Easter Favorites

Hello, and Happy Easter! I hope this gorgeous Sunday finds you dancing like a lunatic to Justin Bieber in your living room. Like mine has found me. After church, of course.

It would seem as though I missed a February favorites, and seeing as March is nearly over, I thought might as well combine the two!

(JK JK, just discovered Charlie Puth has covered many Taylor Swift songs and I have transitioned from bae to bae. In case you were wondering.)

1. Let’s get to it then! KEEP WATCH. KEEP WATCH. #keepwatch. You feel me? My awesome friends of A Story Told (@astorytoldband on Instagram and twitter) have released their first FULL LENGTH album. I mentioned this recently, but now that I’ve had a few days to play the album on repeat, I am here to tell you that it’s amazing. I definitely am biased, but as they’re hovering around 100 on iTunes above bands that are playing through your radio, I’ll let that speak for itself. So good, so good. You can stream the album on Spotify, or be a baller and purchase Keep Watch on iTunes or here on their website. (The merch is also way high quality. I have many a t-shirt and many a sweatshirt.) While you’re at it, check out some of the old tunes as well. It’s all phenomenal.  P.S. My WV people, I’ll be at the album release and cannot wait to hug you. K. 🙂
2. In case you missed it on my instagram, @leighannlilly, (shameless) I’ve stumbled upon a pretty brilliant artist. Jeff McCarthy is the genius behind Celebs on Sandwiches. He’s @celebsonsandwiches on Instagram, (for endless fits of laughter) and @celebsonsammies on twitter. As a fellow water color painter, I did some heavy creeping ,not sure which print I’d like to buy, then lo and behold, Mindy Kaling shows up on a hamburger. Fate. Killer customer service. He answered my instagram comments, had the print up on his site in a day and just a few after that, my very on Mindy on a bun arrived! If you want to get your own celeb on a sandwich, and I know you do, you can purchase prints here.
3. I’m still trying vegan and cruelty-free products to figure out what’s going to work for me. There have been hits and misses, but I did stumble upon a major success! I took a trip to Ulta the other day to find a The Body Shop lotion that was mentioned on a youtube channel I frequent. Please take what I’m about to say lightly, as I’m now realizing I tend to describe anything that smells or tastes weird in this exact way, but everything by The Body Shop smells like play-doh. (Just like all Silk yogurt tastes like play-doh…? I am weird.) Anyway, as I was frantically googling cruelty free Ulta brands, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the display right beside me was also 100% vegan and cruelty free. Pacifica has a great range of products, things from lotions to nail care to cleansers. And get this, everything smells awesome. I don’t like over fragrance. I also don’t like things that smell like the earth from which they came. These are all a nice happy medium and right now I’m enjoying the Indian Coconut Nectar body butter, as well as the Island Vanilla lotion wipes. I know what you’re thinking… “A lotion wipe? Wtf?” My mother in law gifted me these though, and somehow they do work. An awesome alternative if you’re like me and cringe at the thought of rubbing grease all over yourself on a hot summer day.
4. Have you seen those crazy Bai Commercials? As a resident badass who cannot stand jumping on the bandwagon the second something goes wild, just for peace of mind, I have to say, my dad and I found these delicious Bai drinks first. Phew, now that’s off my chest. Really though, a few months back, my dad was like, “Have you tried Coconut Bai?” and I was like, “Uh, what the heck is that?” I love coconut anything. (Yup, me and four other people on planet earth.) I immediately went on a hunt and you can actually find these guys at all the regular places. Kroger, Walmart, gas stations, my old job, (wahhhhhh) etc. There are quite a few flavors, and I’m pretty crazy about all of them. Not only that, but there’s also a carbonated version of each flavor. The best news? Each bottle weighs in at only 10 calories, low in sugar and carbs, and high in Vitamin C. This would be an excellent replacement for Gatorade going forward!
5. Kanye West! Just kidding. Total nope. Kim, tho ;).

That’s it for this edition of favorites! I guess I’ll leave you with this off topic burning question: Who the heck was responsible for Grand Central on Quantico? GOOGLE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE SPOILERS, I’M GOING CRAZY!

xoxo HOPPYEaster (see what I did there?)