High Five for Friday: July 27

Oh hey, it’s Friday! ✨ Let’s see what brought the sparkle:

• On Saturday night, I went over to Kristin's for a tarot night! She gifted me this awesome set of tarot cards and guide book (which are not the cards pictured here, although she had given those to me as well LOL), and I proceeded to have the most crazy accurate tarot reading of my life!

We did the "Clarity spread" reading from the Wild Unknown Guidebook, so the card at the top is the "overall situation" in my life and the other three cards are "contributing factors." The question I asked was, "What is the Universe trying to tell me?" The answer was more like, "What does the Universe already know I’m struggling with?"

OH, JUST EVERYTHING I'VE BEEN FEELING LATELY, COOL. (Can you tell that my hormones took me in a depressive direction this month?) Complete with the flying metaphors from last fall too.

And then, I pulled this Angel card, after telling Kristin and Rod that I always pull the "Signs" card:

 😱😱

So the Universe is basically yelling at me, guys. I guess I need to start listening.

• This Kodak moment likely would not have happened had I saged Sharkey like I offered to! 😂

• On Sunday, Pops was out all day, and when the cat's away, the mice will play... which means breaking out the nail polish! I love painting my nails, but I hadn't done it in ages because Pops hates the smell. But having my nails painted this gorge gold-infused purple (Zoya Zara) has given Stella (some of) her groove back!

• I also picked up the howlite ring above at Francesca's this week! 😍

• I randomly started watching Happy Endings on Hulu this week, which is a great show if you're just looking for a fun comedy. I have fallen in love with Adam Pally and his adorable/fantastic accent, and Damon Wayans Jr. is just hilar.

exhibit A

• One extra thing, since it was a big week in Philly sports, what with Chase “The Man” Utley being in town likely for the last time before retiring:

My bffl and I love “The World Series Defense” ep of It’s Always Sunny. We have witnessed dudes at Citizens Bank Park basically weeping over Chase, so Mac’s love letter really isn’t too far off!  

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: July 20

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

• On Saturday, you know what I really wanted to do? Hear the ocean and have a vanilla milkshake! (Vanilla is generally not my first choice for anything ever, so I have no idea where this was coming from!) So that’s what I did! I’ve now driven down the shore TWICE!! 🎉🎉

• Sunday was about a thousand degrees—I went for a walk and had to lay down on the floor under the air conditioner afterwards to recover! So it was definitely an ice cream day! We went to Pops’s favorite place (Handel’s), and I got Peppermint Stick for a change. It was SO GOOD. 

• On Wednesday, I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but I called into a radio contest! 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ I knew the answer, and no one else had gotten it right, so I was like, "What the hell!" I didn’t end up getting through but maybe next time! I love this game called “Connect 3” on the classic rock station—they play three songs, and you have to figure out what they have in common. The three songs on Wednesday were “Gypsy,” “Breakfast in America,” and “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Any thoughts?

• How fun is this wallet that I found for $5 at Target?! The iridescent mermaid vibe makes me so happy! 😍😍 And it also has a removable crossbody strap, which I'm super pumped about. I love me a multitasking wallet!

• Lastly, I got a clean bill of health yesterday! I don’t think I’ve talked about this on here before, but two summers ago, I noticed a lump in my breast. Given my anxiety, you can imagine how calmly I handled that! But I went to the doctor, who assumed it was just something normal and benign (thank god one of us is sane) and sent me for more testing. It turned out to just be a normal, benign cyst (WHEW), but I’ve had to go back for regular check-ups ever since. Yesterday, though, they told me that everything looks good, meaning that I don’t need to be monitored as closely! HOORAY! I’m a lucky gal. ❤️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: July 13

Let's see what brought the sparkle this week!

• I had a pretty chill weekend, which was much appreciated after last weekend's One Wedding and An ER Visit! I watched a lot of The West Wing (who am I?), got some dumb but delightfully satisfying tasks done (washing clothes! sorting the mail! reading a library book!), and even napped! The only legitimately exciting thing I did was soaking up some of these views in Reading again!

• On Tuesday, I found the hydrangea of my girly girl dreams! And a million other gorgeous flowers, as I took a different route on my post-therapy flower creep!

• And then I got this in the mail:

It's so PURPLE! Like my aura ideally is!

My friend Kristin made me a BAG! Only the purplest bag in all the land! I'm so excited and touched (and IMPRESSED!) and can't wait to use it!

• I loved this picture that popped up in my IG feed this week. I only need this reminder, oh, daily!

• Lastly, today marks FOUR YEARS of sparkle punching! ✨👊🏻 I can't believe I've kept this space alive for four whole years and made such awesome friends along the way! (So many friends, but a special shout-out to my ever-faithful readers, Mica and Bri!) After four years, this post is still probably the one that I'm most grateful to have hit publish on—and the one I most instantly regretted publishing. (I woke up the next morning like WHAT HAVE I DONE?!) But being open about my mental health struggles has been wildly freeing and changed my life so much for the better. Thanks for going along on this wild ride with me! ❤️❤️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: July 6

Let's see what brought the sparkle this week:

• Well, the weekend got off to an interesting start, as I spent Friday night in the ER! Not for me, though: I was with a friend who thought she had appendicitis. (Don't worry, as soon as she informed me of this, I was like "DO YOU HAVE TENDERNESS OVER MCBURNEY'S POINT?!" #007) Luckily, she did not actually have appendicitis, so we got to chat about ER and Grey's, and I got to rubberneck over all the cool medical stuff! Hooray! 

• The weekend improved on Saturday when one of my oldest friends got married! It was quite the bash! This was only the third friend wedding I’ve been to, and the first LIFELONG friend wedding I’ve been to, so it was really heart-warming to celebrate someone I've grown up with. ❤️

She got married in our grade school church!

• I was really pleased with how my wedding outfit/make-up turned out, if I do say so myself! No part of this outfit was recently purchased (🎉), and I did my make-up in like seven minutes (🎉🎉)! 

🎶It’s a nice day for a white wedding🎶 ☺️A little wedding guest #ootd! . . . #outfitoftheday #whatiwore #phlbloggers #targetstyle #target #rebeccaminkoff #nordstromrack #francescas

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Jun 30, 2018 at 1:11pm PDT

• On that topic, I didn’t do a budget post for June because I didn’t buy anything! (🎉🎉🎉) Ok, that’s not entirely true—I did buy a pair of heels for the wedding, BUT my old foot injury started bothering me, so I ending up wearing bejeweled flat sandals I already had and returned the heels. 

• How did you spend the Fourth? I followed up my very patriotic Memorial Day viewing of World War II in Colour with Drunk History and The West Wing. (I have no idea where this sudden interest in The West Wing is coming from, but I'm going with it.) I went to our neighborhood bike parade (too cute) and then spent the rest of the day at a party with some of my dad's friends, who conveniently sent us home with a million desserts!

• Lastly, can you believe it: I had yet another lowkey celeb interaction on social media that made my life! (THREE WEEKS IN A ROW!) This time, a local DJ liked one of my fb posts! He used to be on the classic rock station, and I've been listening to it since seventh grade, so all of those guys have a special place in my heart. Apparently, he knows one of my fb friends, and I commented on a post about him, gushing (naturally), and he liked it! WHO WILL I BEFRIEND NEXT WEEK?! STAY TUNED...

Hope you have a great weekend! Blogger friends, I’m sorry I'm so behind on reading your posts ack! xoxo

July 2018 goals?

This goals post is not a goals post—it's an "I need a break from goals" post.

I'm doing so many things to try to "get better," but my mood and emotions have been all over the place for the past month+, and I'm worn out. What if I just AM? Can I just BE for a month?

That's not to say that I'm going to stop therapy or anything radical like that. I love therapy! But I have three therapists at the moment, and three doctors that I’m working with, plus yoga and dance, and I just don't feel like I can handle anything else on top of all that right now. So, a little break.

In other news, I did get my hormones tested (one of last month's goals), and they are all out of whack, so maybe that explains some of what I'm feeling! #blessed

Linking up with Nicole at Feel Good, Dress Better!

Oh, PS—the inspirational quote at the beginning of this post is brought to you by ‘90s General Hospital (naturally). 😂💯❤️