High Five for Friday: July 8

Thank you, four day week, for getting Friday here so quickly! :) Here's what put the sparkle into my week:

• I had no plans to do anything especially "Fourth of July"-like, but Pops and I did happen to stumble upon a great vantage point for fireworks in the Giant parking lot on Sunday night!

Stay classy.

• Over the weekend, I found out that neighborhood celebrity Ike has a new home! We hadn't seen him in awhile and had begun to fear the worst, but it turns out that a new family had taken him in and moved him around the corner! (I picture him packing up his bowls and heading for greener pastures!) Well, once I knew where to look, I had no problem finding him again! He came right over to me AND let me pet him for awhile! He must really be losing it! 

I'm a model, you know what I mean...

• I've been working on my July goal of reading and even took it outside over the weekend! I'm now like 100 pages into GoT book one and am very impressed with myself! :)

• Does anyone else remember the Looney Tunes cartoon "The Three Little Bops," starring the Three Little Pigs as a swinging jazz trio and the Big Bad Wolf as a lame trumpeter that wants to sit in? It's so clever, and way more hilarious now than when I was a kid! Pops is a musician, so he especially loves it! 

• I had to do some new exercises in physical therapy this week, including using a leg press! Eek! When I first saw the machine, I was like, "Uh yeah, that ain't gonna happen!" but I was able to do twenty leg presses! I felt so strong and bad-ass! Actually, doing the leg presses turned out to be easier than doing kicks in this contraption! 

HALP.

Here's to a good weekend! xo

July goals

Not only is our hydrangea alive, it is also ridiculously gorgeous these days!

I haven't done a Goals post since April. B and I broke up at the end of April, and the thought of coming up with goals for May (let alone actually doing them) made me want to stick a fork in my eye (or something thereabouts). So it's for the best that my only "goal" for May and June was "self care" haha! But lately, I've been feeling a bit aimless, which makes me think I'm recovering from the break-up and ready to take on a few small goals this month!

1. I keep meaning to look into getting an EZ Pass, since the Turnpike is the quickest way to get to work, and I take it almost every day now that I'm driving.

2. Get back to reading--largely a provision to keep me from spending half of my Saturday watching Grey's on Netflix (and then staying up too late watching Grey's before bed during the week. I'm up to season 10, you guys! It's officially a problem.). 

3. Having to get up at 6 AM and take four modes of Septa gave my mornings (and nights, since I had to get up so early) a lot of structure, and I generally do well with structure. But having a car (and a super-flexible job) means that I can now get up and go to work whenever I want--so my old morning and night routines have gone out the window. Time to create some new routines! (Hence goal #2, to avoid staying up too late watching Grey's!)

What are you guys working on this month?

Linking up with Nicole at Writes like a Girl!

High Five for Friday: July 1

I spent most of Thursday thinking it was Friday, so it must actually be Friday if this post is now live, haha! Here's what put the sparkle into my (apparently confusing) week:

• On Saturday, I drove to Reading for the first time, my longest drive ever! (Ok, it's only a little over an hour, so it's not that much longer than my drive to work BUT it's on mostly unfamiliar highways/roads so I had to rely a lot on Google Maps. Eep!) I planned to take a route that avoided toll roads (getting in those cattle shoots kind of stresses me out), but I must have hit the wrong option in Google Maps, as it directed me onto toll roads... and everything was totally fine. I guess I'm getting better at handling whatever driving throws at me! *confetti horn emoji*

• On Sunday, I got to see my dear gal pal Timmi, which was delightful as always! Even though there was a pretense of "making flower crowns" at her little gathering, she took the liberty of making them for us! What a champ. Getting to be a pretty princess with zero effort on my part is truly living the dream! :)

Snapchat filter IRL.

I want that boo to be me, I want me to be that boo...

• I also made a new friend at Timmi's! Her pup Biene just burrowed in my lap and thawed my icy, cat-loving heart a bit. She's pretty adorable! (As long as she's not climbing over me and giving my internal organs an unwelcome massage, that is!)

Such a precious pupcake.

• I don't even know what to say about the GoT finale, other than "that shit is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S." I actually watched it on Sunday with Timmi and her fam, and then rewatched it on Tuesday with Pops, who legit freaked out when I told him he'd have to wait until April 2017 for the next season, haha! ("But you have five other seasons to catch up on in the meantime!" "Oh... yeah...") In total nerd news, I a.) actually made Pops a chart showing the relationships of all the people who would be in the finale and b.) finally bought the first book! (I had gotten like 300 pages in before returning it to B.) NERD ALERT!

Sam is a square like me... no wonder I love him!

• Speaking of huge TV moments this week, The Bachelorette. OMG. First of all, Wells was by far my favorite prospective Future Mr. JoJo, thanks to him being brunette and vaguely dorky and looking like he's at least ten years younger than he is. I was bummed he was eliminated this week, but we all saw it coming--Wells isn't enough of a bro to win JoJo's heart. He's too good for this world!

Like, come on. <3

Luckily, I was able to console myself with the second half of the episode, which gave us all the treat of a lifetime. As soon as I recognized "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," I started hyperventilating, shrieking, and laughing all at once. So yes, this montage made me lose all control of my faculties, in the best possible way (if there IS a best possible way for one to lose control of one's faculties).

I can't believe it's the 4th of July already! Hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend! xo

June 2016 budget

Remember how I was cutting back on shopping in order to save for a big purchase? Well, shortly after my last budget post, it finally happened: I bought a car! And although having monthly car and insurance payments for the first time in my life has me more stressed about budgeting than ever, I actually bought more in June than I did in February through May. Whoops! I blame the newfound ability to go places. ;) At least my clothing/shoe purchases were limited, thanks to physical therapy! (My wardrobe choices these days are largely dictated by "ease of movement while riding a recumbent bicycle"--hence picking up the Target shirt below to wear with leggings!) But of course that didn't stop me from buying other things, so here's what I got this month:

1. Pur Cosmetics Correcting Primer Redness Reducer (Ulta): $33
2. Hobo Briar Crossbody Bag (Nordstrom Rack): $228 on sale for $110 - 25% off for Clear the Rack = $82
3. Portico Petite Convertible Necklace (Chloe + Isabel): $48 - party-hosting credit = $0
4. Faux Stone Tassel Necklace (Forever 21): $6
5. Mossimo Supply Co. Drapey Knit Sharkbite Tee (Target): $15
6. Pave Curved Bar Necklace (Chloe + Isabel): $42 - party-hosting credit = $0

TOTAL: $136

It was totally love at first sight with the Hobo bag, and then I spent a week agonizing over whether or not to keep it. $82 is a lot to spend on just one thing!! But I had been looking for a roomy but smallish crossbody bag with a front flap for MONTHS, and this one is perfect.  Plus, it's real leather, so it should hold up well, AND it has a cell phone pocket in the back. For someone who wears leggings as pants way too often and thus doesn't always have access to pockets--GAME CHANGER.

I also went a little necklace-crazy this month! I'm intrigued by every blogger's pretty Kendra Scott necklaces, but I am not ready to spend that much on a long necklace. (I have a few long necklaces and definitely wear them less than others.) But a dupe for $6? SOLD! And I had never spent the $100 C+I credit I earned last fall because I could never commit to anything until now! (So.many.items have been in and out of my shopping cart in the past eight months!) I love the two dainty yet architectural pieces that I got, especially the Pave Gold Bar Necklace--it's like a more understated version of the C+I Geovista Collar (which I also love).

With makeup, I'm always looking to cover up my natural blotchiness, so we'll see how this green primer from Pur works out. I'm not sure that it does a whole lot, but it feels really nice and satiny when applied, and according to the lady at Ulta, it should improve my redness over time. Here's hoping!

Linking up with Fran's Budgeting Bloggers!

High Five for Friday: June 24

Was this a fast week, or am I delusional? Either way, TGIF, and let's see what brought the sparkle:

• Pops and I celebrated Father's Day with two of his favorite things: the movies and ice cream! We saw Me Before You ("When I was lit-le, I had a pair of bumble-bee tights..."), which actually wasn't as super cheesy or wildly depressing as I feared it would be. (It was wildly depressing at times, but not the whole time, thank god!)

As soon as we got out of the movie, I was texting my friend Kristin, and Pops goes, "Hey, does she want to meet us at Handel's?" And I was like, "Wait, we're going to Handel's? You didn't even invite ME to Handel's!" haha!

• Because appointments are the only thing getting me out of the house on weekends lately, I decided to go with it and make a fun appointment at the massage place I like near work! Then, I hit up the nearby mall because it's home to my favorite Nordstrom Rack. But most exciting of all (sadly) was that I discovered an easier way to get on the Turnpike as part of this outing! #adulting #sadtrombone

Cue the choir of angels.

• If you watch GoT, then I hope you read the recaps on Verge because they are freaking hilarious. This week's really took the cake for me, personally, thanks to the Ygritte, "Formation," and Final Fantasy (!!) references. (I loved Final Fantasy VII and VIII as a kid, and, no joke, have thought about the death of Aeris in FFVII in comparison to major character deaths on GoT. Nerd alert!) It was seriously like the Verge recapper looked into my soul this week. <3 I also stumbled upon this brilliant mash-up of Parks and Rec quotes and GoT scenes, which had me legit lol'ing. Clearly, I need my intense dramas with a side of ridiculousness.

Sick Leslie is my favorite.

• When a random song gets stuck in your head, and all you know is that it's from a show you've seen nine seasons of, well, you're screwed, right? This tale of woe actually started six months again with a random morose song from Grey's that I just could not place--UNTIL NOW! I put on the season 2 episode "Yesterday" as background noise this week, and when the following scene started, my jaw dropped. It featured THE SONG!! Which is "Everybody Needs a Fence to Lean On" by Headlights, aka a song never would have found on my own.

• One of my fb friends posted the following quote this week, and it was definitely something I needed to read after a rough EMDR session (and general sense of malaise lately).

PREACH.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! xo