High Five for Friday: December 18

This has been like the fastest week ever! Here's what put the sparkle into it:

• It has been wonderfully warm on the east coast since last weekend. So much so that I had a lovely outdoor brunch with the girls, worked on my Christmas cards outside, and walked to CVS without a jacket. IN MID-DECEMBER. While my brain is like "does not compute," the rest of me is 1000% on board. OH and the neighborhood cats are loving it too--I spotted TWO new cats this week! Real-life Neko Atsume!

Sweet accidental selfie in the champagne bucket, haha.

• My two blogger gift exchange presents have arrived! Yay! First up was Mattie and Olya's Secret Santa-esque Blogger Christmas Cheer Exchange. The exchange was through Elfster, where you create a wishlist for your person. My wishlist contained these pens (<3 <3) and a coffee-scented candle, but the candle I got is so much cuter! (And it smells awesome AND came with a matching lip balm that I'm loving!) Thank you Liz Jo of Sundays with Sophie!! :)

Then there was Katie and Caitlin's Christmas mug swap! Such a cute idea! For this exchange, you had to reach out to your buddy and get to know them via e-mail before picking out a mug for them. I was paired up with someone I didn't know: the delightful Nikki from Makeupher! She loves pink and sparkles and lives near my beloved Chicago--we're a perfect match! haha! Look at the cute mug she sent me! <3

• True confessions: Even though I said I'd (sort of) taken up Bullet Journaling, I hadn't been loving my planner for awhile. It's just super bulky and huge and not really accomodating of all the random stuff I want to log (like my spending). So I stumbled upon Boho Berry at just the right time, as seeing her pretty, mantra-filled bujo inspired me to find a planner that works better for me. Now I have a beautiful blank Leuchtturm notebook that affords me space for everything--including cheery mantras to help combat my case of the blahs! Here is my first one, featuring one of my favorite low-pressure positive thoughts. (Even though I hate trying things, ha!) I am not a doodler, nor do I consider myself artsy, but I took the mantra's advice and gave it a try :)

• "Hello, It's Me" by Todd Rundgren got stuck in my head completely out of the blue this week, which led me to revisiting the following scene in The Virgin Suicides (a natural progression). I loved this scene so much when I was in, what, eighth grade? I wanted to be living in the '70s. I wanted a record player. (Does that make me a hipster before it was cool?!)  I wanted some boy to call me playing Gilbert O'Sullivan! (Although I surely would have had a heart attack if that had happened!) So many memories!

• Finally, I leave you with the wisdom of drunk Bailey on Grey's: 

And this doesn't even include when she yelled "Fistulas!!" or coined the term "pancreaseses"!

OMG how is Christmas one week away?! I'm probably not doing a H54F next week (since Friday is Christmas Day), in which case, MERRY CHRISTMAS and a happy weekend!! :D xoxo

Best buys and tries of 2015

How do you feel about trying new things? Personally, I hate it about 97% of the time, but when something new does work out, it's like "how did I ever live without this?!" with a choir of angels singing in the background. The following were those items, groups, and methods for me in 2015. :D

Camera tripod: While it's super helpful to have a human behind the camera, telling you where to stand and how to position yourself (and letting you know if you're barely in the frame, haha!), having a tripod is AWESOME. I love being able to just set it up and take pics whenever I want. Sure, there's a lot of misfires... and accidental scenic shots when Pops interrupts me, but it's a fantastic option to have in the ol' blogging arsenal. I linked to the exact tripod I have (although mine is red, randomly!), which is lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to set up.

Blogilates water bottle: I'm really bad at drinking enough water in a day. I like water, and it's the main thing I drink, but it takes me forever to finish any drink, water included. Enter the Blogilates bottle with its timer on the side. I'm still not getting enough water, but now I can't totally ignore it! In fact, seeing just how little I've drunk during the day (thanks to the timer) often motivates me to drink more water than I would otherwise!

Target watch: This is for my fellow tiny-wristed girls out there! Finding inexpensive and cute watches that actually fit me out of the box is almost impossible. (Do I own a leather punch so I can add more holes to a watch band? No, not at all...) So I fully expected this one from Target to be ill-fitting, look clunky on me, and get dirty easily (being white and all). I'm happy to report that I have had none of these problems! There is space in between the woven part of the band, so I simply use that as extra holes to customize my fit. Perfection! (See below for an illustration of that sentence that otherwise makes no sense LOL)

Exposure therapy: Full disclosure: exposure therapy is one of the most terrifying and rewarding things I've ever done in my life. The results speak for themselves: I went from not driving in two years (not even around the block) to driving 45 minutes on two highways to work regularly. And driving alone, something I hadn't done in roughly five years. As a stubborn person who was absolutely petrified of getting behind the wheel, I'm still a bit in shock that exposure therapy produced such extreme change... but I guess big change is possible when you finally face your fears. I'm incredibly grateful that my therapist pushed me to do it and so proud of myself for accepting the challenge. I would highly recommend exposure therapy to anyone with a major fear/avoidance issue around something, like I had with driving. You can read more about my experience (as it was happening!) here, and I linked to the program I used (at UPenn), if you want more info about it.

H54F link-up: I think I first stumbled on H54F because I fell in love with Katie's blog. And then I found out that she ran this weekly link-up. I had A LOT of reservations about joining in--like, why would people care about the random little things going on in my life? But I pushed through those anxieties and am so glad I did. I've made so many friends from H54F (Tif, Ashley, and Nicole, to name a few!), and writing my H54F posts is so much fun! Plus, it's become like a weekly gratitude practice for me. Even in weeks that are less than awesome, it's usually not too hard to come up with five good things that happened!

Bullet journaling: One of my friends from grad school, who's also a blogger (hi Kel!), posted about Bullet Journaling last summer, and the concept blew my mind. While I haven't embraced all aspects of the bujo process, writing down all my tasks for the day, and especially breaking down a task into all its smaller ones has been tremendously helpful in keeping me focused, organized, and less stressed. I honestly don't know how I kept anything straight before adopting my bujo-esque process!

Battery Buddy: As you saw in my Day in the Life post, I spend a lot of time of public transportation. Having a back-up battery for my phone, ESPECIALLY one that I don't have to charge constantly (because I never remember to do it), is clutch. Bonus that this one is super cute! It can give your phone five full charges before needing to be charged itself, AND it can charge two phones at once! Dream.come.true. 

DevaCurl Heaven in Hair: I have super thick, coarse hair, and this product actually makes it feel SOFT, which is a miracle. It works amazingly, even if I put it on a minute before getting in the shower. (This is fantastic since I'm the worst at remembering to shower pre-game with masks and deep-conditioners.) Mind=blown.

White board: I got the idea for a white board while at the Hay House Writers' Conference last March. Maybe one of the speakers directly suggested it, I don't know. What I do know is that I ordered one from Amazon in the middle of someone's talk at the conference! (Oops.) I'm a visual person who needs reminders in her face all the time, so adding a white board to my bedroom has been hugely helpful. I write my weekly tasks on there (mainly upcoming posts and appointments), as well as my monthly goals. (This has been a total game changer in terms of getting shit done!) It's also a great spot for inspirational quotes.

What are your favorite things you've bought or started using in 2015?! Fill me in--I love to hear about what other people love!

High Five for Friday: December 11

I've been feeling super blah this week. My cold sort of came back, I've had no desire to eat, and I've been so.tired. Not to mention just feeling negative and meh about life. But even in a less than super sparkly week, there were some bright spots:

• We had our annual Christmas party last weekend! ...which didn't help with the exhaustion, but I got to see a bunch of friends, including my college roommate! It's really awesome how we can just pick up like no time has passed, even though we hadn't seen each other in over a year. It's also great how I'll try to explain weird things (like my need for salty snacks with sweet), and then I'll remember that, duh, she knows them already, since she lived with me for three years! :D

• In preparation for my exhausting weekend, I took last Monday off and actually had quite a nice day! (You may recall that I often feel anxious on days off.) I slept in and then went to the mall because I had to return something at Target. Then I did something I'd been putting off for over a year: getting measured at Victoria's Secret. Ugh, right? It wasn't exactly exciting, but I had the time to do it for once, and now I can actually wear the right size. Adult education!

Just driving around was really nice too. Driving alone and singing along with "Go Your Own Way" and "Radar Love" (lol) would have been unthinkable a year ago!

• Thanks to Nicole's Link Love last Friday, I stumbled upon Boho Berry, and oh man, does Kara have some great content over there. Her FAQ page alone gave me so many things to look into regarding mediation, productivity, and planning. If you just want to drool over some gorgeous Bullet Journal pages, her site is great for that too! Loving it!!

• Based on Kara's recommendation, I downloaded the "Stop, Breathe, and Think" mediation app. Meditation is always one of those things I put off because I don't like the quiet or sitting still, so I figured that the app couldn't hurt! (I'm also going to try to incorporate it into my morning routine, which right now consists of sleeping as late as possible and then throwing on clothes and rushing out the door! So if anyone has suggestions for getting the day off to a less frenzied start, let me know!) I've only used the app once so far, but at least I know it gets me:

LOL "Rough"

• Lastly, in lieu of my usual cat-stalking posts, I give you this guy who was strolling through the train station parking lot like nbd on Tuesday night. A deer?! What the what?! 

"Hello, did I miss the 5:20?" 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! xoxo

Please go chasing waterfalls...

(TLC and I are just on the same page lately...)

You know how you have items in your closet that you just reach for over and over again? (Sticking to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to? Ok, I'll stop!) Well, here are some of mine. Although I claim to not be into green, I LOVE this sweater. It's a great fall/winter shade, plus it's super comfy. (Bonus that I can dramatically throw the "waterfall" part over me like a blanket!) Then there's the black shirt with ruffles. YOU GUYS. I found this shirt at a consignment store like three years ago, and I'm still all heart-eyes emoji over it. It's basically a t-shirt (although a bit thicker), BUT it has the whole ruffle deal going on, which dresses it up a bit. While I wore this exact outfit to lunch with one of my old work pals a few weeks ago, I simply switched up the jeans and boots and wore it again to Thanksgiving! (It was really beautiful here in Philly that day, sunny and 60+, so I didn't even need a coat!)

Shirt: The Limited (thrifted; 2012?)

Cardigan: Target (2014)

Jeans: Old Navy (2015)

Boots: Madden Girl (2011)

Watch: Target (2015)

What are your go-to items? Are they also random consignment shop finds? :)

High Five for Friday: December 4

DECEMBER. How can it be the last month of the year already? While I try to figure that out, here's what put the sparkle in my week:

• I didn't do any shopping on Black Friday because Pops and I revisited our old tradition of going to the Flyers game and the Macy's Light Show! If you're in the Philly area, you should definitely check out the Light Show at the Center City Macy's! It's super cute and makes use of the famed Wanamaker Organ.

This is in the middle of the store, just nbd.

• Friday night was my 10 year high school reunion. I went to a super-small all-girls' school, which was a really awesome experience (and one that's probably different from most people's!). I loved high school and didn't want to leave, haha! It was so nice to see everyone again, and really heart-warming that so many of you girls told me you read this blog! Aww! <3 And getting to hear Yellowcard and "My Humps" again with you ladies was an unexpected treat, haha. :)

• Then Saturday was truly Caturday, as I got to play with/bug my friend's two darling cats! One of the cats just wanted to loaf in peace, but the other one let me hold her for roughly 40 seconds!!!

Scout: "HALP."

• Afterward, B and I had a delish dinner at a dive-y bar we'd never been to before. All I wanted was tater tots, so CHECK! Plus, there was an awesome classic rock soundtrack/impromptu singalong! "Aww give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll and drift awayyyyy."

YUM.

• Like I said, I didn't do any Black Friday shopping... I just went a bit nuts on Cyber Monday instead! Here are a few things I ordered from Old Navy. Did you guys take advantage of the sales?! (Please say yes! haha)

So psyched to try out these booties!! They totally remind me of Katie's squeaky boots! :)

• Bonus! As I continued to power through Grey's, the following voice-over from Mer stuck with me, someone who loves routine and is always searching for happiness:

How ridiculous is this sunset that I saw a few weeks ago on my walk home from CVS?!

I also had a cold this past week, but after sleeping roughly an extra 17 hours, I'm feeling better! Hope you guys have a great weekend!! xo