 Good morning. I'm Mary Ellen and today I'm here to do a collaboration with two beautiful women, Natalie the beauty diva and Carol from the old Carol show. Every for the last six years we have done our yearly favorites, but this year we decided instead of doing our favorite 21 for 2021 we were gonna pick out our top ten. This is the eighth year that I have filmed a yearly favorites and it is the sixth one that Carol and Natalie and I have done together and I have known both Carol and Natalie since the very beginning of my channel. I call Carol the Queen of Cool and Natalie is my beautiful little sister and I sure hope you watch their videos and I will link those below and I think you'll enjoy them as much as I do if you don't already know them. I really had a hard time limiting what I was going to talk about because I did have like 25 things picked so what I did was I'm not gonna talk about beauty items in this one because to tell you the truth I have found some good beauty items and I'll talk about those in an upcoming video but if you've watched me very long, you know that anything that makes me happy or makes my life a little bit easier. I think they're beauty items. I really do and I have three rules when I decide what I'm gonna talk about. It has to be something that I have purchased myself. It's has to be something that I haven't talked about in a former yearly favorites and I have to go back to all my favorites and I make notations if I still like it, if it if it didn't work out like I thought it was going to because those videos are there forever. So anyway, those are my rules. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is my Apple Watch and I am going to link the video that I talked about it in depth in the card and down below because I mean this this has been well, I haven't found anything in the last few years that I liked as much as this. There's two things that are really important to me about this. If I would fall and I did one time, it sets off an alarm that you can choose, if you're still awake, you can choose to cancel it or if you have passed out it will call all your text, all your contacts and 911 services and also it it works as a phone. I can tell it to do anything that I can tell my phone to do to make telephone calls, to get me directions, to text, although I don't use it for all those things. The main thing I use it for is safety. I bought it for Jim and he will not, he's not interested right now. He may be at some point. Before I talk a little bit more about this, I want to share something else with you. If you're not interested in having a phone on your wrist and the safety things, having a Fitbit and a pulse oximeter, this gets me everything that my Apple Watch does except for the safety features. Jim still wears his Fitbit and this is mine and this is going to be a backup for him because I don't want to give my Apple Watch up. I am not trying to sell you anything. I'm just going to share with you the things that I really like, like this watch. I'm going to tell you what I think is important. I did a little research and I wanted to share that with you and I'm going to go ahead and look down because I don't want to get these numbers mixed up. This is a 44 millimeter watch. I wanted a bigger one because I wanted to be able to read it if I didn't have glasses on or if I didn't have my contact lens on. I had to buy the expensive watch because this is stainless steel and even though I have to switch it, that every two days from one arm to the other, it doesn't really bother me but I know that I couldn't wear an aluminum one. This one came with the leather band that is magnetized but really it's not important what bands you get because you can get any you can get bands everywhere for Apple Watches and I'm embarrassed to say but I paid $749 for mine. I didn't know it until later. My grandson said, well you can get it for 24 months with absolutely no interest if you choose to do that but I didn't know about that at the time and you can because I looked on their website but I'm going to share with you what I would have gotten or what Jim will maybe get eventually if I didn't have a metal allergy. I would go for the SE. SE, it does everything that my watch does with the exception of it doesn't do the EKG and it doesn't measure oxygen but you know I have this so and I think a lot of people have these. I've had this one for years. The SE can be cellular and have the GPS. The 44 millimeter SE with GPS and cellular is $359 or $14.95 for 24 months. Well when I'm talking about the GPS and cellular you need to add it to your cellular plan and mine was $10 a month and it is well worth it. They also have a new one out. It's a series 7 and a 41 millimeter with the GPS and cellular is $499 or $20.79 for 20 months and if you wanted the Leather Magnetic Band it's $50 more. I can leave the house with my driver's license my debit card and the watch on my arm and if I get lost somewhere I can just say I'll say the magic name and say take me home. I can call anybody I need to call just by you know if I'm in a wreck or got stranded. There are two things you need to think about. It is swim proof but it's not like take a shower and take a bath proof because of the soap. I'm thinking about people as they get older you know like me or Jim that you know if you live alone and you fell that a lot of times it's getting in and out of the bathtub so if you could have it right next to where you get in you can get in the bathtub take it off put it on the table get in when you get done with your bath have a towel ready dry your arm and you could put it back on before you got out. That's one thing that you cannot take a bath in it and the other thing is you need to have a time. In my case I do it every day although this battery on mine doesn't last as long as the series 7. I want to get in the routine when I come in here in the evening I plug it in when I get in bed I usually put my charger over there and it usually takes about 45 minutes and then I will unplug it I will put it on and I'm good for another 24 hours but also I'll leave some information below but I really this to me has been just a huge game changer well because Jim did not want to wear an Apple watch I wanted something that he could call he's not good with keeping his phone close to him and neither am I but I wanted something that if he fell and I was in the room or I was outside or I was you know gone that he could say to call me and I bought an Echo Dot and all he has to do is say her name and it is A-L-E-X-A and he can say to call Mary Ellen and he's normally in four rooms in this house and he can holler in all of them and it'll activate it you don't have to scream but what I like I mean she'll answer a lot of questions Alexa how far are we from Chicago Chicago is 346.9 miles away by car and if you want to know anything else about Alexa I'm going to link a video of Elle's oh from Elle is her living you would not believe all the things she has her this person do her Echo Dot so that's been one of my favorites for safety reasons the next one is kind of recent I've had it for about a month and I am just absolutely in love with it and it is the ring video doorbell and I'll put a picture of it on there it's about the size of this box and it just it it just replaces a doorbell that you have and I had somebody do it for me because Jim's not able to stand out there and do it I could have done it myself but my doorbell doesn't work and I didn't know if there was still electricity to the prongs if you and I did have it but it has a battery in it that'll last a year too so I charged it put it up and what it does is when somebody comes on my front porch I get a notification on my phone on my watch that there is a person on my porch if they ring the doorbell this is the thing that is so cool if they ring the doorbell I get the notification if I'm 600 miles away I get the notification and I can just say how can I help you and they don't know that you're not home so I think that is good but I think it's a great safety feature and I've been really excited with it I've kind of had to change it a little so every big vehicle that went by didn't trigger it so it's been working great okay I'm talking about techie things but I'll get out of techie things I bought this probably a year ago and it is the firestick tv and they sell anywhere from $30 to $40 I'll link the one I have below because it does everything I want it to do all you need for this this this allows you to get apps on your tv because the tv I have in this room is not a smart tv and we still have cable because that's gem loves cable there's certain shows I like to watch that I need to get on an app in order to use these you need internet and you need a television that has a usb cable in the back and a plug-in and then you just follow the directions any app I get from my tv I can get on my computer so it you know it works real well but I really really like it I've had one in the living room for quite some time and in the kitchen is a smart tv so didn't need the the firestick but right now I have peacock because our cable does not carry NBC for some reason and there's some shows I want to watch on well the voice I want to watch that for sure and so I'll probably discontinue that when I'm done watching what I want to watch on NBC I talked about these in a favorites in a monthly favorites but I love them and I'm going to put this in front of my face so you can see the difference these sets these towels are the same size they're 32 by 71 this is a towel these are the towels I used to use this is a towel I use now I love it it is a microfiber towel of course you can't use any laundry detergent no you can use laundry detergent you can't use any fabric softener I wash these in the washer and I put white vinegar in my dispenser that has my what I used to use April Fresh Downey and they just come out wonderfully well I love them because they're lightweight they're easy to store in my cabinet they're so easy to reach in I have a stackable washer and dryer and the washers on bottom I can just reach in there and throw them up and they're not heavy just perfect I got these for Jim and these are microfiber also they just look a little fluffier but it's still the same microfiber inside this is a smaller one than mine the fit cream of it is a little bit larger but we both really like it and I know I'll never buy another regular towel again I found a perfect robe for me on Amazon and I've worn in a video I've modeled it if I can find where I modeled it I'll put the picture here it was terrible but I think I threw it away but I'll put a picture I love the fabric what I love is that the belt is attached in the back it has pockets it is probably three-quarter length it met a need I had I had plenty of warm bath robes or house coats or whatever but I didn't have anything like this and I liked it so well that I bought two of them the brand is max moto and I got an extra extra large because on the instructions it said machine wash hang dry and I knew I didn't want one I didn't want it if I had to do that so I bought this one in an extra extra large I washed it I dried it in the dryer and it did beautifully so I sized up because normally I would get an extra large in a row the next item is truly my luxury item and I liked it so much I bought three as Christmas gifts and I consider this expensive this is an unhide blanket it is 80 inches by 60 inches and it is thick and it is plush and I have never found anything that feels as good as this does I never have what happened it was when I was subscribed to fabfitfun they sent a throw that I absolutely loved that washed up like a dream and I thought man I wonder if they make blankets and I searched for it and I found this at Nordstrom and when I found it and it was like $195 I loved my little one so much that I went ahead and bought it for $195 and when I was ordering I waited to order my Christmas gifts until the Nordstrom sale and they were marked down I think about 30% so oh my gosh I love it it weighs like nine pounds so it's just a semi weighted but oh my gosh it feels like heaven and I put this side I want to be able to put my hand between my sheet and blanket and just feel it it's it's soothing so this is what I consider a luxury item that I bought for myself just for total pleasure now for something really practical the spinco slides I bought mine from the men's department at amazon in the men's department from their men's but I just sized them you know down to my size which is like a nine and a half or ten and I wear these with socks they have around the house these are my around the house shoes I showed them in a video earlier this summer that I just put on my black socks put these on if I need to leave and go someplace I take these off and put a pair of black Clark shoes on that I wear just go anywhere that I just need to go but these have just really been so comfortable it gives my foot a lot of support it has because of all gyms doctors office visits I needed a bigger crossbody and I shared this in an earlier video and I bought the Duny and Burke this crossbody it has a big pocket right here red interior which I love and it also has a key fob but this has just worked out so well it's exactly the amount of room I need because I he wants me to carry his wallet and his cell phone and in the smaller ones that I have it all wouldn't fit in there these are on sale a lot I can't remember if I got mine at QBC or the website to tell you the truth because I always I put both links when I did it I love it I love black and brown always looks good it was definitely a winner for me and my last favorites are lap desks I have two of these I have a laptop in my bedroom and a laptop in the living room and I was taking it back and forth at night because I and I thought don't just get another one because these have little pockets back here it fits a 13 and a half inch computer and it's just perfect absolutely perfect as a place you can put pens I always put something right here just a piece of something so if I turn it my computer wouldn't fall off and we've been using these other ones for different things it's a book great on here you can put it on your lap and it can be just like if you want a sandwich or if you want to write something that you know these are handy they're comfortable they have padding right back here and then here's my other one we are a family of four lap desks so this is I think my oldest but I love them all the same I like the ones for my computer for my computer but I like these for lots of other things so I think I covered everything I hope I didn't spend too much time on anything in particular but those are these are just some things that really made me happy this year that really made a difference in my life I hope you go and watch my friends Natalie and Carol and see what they have I can't wait to see what they picked out is there 10 favorites for 2021 it is all good I'm gonna see you two weeks from today that'll be my last video of the year I appreciate your support more than you will ever know and uh and I'll see you in my next video take care I didn't have an apple and it does not do the pulse and it doesn't do the and I bought an Alexa no I didn't buy an Alexa so all I have to do is turn if I didn't have