friday favorites

Happy Friday, friends! There is just something so exciting about a Friday before a holiday. Everyone at work is more relaxed and eager to start the long weekend. I was up late on Thursday getting everything packed and the car loaded up to head to North Carolina as soon as I got out of work. We have a long drive ahead of us so we want to get the drive done during the night so we have all day Saturday to enjoy our day off not in a car.

It was a crazy week leading up to Christmas but I am so happy that all of the gifts are wrapped and we can relax for a 4 day weekend. I still had plenty of time to get together a few things that I loved this week to share with you all.

I received an early Christmas present from Santa (the boyfriend) and got the new Emily Ley Simplified Planner for 2019! Emily Ley is also starting her Simplicity Challenge in January and I love how she finds ways to simplify your life that only take a few minutes a day.
I am wishing I bought this sweater earlier to wear for our family Christmas party. I love any outfit that is cute and dressy!
If you are a fan of the classic J. Crew pom pom cable knit sweater but can’t afford it, I have a much cheaper alternative here.
I saw this sweater with pearl details on a few other bloggers recently and assumed it was a $100+ sweater from Nordstrom because it looked so pretty. Finally, I clicked the link to find out it was from H&M and way more affordable than I thought!
I have been wearing these slippers 24/7 lately!

On the Blog

Who else needs another four day weekend?? I know I am not the only one who could use it! Last Wednesday after work, Jake and packed up my Jetta and started the long drive to my parent’s house in North Carolina. I have always been very close to my family, so it is still a bit weird to visit home especially because they just moved because this is my second time seeing their new house. My mom did a wonderful job decorating the house for Thanksgiving and after the pie was eaten, we all got up to start decorating for Christmas! My family has always done Christmas on steroids and even though I warned Jake that my family was obsessed with Christmas, I don’t think he was prepared for it! We had a lazy weekend staying in pajamas all day, decorating a tree(or three!), watching a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies and eating a lot of food!

Sunday morning, we packed up the car again and headed back to Philly. After a relaxing four day weekend, I have been trying to do nothing after I get home from work because I forgot how nice it was to lounge around. I feel like I never take the time to relax because when I do I just think of all of the things I could be doing instead. I talked more about that in this blog post. The change in temperatures lately has also encouraged me to come home after work and immediately put on cozy pajamas and slippers before heading to the couch. It is too cold to do anything else productive!

When I get home from work, I put on my pajamas, I try to cook dinner and tidy up my apartment for like 10 minutes before sitting on the couch for the rest of the night. My Apple TV wasn’t working on Tuesday and somehow I got sucked into watching Leah Remini’s Scientology show for like 6 hours. It is sooo good and addicting to watch. I highly recommend it! On Wednesday night, Jake and I saw the tree lighting at City Hall and walked through Christmas village. We put on a movie and I made him help me put up my Christmas tree. Even Ed had some fun “helping” us!

My Everyday Essentials Lately
My addiction to pajamas has been coming in handy this week! I love coming home and being able to get out of work clothes and put on my jammies and slippers. It has become my favorite part of the day! This year, Old Navy has been making it impossible not to buy pajamas in all of the colors and patterns! I purchased the red buffalo check ones last year and now I need all of this years too!

I know I keep talking about these slippers, but oh my goodness they are amazing! Last year, I bought all of my girlfriends a pair for Christmas after I fell in love with mine. These sell out before Christmas so I highly suggest you buy them now.

Speaking of cozy, my favorite purchase of last year has to be this $35 robe from Victoria’s Secret! I throw it on every night after I shower and it’s the first thing I put on when I get out of bed in the morning.

What I’m Watching
I am a little embarrassed to admit how many Hallmark Christmas movies I have watched this past week. We downloaded the Hallmark app to help us keep track of what movies we have seen and it has now turned into a competition of how many we can watch before Christmas. We love to put one on while we both work on our laptops on the couch.

Recent Purchases
I honestly deserve an award for not spending any money on myself during Black Friday Weekend! I did some Christmas shopping for other people so I can’t share those items in case they see this blog post, but I did share the best items on sale in this blog post. I own a lot of these items and can confirm that they are worth the splurge!

Products I’m Loving
While in North Carolina, I ran out of mascara and needed to stock up! It is impossible to go into a store and only buy one mascara so a few came home with me!