Fave recent purchases!

I haven’t exactly missed doing budget posts, but I have missed talking about fun things I’ve bought recently—and, more importantly, things I really like and use all the time. (LOVE a favorites post, haha!) So here are some of my favorite finds from the past few months!

Some links below are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission (at no cost to you) if you click through!

1. Project Social T hoodie: I’ve talked about this one before, annnd I’m wearing it while writing this post! It’s kind of a wearable blanket—what more do you need? 😍

2. Nintendo Switch hard-shell case: Okay, “recent” is a bit of a stretch with this one because I found it on Amazon last June, but the transformation of my gray and black Switch to pastel pink and purple still totally delights me! 😍

3. Joy Lab Joggers: A rare departure from black leggings (aka what I wear every day 😂)! The color and the waistband are what sold me—though I disagree with Target’s claims that they are “iron gray” and “mid-rise.” To me, the color is a lovely beige/brown, and the waist is quite high—high enough to work well with this obnoxiously short tee from Topshop, soooo…. take that with however many grains of salt! Also, they’re currently on sale!

4. Poppin card holder: Another thing that delights me: this little guy! Velvet? Mauve? ALL THE YES. I literally was drawn to it like a magnet, haha. It’s a little annoying to use as a pseudo-wallet, BUT it does swap easily between between purses and fanny packs, and it miraculously holds several cards + driver’s license + a few carefully folded bills. 😂 Bonus that I got it at The Container Store with Kristin’s family last fall, so it reminds me of them! ❤️

5. Slip scrunchies: I finally caved and got some of these on a Black Friday sale. I feel very, very fancy, and the large size is shockingly good at containing my wild mane! (A rarity!)

What are your favorite recent finds? ❤️

High Five for Friday: April 8

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by—I’m so glad you’re here! 😁

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

(FYI: I make a small commission for purchases or clicks made through links in this post.)

• Ooh, my young inner child has been having A Time this week. An extra therapy session was much-needed and much-appreciated, even though taking up “extra” space also makes me really anxious! Such a catch-22.

• I was reunited with two of my best gals over the weekend—Maggie and Pudge! What a delight! And naturally, I only have photographic evidence of the furry friend! 😂😍

🎶this is what dreams are made of🎶

Below is the look I got when I disturbed her slumber. #bigmood Pudge is the sweetest angel, but her grump face is 10/10. 😂

WHO GOES THERE?

And one minute later, we were besties again. 😭❤️

• I had to run out for coffee on Tuesday morning, so I went to the small Target nearby and happened to find these adorable sandals! I had been halfheartedly looking at all the cute (and sold-out) Stoney Clover Lane x Target stuff online over the weekend, so I did not expect to find these at the small Target that usually has nothing! A Tuesday miracle!

• Have you guys been playing Heardle? Thanks to Nancy, I’ve finally found a Wordle variant I enjoy! (It’s perfect for me because I’m terrible at word games, and my true calling in life is identifying random songs. My bffl always says she wants to take me on Beat Shazam! 😂) So far I’ve gone 5 out of 6, with my crowning achievement being identifying “Wannabe” in one second (…which is just footsteps 😂).

Also fitting because Mica and I had just been talking about the Spice Girls last weekend!

• Lastly, the baseball season starts today! (Well, in this house anyway, haha. I think some teams started yesterday?) I have never been primarily a baseball fan, so this is all very confusing and weird. 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

We made it to two games last season! This was the one without the rain delay, hooray! 😂

What put the sparkle in your week?

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites! (And continuing to call this H54F even though that link-up is defunct, haha.)

High Five for Friday: April 1

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by—I’m so glad you’re here! 😁

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

• First, the most boring one: I finished my taxes! Hallelujah! It truly feels like a weight off my shoulders! Now, I’m the whole package, plus I pay my taxes! 😂 😂 😂

• Remember when I talked about shirts that make me feel less depressed? Yeah, so that sentiment is not limited to shirts—or depression. 😂 I have now purchased my first item from Samantha Ravndahl’s makeup line, Auric, because she added a lip balm! (I rarely wear makeup and yet I mainly watch makeup influencers, go figure. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️)

Plush Ritual Ceramide Lip Treatment—so fancy!

I’ve been watching Sam for years, and something about her chill IDGAF attitude works really well for me when I’m anxious. On one of the worst anxiety attack nights last August, the only thing that would kind of calm me down/distract me were her videos. So I’m enjoying having this little lip balm on my work desk as a tangible reminder of something calming and always available! (God bless you, YouTube!) And the lip balm is pretty darn nice—and comes with a jade spatula?! I’m not a fan of lip products in pots, but if you’re going to give me a spatula made of jade, I mean, how can I say say no?! I feel like royalty whenever I use it! 👸🏼

• Welp, it continues to be a rough time for me and Philly sports! First, Claude Giroux played in his 1000th game and was promptly sprung from this sinking ship traded, and now my favorite Phillie of 2021 has been traded! 😫 Following along with Luke Williams’ journey last year really put some unexpected sparkle into the summer and fall. He just seemed so happy all the time? I remember seeing him in his first game and being like, “Who is this smiley guy??” 😂 And then, of course, The Walk-Off:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by phillies (@phillies)

I actually got to see Luke play in triple-A at the end of the season, so he has even more of a place in my heart because he’s entwined with a personal triumph over anxiety! I initially got tickets because they were dirt cheap and I thought Pops would go with me, but then he couldn’t, and I had to see if I could handle doing it on my own. Turns out, I could. 😁 (In reality, the “alone” piece ended up being very helpful—I just kept telling myself I could leave at any point, because I truly could!) Sitting in the sunshine, taking pictures, cheering these guys on—a delightful time!

• Thank goodness Breath of the Wild 2 has been pushed back to spring 2023, giving me another year to wander aimlessly through this iteration of Hyrule! 😂 I went back to BotW for the first time in a while and was initially kind of bored, but then I found a bombable wall and a sweet, sweet Korok, and now I’m hooked again. It’s just so calming… as so many post-apocalyptic worlds are?? 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Lol March Madness in the background. I did go to Villanova, so I am cheering for them, I just… don’t want to watch a whole basketball game? But having it on as background noise as I meander through Hyrule is 👍.

• Last Sunday, I got out of the house (⭐️) to make a return at Old Navy annnd also go to Ulta for the first time in months!

Wearing Plush Ritual! Also, why is it freezing?! 😫

And I came home with the biggest bag I’ve ever gotten from Ulta! The cashier was like, “I’m so sorry, but we only have big bags.” And I was like, “You guys have big bags?!?” What sorcery! Seriously, I don’t think I’ve gotten any size other than that annoyingly small one ever! Even Pops (who is always pulling out tiny Ulta bags while looking for legit grocery bags) was like 😮. The more you know! 🌈 😂

What put the sparkle in your week?

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites! (And continuing to call this H54F even though that link-up is defunct, haha.)

High Five for Friday: March 25

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by—I’m so glad you’re here! 😁

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

• As I mentioned here, last Sunday was my Rebirthday. I so often feel stuck that it is wild to think of how much I’ve actually changed and grown since 2013. And equally wild to think that there was a time when I saw mental health stuff as optional and would dip in and out of the counseling center or only go to the psychiatrist every few months (and just do that, no therapy). I needed to, and still need to, make these things a priority in my life. Going inpatient forced me to do that, and thank goodness. ❤️

I wanted to give myself a Rebirthday treat that was truly meaningful and restorative, so on Saturday night, I did a virtual sound bath + reiki with Love and Alchemy! Natalie is so great—I’ve done some group virtual sound baths with her before, and it is WILD how nourished I feel afterward. The tones and vibrations of the bowls are so soothing on their own, but then reiki! I’ve had in-person reiki a few times, and I always seem to go into this restful, zen zone… this not-sleep sleep. It’s so restorative. Definitely a splurge, but well worth it!

• This sentiment is also perfect for Rebirthday week (though I honestly need to be reminded of this like every day! 🙃):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jess Sharp (@jessrachelsharp)

• The Rebecca Minkoff bag Mica helped me to identify arrived on Monday! Isn’t she lovely?! That smushy pebbled leather is just 😍😍 and the studded strap! Who am I?!

• Thank you to Alli at Simply Small Town for introducing me to the adorableness that is Callie Danielle! Her designs are just so cheery and fun! Every Wednesday, Callie posts free wallpapers on her Instagram, and there were some super-cute spring ones this week! (You should be able to find them in her “Phone wallpapers” highlight.) This one was my fave!

I also just remembered that I am currently using one of her backgrounds on my Apple Watch!

I hate that you can’t change the small white numbers when you make Watch faces (…at least, I don’t think you can do that??), but this background at least makes them pop!

• Lastly, on a funny note… On Saturday, our neighbors (the cake neighbors!) had the birthday party for their one-year old, and that meant that a safari moon bounce suddenly went up next door! That certainly put some excitement in Friday’s workday! 😂 One of the friends I grew up with in the neighborhood texted me at one point and was like “I hope you get a turn in the bounce house!!!” Hilar. (Ultimately, I didn’t—but not because I wasn’t invited to! 😂😂)

What put the sparkle in your week?

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites! (And continuing to call this H54F even though that link-up is defunct, haha.)

Rebirthday #9

Or: Not letting certain parts of me flatten my sparkle! 😁

In case you don’t know, I look at 3/20/13, the day I went inpatient for suicidal thoughts, as my Rebirthday, because it’s the day this healing journey began!

Wow wee, as the years go on, some things get easier, some things get harder, and more and more comes up to be healed. I so often feel stuck and ashamed of where I am (or am not) in life… COUGH…

But milestones like the Rebirthday are great because they force me to slow down and acknowledge the significant-but-hard-to-quantify shifts that have happened over the years.

When I started therapy in 2013, I approached it as I had school. If I did all the things and worked really hard, I would “get better,” right? So I journaled all the time, I read all the books, I was completely in my head and out of my body, and it was great. I was working really hard, and so I was deserving of my therapist’s time and attention, right? I was getting all whole and healed, right?

…Right?

In 2013, I had zero awareness that this pull to do all the “right” things and stay out of my body was not the entirety of me, but rather the effect of the different inner parts of me that sometimes took hold.

I have a Good Girl part who feels like she has to calibrate to what other people need or expect in order to be lovable. The Good Girl seems to be entwined with a High Schooler who (as I did in actual high school) throws herself into academic pursuits to achieve her way to worth and avoid feeling.

The attentive Good Girl and drill sergeant High Schooler make a great team. They work so hard to protect me from a third part: a young inner child who is really really scared.

The problem is that they can’t actually work or ignore away her pain, and so it crashes down on Adult Me when I least expect it.

Last summer, I started having anxiety attacks as I tried to “reenter” the world, post-2020. The young inner child really enjoys having control over her environment, so not being able to leave the house during Covid was actually perfect for her. She was so terrified to have to give all of that up that she would suddenly become the dominant inner part, screaming out for attention.

This meant that I would agree to do things in 2021, and then childhood fear and panic would blindside me, and leave 2021 me a confused, crying mess.

My therapist and I began talking about how I could take therapy with me into these difficult moments, which led to the practice I mentioned here: channeling my therapist’s calm acceptance of and curiosity about my emotions. I don’t meditate, per se, but I suppose this has become a sort of meditation, a going-inward to find peace.

It was not therapy homework. It was not something with big “should” energy behind it. It just grew organically out of our therapy conversations.

When I’m blindsided by strong emotions now, it has been really helpful to consider who (what inner part) is crying out for attention and what she needs. Or, what she needed back then and did not get. (I don’t journal a ton these days, but this also makes a 10/10 journal prompt.) Then, I can go into this sort of inner therapy room for comfort and understanding.

It has taken years of therapy and healing work for Adult Me to have some capacity to empathize with and attempt to “parent” these inner children, rather than run from them or scream at them in frustration. I have no clue what I’m doing a lot of the time, but, thankfully, I am learning from my therapist. Offering my inner children the same calm acceptance and curiosity that Adult Me gets in therapy has been a great start.

If any of this resonates with you, please know that you are inherently worthy, and that healing is possible—even if you are resistant to meditating, feeling/being in your body, loving “difficult” parts of yourself, etc. I struggle mightily with all of those things but am slowly embracing them in my own way and in my own time. 💜