Loving Lately - Fall Favorites
Hi friends! I recently shared a video on my channel about “What I’ve Been Loving Lately” and thought it would make a great post too. Below you will find all my favorite things with brief descriptions about each. Enjoy!
First we’ll start off with some of my favorite products, and front and center is my favorite candle company. There is nothing quite like the smell of a good fall candle on a brisk autumn day, and Antique Candles delivers. I shared about them in my last post but will do so here as well.
Antique Candle is a Chirstian owned small business, which I love. They share on their website that their candles are made in Lafayette, Indiana with natural soy wax from domestically grown soybeans for a clean, long-lasting, and even burn. They use premium fragrance oils (hand-picked by thousands of candle testers across the U.S.) and 100% lead-free cotton wicks. All their candles are paraffin free, dye free, and cruelty free. Their hand-picked fragrances are also phthalate and paraben free.
Antique Candle has graciously shared a coupon code for my followers. Use the code GRACEANDGRIT20 when you visit their shop through this link. Make sure to go through the link provided as my code only works through this link.
Clothing & Accessories
There are quite a few pieces of clothing, shoes, and accessories I’ve been loving lately that I’ve recently added to my closet. Check out each product below.
This Free People dress is actually the same one as the one in my YouTube profile picture. When we got those family pictures taken, I borrowed my friend's dress in the reddish orange color. I have been wanting this dress for some time and splurged to get it for myself in the blue. It is so flattering and comfortable and is a great dress for family pictures. When ordering this dress, size down.
If the price tag of the Free People dress is not budget friendly, I found that many people have shared this Free People dupe dress that is much more affordable and very similar to the Free People style. When ordering this dress, it is true to size.
I got these Target dressy sneakers to pair with cute leggings and dressier shirts, sweaters, or tunics. They are really comfy and super cute.
I also got this Target sweatshirt in brown. This is a really good dupe for Lululemon sweatshirts. It is comfy and lightweight. Great for a fall day.
These are by far my favorite Hiking shoes. I had my last pair of Merrells for 5 years before I got a hole in it. That made me feel pretty darn good about buying another pair. If you are a hiker, these shoes won’t let you down.
These Clogs take me back to my middle school memories. These are my platform Birkenstock dupe clogs. They are very on trend for fall and winter. I wanted to test out this style of shoe at a more affordable pair without sacrificing quality before possibly buying a pair from Birkenstock in the future.
Finally, I have been loving the Olive and June nail polish in sage and the top coat. It is a clean nail polish and by far the best I’ve found that lasts 3-4 days before wearing away. That is pretty good for a busy mama.
Watching & Listening
Now onto some of my favorite tv shows, movies, and music. If you’ve been around for a while, you know I am not a huge TV watcher. However, I have been enjoying time with Jake on Friday nights sitting down to watch a show. These are some of the media my family and I have been enjoying lately.
Movies
The Blind was a movie we saw in theaters. It is the story of Phil Robinson who was the creator of Duck Dynasty, his life, his struggle with alcoholism, and the story of his coming to faith. The movie was very well done with good acting and a powerful story. We took all our teens and pre-teen to see the movie but I will caution that if your older children have not been educated about alcoholism and its effects that your children could be frightened by some of the scenes that depict this struggle. Just be aware.
Big George Foreman was a movie Jake and I watched one night for a date night and again as a family the following weekend. It’s a really incredible story and definitely one that shows what putting your faith in Jesus looks like portrayed through an actor.
TV Shows
Virgin river has been a show I have enjoyed over the years. I started watching a few years ago when we still had Netflix before canceling it for a time. Now that we have Netflix again and Season 5 has been released, it has been a wonderful show for me to sit down and “turn off my brain” so to speak so I can just relax. It is relatively clean and I appreciate that as I do have boundaries on what I watch when it comes to certain things.
Quarterback has been surprisingly enjoyable as well. Jake, my husband, really loves football, and we began watching the show together. I have really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes with the job of a quarterback. I also love that some of the season follows Kirk Cousins, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, who is an outspoken Christian. He keeps it real on the show and doesn’t hide his faith, which I value.
All Creatures Great and Small is a show my family has really enjoyed watching. The new season is being released in January and we are very excited to watch it after the holidays. My oldest daughter has been reading all of James Harriot’s books. If you have PBS or can stream it I highly recommend this show.
Music
We really love Phil Wickham. We saw him in concert last year around Christmas and it was amazing! He just released his new album called I Believe and we have really been enjoying it.
Reading
I haven’t had a lot of time to read books lately because we have been very busy with the beginning of our school year and family trips. However, I have been working through a bible study that I am leading my Friends of Grace and Grit membership through on YouTube. By the way if you’re interested in joining, it's not too late, just sign up here.
This fall we are doing the John MacArthur James Bible Study. The book of James is probably one of my favorite books of the Bible. These studies are not topical but study the scriptures and John MacArthur does a deep into the scriptures. I prefer this style of Bible study.
On Audible, I have been listening to Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard. Before this one, I listened to a book by Jinger, Jill’s sister, called Becoming Free Indeed. I will admit that I was curious what Jill’s book was going to talk about. It is really good. I enjoy hearing other people's stories and biographies. I understand why she wanted to tell her story and felt it was unbiased.
Social Media Accounts
As far as YouTube and Instagram go, I go through phases where I clean out so many things. If you watch regularly, I am not someone who does the “I’ll follow you if you follow me” thing. I really only want to follow people who show things I’m interested in, people I know in real life, or have developed some type of meaningful relationship with, or people who encourage me or people who do something really well that I’d like to glean from.
So I did a huge cleanout of accounts that don’t align with these things and asked my followers on Instagram for recommendations of people they follow. Here are three new people I’ve started following that I have been really enjoying lately.
Ashley Huze is an influencer I’ve started following that has a very aesthetic design style that is similar to my taste. She has some great home decor.
Annie Paventy is an influencer who focuses on comfortable mom fashion. She has a nice style and I like finding people who also post affordable outfits and have a similar style.
Elyse A Ellis is an influencer that posts macro-friendly recipes that are already in the MyFitnessPal app. She does a lot of recipes where she makes unhealthy recipes healthy if you’re looking for that. I personally enjoy eating unhealthy foods in moderation. I do really enjoy the meals she shares that give me ideas for meals my family may like. And I really appreciate the macro content so I know what I’m actually putting in my body.
YouTube
Now you all may wonder if I’ve jumped off the deep end here into the True Crime genre, but I am not someone who enjoys listening to True Crime podcasts and instead try to fix my eyes on things that are good, pleasing, and lovely. However, every now and then, there will be something that happens that catches my full attention and I am locked in and want to learn more about the case. I find that I want to know what is going to be the outcome. There are many YouTube channels that focus on this type of content but two that I have been visiting when wanting to learn more about a case are the two listed below.
Fitness & Food
Workouts
When it comes to workouts, I have really been enjoying two very different style workouts. The first is using the Peloton App on my treadmill, especially with the hiking workouts. My favorite instructor for hiking workouts is Rebecca Kennedy.
My second favorite workout program lately has been F45. I do it two times a week. F45 is a fitness franchise that focuses on high-intensity bootcamp style classes. I have really been loving working out with other people and pushing myself to my limits.
Recipes
To wrap up, I’m going to share two recipes with you all and with this being a fall favorites post, I’m sure you guessed that the recipes are pumpkin flavored. These two recipes are sourdough discard recipes so know that before trying to make these.
One recipe I have been loving is by Turner Farms on Instagram. They put out a pumpkin sourdough discard bread recipe that has ZERO sugar in it and it is so good.
The second recipe is these delicious sourdough pumpkin cookies. They are sooo good and taste like fall.
One last thing I’d like to share before ending this post is my FREE Holiday Checklist. This checklist is what I do to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas each year.
Well that’s it friends! I hope you enjoyed this “Loving Lately - Fall Favorites” post. I pray you all have a wonderful autumn season. Until next time!
