January Lifestyle Favorites

Besides beauty faves, there a few things that I've been obsessed with this past January - some TV shows, beverages, weather, and food!   


Mr. Selfridge - Uhh, where was I last year when this show aired on PBS?  They are currently replaying Season 1 in anticipation of Season 2 which premieres at the end of March.  I stumbled upon this little gem when trying to set the DVR for Downton Abbey (wow, Season 4, just wow...).  I made the connection between Mr. Selfridge and the London/British department store, and was immediately intrigued so I set the DVR to record the series.  I'm a few episodes in and already loving it.  Jeremy Piven is great as Harry Selfridge, so enthusiastic about changing the face of department stores and shopping.  I loved when they were having the debate about placing the cosmetics in the front of the store among accessories...seem familiar about today's department store layout, doesn't it?  I'm so glad I accidentally discovered this show and can't wait to see what happens!

Other TV I'm enjoying right now - Downton Abbey and Vanderpump Rules.  

Starbucks Caramel Flan Latte - It's a genius drink and I'm completely in love.  All they had to do was say "Caramel Infused Whipped Cream"....yes please!  Make it a venti!  It's creamy and caramelly and lovely.  I don't find it to be overly sweet, but I have a pretty high tolerance for sweet drinks.  My normal drink is a White Chocolate Mocha Latte, but this blows it out of the water, no competition.  I hope they keep it forever and ever!!  If you have tried this, stop reading and go to Starbucks right now.  Why are you still reading?  You should be on your way to Starbucks!  Seriously, try it, it's awesome!

Snow - I'm pretty sure most people would think I'm crazy for this one, but snow is the best.  I love it, it makes me happy to see a fresh coating of snow - it makes me not so happy when some neighborhood kid walks through your pristine yard of snow and leaves an ugly trail of footprints.  Stop ruining my snow, kid! And I'll take any excuse to stay in pjs and get cozy under a blanket.  We've got some more snow in the forecast, but seriously, I need a good state of emergency blizzard with driving restrictions so I can stay home from work...with everyone staying safe, of course.  We'll see what February holds on the snow front, but according to the almanac (yes, I said almanac), we are in for a doozy this month.

Chili - We did quite a bit of practicing for the annual Super Bowl chili cookoff at work.  We ordered some specialty chile powders from New Mexico to make our own spice blend and really took the time to perfect our recipe.  After the husband won 1st place in 2012 but got shut out in 2013, we were determined to come back with a vengeance this year.  Seriously though, our chili was freaking amazing!  We created so many layers of flavor and it had the perfect amount of heat.  It was practically perfect.  And apparently a lot of other people thought so too!  We won 2nd place!!  The husband is not happy with this (2nd place is the first loser and all that) and is already thinking of ways to tweak our recipe for next year, but I'm excited.  We put a lot of work into it - we didn't copy it verbatim from a cookbook like the, ahem, winner apparently did.  Really, I'm not that bitter, he has a lot of followers/chili fans, but I'm still very pleased with our performance.   

What did you get into last month??