favorite things

It's Friday, it's gorgeous out, and due to the fact that I handed in my report four days early, I have literally no work to do today. That means it's time for my weekly favorite things post. This week, in honor of my charity giveaway, I will be showcasing items that donate back to a non-profit organization. (If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, please do so. I want a lot of entries for this one.)

First up is this lovely necklace from Jewelry Without Jewels, $15 from her Etsy shop.

The color is pretty darn close to Tiffany Blue (yes, I'm a creature of habit), it's cute, perfect for summer, and makes a great gift. Also, 10% of it goes to the Save the Music Foundation which helps fund instrumental music education in public schools.

Since I can only go for, oh, 5 minutes without gushing about Lilly (I'm pretty sure it's 5 minutes, KMH you've been timing me- what's the official time?) here is a piece from their celebrity designed Jubilee Collection- A Colorful Cause.

The Shields Bikini, $178. I am in love with this print. Unfortunatly, I am one of those people who is two different sizes on the top and the bottom so I cannot buy a bikini that's sold as a set as opposed to two separate pieces. If you can buy it, do so, it's gorgeous and 15% of the sale of it goes to The Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation.

Moving on to more Lilly, another thing that I have been buying a lot of is pretty stationary. I am absolutely in love with the idea of personalized stationary and hope to acquire some soon.

I am absolutely head over heels in love with these Winter Playground Pink Foldover Cards from The Preppy Princess. $75 for a set of $25, with 5% of the profits going to the Fisher House.

As I have mentioned on here before, I am really into ladybugs. Partly because they are my sorority's symbol, partly because I adore polka dots, and partly because they are too darn cute. When I found this serving platter from Uncommon Goods, my fingers could not type in my credit card number fast enough!

I always serve cookies on this platter when guests come over, and it's fun when I have sisters over for dinner and they see the ladybug and start to squeal. $40 with 10% going to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. (KMH, are you shrieking yet?)

For a long time, I was very fascinated by the Clarisonic Brush at Sephora, but could not justify the hefty $195 price tag. I just knew that if I bought it, I would only use it a couple of times and then it would sit there. Boy I was wrong. One day, I had a $165 gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided that I would buy one. Since then, I have used it almost every day, and my face seriously feels dirty if I go for a few days without using it. When I got mine, there was only the plain white version available, but since then Clarisonic has created the pink version as well. Not only is it cuter, but the proceeds from this one go towards funding breast cancer research.

Since Passover has finally ended and I have survived another year, I can now talk about baked goods without turning into something resembling a drunk Cookie Monster on crack with slightly less fur. Therefore, I bring you to my final item on this week's list, something that we are all familiar with and that many of us hold near and dear to our hearts: Girl Scout Cookies.

At around $4 a box, these are the cheapest item on this week's list. They come in many varieties, my favorite being the Samoa, above. (Does anyone find it coincidental that my favorite cookie just happens to be the most fattening one? I sure as heck don't.) What could be better than knowing that while I'm sitting on my couch watching Phantom of the Opera on dvd, I'm actually helping girls become better and stronger leaders? You tell me.