It’s a little over halfway through the year which is crazy! This year is just flying by and it feels like a great time to take stock of everything that has made it great so far. Our current favorites are a nice way to sit back and remind ourselves of everything we have tried, learned & loved as we move through the year.
Reminding myself of the reasons I have to be grateful is a wonderful way to keep working in a positive mindset. Some years are harder than others and even the best years have roadblocks. As humans, we tend to focus on the negatives more than the positives and changing that cycle can be difficult. Reminding ourselves of all the large and small joys we have experienced in life is a big step in the right direction. I highly encourage everyone to consider starting a gratitude journal..or just take five minutes today to think back on a few things that have made you happy lately and share them in the comments below!
Current Favorites, What I’ve Been Loving Lately
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Food
It’s summer at the moment so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’ve been on a bit of a berry kick lately. Everything from Blackberry dessert bars to Stuffed strawberries has been my go-to desserts lately. Berries with a touch of lemon and cheesecake are just divine and thankfully very Keto friendly too!
However, thanks to Keto Krate I have also come to love Catalina Crunch cereal with Milkademia milk. So far I have only tried the Cinnamon flavor of Catalina crunch but they have a chocolate flavor I am dying to get my hands on and they recently introduced a maple waffle flavor that speaks to my Canadian roots.
My favorite sweetener is still Swerve Confectioners for most baking but I’ve been experimenting with Splenda’s Natural Stevia in my coffee and a few desserts with good success! I expect there will be more recipes using this on the blog in the future.
Personal Items
Hello, amazing hair! A few months ago I switched to a personalized shampoo and conditioner from Formulate and I have to say, this is probably the best my hair has felt and looked in years! I did a full review of Formulates product a while back and I am happy to say I just got my first refill so the bottles last for quite a while!
Considering how nice my hair has been behaving it’s well worth the price and I love how easy it is to make changes to my hair goals as time goes on. A quick minute on the app and my next refill will be tweaked accordingly. I didn’t make any changes this time around because I’m perfectly happy with my formulation but for the fall I might switch up the scent!
Other then my shampoo I’m also still loving the Joy brand razor I profiled on Instagram. It’s probably the best razor I’ve ever used for its price point of $8 at Walmart. In the summer having a razor you don’t hate can definitely make the season more enjoyable for us ladies who have to shave endlessly.
Blogging
While you technically don’t need many items or services to blog there are definitely a few things out there that make it easier. I admit I was skeptical about Tailwind at first – I tried the free trial then dropped it in favor of pinning by hand. It’s true that you can make Pinterest work for you without Tailwind but it takes a LOT of work. At a certain point, I had to decide where I wanted to spend my time. Did I want to spend all day every day reminding myself to pin or would I rather be working on Keto recipes and creating fun content to share?
Content creation won out by a landslide and I bit the bullet. Tailwind is a bit of an investment but I feel like I’ve already made my money back threefold in terms of time saved. I will definitely be keeping my tailwind subscription active next year and if you want to give it a try feel free to Clink this link and check it out.
In addition to the time-saving power of Tailwind, I’ve also spent this year and most of last year organizing the blog with a Passion Planner. I’m pretty sure the blog would be a mess without my planner to keep me on track and I’ll definitely be ordering a new one for the coming year as soon as the new designs come out! Fingers crossed they release a purple one!
Life in General
Experiencing a new puppy in the house has been chaotic and challenging but overall quite wonderful! Echo has added so much to our home that it’s already hard to imagine there was a time she wasn’t with us! She’s bright and sweet and best pals with Connor and the kids.
We have been very fortunate this summer and have been able to take the kids on a couple of getaways. We spent a weekend at a lake house and a week in Miami thanks to the graciousness of good friends! The kids have been able to experience so many wonderful things and learned so much this summer that it almost boggles my mind. Creating these memories with them is something that I will always treasure and definitely deserves a spot in my current favorites!
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The Keto nutrition has been an interesting experience so far. I don’t have “ready-made” keto products where I am, so I am making everything from scratch which I admit is a bit of a challenge for me time and energy-wise. I will look into the products you mentioned and maybe order online. Tailwind is the one blogging tool I am comfortable with spending money on. It really does make life easier although it still takes time to schedule everything:) thank you for sharing these things with us.
I don’t know if I could go back to pinning entirely by hand now that I’ve tried Tailwind! The keto diet definitely takes a bit more work prep wise, but I think it will be worth it once you notice all the great effects!
Congrats on the new puppy – she’s adorable. I have a weakness for pups. I also loved the look of those strawberries – yum! Good read!
Puppies are the weakness of many people I have found and as far as weaknesses go it’s certainly not the worst one to have haha!
I cannot believe how fast this year has gone! Feels like I have slowed down and the rest has sped up haha!
Berries are yummy this time of year aren’t they, I must admit I love blueberries the best; but those strawberries look delicious!
How adorable is your pup? Bet she brightens everyday!
I have never fully looked into tailwind, but might just after this post. Do you schedule your won pins (from your blog) as well as others? I only post x1 a week on the blog so wouldn’t want my pins all being the same!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
https://www.aimsysantics.co.uk
I do schedule my own posts! Tailwind has a function called board lists so f I do a ‘Keto’ based post I use the Tailwind scheduling feature and then click on my keto board list which includes all the keto group boards and my own boards and Tailwind schedules the pin to publish on those boards over a period of a few days. I also make sure to add my pins to the Keto tribes I am a part of and reshare pins from other people in my tribes. You can also set up a Pin loop where you schedule older pins to reshare to select boards Every so often so new people can see your older stuff! It’s very convenient!
Those strawberries look amazing! Glad to hear your pup is doing well, she looks so cute! Interesting that formulate is working well for you, I’ve always wondered if products like that actually work. Might have to look into that x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
Thank you! Echo is doing amazing, she’s probably the smartest dog I have ever trained – I mean I love Connor and he’s by no means unintelligent but Echo is crazy smart. Formulate has done wonders for my hair. I used to hate my hair it was dull and limp and I could never do anything with it no matter how hard I tried but now I love my hair! It’s definitely made a huge difference!
Oh damn, those strawberries look so amazing!! And congrats on the new puppy – new furry additions to the household can be a handful at times but the memories are definitely worth it!
☼ Eena | cabin twenty-four
The strawberries are very delicious! Definitely, on my families summer favorite list snack wise! Echo is a handful but she’s not the worst behaved puppy I have ever raised either, it probably helps that I’m home all day so her training has been a bit more intense then other dogs I have raised.
This year is really flying by! I can’t believe we’re nearing the end of July already. I’m glad you’ve found some Keto friendly products that work for you; and those strawberries look delicious! Congratulations on the new puppy too. She’s lovely. I’ve never tried Tailwind but I’m always forgetting to pin my posts so it may be worth looking into.
Tailwind is definitely worth looking into! I was terrible at remembering in pin every day too! Now I just have to remember to refresh my schedule once a week or so!
Those stuffed strawberries look amazing- I’ve been loving Eaton Mess! Puppies are always on my favourites lists haha, Echo is such a gorgeous pup!
Soph – https://sophhearts.com x
Thank you! I have a feeling she’s going to grow up to be quite a stunner!