Can’t Get Enough. . .

Lianne La Havas.

I discovered Lianne La Havas via a random tweet. Somebody mentioned her having an awesome voice, and I was looking for some new music so off I went to YouTube. And loved her! I was planning on saying “This isn’t what I normally listen to”, but then I actually started thinking about the music I listen to. Which doesn’t fit a category. I don’t really subscribe to one type of music genre, so really this fits right in! I think Age and Forget off of the Is Your Love Big Enough? album are my faves of hers right now.

I love her voice. That’s a biggie for me, as I can be pretty picky about female voices. I find her music has the fantastic balance of being something I can listen to in the car and jam out, and also perfect ‘rainy day’ music meaning I can put it on in the background and it just provides great ambiance.

Also, though this has nothing to do with her music, she is totally stunning. I’m drawing a portrait of her in fact, as I think she is just so lovely!

 

Can’t Get Enough. . .

of Grace and Miss Mouse Soaps.

*Photo from Grace and Miss Mouse website*

I discovered these handcrafted, made in Vermont soaps earlier this year at a sheep and wool festival, and they are amazing! I have never been able to use a bar soap before. They’ve always left me with a dry, scaly, itchy feeling on my legs and body. So I’d pretty much given up the handmade, artisan soap route. I assumed my skin just wasn’t meant for them. But while shopping around with a friend at the festival, we stumbled upon the booth for Grace and Miss Mouse Soaps. And I picked up a bar to smell (because who doesn’t love that?) and was immediately intrigued. It felt like I was holding a bar of lotion. My hands felt more moisturized when I set it down. So I threw the dice, and bought two bars assuming if they didn’t work out, at least I supported an indie biz.

But they did work out. And they smell amazing. The first bar I used was the Rosemary Mint, and it was so fantastic. I was excited to shower just to use the soap. The scent was so incredibly refreshing. The second bar was an unscented Castile soap, which is a much gentler soap and I figured might be better on my skin. In retrospect, I should have used the Castile bar first, but the Rosemary Mint smelled so damn good I couldn’t wait. Luckily, it works lovely on my skin!

*Photo from Grace and Miss Mouse website*

Also, these soaps last. I bought my bars in May, and only now am at the point of needing to order more as the second bar is almost gone. And no, I’m not a shower-once-a-week person – I shower just about every other day, so it gets used regularly. I do keep the bar out of the shower, which definitely helps preserve it’s life.

So if you’re looking for amazing soap, and the added bonus of supporting and indie/handmade biz, check out Grace and Miss Mouse Soaps! Other flavors I’d recommend just by their scent: Zen, Black Raspberry Vanilla, and Lavender Oatmeal. They also offer Sheep’s Milk Soap!

I was not compensated for this post – I just love their soaps and spreading support for indie businesses!

Can’t Get Enough. . .

Bravely Default.

I am SO in love with this game. It’s been quite awhile since I got sucked into a good JRPG, and it feels great to love one again!

The game play is great. It has classic turn-based RPG combat with a few new things to change it up, which I love, along with the jobs/abilities you can customize for each character (think FF Tactics. This is a Square Enix game, so there are lots of similarities to Final Fantasy games).

One of my favorite parts is the little side-game of rebuilding a town that gets destroyed. You assign ‘workers’ (which are CPs if, like me, you have no 3DS friends to connect to in the area) and then rebuild the town in real time. For example, it could take 2 real life hours to rebuild a shop, less if you assign more workers to it. The time increases as you level up each building, and also explore new area to expand. What’s the point? The shops allow you to buy special equipment and items, along with learning new special moves and upgrades.

The only downside is that it is pretty linear. Exploration is often cutoff despite having an open world map, but that’s often a standard in RPGs. I just prefer being able to explore everything as I wish, even if it means getting into combat with a massively high level enemy and getting wiped out.

Currently I have this party: Thief (Tiz), Valkyrie (Edea), Ranger (Ringabel), and Red Mage (Agnes). Do you play? What classes do you usually use?

Can’t Get Enough. . .#1

HabitRPG.

I first heard of this through Gamerwife, and tried it out. What is it? A ‘real life’ RPG. You create a character, make real to-do lists, and then for each item you check off, you earn experience and virtual rewards (think gear, items, in game gold, etc.) for your char. For the first couple weeks, I was very half-hearted about it. I didn’t input too many tasks, and hardly explored the site. But in the past couple weeks, I’ve really been using it to it’s fuller potential, and I am discovering virtual character rewards motivate me more than I thought. Lately, when I get stuck in the can’t-figure-out-what-to-do-so-let’s-wander-aimlessly mentality, I just refer to my lists on HabitRPG and actually accomplish something. I love the ability to add what I want, when I want.

To the left is my character and the others are all chars in my party. Isn’t my little shade panda cute?!

Is it silly? Slightly ridiculous? Absolutely. I am loving it. And actually using it for positive things. For instance, thanks to HabitRPG, I am now flossing my teeth every night, a task I used to loathe and rarely do. And while I still loathe it, I get the double whammy of knowing it is super good for my oral health, AND I get experience for it! So regardless of the fact that it’s a bit silly, I find it really works for me, and can’t get enough.

 

 

Can’t Get Enough is a series centered around sharing things I love. Be it websites, products, books or shows – anything goes! Now to figure out a schedule for it. . .