Winter Time Blues? How to Spring Forward to Spring Break

Let’s face it we’re all buried with snow, cold, nasty rainy weather unless you happen to live in Southern California or Australia. We all get the winter time blues and begin to count down the days until spring break. There are ways you can spring forward even without a time machine…no really. Here are my favorite ways to kick the winter blues to the curb and fake an early spring.

Iced Tea

So we southerners love our iced tea and it reminds me of warm sunny days where you can’t wait to quench your dry throat. I decided to make my favorite sweet tea yesterday and the whole family dug in. We’ve already gone through two pitchers and I had to order more. I use a sugar alternative so we don’t increase our sugar intake but the tea tastes wonderful all by itself too!

Paradise Tropical Tea is decaf lightly flavored tea leaves that gives you such a refreshing taste. Unfortunately this tea was purchased by J.M Smucker Company and they’re in transition for the brand so it’s really hard to find the tea bags. They also discontinued my favorite pitcher size bag so I had to go with a larger one instead. Regardless I was able to find it so I’m happy again and things are taking like spring. 

Nails & Pedi

Yes I love all those dark winter polish colors but it’s over we need spring so lets get to polishing up with some light, bright, bold colors. I actually choose the lightest option a opaque white to really brighten things up. Match up your toes to give you an all over spring feeling.
Guys I highly recommend that you go get pampered with a full mani/pedi and get both your nails and toes buffed for high shine. No polish needed to get that spring glow.

Sunscreen

Yes, yes I hear you “Say what?” I know right now in Atlanta the cloud cover isn’t about to let any sun through today so why am I suggesting sunscreen? Well this morning after my shower I grabbed my favorite smelling sunscreen and rubbed some on my chest. Just enough to give off a slight coconut smell all day. When the smell of sunscreen reaches my brain I’m transported to our last beach vacation.
You can use any lotion, body spray, or self tanner that might bring back your beach memories. Just get those senses going and the brain will follow.
Guys you can use the same trick or I might even suggest trying a cologne like Tommy Bahama’s Island Life.

Spring Flowers

One of my favorite “exorbitant” expenses is buying fresh flowers to put in our home. The entire family perks up and can’t help smiling at beautiful flowers. If you buy a nice spring colored bouquet then it will send off the vibe of spring brought indoors. Use half of the crystal clear pack it comes with for the first week then change out the water and use the second half pack. this will keep your flowers fresher and brighter longer.
Better yet with a bigger budget you can sign up for one of those flowers of the month clubs.  It’s a great way to keep the blues away during the yucky months and keep it going through the rest of the year.

Painkiller

If you not had the wonderful pleasure of visiting the BVIs British Virgins Islands then let me tip you off to one of their largest exports…rum. There are several distilleries in the BVIs but Pussers is the original dark rum which goes into the Soggy Dollar Bar’s famous Painkiller. One of the most beautiful places on earth also has the BEST drink on earth for warm weather drinking. Here is the recipe:

2 oz Pussers dark rum
1 oz Cream of coconut
4 oz Pineapple juice
1 oz Orange juice
Shaken over ice, then pour over ice (must be very, very cold). Sprinkle top with nutmeg and serve.

If you want to know more about these sacred places see the links below.

http://www.soggydollar.com/soggy-dollar-bar/

https://www.pussers.com/t-pussers-experience.aspx

Bright Colors

Grab your favorite brightly colored shirt and layer it under a sweater to stay warm and a bit practical. Bright color clothes will get you in the mind set of warmer days to come and score a bonus if its a linen shirt.
Guys if you don’t have a bright linen shirt then I suggest you take a look at these keepers from Tommy Bahama. Chicks dig bright colors and sexy linen!

http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Men/The_Linen_Collection/PRD_T39698/San+Marino+Shirt.jsp

Get Ur Beats On
Make a springbreak playlist of your favorite songs that remind you of spring or summer. Here’s my Spotifly playlist to get you going, its a mix of old skool 80s – today that get me thinking of warmer weather and sandy beaches. There were so many great songs out there but I cut it down and gave you a mix of different genres that will keep you moving and thinking of spring parties. Enjoy!

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So now you have all the tools to beat those winter-time blues. Go get it ya’ll spring is waiting for you!

Cheers