High Five for Friday: October 26

I hope your week had some sparkle! Here’s what put the ✨ in mine:

• On Saturday, my aunt got married in a lovely ceremony! And I had the honor of doing a reading, aww! The dinner afterwards was on a beautiful golf course, and I immediately seized upon that for my OOTD, haha! 

The shoes are the only part of this outfit that’s new, and they only cost $10 🙌🏻

• Equally exciting for this introvert was being home in my pjs watching Days by 9:00 PM! 😂 I’m not a high-energy person by any means, but I was super wiped out (annnd I ended up having a fever on Monday, so I guess this was a portent of things to come!). So I spent Saturday night lying around watching old Will Horton scenes, and it was DELIGHTFUL. I started watching WilSon because I thought Sonny was cute, but unfortunately, Sonny is also perfect and boring! I’ve totally fallen love with Will because he’s such a mess, and Chandler Massey imbues him with such realness and humor and raw emotion that just kills me. I also love EJ and Sami now too, and boy are they a hot mess! I guess that’s just my jam!

So on trend for fall

THIS POOR KID 😭😭 (seriously, he is the best crier)

• After yoga on Sunday, I met up with Kristin and her bf at an outdoor market a few blocks from the yoga studio. Even though it was freezing (ok, it was only in the 40s, but I busted out my big winter coat and it was not enough!), we had a lot of fun, and Kristin gifted me a Gritty pin! 😂😂 #philly

• In my feverish haze on Monday night, the perfect Halloween costume came to me in a flash of brilliance! I’m not a Halloween person at all, but I need a costume for a party, and I’d been totally stumped. Now I’m in business—I just have to find all the necessary clothing items!

• Lastly, I’ve finally moved away from Justin Bieber this week and right into the arms of Demi Lovato. “Sorry Not Sorry” and “Tell Me You Love Me” have been getting me through the work week. Her songs are always so sassy and confident. I want to channel that! 💃💃

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

How Five for Friday: October 19

I hope y’all had some sparkle in your week! Here’s what put the sparkle in mine:

• I ended up teaching yoga in the yurt on Saturday! Although the yurt is a lovely setting, it was out of necessity—I found myself locked out of the main building when I got there! AH! So I immediately ran around trying all the doors and then I spotted the yurt—which thankfully was open! And had a handful of mats and props, hooray! The experience reminded me that, despite all of my anxiety, I’m actually usually ok when things go awry—I can handle it, and I do find solutions. (Just like when this happened.) I expect myself to fall apart, but in reality, I usually don’t. Like most of us, I’m stronger than I know. 💪🏻

• After yoga, I drove back home and went to Benihana with Kristin, her bf, and another friend of theirs, and it was so much fun. I mean, of course it was—commemorative cat glasses were had!

And we stood around freezing in the parking lot for an hour afterwards taking pictures and personality tests! Kristin and I often joke about this Simpsons moment, and after our big night out, we were like “Lou and Wiggum would be jealous!” 😂😂

• On Sunday night, I rearranged my room a bit, and it has made my life 100 times better. I repositioned my desk and now can get around my bed without bumping into things—WHAT A THRILL!
  

• I went ice skating again on Tuesday, and it was a total blast! It was the first time I went by myself and felt like the fun outweighed my self-consciousness or fear of falling. I used to love ice skating as a kid, and I felt like I got to really reconnect with that part of myself this week. ❤️

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Who knew that when @a_canny_lass pushed me to go ice skating last month, she was actually reintroducing me to my inner child? I could feel that girl’s presence today while I was skating, and it was FUN. It was fun to be that carefree kid, back before other stuff pushed her into hiding. I need to remember this feeling so that I keep letting her come out and play. 💖🦄⛸ #TooBadMyBodyFeelsLikeIts110 👵🏻 #ButTheyPlayedPrivateEyesSoItsOk 🕵🏻‍♀️🕵🏻‍♂️ . . . #fun #innerchild #therapy #healing #healingjourney #iceskating #skating #anxiety #depression

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Oct 16, 2018 at 8:52am PDT

PS I’m documenting my OOTDs on Instagram now through the end of the month, if you want to follow along: @jessie_face4! 😘 

• You guys, I think I lied last week when I said I wasn’t a Belieber... because I’ve been listening to “Sorry” and “Let Me Love You” nonstop. 😬 And also Maroon 5 songs from Red Pill Blues that sound Bieberish (namely “Don’t Wanna Know” and “Wait”). I guess this is just my vibe right now. Is it too late now to say sorry?

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: October 12

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

• Yoga and sushi with Maggie! I hadn’t seen my dear Maggie since she graciously let me pace around her room when I was super freaked out in August, so a meet-up was way overdue! I invited her to the recovery yoga class that I sometimes go to, and dream of dreams, no one else showed up! (Sidenote that I was also a wildly anxious mess the last time I took a class with this teacher, and I’ve been feeling a lot better lately, so that was a nice benchmark/reminder!) So Maggie and I got a super-chill private yoga class and then caught up at my favorite sushi place. What a delightful start to the weekend! ❤️

• Ice skating! I used to love ice skating when I was a kid, and even though it’s infinitely more terrifying (and tiring) now, it’s still so exhilarating! I had a great time skating with a grand total of seven other people to some Beatles tunes on Tuesday (aka John Lennon’s birthday).

It took great effort to stop at a spot away from the boards! I was still moving in my first several attempts at this shot 😂

• Days, Wendy’s, and cats with Kristin! Kristin is just the best. A true gem that you can blather to about anything under the sun and then watch soaps with. Bonus that this guy sat on me (!!) for awhile but was not impressed with John’s explanation for why he switched comatose Marlena with Hattie. 😴

So over the Jarlena drama

• Reading! I started Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before again, and I’m really enjoying it—and enjoying reading in general, which is not typical for this burned-out former English major! I think it helps that it only takes like 20 minutes to read a chapter. And that there are a lot of “ohhhh” moments. 💡

• Music that was popular three years ago! Apparently, I’m all about the throwback jams right now, although we’re not going back to 2005 this time. I’m no Belieber, but I loved this song in 2015 and am back to listening to it on repeat! “What do you mean” indeed.

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: October 5

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

• I had a lot of boring stuff to do last Saturday night, so I spent the afternoon on a bit of a shopping spree at Target with my birthday gift cards! 😍

You can find more info/links to the clothes in my September budget post!

• Kristin sent me the link to this quiz, and it low-key blew my mind (even though I had started Gretchen Rubin’s Better than Before eons ago).

I’m an Obliger, which is basically a people-pleaser. 😣

I am the worst at fulfilling inner expectations, and I always feel bad about myself for it. So these results were really helpful in showing me that a.) maybe I’m not the worst (🎉) and b.) maybe there’s a way to work with this tendency of mine! Because of all this, I’ve started listening to Gretchen’s Happier podcast again, and it’s been very eye-opening and enjoyable!  

• On Sunday, I went to a baby shower for one of the YTT gals! It was so nice to have a little reunion with some of those lovely ladies! Bonus that it was held in a gorgeous barn, and that there were cupcakes galore! 

• The weather hasn’t been particularly fall-like, and I am loving it! Give me pretty leaves with 70 degree weather, and I’m a happy camper!

• Lastly, I’m really enjoying the new season of DWTS! Everyone is so good and amazingly not annoying me yet! (And it’s been two whole weeks! 😂) This dance is crazy good, but I’ve also been playing this song nonstop ever since! 💃 (“New Dorp. New York” by SBTRKT)

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

September 2018 Budget

Between Timmi being here and me having a bunch of birthday gift cards, I went a little nuts with the shopping in September! 😬💸

1. Xhilaration Sleep Sweatshirt (Target): $17 on sale for $12 - gift card = $0

2. A New Day Skinny Utility Chino Pants (Target): $20 - gift card = $0

3. Mario Tee (Old Navy): $17 on sale for $7

4. Space-Print Pocket Tee for Boys (Old Navy): $13  on sale for $8

5. Amethyst bracelet: $14

6. Chakra bracelet: $22

7. Plant tank top: $13

Not pictured:

1. A New Day V-Neck Cardigan (Target): $23 - gift card = $0

2. Brash Naomi Block Heel (Payless): $30 on sale for $10

3. Printed Tulip Short (Primark link to similar): $8 on sale for $2

4. High-Neck Tank Top (Old Navy): $13 on sale for $3

5. Blouse (H&M): $18 - gift card = $0

6. Jorts (H&M): $12 on sale for $7 - gift card = $0

TOTAL: $79

WOW, that Visa gift card and four Target gift cards really paid off! I’m sorry I didn’t link to a lot of things—they were either sold out, or I just couldn’t find them online!

Let’s start our chat with the plant tank top because it makes me so happy! It was such a random find—Timmi and I spotted it in a co-op two blocks from my therapist’s office! I very much associate plants with Timmi (peep her IG to see why!), so it’s really the perfect thing to remind me of her. Actually, all of the things I bought when she was here make me smile and have been great reminders of how much fun we had. She actually bought the bracelets for me because I had to sprint off to therapy! And she likes to play with gender constructs in fashion, so she urged me to go out of my comfort zone and explore the boys’ and men’s sections at Old Navy, leading me to the satellite t-shirt! (As we saw with that lunar tank top last month, I’m really into a space vibe these days!) 🚀

As you might have seen on my Insta Stories this past weekend, I went HAM with four of my Target gift cards! I’ve been looking for olive pants foreverrr, so I was pumped to finally find a pair that were the right color and fit pretty well! (I feel like I must have weird proportions because pants are often snug in the legs and kind of loose in the waist? Is this a typical thing?) I kept on this green theme with my new cardigan too. Almost all of my cardigans are grey or black—I needed some color! And the sweatshirt is super-soft and a little bit bat-wingy (surely a technical term), which is a look that I’m into (🤷🏼‍♀️) and makes it a little different from my other sweatshirts.

Lastly, I had been on a quest to get new shorts this summer but only found one pair I liked... until those fall sales started! 💃 I found both pairs of shorts above on my shopping trip for a wedding dress and shoes that was otherwise a bust—which is why I ended up buying the Payless shoes. I think they could work with any of the dresses I currently have, and it’s seeming likely that I’m just going to wear one of those to the wedding. Plus, $10 is about all I ever want to spend on dress-up shoes, haha!

Did you find anything fun this month?