also have the travel size and take this on overnight trips instead of my regimen.

I’ve been turning to it more than usual this week, and I feel like I don’t talk about it enough … so here you go. Please reach out if you’ve never tried Beautycounter products before (I have a discount code for you!), and as always, I’m here to answer any questions you may have about anything at all in regards to clean beauty.

• favorite LIL posts

» How To Easily Add More Movement Into Your Day

Now that we are past the six month mark of staying indoors for the majority of the day due to the pandemic, it’s important to make sure that we are still getting a good amount of activity in. That’s exactly what this post is all about, and I hope that it inspires you to add in a little more movement into your routine if you think you might need it!

» Florida Trip Highlights

Skyler and I made a casual trip home to Florida earlier this month! Here’s a look into our visit to see family, along with how we navigated travel.

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All right. I hope you have a great rest of the day and weekend ahead. I’m looking forward to spending some time with Scott tomorrow before he heads out of town for a quick work trip (yay!), and really just keeping things simple for a bit.

Stay safe out there!

*Disclaimer: Friday Favorites posts may contain affiliate links. Also, I am a Beautycounter consultant and love what I do with the company. By using the links provided in this post to order products, you are supporting my business. I always appreciate you!