Let the sunshine in

(My dad was telling me that it's the age of Aquarius again? "You mean, the moon is in the seventh house? And Jupiter aligns with Mars?!" All I know about the Age of Aquarius, I learned from the 5th Dimension #preach. And I have no idea where Pops heard this/if it is actually the age of Aquarius. My astrological knowledge consists of googling "Is Mercury in retrograde?" whenever my life is weird, lol.)

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done an OOTD post--my last one was before Christmas! Yikes! I sure was productive back then.

Considering I'm consistently more depressed in the winter months, I've begun to think that I suffer from SAD, at least on some level. February has been better than January, but I've still been really unmotivated. Enter sunshine and 60 degree weather this past weekend, though, and I was practically doing cartwheels! (I now realize that this was a prime opportunity to dance joyously to "Let the Sunshine In" ala The 40 Year Old Virgin, rats.) I got so much done! I took outfit pics, and bugged the neighborhood cats, and went to both yoga AND Trader Joe's (and I am legit scared of the latter because it's always insanely packed)!

Here are said outfit pics, wherein I revel in the warm weather and chase the light around my backyard!

Sweater: Old Navy (2015) 

Jeans: Target (2015) 

Shoes: Toms (2015)

Necklace: Target (2015; sold out) 

Watch: Target (2015) 

Nail polish: Essie, "Splash of Grenadine" (one of my all-time faves!)

I love the color of these pants--such a subtle pop of color. (They're actually light green, in case they read grey.) And the sweater is pretty lightweight, so it was perfect for such a balmy day. Plus, it has that cute back detail! Did you ever notice how hard it is to look cute while taking a picture of your back? Well, spoiler: it is! Sexy back is hard to come by, believe me. I guess that's why JT was so deadset on finding and restoring it. ;)

High Five for Friday: February 19

What an odd week. I worked from home a lot and eventually realized that I hadn't left the house (save a Wawa run) in four days? Oops? I also found out that my beloved therapist, the one I've been seeing for several years, is leaving her practice and will not be able to continue seeing me weekly. Total.shock. BUT! There were some good/fun things that happened this week, so let's focus on them, shall we?!

• I didn't really have any Valentine's plans with B because V-Day is also my dad's birthday, and this year was a milestone one, so the B and I spent the day with my dad... which meant unexpected music lessons because Pops has been tinkering with the piano lately. This quickly devolved into B and I smacking random keys, and me shouting out songs that I thought of as Pops hit certain notes. ("That's totally the beginning of 'Breakfast in America,' I swear!") Later on, the three of us wound up watching Frozen, which my dad hadn't seen before. I had been feeling anxious when I woke up, because we didn't have any real plans for the day, but it all worked out :)

Do you wanna build a snowmaaaan? It doesn't have to be a snowman... Ok, bye :( :(

• Sadly, I've fallen off the bandwagon with the #RockYourHandwriting challenge, but I'm perhaps most proud of what I came up with for the prompt "Thank you note" ;)

Fun fact: My high school yearbook quote was lyrics from "Thank You" :)

• So, as I mentioned last week, B has been trying to get me into Supernatural. I had seen a few episodes and liked them but not enough to tear me away from Grey's and the other shows we watch on Netflix. Plus, I'd had a visceral initial reaction to Dean Winchester, and I had never liked Dean on Gilmore Girls, and the fact that Jared Padalecki does not play BOTH Deans was a major source of confusion. Well, apparently, all I needed was to see were some of the ridiculous clips of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles from assorted conventions because they are hilarious, and I now want to be their bff. I also wish Supernatural was just 42 minutes of them being ridiculous together.

Seeing a good angle to get me more into the show, B then showed me the amazing episode "Changing Channels", which even includes a spoof of Grey's called "Dr. Sexy" (!!) and features them them being ridiculous for at least 30 minutes, so, #winning!

• I hadn't seen The O.C. in forever, so when the first few episodes were on TV this week, I was totally sucked in! "Welcome to the O.C., bitch!" Seth Cohen being an adorable, hopeless nerd! That scene with "Honey and the Moon"! Ah! My therapist once asked me what my ideal fictional family would be, and I said the Cohens, haha! :)

If you weren't real, I would make you up :( :(

• And finally, the saddest/most hilarious picture of the week: my friend Timmi's poor, bundled-up dog Mieze, who is SO OVER the Chicago winter.

Kitten mittons, you'll be smitten!

That's a wrap! Hope you all have a great weekend! xoxo

Empties

I always love reading about other people's "must-have" products, so I finally got my act together to write about a few of my own! Granted, they're not all "empties" in the picture, but I have repurchased all of them before. Also, I only started wearing eyeliner/mascara regularly three years ago (at age 26, mind you), so the fact that I love both so much now cracks me up! :)

Some of the following links are affiliate links, so I get a few pennies if you click on them! Just FYI!

Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume Mascara : Being a pale redhead, I really like brown mascara, and Cover Girl is the only drugstore brand I've found that makes a legit brown (not black/brown). I've tried a few of different types by Cover Girl, but I always come back to the Lash Blast. I just really like the brush and how it separates your lashes, while giving them a little curl. 

Poshe Super Fast-Drying Top Coat : My friend Piper introduced me to Poshe a few years ago, back when I was barely painting my nails because I hated how quickly they would chip or get all smushy. OH MAN, has Poshe been a game-changer! I have no patience to wait for my nails to dry, and Poshe really does dry in minutes. Not to mention that it makes your nails look super-shiny and amazing. It was a disappointing day when they stopped selling it at Ulta, but you can still find it in a few random stores, and of course, on Amazon, along with everything ever!

EOS Ulta-Moisturizing Shave Cream : I have pretty sensitive skin, so shaving often irritates it. But this EOS stuff is fantastic for me and doesn't turn my legs into a literal hot (as in, burning) mess!

Maybelline Define-A-Line Eyeliner : To be honest, I haven't tried many eyeliners, but I love how soft and easily smudgeable this one is. So I was like "hey, this works!" and never looked back, haha! Now, in eyeliner, I do like a black-brown, go figure.

Make Up Forever Sens'Eyes : The only eye makeup remover that doesn't bother my eyes!

Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in Lavender : I usually shower at night, so the lavender scent is perfect before bed. (I also really like Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap, but because it's so cooling, I only use it in the summer.) It may seem weird to just have the little travel bottle, since I like the product so much, but I get intimidated by the other size, which is roughly a ten-gallon drum! (If you've seen it, you know what I mean!)

Zoya Remove Plus : I tried to go back just regular drugstore nail polish remover recently, and I couldn't do it; after about a month, I broke down and bought the Zoya again! The top on it is awesome because it's so minimally messy, and it has a pretty unoffensive scent too. (To me, it just smells like a cleaner you'd use around the house, which is clutch since my dad hates the smell of nail polish and traditional nail polish remover! I used to paint my nails sitting next to an open window, like the stereotypical person smoking in secret!)

So, what are your faves? What beauty products do I need to try like yesterday?!

High Five for Friday: February 12

TGIF! Apparently, TV put the sparkle into my week, haha. (Clearly, I didn't do much this week!)

• The same like five songs always seem to pop up on my phone, so when "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk came on as I was driving, I was very pleasantly surprised! ...and I immediately thought of this amazing scene/dance routine from Castle!

Castle 7x19 "Habeas Corpse" Esposito Ryan Dance Interrogation Room Castle Beckett Watching "Habeas Corpse" - When Richie "The Pitbull" Falco, a larger-than-life personal-injury attorney is found dead, Beckett and Castle investigate the many clients and competitors who had motive to kill him.

• My friend Kristin actually alerted me to this HEADLINE NEWS a week or two ago, but I really started missing GoT last weekend, hence doing some random GoT-related googling. And finding this article, which has the greatest title ever. I'm not a huge Jon Snow/Kit Harington fan, but by virtue of him dating my favorite character from the show, and how romantic it is for them to be together IRL, I'll be supportive ;) (You might recall that B and I went to my cousin's Halloween wedding as Jon Snow and Ygritte!)

Plus, while waiting for the bus last weekend, somebody drove by blasting some song about "these hoes ain't loyal" and the lightbulb totally lit!!

Duhhhhhh!

• B and I had a lovely weekend of chilling. I usually get really anxious being away from home on the weekend, AND doing nothing, but neither bothered me this time! We watched some more Gilmore Girls and Supernatural, and I got quizzed on the US Presidents HAHA! (I used to be able to name them all in order... including the forgotten ones of the 19th century! I remember bragging about this to my high school US History teacher and him deadpanning, "You would remember them" LOL!)

My dad LOVES California, so we had to pause and capture this to send to him. His response was something like, "My man!" LOL

• Speaking of Supernatural, my dad saw part of an episode with me and remarked that Jensen Ackles looked familiar. All I knew was that he was on some soap at the same time that my beloved Lucky and Liz were chilling in a boxcar on General Hospital (<3 <3), so I looked him up on iMDB and discovered that he was in an episode of Sweet Valley High!!!! One of my favorite shows circa fifth grade!! This obviously required immediate investigation, and thank you fine people of YouTube for posting every awkward guest spot by every actor ever. I really could not stand Jensen when B first introduced me to Supernatural, but him being on SVH gets him A LOT of points with me, haha!

And then throw in Jared Padalecki's struggles with anxiety and depression, and dammit, now I want to watch more Supernatural! B's plan to get me into it has worked!

• Ah Lucky and Liz! Such a formative couple in my young life! They were so darn cute and devoted and not teenagery, which was perfect for me being 12 going on 80 at the time! They were stalking blackmailers and rapists! Having an apartment (above a motorcycle shop, natch) at, like, 17! Running errands for the mob, er, coffee importers! Exchanging vows in a church in a blizzard! Livin.the.dream! (Soaps are so ridiculous and I love it.) So their adorableness is a fitting end to this pre-Valentine's Day H54F! :D (And Valentine's Day was such a huge part of their story too--Lucky stood Liz up for the Valentine's dance at school, and then she was raped, and they started to become friends, and then started dating, and then had the whole cry-your-eyes-out exchanging vows in a church on Valentine's Day thing the next year, ah! I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying!!)

Yes, they are dancing to NSYNC. NSYNC! #dying And I love that this clip is as wibbly-wobbly as the VHS tapes I used to watch!
 

Have a great weekend!! (I'm so excited to be able to sleep in, anyone else?!)

High five for Friday: February 5

I'm starting to feel more like my usual wacky, can't-sit-still self, hooray! :) Here's what put the sparkle in my week (aside from the warmer weather!):

• Since I wasn't ready to be emotionally destroyed by Grey's again, B and I turned to Gilmore Girls last weekend instead. I was still sort of meh about GG, but the scene with Rory and Dean in the junkyard as John Lennon's "Oh My Love" is playing might have me converted. It's just so darn cute (well, until it goes off the rails), and I don't even like Rory or Dean! (I pretty much was Rory in high school, and Dean is usually a snooze. So much so that when Christopher showed up on his motorcycle, I got all excited because I thought it was Jess. LOL DANG.)

Oh, and Rory kitten-sat in one of the episodes, which certainly didn't hurt! :)

• I'm not great at doing monthly "challenges," as I get overwhelmed just thinking about doing/documenting X for a whole month, BUT! I've been joining in on Kara's February #RockYourHandwriting challenge, and it's been really fun! I expected it to be interesting because I'm a handwriting nerd, but it's been a nice creative outlet too because the prompts are so broad. Here are my responses to the first three days' assignments ("Your Name," "Before," and "5 Facts about Me")!

What an odd assortment of characters, haha! George and Zoey would be saving all the people that Ygritte shoots with her arrows nbd.

• So ever since my great success last year at find an amazing pair of Citizens of Humanity skinnies at Buffalo Exchange, I've been on the hunt for other high-end jeans second-hand. WELL, last weekend, I found two pairs at Plato's Closet for around $30 total!!!! Both are dark-wash skinnies, one from Madewell and one from Paige Denim, which would each retail for over $100. *insert screaming emoji here* They're soft and substantial and comfy and perfect. Thrifting ftw! (Bonus that I had a 20% off coupon AND got $6 for trading in a pair of boots I never wear!)

• My dad was in the city visiting a friend on Wednesday, so I met up with him after EMDR... and got to play with his friend's three cats!! Including this adorable tabby, who I never see because she always hides when company is over! She even let me pet her! ...although her cat brother tried to horn in on the petting and she slapped him! Cat drama! I was like, "Whoa, I can pet everyone, nobody panic!" lol #allyourcatsarebelongtome

HIIIIII new best friend <3 <3

• Lastly, this song came on as I was on the subway after EMDR, and it reminded me why I'm seeing three therapists and reading self-help books and going to yoga and doing all of the things that can sometimes feel like a pain in the ass... ultimately, I want to get better, and not live dictated by my anxiety, depression, and avoidance of things that scare me. OHHH that! *lightbulb lights* ;)

PS- If you haven't seen the cutest video of Emily over at Ember Grey dancing to some awesome 90s-2000s jams, check it out because it totally brightened my Monday! :)

That's a wrap! Have a great weekend, lovelies! xo