High Five for Friday: May 18

TGIF indeed because my anxiety has been bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) this week. I’ve just had this overwhelming feeling of fear and dread. YAY. I keep trying to remind myself that this will pass, and I will feel better again. 🤞🏻 So since that did not bring the sparkle this week, let’s see what did! 

• I lit this candle from the lovely Bri for the first time because it was definitely the vibe I needed to create! 

💕💕 

• My friend/personal anxiety savior Kristin graciously took me in when the only thing that would calm me down was chatting about nothing and running errands! And walking from room to room listening to "laurel" and "yanny." (Pops cannot fathom that anyone can hear anything but "laurel." "Come on, that's 'laurel,' babe!”)

• My friend Garett was in town this week, and it was great to see him! (Bonus that he became my first post-YTT yoga student after I ended up subbing a class on Tuesday!) He’s such a positive, adventurous spirit and is so encouraging—he's one of those friends that makes you feel like you can do anything, you know? A real gem.

• Friday was dance night with my dear Maggie and the other ladies, which was wonderful and a much-needed outlet. Then on Saturday morning, I ended up in a yoga class with one of the other YTT gals, and we chatted for awhile afterwards. It was so nice to get a taste of being back in that awesome community! (She and the teacher also helped me get into a few supported inversions after class, which was hilarious. I was basically like "Hmm, yeah ok, put me down now please!" 😂)

• Lastly, in trying to make my room into more of a sanctuary, I really wanted to add some cute battery-powered lights. Well don’t you know at Mother’s Day dinner last weekend, my mom whips out a few small gifts for me, including A STRAND OF ADORABLE BATTERY-POWERED LIGHTS! I had not told her about this quest of mine, and she apparently found them months ago. (In the $1 Spot it seems! How?! I never saw them!) Magic from the universe! 🤗

Hope you have a great weekend! Blog friends, here's hoping I catch up on comments this weekend! (I love them all, I've just been super behind!) xo

High Five for Friday: May 11

Let's see what brought the sparkle this week!

• On Saturday night, I finally emptied my gratitude jar! I had added to it all through 2017, but I was being such a negative Nelly at the start of 2018 that I didn’t want anything to do with it. So I just kept adding to it until it was basically overflowing! Emptying it really gave me a glimpse into who and what truly have a positive impact in my life. ❤️

$1 Spot ftw!

• On Sunday, I got to see my cousin star as Ariel in her ballet school’s production of The Little Mermaid, which was obviously adorable!

• I happened to get $5 in Extra Bucks at CVS (!! when does that ever happen?!), so I treated myself to a new lip gloss. I’d never bought anything by Make Up Academy before, but this one had good reviews and wasn’t sparkly. I was looking for more of a pink shade (than my usual nude), so I went with “Rose.”

Despite how bold it is in the tube, it’s very wearable, as evidenced by this lovely in-car selfie!

• One of the new things I’m working on this month is a vision board! I’ve made ones on Pinterest before, but I’m hardly ever on Pinterest, which makes it too easy to ignore them. I usually roll my eyes so hard at vision boards, so this is a big step for me, you guys! I recently watch a video about how to make one that I really liked (naturally posted by Kalyn, that goddess), and I’ve assembled my supplies over the past week! Now it’s time to put it all together!

• Lastly, I only cried once during this week's Grey's, and it ended up being way less tragic than I'd feared, THANK GOD! 

Hope you have a great weekend! xoxo

May 2018 goals

The start of April was a bit of a disaster, so I never got a goals post up. Probably for the best considering my emotional state at the beginning of the month! (Remember my three therapy sessions in three days? Yeahhh...) But it's May now, and I'm not an emotional wreck, so let's see what's on the white board!

Do three new things (or, at a minimum, three things I don't regularly do): My world has become so small, you guys. All I really do is go to work and therapy. I don't think I've talked about it on here before, but I've been wondering if I have a touch of agoraphobia because the fear that something bad will happen often keeps me from leaving the house to do anything optional. (So things like work and therapy are okay.) A few months ago, my therapist was pushing this idea of expanding my world, and I was not into it at all, but now I see and feel that I really need to do it. AND THE UNIVERSE IS TELLING ME THIS TOO SEE BELOW.

Get up early to start my day with a Kalyn Nicholson YouTube video: I don't know what it is right now (because I've watched a few of her vids in the past), but I am just super connecting to Kalyn's vibe and message, and I'm getting lots of energy from it. She's so inspiring and makes me want to tap into my creative side that I so easily squelch. She talks about a lot of things that I want to get back into (like the law of attraction and just generally making positive choices).

Make budget and stick to it // pay off credit card: As I said in my April budget post, April was a bit of a doozy financially. The payment schedule at work changed, and I was scrambling just to pay my bills. Now that the dust has settled, I need to pay off my credit card and make a realistic budget for May that I feel like I can stick to--because if the budget is way too tight, I tend to not even try, as the whole thing feels like a lost cause from the start, you know? 

Self-freaking-care: Eating. Sleeping. Basic things. I definitely didn't make the healthiest choices in April--I skipped meals, and I let myself get to the point of exhaustion because I felt "lazy" taking a nap (even though anxiety has been waking me up way before my alarm). I just need to take better care of myself, period.

Taking alone time for myself at home: I tend to struggle with just doing my own thing if other people are around. And I live with my dad, who is retired and thus often around! I've slowly been making my room into more of a happy place/sanctuary and spending time in there when no one is home, so hopefully, that comfortability carries over. I am an introvert, so I really do need to be able to break away from other people and recharge sometimes.

So I happened to pull a tarot card a few weeks ago that was so super relevant to my life right now that I'm going to use it as my card of the month (instead of pulling a Healing with the Angels card).

I pulled this handsome fella, reversed:

My tarot knowledge is pretty limited, so I usually marvel over the OOTC (outfit of the card) and then google the card's message. Here is the reversed Two of Wands' message:

SO. WILDLY. ACCURATE. I actually pulled the card before coming up with the goal to do more new things, but I've been having that "stuck" feeling for awhile. So I was basically like, "OK UNIVERSE! I'M GETTING THE MESSAGE!"

What do you hope to do in May? Any tips for combating fears of leaving the house? 😬

Linking up with Nicole at Feel Good, Dress Better!

High Five for Friday: May 4

Let’s see what put the sparkle into this week!

• Pudge and I had a glorious weekend together! It was SO NICE just to have my own space and be able to do my own thing! (I wonder if Pops felt the same way LOL!) I explored Maggie’s hood, delved further into my Artist of Life workbook, caught up with the Kardashians, planned a yoga class, worked on blog stuff, and napped! What a time!

• Pudge is such a sweetheart. She just snuggles right up to you, demands pets, and purrs like crazy. The last cat I watched was a kitten who really liked biting my hair and running around at 4 AM—so this was a nice change of pace! Pudge and I did so many exciting things together, like watching General Hospital and napping! 

• In my shopping journey over the weekend, I made a few very exciting purchases, like picking up neroli oil at Whole Foods, and finding this cute journal AND BALLER PILL ORGANIZER at Marshalls! The pill organizer I had before was always opening and spilling in my bag, so I was legitimately pumped to find this one. (As you could probably tell from my Insta Stories, haha!)

living the dream

• I've been listening to '90s video game music at work lately, and I delved into some Link to the Past this week. Hearing this tune really took me back! If you have any good '90s video game suggestions, let me know, because I'm always looking for more jams!

• Lastly, Timmi sent me this. 💯💯 Oh JSTOR. Never change, except to become JORTS. 🙏🏻

Oh and is anyone else watching Grey’s/in a glass case of emotion over the preview for next week?!? DON’T DO THIS TO ME, SHONDA!

Preach, girl.

Hope you have a great weekend! xoxo

April 2018 Budget

Whoa nelly, this was really a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants month financially! Which meant that I couldn't spend much money shopping, so that worked out in my favor, I guess!

1. Baebody Eye Gel (Amazon): $24
2. Black Cat Print Blanket Scarf (Claire's): $20 on sale for $8
3. American Eagle Soft and Sexy Tank (T.J. Maxx): $6

TOTAL: $38

Yes, I'm over 30, and yes, I bought a clothing item for myself from Claire's. Let it be known that I am fully aware of that! FULLY. AWARE. I actually walked away from the scarf initially, but my willpower apparently expires in 48 hours. I mean, it's a cat print scarf, people! I really appreciate how the pattern mostly looks geometric, if you don't know that it's cats. (I swear!) It's usually a balmy 76 degrees in our office, and I've been wearing my cat scarf with no shame.

I used up the Senegence Dark Circle Eye Treatment that Becky had sent me back in November, so I needed a replacement, ideally something that would get me free shipping on Amazon because I was also ordering something else at the time! The Baebody gel had four stars and over 12000 reviews, so I was like, worth a shot! I don't know how I feel about it so far. I like that it has a pump, and it smells nice, but it's very sticky, and I'm not sure that it's doing anything. (It has only been three weeks though.) We'll see. If anyone has any dark circle creams/treatments they swear by, let me know. I want to splurge on one someday!

Lastly, who am I to resist a soft purple tank for $5?! When I was at TJ Maxx, I had two other purple things to try on with this tank, and I realized that maybe I need to go the Mica route and rename this blog "Away from the Purple." Nah, I could never quit it! 😂💜

What did you guys buy this month?