I have noticed that a lot of bloggers are doing cute little lists of things that they currently love in life. So I am totally copy catting that idea today in order to profess my love for the first item on my list!

1. My Crock pot! Oh-My-Goodness! I love, LOVE my crock pot. I use it at least once each week during the colder months. But I used it a good bit too during the summer this year. When you think about using it during the summer, it's genius (OK, maybe not genius....but it is at least a "good thing.") because it does not put extra heat into your house while cooking you a yummy meal. At the moment I have a whole chicken stuffed with lemons, apples, garlic, fresh rosemary and onion sitting on red potatoes, carrots and onions in my crock pot. I can't wait for dinner!

2. My new electric blanket! I am using an electric blanket for the very first time this year and am wondering why I never jumped on this bandwagon before. When I lived in DC, my apartment had very old heating and there were many nights I was just totally unable to get really warm. And this will be my third winter in Upstate NY/Antarctica. It just never occurred to me that I would need it before this week. My brand new blankie has 10 setting options so I can make it super warm before I hop in bed at night and then turn it down to around 2 or 3 for sleeping. Sooo delightful!

3. Caffeine Free Diet Coke! So I still love regular Diet Coke but too much caffeine in life gives me breast pain (I also drink decaf coffee (which still contains some caffeine btw!) about 90% of the time). And since too much breast pain is not very fun because well, it just doesn't feel good and it then leads me to have to go get sonograms of my girls just to be told to cut out caffeine, I have taken to the Caffeine Free DC this year. It was similar to my switch to DC from Regular Coke a few years ago. After a few weeks, I could hardly tell the difference. (Um...I do drink mostly water in life- this makes it seem like I only ever drink soda.)

4. Fabric and Ribbon! I know I have mentioned this obsession several times in passing but you should know just how deep my love is for pretty much anything that my very favorite website, JCaroline sells. I found her blog a while ago too - so fun to put a face with the company that I adore soooo much! I could spend forever looking at all of her beautiful fabric and her prices are awesome! I have yet to find a website that has anything close to her selection of fabrics or reasonable prices. For years I actually tried NOT to tell people about her website because I felt like it was my own little secret spot. But since her ads are now all over the place in mainstream media, my secret is out and I am free flowing with my compliments these days. I do not allow myself to enter a JoAnn store anymore if I do not have a very specific game plan. Sort of like how many people shouldn't go to a grocery store without a set-in-stone list in hand. Oh I am fine in a grocery store but a fabric store is pure danger territory for my checking account. I lose myself in the walls of fun fabrics and ribbons. I come home with stuff that I have no idea when or if I will ever use. But I fall in love fast and furious in there - especially with anything in the Michael Miller or Alexander Henry section. Be still my heart! I would bring them all home if I could! I am about one yard away from needing a 12-step program I think!

5. Quirky cable TV shows! Oh sure, I love Thursdays on ABC as well as Gossip Girl on Wednesday. But the rest of the week I could pretty much care less about the major networks. I am loving several new(er) shows on TLC right now. Have you watched Little People, Big World or John and Kate Plus Eight? Sooo good! My cousin's youngest is a little person and since his birth almost eight years ago I have been minorly obsessed on the topic. He is just the coolest and funniest kid ever. Not that these traits are due at all to his short stature. But I do really hope to one day adopt a LP daughter. I just think it would so neat to have more than one LP in our family. John and Kate is also an adorable show. They have twins in kindergarten and three year old sextuplets. I don't always love the way Kate talks to John- she talks down to him a lot. But she/they always apologize and I think that is an even better life lesson. They really do a great job of making life as normal as possible for the tots. Of course I also love shallow shows like The Hills. I feel like throwing up ever time I see Spencer's big head. Does he not work? How can they afford that fancy apartment? And why is he always wearing an ugly, over-sized t-shirt? Do they not sell polo shirts in California? Or even a t-shirt that fits? Oh I love (and am still not yet sure why because truth be told, it is not a great quality show) Living With Ed on HGTV. It makes me want to make my life "green." Iron Chef America, Ace of Cakes and Semi-Homemade are my Food Network favorites. And I am giddy with excitement knowing that my very favorite Cable show will be back on November 14th, Project Runway! Another bonus about my cable shows is that I don't have to every watch them (or even know in my case) when they originally air. They all run repeats (and I think Bravo runs their shows in a loop- you can catch PR every other hour once the season gets going usually) so I can find one of my favs whenever I have free time. They are great to listen to while sewing or cutting fabric. I didn't have cable TV when I lived in DC because I was never home so I figured I would never watch it. Now that I have it again I don't think I could ever go back. I love it!

So there you have it. Five things that are my current obsessions. Also five things that are subject to change as my obsessions often rotate to other areas of interest. Such is life I guess.