Fifty shades of purple

Well, here it is: my Easter finery! I actually planned to wear something else on Easter Sunday, but I made a game-time decision for this outfit instead, mainly because it incorporated fleece-lined tights. #realtalk I can't even remember the last time I wore this dress, but I liked it a lot better this time around. (Look at those pleats! How cute!) I remembered it being way boxier than it apparently is, ha.

In other news, purple is my favorite color (surprise!), and boy, did I rock it for Easter!

My friend Piper and I always say "purple is a neutral" because we want to (and do!) wear it with everything! :)

Coat: H&M (2011?)

Dress: Banana Republic (2012?)

Cardigan: Old Navy (2014)

Booties: Blowfish (2015)

Necklace: Loft (2014)

Watch: Target (2015)

Ring: Live and Conquer "Temple" ring (2015)

Tights: Target (2015?)

Bracelets: Lokai, and I have no idea about the wooden one!

Nail Polish: Zoya Magical Pixie Dust in "Arlo"

This Old Navy cardigan is so boring, so basic, so perfect. It's soft, and I can throw it on with about a million outfits. Who could ask for anything more?! The plaid H&M coat might be one of my best buys ever. I scored it for $20 in August five years ago, and I still reach for it when I want to be a little dressy in the colder weather. And then my ring! It's the one I got at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago last fall, and I love it so so much. It's the only ring I wear every single day, aside from my high school ring! I linked to the shop on Etsy, but it doesn't look like this exact ring is available anymore. Rats! I will say that Cheyenne, the artisan, is awesome and actually made me this ring (the rose gold wasn't available in my size at Renegade) and then mailed it to me, so maybe she can work with you if you're interested in one of her pieces!

April goals

For some reason, I had a really hard time coming up with goals for April (hence why there are only four, not five). Here are my, admittedly random, goals:

1. Probably a good idea, unless I want the "cozy coupe" to be my future whip for real. ;)
2. Both my go-to tall boots and booties are pretty much falling apart (the booties legit have holes in the sole nbd), AND I don't have a comfortable pair of flats :( So if I buy anything this month, it should be shoes! Feel free to give me suggestions for comfy boots, booties, or flats!
3. Sleep is usually the first thing to get jettisoned when I'm busy--or lazy. (Like, in need of lazy time, since my current schedule only allows me maybe two hours of free time a night.) I used to be in bed around 10:30, but bedtime keeps getting pushed further and further back, and "OJ Night" definitely doesn't help! (Ugh, 10 PM start time.) Considering I have to get the bus to work at either 6:27 or 7:27, I really need to try to get to sleep before midnight in order to not be a total zombie!
4. I have a couple of lovely prints that I need to get up on the wall! 

Ok, so how did March's goals go? Well, I misspelled "goal" as "gaol" as I was writing this part of the post, and it's fitting because one of my goals kind of felt like jail last month. Within a week of choosing my March goals, I stopped exposure therapy. I just felt really burned out (I guess having four therapists at once will do that to you!), and felt like I needed to get my primary therapy situation sorted out above all else. Giving up on exposure initially felt just like that: like giving up. Like I had done something wrong. I mean, this was one of my goals--how could I stop?! I felt totally locked into it--even though it wasn't working--largely because I had anointed it a goal. But! Even though I stopped exposure, I didn't abandon my goal of getting a car (which a lot of my initial exposure homework was working towards). I just work on it myself now, instead of spending time and money going to an additional therapist. The fact that I made a change and the world didn't end was a good lesson for me.

Let's see how the rest of March's goals went, shall we?

1. Sort out therapy sitch: CHECK! I'm now seeing my EMDR therapist as my primary one because she specializes in EMDR but is also a "regular" therapist! (I don't know why that possibility didn't occur to me sooner!) I already enjoyed working with her and always got a lot out of our EMDR sessions, so I think this could work out well.
2. Keep up exposure progress: CHECK, just not in the way I envisioned! (see above)
3. Keep up with gratitude log: CHECK, as needed (or, more accurately, as remembered, lol)
4. Pay extra on student loans: CHECK! And I think I've now come up with a system that will help me to remember to pay extra regularly too.
5. Take it easy! Well, I'm not sure I did this, but at least I didn't have a fifth goal to tangle with! :)

What are you working on in April? 

Linking up with Nicole at Writes Like a Girl!

High Five for Friday: April 1

It's the freakin' weekend! Here's what put the sparkle into my week:

• I willingly watched an entire March Madness game for the first time in my life last Saturday. I'm rooting for Villanova because I went there for grad school, but it's sort of complicated because Nova was largely an annoyance to me in undergrad, especially during March Madness. You see, for undergrad, I went to Rosemont (the tiny, then-all-women's college not far away), and when my bffl and I would try to catch Flyers games while out to dinner in March, March Madness trumped everything. (Nova was in the Final Four our senior year, so you can imagine the level of basketball fever going on then!) But it seems I'm now singing a different tune, haha!

What a poser. Although I do really hope Villanova wins on Saturday!

• Something else I was glued to this week? The new season of Dancing with the Stars! (I've been hooked on DWTS ever since the Sadie-Alfonso season in 2014, haha.) Mark is my favorite pro, so you can imagine my devastation when I heard that he was injured (gasp!). As for the "stars" this season, obviously I'm rooting for Jodie Sweetin (how could the dude from Boyz II Men use "Motown Philly" in week one and thus deprive us of an update of this classic number, sparkly hats and all?!), and I was psyched for Mischa Barton, but homegirl is just a disaster out there, and her attitude is terrible. Watching her makes me sad. :( At the opposite end of the spectrum from Mischa is Nyle DiMarco, the stunning deaf model from ANTM (#smize) who utterly killed his opening routine!

Pops: "What the heck is this song?" Me: "Googling now. I think there was some line about cake by the ocean??" Yeah, we're hip. 

• So ever since I finished exposure and saw the freedom that driving can provide when you're not too terrified to get behind the wheel, I've been thinking about getting a car. I'm totally clueless and overwhelmed by all the options, but luckily, my bffl stepped in and found me the perfect one: 

WELL-PLAYED.

• Look at these lovely flowers from my walk to the bus stop! Picture #1 was taken Tuesday and picture #2 on Wednesday. So in just one day, we went from a single bloom to TONS--wow. It's been kind of a rough week anxiety-wise, so this was a perfect reminder that things can't stay bad forever (despite what anxiety tries to tell me!).

Hello, lovelies!

• The print below has also been helping me deal with my anxiety this week. I fell in love with this whole Etsy shop when The Neat Nook mentioned it in her H54F post a few weeks ago, and it's taken a lot of willpower for me not to order like five more prints from Little Emma's Flowers! I now have a hard copy of this print and made it the background on my work computer, a decision that I think is helping my mindset a bit. <3

Hope you all have a great weekend! xoxo

March 2016 Budget

Totaling up my spending from last year, while horrifying, seems to have been a big turning point for me. I came in under budget AGAIN this month, and have been at or under budget for all of 2016! In contrast, I only stayed at or under budget four times in 2015--so this is a pretty big change.

At the end of 2015, I told my therapist how horrified I was over my spending habits, and she suggested that I write or post the total in places where I would see it. So it's currently on the white board in my bedroom, and taped to my work computer and the inside of my wallet. And it's just so infuriating to look at all the time! This plan is working!

On top of that, I'm generally more aware of what I have, and don't have, in my closet. It's a lot easier to walk away from something when you realize you have ten similar things already.

With no further adieu, here's what I bought this month:

1. May Coop Raw Sauce (Sephora): $14
2. I'm Lip Crayon in "Mary Jane" (Memebox): $9
3. Hera UV Mist Cushion (Memebox): $43 - $5 coupon = $38
4. Stripe drapey tee (Gap): $35 on sale for $13
5. Tatcha Pure One-Step Camellia Cleansing Oil (Sephora): $12
6. Articles of Society Sarah Release Hem skinny jeans (Nordstrom Rack): $64 on sale for $20

Not pictured:

1. Camisole (Nordstrom Rack): $10
2. Ice Roller (Amazon): $14

TOTAL: $130

Boy, have I bought a lot of pants lately, haha! This is a new trend for me, as I hate buying pants (they're so boring!). But I think I've just come to the realization that I'm more apt to wear jeans all the time, even though skirts and dresses are way cuter and I love them. Although, ultimately, I want to wear leggings all the time, so finding jeans that are soft like leggings has been an ongoing quest, and this Articles of Society pair fit the bill. Speaking of leggings, the striped Gap tee is the perfect length to wear with leggings and is super comfy itself! I had ordered it along with a few things from Old Navy, but the Gap shirt was the only keeper.

As I mentioned last Friday, I'm loving the Tatcha and May Coop products, and my face seems to be at least a little less red since I started using them. I was super nervous about the Hera UV Mist Cushion, and actually waited a few weeks to order it, which is another sign of growth on the spending front! ("How can I spend $43 on something I haven't even tried before?! What color is supposed to match my practically translucent skin tone?!") I've only had the Hera Cushion for about a week, but I'm loving it! It's so easy to apply and melts into the skin like a dream, thanks to the little cushion. And the shade I got (N21) matches my skin pretty darn well. The Lip Crayon was pretty drying, though. I was excited to finally have a Memebox order that met the shipping minimum, so I wanted to try a lip product, but this one is pretty disappointing.

Wrapping up this month's Asian skin care purchases, the Ice Roller is super weird and definitely my biggest impulse buy, as I bought it shortly after my facial last month. It was a much cheaper alternative to those cold globe things the esthetician had used on me. The Ice Roller is supposed to help with redness (hello!) and puffyness, but I never remember to use it because you need to keep it in the fridge (doyeee, hence the "ice" in the name). I'm a "ten reminder alerts on my phone" kind of girl, someone who needs things right in front of her for there to be a prayer that she'll use them. So the deck is definitely stacked against me with this Ice Roller being in the fridge, but it seems really cool (buh dum ching!), and I'd be curious to see the impact regular use would have on my redness. I really need to get my act together and do an Asian skincare/beauty product post, because there are so many awesome things out there that I've tried over the past few months!

What did you buy this month? What Asian beauty products should I try next?!

Linking up with Fran's Budgeting Bloggers! 

High Five for Friday: March 25

Hooray for Friday! Let's see what put the sparkle into my week:

• I usually try to do something outside my normal routine on my rebirthday (which was this past Sunday!). Last year, I went to Chicago to see one of my besties and go to the Hay House Writers' Conference. This year, I got to stay at my friend's place in Philly and snuggle with her sweet kitten!

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur...

Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr <3

• On Saturday, I decided to take advantage of my proximity to Center City shopping and hit up the Rack, Forever 21, and Buffalo Exchange. I did buy a few things, but I'm finding that I'm less wooed by impulse buys because I have a much better idea of what I actually need (like unexciting camisoles, which is one of the things I got at the Rack). This is GREAT news!! haha

I'm not always a shopping genius, but when I am, I must photo document it! 

Fellow shopping genius

• Afterward, B and I went for a walk near Deena's hood, since I'm not at all familiar with it. (I know how to get to the el and the CVS--what more do I need?!) We wound up stopping for ice cream even though I was freezing lol. This flavor is "chocolate salt malt" with "muddy meteors" (Kix dipped in chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar), and it was as delicious as it looks!

SO. GOOD.

• I had scoped out the Center City Sephora, but they didn't have what I was looking for, so I put in an order, and it arrived promptly on Monday! I've heard many good things about Tatcha and May Coop, so I was psyched to try them. I was hoping to hate these products, since the full sizes are like $40+, but so far, I love them (of course). The Tatcha Camellia Cleansing Oil is much lighter than the Banila Clean It Zero (which never feels entirely washed off my face), and the May Coop Raw Sauce absorbs like instantaneously! It's hailed as an essence, but I read somewhere that it's like a toner+essence in one. And the Tatcha oil is supposed to be only one step (as opposed to the double cleanse method). I'm pretty lazy when it comes to skincare, so this is music to my ears! I also got the Belif True Cream Aqua Bomb (a Beauty Insider 100 point reward), and the Korres Wild Rose Vitamin C Active Brightening Oil deluxe sample! I haven't tried the Korres yet, but I like the Belif so far--it seems to soak in pretty well overnight, and it has a very pleasant scent. (My skin had been really greasy and didn't seem to be absorbing my Vitamin C serum or Benton Steam Cream very well.)

How pretty are these bottles?! (There's actual rose petals in the Korres one!)

• So I guess I'm fully back on the Grey's bandwagon, as I powered through more than half of season 9 in a week. Whoops. While watching together, B and I paused it and then realized we had done so at the best possible moment. 

Jackson Avery, what are you doing?!

Have a great weekend, and Happy Easter! xoxo