Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Things

As the blogger and photographer behind Living Outside the Stacks, I independently select and write about stuff I love and things I think you’ll enjoy too. Living Outside the Stacks has affiliate and advertising partnerships so I get revenue from sharing this content and from your purchase. Thank you for your support.

Welcome to Where Bloggers Live, this month’s theme is My Favorite Things. I like so many things, it was really hard to narrow it down, so I decided to focus on a few things that I thought you’d enjoy as well. Here they are:

August Uncommon – I know I’m known for my coffee drinking, but, in the last few months, I’ve become quite the tea drinker. Honestly, I’m not sure how I discovered this tea, probably on Instagram. Anyway, I fell for the names of the flavors and absolute gorgeousness of the leaves. Since I wasn’t sure I’d like the taste as much as I like the names and descriptions, I started with a four cup sample of eight flavors. The samples are about $3 each and worth every penny.

My favorite flavors are:

The Black Lodge – Sweet black tea with smoky banana and truffle notes
Breathless – silky black tea with white chocolate and brandied prune notes
Passage – rich black tea with hazelnut and chocolate
Silencio – Spicy black tea with pineapple, cacao, and black pepper

If you’re a tea drinker, I can’t recommend these teas highly enough. When you first tear open the packet, the aroma is simply breathtaking. I mean, you can taste the tea just from the smell. And speaking of taste, the flavors are rich and intense. Very full bodied. I promise, these teas will ruin you for store bought teas.

The History Chicks – Podcasts are life, y’all. When I’m running or editing pictures, I like to listen to The History Chicks {or any number of other history related podcasts}. Hosted by Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider, The History Chicks tells the stories of women from an irreverent point of view. I like the conversational tone, the little asides, and the giggles. It’s like sitting in the living room with a cup of tea and gossiping. That’s how I used to try to teach my classes when I taught. I wanted to make history accessible to my students and I think that’s one of the things these ladies do so well.

Some of the podcasts I’ve found most entertaining or informative are:

Trust me, these ladies will have you giggling out loud.

Mia Clogs – I’m a big honkin’ fan of clogs. I know a lot of ladies don’t like them because they’re inflexible or they make a lot of noise, but that doesn’t bother me. Mia Clogs have rubber soles, so that I kind of stifles the noise a bit and, as for the inflexibility, I’m not hiking in them, so there are no issues. Why do I like them? Because they make my little hippie heart happy. And they can be worn with just about anything – jeans, shorts, skirts, dresses…

Secret with Essential Oils – I’m such a fan of this deodorant. There are days when I’m walking back and forth between our two campuses or I’m running up and down the stairs and I sweat. I need something that tamps down odor and keeps me dry. This stuff works and it smells soooo good. I don’t like heavy perfumes, so these work for me. They smell natural and not chemically at all.

What one product or thing do you recommend to all of your friends?

ABOUT WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE

Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Over the next few months, a group of seven bloggers will be sharing their work spaces, their homes, towns and more!

I should note – because this is super important – the creative brain behind this project is Bettye at Fashion Schlub! Love her!