As I'm all for sharing happiness and gratitude over here on Vivatramp, I thought I would start sharing my favourite things at the end of each month during 2017. This month I'm coveting a few Christmas gifts and some new music. If you would like to get involved, feel free to comment with your current favourites so we can all look back in several months time and see what was making our hearts feel full. These are a few of my favourite things, currently:
ROSY CHEEKS MASK
We have a new-ish tradition that my Dad buys us something from LUSH at birthdays and Christmas. I don't really know how it started but it has stuck and last month I was lucky enough to unwrap two of the Rosy Cheeks face mask pots. I'd been wanting to try this one out since its introduction and I hadn't got round to it but boy was it worth the wait! I have to say pals, Rosy Cheeks has now become my favourite mask. I'm not usually big on rose scents but I happen to love how this mask smells and it glides on so smoothly. LUSH face masks always feel like a real treat to me and I love having friends over for little pamper sessions with them. Great for de-stressing. I'll definitely be asking for Rosy Cheeks again. Sorry, Catastrophe Cosmetic!
NEW MUSIC FROM THE XX
The XX are back with their breathy vocals and bass-y lullabies and their third album, entitled I See You. Whilst their second album, Co-Exist, felt very much in the same vein of their first self-titled offering, I See You very much channels Jamie XX vibes. The breaths and the bass are still there but, in places, they're elevated by dancier beats which I am all for because I loved Romy and Oliver's appearances on Jamie's See Saw and Stranger in a Room. My favourite songs from the album so far are I Dare You, Replica, Lips and On Hold. Pop your headphones in and listen to this in the dead of night.
AMETHYST NECKLACE
This Tove Amethyst Triangle necklace has become a style favourite of mine of late for the way in which it transforms a simple outfit, such as my black high neck swing dress, and instantly makes me look put together. I was very lucky to unwrap this, alongside a moon locket, on Christmas Day. Such thoughtful gifts that I'll get so much wear out of. Eclectic Eccentricity have a ton of beautiful pieces, many celestial themed, so I'd recommend that you have a look if you're in the market for a gift or a treat to yourself. I have quite the EE collection and I'm forever buying their pieces for family and friends! Thoroughly recommended.
ZUMA CHAI
Luke's younger brother kindly gave me a massive tub of vanilla Zuma chai for Christmas because he knows how much I love a chai latte every now and again. This particular brand of vanilla chai strikes the right balance between spicy and smooth and froths up really nicely. I like to pair it with warm milk as opposed to half milk half water because I prefer it to be creamier. It has been a real treat on days where I've felt pretty bad and there's enough in the tub to keep me happy for another couple of of months at least!
LA LA LAND
I saw La La Land this month and I fell absolutely head over heels in love with it. I didn't expect to but I did, wholeheartedly. From the choreography to the cinematography, from the costumes to the music. I cannot tell you just how many times I have listened to the soundtrack. It has become a real problem. If you've yet to see La La Land, give it a go. A modern musical heavily inspired by the classics of the '30s and 40s. I'm definitely going to have to go and see it again.
NEW LAYOUT & HAPPY ARCHIVE
I harped on about it in my 2017 goals post but I have been really enjoying my new layout this month. I also love that I took several hours of my time to spark some life back into the Things That Make Me Happy archive. That feature has been with me since the beginning and sharing happiness and gratitude is as important to me now as it was then. I hope you've been enjoying looking back on old posts over here. Again, I apologise if some of them are formatted a little strange. I'm trying to go through them all as quickly as I can to rectify that!
HAVING A COKE WITH YOU BY FRANK O'HARA
I have been fond of this poem since I first read it a few years ago but I recently decided to make it my desktop wallpaper to inspire me and since then I've been reading it every so often and finding new things that I love about it. Whilst I'm not entirely enamored by works from the Beat generation, I do love how conversational their poetry was. The speech-like rhythm is spot on and it's something I'd love to try my hand at a little more.
(photo credit)
DISABILITY MARCH
On January 21st, a day after Trump's inauguration, marches took place around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people were in attendance to fight for rights to party. I truly hope that this signals a rise in activism and awareness of the need for movements and conversations that aren't cis white able-bodied centric. One of the most warming things to come out of the marches for me was the online disability march. Set up by women who recognised that the marches, whilst important, weren't particularly accessible to disabled people, Disability March collected and shared the stories of disabled women across the globe. I spent the day scrolling through the timeline reading stories of fellow disabled people and it filled my heart with so my love, passion and power. The world can often feel like a terrifying place for those of us that aren't able-bodied and scrolling through that Twitter page on Saturday afternoon made me feel incredibly strong. If you're interested in activism but worry because you cannot physically attend protests, there are lots of resources on the Disability March website for you to peruse and the wonderful Vanessa wrote an article on how to be an activist without going to a protest.
'DATE NIGHT'
Whilst we have lots of nice movie nights in, we don't ever really seem to go out very often so it was a real treat earlier this month to head out to dinner with Luke. We went for burgers and fries at a local pub before heading to watch La La Land. It was really lovely and so needed. It wasn't ~wild~ but I wanted to document it here because it was genuinely one of my favourite things this January. I hope we get to do this more often throughout the year. We certainly will next month but more on that in a little bit...
TRONICBOX
I found Tronicbox a few months ago via Twitter, I believe, and I still find myself going back to their channel to listen to the 1980's remixes of popular chart hits. They've done a few Ariana tracks, Bieber tracks and a bit of Gotye. However, I think Into You might be my favourite. Although, I also love Tronicbox's emo remixes of Never Forget You and Rude. You can take the girl out of 2004...
MAKING ANNIVERSARY PLANS
Luke and I are celebrating seven years together next month so I decided to book us a trip to the other love of my life, York. Luke's never been so I'm hoping that he will fall in love with it like I did when I visited last year to attend the York Literature Festival. If you have any York recommendations for things to do or places to eat, etc, then do please fire them my way. Although, I am about 80% of the way there with our itinerary. I love planning, me.
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And those a few of my favourite things at the moment. What are you coveting of late? I really loved sharing my current favourites with you. I'm looking forward to doing it more often! If you'd like to keep up, you can scroll through all of my favourite things.
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