High Five for Friday: September 23

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.)

• Have you perused Target’s Hyde and Eek section this year? I found so many cute things there last weekend! I had been looking for a fall garland and a small light-up Halloween tree, and these are perfect! I love that the garland is just pumpkins and pom-poms—more fall than Halloween (i.e. it won’t seem weird to leave out till Thanksgiving… she said, as if she doesn’t have a Christmas donuts blanket out all year 🙈). I also picked up these pretty bottle brush trees and a trick-or-treat bowl for Pops (who asks me to get one every year and I never remember 🤦🏼‍♀️).

• Speaking of fall, Callie Danielle has been releasing some bomb free fall wallpapers over on Instagram! This one is my current phone background. Pumpkins, coffee, and a splash of pink? SOLD!

This also reminds me that I need to get my one PSL of the season. I don’t love pumpkin, so all I need each fall is one PSL and maybe one slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, and I’m good. 😂 I’m a slightly-less-basic bitch, apparently.

• My dad and I went on an impromptu road trip on Sunday! We drove down to Nationals Park in DC because I need to ring every molecule of serotonin out of baseball while I still can! 😂😂 Plus, it’s a stadium we’d never been to before, and excellent seats were very affordable because the Nats are terrible this year. 👍

Okay, but like how do you go back to normal seats after this?! This was perhaps a miscalculation on our part, ha.

• It always delights me seeing the things that other stadiums have that are specific to their team. 

“Okay, we’ll meet at Max Scherzer then!”

Flowers and baseball, two great things that go great together!

Also, one of the Nats has a Spanish-language version of “Hakuna Matata” as his at-bat song, while another has a Kanye song that incorporates Kenny G.! *chef’s kiss* to both!

• Finally, some Pudge cuteness for your weekend! She has a new favorite hiding place now that she’s discovered some blankets that accidentally fell behind the couch!

Aforementioned Christmas donuts blanket on the left!

A naptime buddy! 🥰💖🥹

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: September 16

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

Oh boy, a lot has happened since my last post! Let’s start with the exciting news:

We got a cat!

Not only that… it’s PUDGE! 

Pudge rethinking this decision 😂

💖💖

As much as I love cats, I’ve never felt like I *needed* a cat of my own—but Pudge is different. I’ve stayed with her a bunch of times since 2018, and we’ve been through a lot together. She has always been an excellent emotional support cat to me, so when the question of taking her first came up (she has not been loving life in a house with kids, and Maggie will also be moving soon), I couldn’t brush it aside. Yes, I have allergies, yes, I’ve never had a cat… but this is Pudge. I asked Maggie in disbelief: “IS THIS MY CAT?” To which she replied, “I think she’s always been your cat.” 😭😭💖💖 I was very nervous about the move, but Pudge has settled into our house beautifully. She is currently lying beside me purring!

Now some way less exciting news. Literally the same weekend we brought Pudge home (also my birthday weekend 🙃), my dad and I got covid! GOOD GRIEF. It was probably in the realm of “mild” (thank you, vaccines!), but, still, not a good time. You never realize how well you’re actually doing until your physical and mental health go down the toilet! 🤣

So those are the big things that have happened. And here are some smaller sparkly moments from the last few weeks:

• Amazing birthday cards! (Glitter space pizza cat ftw?!)

• A fabulous birthday gift from my bfll! (This has also been several people’s reactions to me taking in Pudge. 😁)

Doubly hilarious that I was already wearing my other Alexis shirt when I opened it. 😂😂

birthday ootd!

• So.much.baseball. When I had covid, my anxiety went into another dimension (like, “getting high heart rate notifications on my Apple Watch while lying in bed” another dimension), and baseball was a godsend, giving me something to look forward to every day!

I have no recollection of watching whatever this game is! 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

• Kristin’s family happened to be in town while I was sick, but luckily, the end of my quarantine coincided with their last day, so I was able to see them (outside)! And then I went to Nordstrom Rack, the site of one of the last “normal” outings Kristin and I had in 2019. Yesterday marked three years without her. How is that even possible?

Wearing my Hall and Oates “Private Eyes” shirt in her honor!

What put the sparkle in your week(s)? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: August 19

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

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

• Remember last week’s sandals? Yeah, apparently, they’re not the only recent purchase I’ve made based on a favorite nail polish color! As I was working this week, I realized that the purpley-pink shade of my fun new keyboard and mouse is basically Essie “Splash of Grenadine”! 😁 Which I’m pretty sure I got on a lunchtime shopping trip with my work besties in 2013. 💜💜 #purpleisaneutral (How do I remember these things??)

• My mom’s family was down the shore this week, so I made a day trip on Wednesday. I was not looking forward to the drive, but I really do want to “maintain my proficiencies” with driving and not lose all of my skills, as Moira Rose has!

This longer drive on multiple highways and a not-totally-familar route was good practice, and I really fared well! (Like, I’d had a bout of uncontrollable shaking while driving 10 minutes from my house in May, sooo being remotely chill for 90 minute stretches was a big win. 😂) I stopped at Starbucks beforehand (love having a fun drink for longer rides!) and had a lovely time sipping my Starbs, driving in the sunshine, and listening to the Holding Kourt podcast! Kourtney cracks me up, and I feel like we could maybe be friends in an alternate universe where I actually am a baseball wife and not just being mistaken for one at a AAA game (a story for another day!)! 😂

The giant bruise on my leg will be explained shortly…. 🙃

• It was actually a bit cool and breezy, so we never made it to the beach, but my mom and I did have fun shopping on the boardwalk! And I did get to *see* the ocean from there!

Return of the “cool girl” top! 😂😂

• I also learned that I have Gen Z sensibilities, as I was drawn to all sorts of cute and colorful things on the boardwalk that I am definitely not the target demographic for. 😂 Here are the fun little things I got! (Actually, my mom got most of them for me as early birthday presents. 😁)

• At the end of last week, I somehow tripped going up the stairs and then fell down a few. Like, how?? It was truly impressive. The “sparkle” here is, thank God I did not seriously injure myself! Although this is also how I ended up with gnarly bruises that were the talk of the shore house. 😑

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: August 12

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

The crawling anxiety of the last few weeks has subsided, so this has been a pretty good week! 🥳👏 Let’s see what brought the sparkle: 

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

• I visited Maggie (and Pudge!) on Saturday! Tara, another friend from yoga teacher training, came over too, and it was so great to catch up! I used to see these girls all the time at the retreat center… it’s wild how much life has changed. And every time I’m with them, it is so nourishing. 💖 I don’t leave the house a ton these days, and I’m mostly okay with that (introvert lifeeee ✌️), but this was a nice change of pace!

Obligatory Pudge pic because she is the cutest and I only took cat pictures, as per ush. 😍

• I also went out on Sunday morning, and it felt so delightfully normal to drive around and run errands (and buy fun things 🙈) in the sunshine—like pre-2020 normal. It prob helped that I was out Kristin’s way too. 💖 Driving is somewhat unnerving these days (remember how I don’t leave the house?), but on Sunday, it just felt… normal. A much appreciated turn of events! 🎶Back to life, back to nor-mal-a-cy🎶 (yes, “nor-mal-a-cy,” as my grandfather would say! 😂😂)

Okay, but there was so much greenery in this one parking lot…?! They did not in fact pave paradise and put up a parking lot here! 😂

• Feeling cute definitely boosts my mood, and I really liked the outfit I put together on Sunday! (I am not a cool girl, nor have I ever been a cool girl, but I do feel like a cool girl in this outfit, and isn’t that all that matters? 😂🔥 I guess the Cool Girl Store is rubbing off on me!) I have been trying to find non-bodysuit bodysuits (i.e. things that look like bodysuits but are less annoying), and this top from Amazon works well! (Bonus that it’s wicking, so it’s perfect for doing literally anything in our 90+ degree weather!) I also love the color, “lunar rock”! Then, these high-waisted mom shorts from Nordstrom Rack are a nice complement to make the top less revealing—and they’re v comfy in their own right.

• Speaking of colors I love… Do you have a color that just makes you happy? For me, it’s, well, purple (obviously!), but specifically, “Jo’mina purple”:  

Back in 2012, during that brief shining moment when Illamasqua was sold at US Sephoras, my bffl and I both got their nail polish in Jo’mina. (I think she got it first and then I had to get my own before she took hers back to Cali!) Now, ten years later, this saturated lavender is still the *chef’s kiss* of purples to me, which is how I ended up getting Jo’mina Tevas last weekend! You’ve got to love a supportive sandal in a color that just makes you smile! 🥳

• Lastly, nothing says TGIF like some English major humor!

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

Small things that have been helping my mental health

The past few weeks have been a doozy. You never realize how good you’re doing until things go off the rails, ha! Here are a few small things that have been helping me cope with big feelings lately:

Purely practical

I feel like I’m 100 years old, but I have two weekly pill organizers, and I set them up with meds and supplements every Sunday night. Love a good “set it and forget it.” Then, no matter how derailed the week might get, I don’t have to think about my meds—they’re already portioned out and waiting. 👍

Similarly, I fill out my planner on Sundays. If I don’t map everything out for the week in advance, I tend to feel scattered and overwhelmed. Incidentally, these were both good ways to harness my wild anxious energy this past Sunday! 😅

Immersive distraction

This could be whatever strikes your fancy—watching a show or movie, working out, taking a class. (In Normal Times, I would probably go to whatever in-person gentle yoga class was being offered!) These past few weeks, though, my immersive distraction has been playing video games on the TV (because I usually play on the handheld Switch). I’ll often set an alarm too. Yes, it is weird to tell myself, “You need to sit and do something fun for 30 minutes!” but a short time limit gets me to actually do it, and I usually feel at least a little better by the time the alarm goes off. It’s hard to anxiety spiral about your own life when you’re trying not to get Link killed in Breath of the Wild! 

More meditative

(This is hilarious coming from me, because I have resisted anything resembling meditation for so long. I think it helps that this doesn’t feel like ~meditation~.)

The thought of meditating, of slowing down and going inward, terrifies me, I think because it allows the scared inner children inside to finally be like “HEY! LISTEN!” Annnd Adult me would traditionally pull a Moira Rose on them:

But engaging those scared inner parts in the process of meditating, rather than running from them, has been a game-changer.

When I’m really upset in the present, I often feel hijacked by my inner children and lose sense of my adult self. So envisioning the scared inner child(ren) getting support and comfort in the “inner therapy room” has been really helpful. I mean, Adult me finds therapy to be a source a great comfort, so why not give that to my inner children? What would they want to talk to my therapist about? How do they feel? What do they need? And is it something that I can give to them now? 💖

Self-care

I know “self-care” is a term that’s basically devoid of meaning at this point, but I have found small acts of kindness toward myself to be really nice when I’m upset. They remind me that I’m worthy of care and that I can treat myself with care. Honestly, this post from Jess Rachel Sharp has really shifted how I think about worth, feelings, too-much-ness, etc.!

These self-care gestures don’t have to be anything big or elaborate. If I’m doing it with a loving intention, just washing my face or putting on hand lotion or fancy lip balm can feel very kind. ☺️

Cry-vomiting™️

You know how you usually feel better after the brief unpleasantness of throwing up? That’s how I feel these days about crying—I don’t enjoy it, but it’s become a necessary release so I can get the feelings out of my system and move on. And I do usually feel somewhat better afterwards, so 👍.

If the thought of crying and listening to your inner child is a big NO THANKS right now, I get it. Some days, it is still a big NO THANKS from me! This shift happened organically, almost 10 years into my therapy journey, and only once these things started feeling safe enough to try. It’s all a process. 💖

What do you find helpful on a not-great mental health day?

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!