High Five for Friday: June 1

Well, this week just flew by! What even happened?! Let's find out what brought the sparkle!

• On Monday, I went over to a friend’s house, which worked out well because I woke up super anxious, but he also has anxiety, so he was fine with it. It was possibly the most patriotic Memorial Day I’ve ever had, because he had on World War II in Colour on Netflix! Chatting against the backdrop of the war in the Pacific was an unexpected way to spend the day! 😂 I also got to check out the pretty flowers in his neighborhood, which you know I was all about! 😍

• This has been the song of the week, thanks to my friend Kristin getting on a CSN kick. The first time I heard “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” I’m pretty sure I was riding in the car with Pops in seventh grade, and it blew my mind. Those harmonies are just unreal. 

• Speaking of music, Pops went to the Bowie exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum on Wednesday (so jealous!) and brought me back this Low magnet! (Which is sort of hilarious because he’s generally 🙄 about Low, but I love “Be My Wife” and “A New Career in a New Town”!) David Bowie was actually my first concert, on what turned out to be his last tour. 💔 I was a junior in high school, and I got to see David Bowie. What a lucky duck. 

Pops got to go to the David Bowie exhibit at the @brooklynmuseum yesterday (😭) and brought me back this magnet! And then we figured out that we actually saw Bowie live 14 years ago yesterday—my first concert! 😍❤️ This is also where I first heard/fell in love with “A New Career in a New Town”—which is on Low! #fullcircle . . . #davidbowie #stillmourning 💔#bowierealitytour

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on May 31, 2018 at 8:08am PDT

• Yesterday marked TWO YEARS with my lil babydoll car!! WOW. And to think, I had just started exposure therapy for driving when I first joined the H54F link-up back in 2015! Crazy. Being able to drive all over the place with (some) ease may not seem like a big deal, but it is freaking miraculous for me! 🎉

• Lastly, trying to keep Pops apprised of the NBA players the Kardashians are dating is a full-time job. At least this time, he already knows who Ben Simmons is!

...unlike when I broke the news that Khloe was having a baby with Tristan Thompson! 😂 

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: May 25

YOU GUYS! The sparkle is back! I’m finally feeling better after a week-long bout of super-intense anxiety! 🎉 Here’s what else was sparkling this week:

• Firstly, a friend posted this, and it was definitely something I needed to hear. ❤️

• Because my anxiety was still going berserk last Friday, I signed up for a yoga class with the teacher who teaches the Sunday class that I usually go to. And I ended up being the only one there! So I got to chat with her for awhile about my anxiety (she could relate), and she geared her whole class around that, which was so nice and definitely helped calm me down, at least for a little bit.

• On Saturday, I again woke up feeling super anxious, so I went to another yoga class, and during the class, I briefly lost it. Like all of the feelings I'd been trying to avoid just crashed down on me and left me panicked. AH. But I made it through! After class, I didn't want to go straight home, and I also didn't feel up to painting my toes for a wedding I was going to that night (I was in a sorry state!), so I got a pedicure! And ended up having to walk 0.4 miles in those foam flip flop thingies like a rube (as you may have seen on my Insta Stories)! But that made me laugh, which was a welcome occurrence--as was just sitting around reading People magazine while someone else did the thing I couldn't get my act together to do!

• On Saturday night, I got to watch my dear friend Sara get married! And see a few of my old work friends, which was a delight! (I went stag and legitimately could have known no one, so I almost did cartwheels when I saw their names on the seating chart!) Sara had just met her now HUSBAND around the time that I first met her (at our old job), so I feel like I've seen all the stages of their relationship. But most importantly, they had a freaking DONUT WEDDING CAKE, which, besides being amazing, should make it easy to see #whywerefriends haha! 

• Lastly, it seems to follow that the more wigged out I am, the more 1998-99 Lucky and Liz I'm watching—so you know I was tuning into them last week, haha! They're just so darn adorable. This scene is super sweet but also made me chuckle because what song would be better for a morose soap opera montage in 1998 than "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls? (I've actually always liked the Goo Goo Dolls, so this also sent me down a rabbit hole with them!)

And while we're on the topic of irises, look at this beauty I found after therapy on Monday! I've never seen this color scheme before! #PurpleIsANeutral

Private Iris is watching you 🕵🏻‍♀️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

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!