High Five for Friday: October 28

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

Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week!

• On Saturday morning, I had the rare urge to venture out to the big mall near us. It feels like the stores I want to go to get further apart every time I go! 😂

While it did turn into a bit of this:

I also just had a grand ol’ time walking around stores like Anthro and Free People and looking at all the pretty things…like the purple Christmas trees of my dreams, apparently! 

• After my big morning out, I basically came home and collapsed. Introvert recharging time! Thankfully, I had both Pudge and The Nine Kittens of Christmas to keep me company!

…though Pudge slept through most of it. How rude! What would Ambrose say?! 😂

• In Actual News (cue the Action News theme song), the Phillies are going to the World Series! How did that happen?! Though I haven’t been following them super closely this year, I did get to some regular season games, and I have no idea how the team I saw became the team that’s going to the World Series! 🤣 But I didn’t see an NLCS win coming in 2008 either, and DEFINITELY didn’t see the Eagles winning the 2017 Super Bowl, so disbelief is just my permanent state re: sports success. Welcome to life as a Philly fan, I guess!

• On Sunday, my dad’s fam got together for lunch, and Pudge was this recipient of this adorable bed! …that she is somewhat uncertain of. (I think because I put it next to my work desk, and she can’t nap while someone is constantly typing! 😩) She does venture over to sit on it a few times a day, though! Thank you, Aunt Helen! 💖💖

• Lastly, Pops and I went out for a walk yesterday (more like a walk-and-stop to look at the leaves #poorPops), and we stumbled upon this stunning autumnal dream! If you can’t get out to the botanical garden, go find it in your neighborhood, I guess! 😂

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: October 21

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

There has been a good deal of sparkle this week, mostly stemming from actual self-care—like, treating myself with care. Cue the Traveling Wilburys, I guess!

Ever since I had covid, my anxiety has been WHACK. Even though I’m physically better now, there have still been significant anxiety aftershocks. So in this more dysregulated time, I finally stopped trying to force myself to be fine. I decided to reprioritize and simplify:

Literally working through this in my journal. 😌

The sleeping and eating goals may seem like, well, DUH, but I usually let other “productive” things take precedence over them. I’ve been pretty divorced from my physical body for a long time. It was just safer that way. It also led to a lot of accomplishments. Pushing through illness and exhaustion was just part of the gig.

But that tendency has slowly been shifting over the years. During covid, when it felt like my cells were boiling, I was like, “DUDE, THIS SUCKS. How did I ever go to school with fevers?!” I’m just not cut off from my body in the same way anymore. And I can feel my anxiety seriously spike when I don’t get enough sleep or skip meals. So dealing with those things seemed like a good, practical place to start.

I’m not gonna lie—additional medication is also getting me through this rough patch. For a few years now, I had “as needed” Valium at my disposal, but I rarely remembered to take it because—surprise!—I felt like I needed to just push myself through the awful anxiety times. When you’re used to blowing through physical stop signs, how do you know when ”bad enough” is bad enough mentally? When I confessed that to my psych NP last week, she was just like, “Oh, okay, let’s try a different med temporarily, and I’ll just make up a schedule for you to follow.” (I have no issue taking my other, regularly scheduled, meds.)

So, WOW, sorry that was so long-winded and “where are you going, where have you been,” but that is what dealing with these aftershocks has been like. And thanks to these changes, life has begun to feel much lighter and sparklier! ✨💖

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Two other big sources of sparkle came from nourishing my soul last weekend! On Saturday, I got a massage, my first one in years! I so needed that space to decompress and feel a comforting, caring touch. And I was able to tolerate the stillness, which would not have been possible even one week earlier. 💖

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Then on Sunday, I had an absolutely delightful day! It started out with my one requisite fall PSL… 😂

(It takes me forever to drink things, hence the literal child’s size! 🤣)

for my drive to the botanical garden, where I stayed for hours (yes, even though I had just been there), and had such a wonderful, uplifting time. I love looking at beautiful plants and flowers and trying to capture them in photos. Bri had recently told me that she has been trying to live her best life when she can, and I definitely had that in mind when I made my Sunday plans! 💖

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What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: October 14

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

TGIF! I feel like I just need to sleep for about 72 hours, then I’ll be good. 😂 (When I’m super anxious, like last week, I become very scared to sleep—and let my guard down, I guess—and I toss and turn a lot.) But thanks to some extra therapy, med adjustments, yoga, and journaling this week, I feel like I’m starting to come out of high alert! 🥳

And there was still sparkle to be found this week! ✨ Including:

• An extremely overdue haircut!

• The lovely, papery smell of Barnes and Noble and their visually pleasing displays!

• Some recent fall Target finds, plus an adorable fall blanket from Homesense!

• And, of course, the company of a precious kitty!

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: October 7

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

Hooray, it’s Friday! We made it! This was a bumpy anxiety week for me, so 1.) TGIF! and 2.) the main sparkle was my trip to the botanical garden yesterday. Especially because I still went, in spite of my anxiety telling me I was too much of a mess and needed to stay home and worry. I will have more pics up at some point (I only took several hundred 🙃), but here are a few!

I’m not usually too excited for mums, but the Mum Festival in the Conservatory was 🔥🔥🔥.

Never met a purple flower I didn’t like! 😁

It is amazing how much better I felt while I was there, probably because (in addition to the sunshine and flowers), it got me out of my head. When I’m looking at every pretty flower, it keeps me in the present, as opposed to questioning the present (“Why am I feeling like this?”) or spiraling about the future (“What if I never stop feeling like this?”). 💖

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

Fave recent Amazon purchases

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

Doing a little Friday Favorites round-up today because I love reading about other people’s favorite finds!

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

1.) As more venues implement strict bag policies, this clear crossbody has been a godsend. (It’s possible I got it after literally measuring several of my purses in a panic before a Phillies game….) This crossbody is small enough to not be annoying, but big enough to hold quite a lot (though when I have both my camera and sunglasses case in there, it becomes a bit like Tetris). I especially like that it has the front pocket so I can quickly find smaller items (phone, lip gloss, etc.).

2.) This portable tire inflator is actually one of Pops’ faves! I bought it because I loathe having to look for a functioning air pump at a gas station—if I need to do something annoying, I’d much rather do it at home. 😂 And now I can, though Pops has ended up using it way more than I have!

3.) Yeah, I kill plants, so do not worry—I am not using this as an actual plant stand! Pro-tip: If you want to put a table in a weirdly-sized space, go with a plant stand. This faux table (fable…?) works great in an odd sliver of space in my bedroom.

4.) I actually remember to charge my Apple Watch now, what a time to be alive! Who knew this little silicone guy would make such a difference?

5.) My go-to planner pens! (Clearly, I don’t need any more pens in my life, but they just make everything better.) This is the Flair “Retro Accents” set, and I love them! Give me an assortment of pink and purple pens any day! (Though the orange and gold are really coming in handy as we head into fall!)

A few other faves:

This little desktop vacuum might be peak “dumb Amazon purchase,” but I love it and use it all the time to clean up my work desk!

I actually got these last two items at the beginning of 2021, but I had to include them because they have been the MVPs of the WFH game. This clear chair mat saves not only our floors, but also Pops’ sanity (he was really not a fan of my office chair gouging into our 100-year-old wood floors 😬). And I don’t remember ever having sore elbows in the office, but I do at home for some reason (same chair and everything!). These armrests have been a lifesaver.

What gems have you found on Amazon lately?

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!