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Life Essentials

February 12, 2012 by Joy the Baker 115 Comments

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is essential.

It’s hard to think of essential… because very few things are actually, very completely, essential.

Let me give you a little peek into what I find essential these days.  Some of these essentials are a edible, some are a luxury, some are sparkly… it’s just a little bit of real life.

Essentials start in the kitchen with big bins of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, sea salt in my Dad’s old Tupperware salt shaker, and these perfectly simple metal measuring spoons.

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Here’s a peek at my purse essentials.  I LOVE a look inside stranger’s purses.  Here’s mine:

Eye glasses.  Booth&Bruce, London.

Alba Tinted Lip Balm in Bloom.

Over-sized Timex.  I love this watch so much.

Green snakey wallet from Banana Republic.

My favorite orange hair clip.  My favorite flavor of Tootsie pop:  orange.

Grid Paper Post-it Notes from Tracy.

Note pad for daily lists and skinny Sharpie marker… they don’t bleed… they’re the best!! (not pictured).

aand… the iPad.  A total luxury.

Not pictured from the purse:

a cucumber, countless receipts, empty chapstick tube, chop sticks, garlic skins, socks.  I dunno…

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I LOVE button down shirts.  Totally classic.  Plus!  If you’re feeling spunky, these shirts look great unbuttoned real low with a pretty bra.  I’m just sayin.  I rock that look when  I’m just Joy… not Joy the Baker.  Joy the Baker buttons up proper.

These are JCrew.  Swoon.

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Nail polish is an essential luxury.

Sally Hanson, Smooth and Perfect Satin.  Essie, A Cut Above.  Essie, As Gold as it Gets.

Simple.  Girly.  Sparkle pretty.

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I celebrated my Mom’s birthday this week.

On your birthday, ice cream sundaes are essential, as are birthday candles.  Mamas are also essential.  Love you, Mom!

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I need to tell you a weird thing.

This is a little vintage glass that sits on my desk.

Late at night when I’m tired of working on the computer, but still trudging though… I decorate my computer with little gems, and I put a fox pin broach on my sweater.

Its… just a thing I do.

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Sunday morning at Church in Hollywood is essential.

What a blessing this place is to me.

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Warm, brown sugar sweet grapefruit.

Broiled grapefruit reminds me of  sleepovers, Florida, and riding a bike with no hands… one of those weird childhood brain things.

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Friday night, glow-in-the-dark bowling is essential.  Friday night, doing-anything-besides-sitting-on-the-computer is actually what’s essential.

Ps…  I’m a truly awful bowler.  I stop caring after exactly three rolls.

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This cat animal has become essential to my life.

Monster.

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Potatoes are ESSENTIAL!!!

… especially when they’re in Hasselback stylings with crazy homemade pesto.

salt and pepper

Salt and Pepper are totally essential.

I made these salted Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Cookies ages ago.  They still have a soft spot in my heart.

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Lentils are essential.  Cheap, mutable, delicious.

Also, I’m hiding there in the spoon in my favorite pink and red wrap skirt.

Wrap skirts are also essential.  No biggie.

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I took a company field trip (which means it was just me driving a car…) to visit the photo studio of White on Rice Couple.

Two words:  prop studio.

Aaaand… I swoon.

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Flour+Sugar+Yeast+Lemon Zest=

Lemon Raspberry Breakfast Rolls.

You’ll thank me.  I know you will.

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Pie is essential.  So tremendously essential.  It’s the first thing my dad taught me how to make, and it’s my absolute favorite thing to bring together in the kitchen.

Make an Apple Pie from start to finish.  It’s just one of those things that you should do at some point.  It’ll teach you about care, patience, love, and apples.  That, indeed, is essential.

Very little is actually essential.  I know.

But these are the things, both frivolous and delicious, that I’m currently surrounded with.

There… don’t we feel like better friends now?

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Reader Interactions

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  1. Rachael

    January 17, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    I see East of Eden in the pile of books next to your cat animal! Steinbeck is essential to my life (as is MY cat animal :)
    Love the stoires you tell thru pictures, Joy

    Reply
  2. Miss Meghan @ scratch-made wife

    February 26, 2012 at 5:13 am

    I agree with so many of your essentials. Dogs and mountains and mommas and breakfast are essential. Warm hugs from the husband are, too, but dogs, mountains and mommas are definitely up there.

    Reply
  3. Archer

    February 21, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    what a fun post!

    Reply
  4. Danielle

    February 20, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Yep, I would deem just about everything in this post essential to life. Especially the nail polish :) Love it!

    Reply
  5. Teresa

    February 20, 2012 at 1:20 am

    My parents still have that style of Tupperware salt shaker on their shelf. The pepper shaker disappeared long ago, replaced by a series of grinders (the current one is enormous, a gift from my brother the chef).

    Reply
  6. emiglia

    February 19, 2012 at 2:46 am

    Love the look of those lentils… what did you do? I want to make them. :)

    Reply
  7. Dana B

    February 18, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    cool post. iPad may not be essential, but it sure would be nice :)

    Reply
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Trackbacks

  1. Life Essentials… « Coffee & Sunshine says:
    May 12, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    […] month, I read this post about essentials from Joy The Baker. And I will start my post similarly by saying that it’s hard to define what really is […]

    Reply
  2. Life essentials | The List | Oh Little Audrey Says says:
    April 25, 2012 at 8:52 am

    […] to try her recipes, but I also thoroughly enjoy reading her quirky personal posts. One of them, Life Essentials, lists a few (ahem) things that, to her, are essentials. A list… of course, my heart skipped […]

    Reply

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