I missed two weeks of Friday Favorites, so I have lots to share today! First of all, happy Friday! Do you have any plans this weekend? I want to hear about them and your favorites in the comments 😊
Happy Friday from Niva… on our fire pit!
Let’s get right to the good stuff of what I’ve been loving lately!
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter. No Friday Favorites post is complete without me mentioning some sort of food item, right?! I’ve had my eye on the New Zealand-based brand Fix and Fogg peanut butter for a long time. It went on sale soo I bought a jar of the dark chocolate flavor. Oh, it’s so good! The right amount of chocolate and it’s slightly crunchy. Perfection.
Decorating for fall. Sadie and I pulled out our fall decorations this week and had a blast putting pumpkins and garlands all around the house. I bought some faux mums to put outside in a planter and got a new pillow at Walmart. My favorite fall decor piece is still my pumpkin candle holder. It makes me so happy!
Fall children’s books. On the heels of all the decorating, I also pulled out our bin of seasonal books and grabbed all the fall and Thanksgiving ones. Sadie and I have been reading about pumpkin patches and turkeys and getting in the fall spirit 🤗 I’m curious, do any adults out there have favorite novels that are set in the fall season? Send me your recommendations if so!
Zingo. If you’re not the parent of a young child, you’ve probably never heard of Zingo. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like an exciting and simple form of bingo for kids 4+. We’ve been playing it daily and even Jimmy and I think it’s pretty fun!
A new novel. I mentioned in a recent post that I was looking for a new novel since I finished The Bodyguard. I’m now reading The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center! I’m only a few chapters in, but as always, love the author’s style of writing. My sister is reading this book and has sent me a few quotes that had me nodding my head so hard. Definitely adding it to my to-read list!
September weather. You never know what you’re going to get with the weather in Pittsburgh in September. Sometimes it’s rainy, other years it has been blazing hot all month. This year, it has been pretty perfect: chilly mornings in the 50s/60s that are so cozy and then warm, sunny days with highs in the 70s. Perfect weather for a picnic with my favorite girl 💜
Candles. Since it’s beginning to cool off here in the ‘Burgh, I’ve been pulling out my candles more and more. Sadie and I stopped at Yankee Candle this week and picked out a few candles together. I was pleasantly surprised by how well-behaved she was among all the glass jars calling her name 😂 We left with a pack of tea lights in a cider scent and a couple of votives that were pumpkin-scented.
Living the husky life. Okay, are you ready for the next crazy Niva story?! We keep her in our basement when we go to church and she’s been going to the the bathroom and chewing things while we’re gone so we decided to start crating her. We came home from church this week and she was out of her crate and it was still locked. HOW!!! She’s seriously too funny. She had a husky play date at our house this week and got some energy out 😊
Living My Full Life 
I want to come over “you.s” house and play zingo!
Love 💕 You!
Dad
🙂
You’re welcome any time! Love you!
Was clueless how to plan our weekend around our human and canine boys until now. Thanks for the ideas!
Thanks for the comment!!
Whoa. How did she get out of the crate and then lock it? She’s a Houdini dog!
Total Houdini! I think she pushed the back of the crate open (like the tiniest crack) and shimmied through so it stayed locked?! Jimmy and I were just thinking we need a baby monitor for her so we can see exactly how she pulls these stunts hahaha.
I’ve been reading your blog for years so it was a nice surprise to see New Zealand mentioned! It’s even made just down the road from me. They have an epic hole in the wall café with great food. Hopefully you get more of their flavours soon.
I’ve started going to a health food store where i can grind my own peanut butter. Nice to know exactly what’s in it and to make it as smooth or chunky as i like
Awww, yay! New Zealand is awesome and I would love to visit some day. Jimmy and I watch Battle Bots on TV and one of our favorite teams is from New Zealand (they’re called End Game). I can’t believe Fix and Fogg is made just down the road from you and that they have a cafe! So jealous!! I am definitely going to try more of their flavors soon because they have some unique ones (like chocolate berry!).
Health food store PB is pretty epic, too! It’s fun to grind it yourself 🙂
I was thinking… would you ever want to write a guest post about what it’s like to live in New Zealand?! I feel like everyone who reads here would find it really interesting!
Oh cool, I’ve never heard of battle bots. I’ll have to look it up and see if we have it here.
That sounds really fun! I can take photos too to make it a bit more interesting. If you wrote some questions or prompts for me to answer that would be great – I’m not sure what your readers would want to know.
Photos would be awesome! I can definitely do an interview-style format or give you some prompts! Would it be okay if I emailed you to get some background info (if you’ve always lived in NZ, your age, what you do in your free time, etc.) and then we can go from there in terms of questions?!
Sure 🙂 email me at l u c y w a s s @gmail.com 🙂
Love reading the deets about your husky life! Haha and oh, the weather is finally getting so much better where I am too. So windy and cold today I love it!
It’s a wild life but I wouldn’t have it any other way! It’s rainy here in Pittsburgh today and it’s giving me all the cozy fall vibes 🍁
I definitely always have to say spending any amount of time possible with my children and grandchildren is THE BESTTTT!
Zingo was so much fun with Sadie (I always let the child win- always- sorry it’s a mom / YaYa thing!)
Truth! All your grandkids adore spending time with you and pap pap!! Sadie loves Zingo!