Blue's Favorite Things

So I don't, as a general rule, ever watch TV. Exceptions include sometimes when I'm when I'm flying (but not working), or if I'm flat with the flu, and every blue moon when I have a Mount Everest mound of laundry to fold...I'll put it on while I tackle the beast.

But a couple weeks ago I had a project to do one afternoon, and turned on the telly to pass the time. Oprah was on, which I have seen on occasion, but not in ages. And that day she was doing her "Oprah's Favorite Things" show...in which she (and her sponsors?) showcase products that Oprah ostensibly loves and wants to share....with everyone in her studio audience. Because everyone would love whatever Oprah loves, right?!

While it was fun to fantasize about being one of the lucky audience members who happened to be there on the right day to be a recipient of all these things, there was something so almost gaudy about it at the same time. Like it was just too much. Non-stop stuff.

Maybe I'm secretly envious, because over all I think, good for them! I don't think I'm an actual chrematophobe, but I do have to fight tirelessly against an overactive frugality monitor that makes buying something as simple as toilet paper a major ordeal. Price per square foot, one or two ply, regular or double roll. (It's exhausting to be me sometimes!)

So just for today, let's just put my pathological ways aside...and go on a little fantasy trip to a place called

Blue's Favorite Things
A Fantasy Wish List of Sorts

First, I've always had ridiculously sensitive skin. So mostly I don't do anything to it, but Estee Lauder's Idealist Pore Minimizer Skin Refresher is the most amazing stuff I've ever used on my skin. I am totally in love with it. Nothing has ever felt so nice, and I love the smell and texture and everything about it...except the price. Hence, infrequent samples from the department store make-up counter will have to do for now, but if I ever do my own my Favorite things Give-Away, you are all getting a big jar or two of this!



My next favorite thing is a product I started using when I was a freshman in high school, after discovering it in the make-up room of my tv production class. It is Max Factor's Pan-Stick Ultra Creamy (True Beige color). It has been my staple face make-up ever since, and I know, I know, it's horrible stuff! It'll clog your pores and give you boils and cancer and take 27 years off your life. Whatever. It works for me...because I have the WORLDS DARKEST CIRCLES under my eyes. I look like I'm eleven hundred years old without makeup. Old and tired. And probably grumpy, too. But this stuff is amazing at concealing my purple bags.

So that's why I WISH I'd heard they were discontinuing sales of it here in US stores earlier this year...because I would have stocked up big time. They still sell it in stores outside the USA and Canada...so if I ever make it to Australia or Europe, I'll definitely be exporting a bunch. Initially, you couldn't buy it anywhere in the US at all, but I just discovered they are now selling it at Drugstore.com. But I hate paying to shop online, and then add on shipping in addition. So I'm still digging out the dregs from my last couple tubes of it (or should I say sticks?)


The tastiest thing on my list would probably be gelato. Gelato is my favorite frozen treat. If I worked in a gelato shop, it would be disastrous for the owner. I'd probably take up residence inside their freezer case. I first tasted gelato at Harrod's in London in 1994, and honestly, my first thought was "Why don't we have this in the US?" I was positive it would be a major hit. I even spoke to the employees about opening a franchise in Chicago, where we lived at the time, but that's just so out of my realm of experience. Besides, I don't actually want to run a business, I just like eating the stuff.

It was years and years before I saw "gelato" anywhere in the states, and even then, it tasted nothing like that amazing stuff in England. But finally it's here! And we have a number of new gelateria's that have opened up nearby recently, so whenever I am able to have a mini-splurge, I try to incorporate gelato into the moment. My two favorites are Capo Gelateria and Bellissimo Gelato, and if you ever visit me, we will have to go out for some.

Spearmint Chapstick. Yes, good, old-fashioned Chapstick...the green one. Target & Walmart stopped selling it. So did my grocery store, so for a while I was stressed out that it, too, had been discontinued, like so many of the things I am a fan of. But after a chat with Pfizer corporate headquarters, I was told that Walgreens has it, so I am saved, because not only my face, but my lips, too, have sensitivity issues, and this stuff never stings or burns, plus it's nice and moisturizing and cooling. I can't go a night without it or I'll wake up with big, dry, Grand Canyon-sized cracks. Chapstick: Don't leave home without it!


And now for a very basic sewing machine. I actually have one already, but my cute little Singer Featherweight, while it still works, was built in 1962, and has absolutely no frills (here's a photo of one). Forward and backward is all it does. I adore it, and it's very portable in it's little box, but now Bunch is learning to sew, and my antiquey unit doesn't operate like the newer machines they have at school. So an upgrade would be a fun addition for her. And me, too! I've actually never used any other machine, except for the few weeks I took a sewing class in 6th grade, and I don't remember much about that experience at all.

This one is kind of random, but I am in love with rocks, trees, and water. This part is about rocks, though, and I've always thought it would be fun to have something like this unit to do some amateur rock tumbling.
We live out here in the desert, and every time I work in the yard I am digging up rocks in the soil. We go on hikes and find rocks, we travel to other places and find rocks. Sometimes we find really cool ones, and I'd love to see what lies beneath the surface. And making cool necklaces and such.


My next item is even more random, but I'm driving a 10 year old hubcapless Sienna Minivan. Hubcaps, being purely aesthetic, are not on my list of needs. But I suspect they'd reduce my trashiness quotient quite a bit. Of course if I were Oprah, I'd just get everyone in my audience a new car...forget hubcaps! But I'm not Oprah, and I really am fine with my denty car...it gets us where we need to be, and it's been a reliable little swaggerwagon for our family and the kids I haul around. Sometimes it's the little things, you know?!

Perhaps this is on my mind because of the buzzing sound that the piano tuner didn't manage to get rid of, which kept getting worse till tonight, when I actually tried to eradicate it and in the process, a screw broke off on the keyboard lid. So the buzz is on hold till I get a screw-extractor and remove the piece and proceed with my little project. But I love the piano. We are SO fortunate to have a well-used, serviceable parlor grand that we got at a church auction. But someday I hope to have a beautiful black grand piano. Black is just my favorite...it's all over my house. Our couches and shelves are black, and our picture frames. I even thought about painting the piano black...but a little research left me with no doubt about what a foolish notion that was. So it remains a brown piano. But someday...someday, a black one and I shall make beautiful music together. Without buzzing that the tuner can't get rid of.


There wasn't a funeral service, but both our desktop computer monitors have died this past few months. We are beyond grateful for the loan of a monitor from my SIL, which we hooked up to Doc's computer so we were back in business. But then my laptop started having an identity crisis. I don't know if it's is viral, bacterial, or if it just has cancer or something, but it's been on the fritz for a while, and now seems to be slowly eking out the rest of it's life. Naturally, two weeks into NaNoWriMo it died for a while. After a miraculous resurrection, it contracted a near-fatal virus, requiring a week's stay in the computer hospital. Upon it's discharge, it still gave me problems, and I don't have audio ever, and only intermitant monitor, but I managed to save all my most crucial files (loud sigh of relief!). So while I'll be sad (RIP PC! Sniff.), I won't be surprised the next time it simply won't come on. Thus, a complete wish list fantasy would include becoming a 100% Mac family. Macs for everyone! Mac Mac here and a Mac Mac there. Some svelte new MacAir number would be awesome.

And I already mentioned this a few months ago in my Dream Big post, but for a final complete, utter fantasy item, I would need to include this house on the creek! Or any house on the creek in our neighborhood. I'm just in love with the water. And the trees. And the rocks. And the sound of the creek. And our neighborhood. And so that would have to be included on any Favorite Things Wish List of mine.


What is your Big (or Monstrous) and Small Things Wish List? (cause you might have noticed that nothing on here is a need...just a whole lotta things.).


Grateful for:
1) Big dreams. There's a kind of magic in them, you know?!
2) Generous friends.
3) Harmony.