Affordable Luxury- Scented Candles, Chocolate Croissant & More...

We're a little bit blue today, mainly because it's the last day of a nice, long holiday vacation.  Tomorrow, ah, tomorrow we'll have to deal with work, bills and all the mundane tasks of life...

So we do what we usually do when we are feeling a little down:  Off to the farmers market for a chocolate croissant and a bunch of fresh flowers; then go home, light up some scented candles and crank up some music (try Pandora--it's free and it's fantastic!). Waste a couple of hours reading the Sunday NY Times and surf the web.

 Let us tell you, never underestimate the power of a fresh chocolate croissant, especially if it is sold to you by a Frenchman from Paris!

Anyway, so here is our list of affordable luxury for today:

1) Votivo Scented Candles.  We tested several kinds of candles and we like Votivo the best. It has a clean, crisp scent, burn cleanly, and lasts like, 50 hours!  At $22 or so, that works out to be .44 cents per hour, not bad!  Our favorite is the Vanilla Grapefruit and Red Currant, but they have several other scents as well.  Stick with the basic candles though-they're better than the votives.

2) Surf the web for interesting blog.  One blog we really like is The Pioneer Woman--it was named one of the best 25 blogs by Time Magazine.  The blog is written by Ree Drummond, who lives in a farm, has four kids and married to a cowboy.  Her blog is about her life--cooking, home schooling etc.  It has a huge readership and very, very popular.  It's really quite amazing.  She would write a post on staying in her hotel room, with 20 pictures of the shower, the vanity, the door, the sink--you get the idea--and the post would have 200 comments on it!  Seriously!  As for us, we're lucky if we get one comment per post, and usually it's from someone who still thinks they can get link back that way.

We are so jealous!

We don't really identify with her life, but we  love the blog because it has lots of heart.  She comes off as some one very genuine, very sweet, and we love that.  In the time of mindless celebrity gossip and silly news, this blog is a gem to read.  Beautiful photography as well.

Note:  For a background story on this blog, click here.

3) Going to the farmers market.  We love the farmers markets.  Not only the vegetables and fruits are much fresher than the groceries stores, we feel like we are helping the small vendors too.  It's really fun chatting with them and learn about their lives. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, we find it refreshing to just reach out and actually talk to someone in person. If you live in Los Angeles, here is a list of LA Farmers Markets.

All and all, we spent a total of $20 today--and the vegetables will last us at least three days!  So affordable and so worth it.

Have a great Sunday!