Category: life

A Blonde Moment

Published on by blonde rosie2 Comments

img_1457This week has been so crazy I don’t know how to begin. Before I start sharing my usual favorite things and pictures of outfits I wore this week, I need to say a big thank you. I shared some big life news on social media this week and I was blown away from the love and support I received. I was finally able to share some big life events going on in my life with you all. It was tough to open up about them because by talking about it they all became real. A relationship ended unexpectedly and I had to leave my job all in one week. When I finally had the courage to share all of this, you guys sent me so many wonderful texts and messages of encouragement. Putting stuff on social media sometimes feels so empty because you don’t see the other person reading it or have a real conversation with people. I often just write in bed and hope it gets read one day. It was a tough week, but I am doing much better.

Thursday was officially my last day at my job that I have had for almost two years and loved every minute of. My role in the company was being changed and before I agreed to the changes, I had to sit down and ask myself if I wanted to stay with the company. I loved my job, but I knew it was not my forever job. Since December, I have been interviewing with different law firms in Philadelphia and while the process is slow, it is where I see myself in a few months. It was a difficult decision and I had to make it quickly, but I decided to leave my job for funemployment while I tried to get a job in Philadelphia.

My parents were off for Black Friday and my mom didn’t want me in bed sulking that I was unemployed and such, so my mom suggested we go to Philadelphia and look at apartments. We spent the day touring the apartment building I have had my eyes on for a few months. I was already in love with the building, but after visiting my parents understood why I really wanted to move in. It is a bit pricey and I will have to work a second job to afford rent, but I know it is the right decision for me. I went from having zero plans to filling out an apartment application!

On Saturday, I had zero plans except to maybe clean my closet and lounge around in bed for the day. One of my best friends texted me around noon to ask what I was doing and then proceeded to invite herself over to my house. We went to the beach, grabbed lunch and then curled up in my bed to watch movies. We laughed because if I end up moving into the apartment building I looked into, we would end up being neighbors because she also lives in the apartment. For so long I have longed for a friend nearby to grab coffee with or just lay in bed and watch a movie. One of the reasons I am making the steps to move to Philly without a job is because I need a social life. I miss having my friends nearby and for the last two years all I have done is work and work with very little time for fun.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! I think I wore real clothes for about an hour before getting back into pajamas and binge watching Brothers & Sisters the entire day with my hand in my Easter basket!

And as always, here are a few of my favorite things this week…

Things I Am Loving

 

I spent Sunday doing some furniture shopping online because they had a sale. With my schedule, I just never have the time or energy to go food shopping or I will run out of face wash and don’t have the time after work to get new stuff. I have been taking advantage of the free shipping on $35+ orders because it saves me the trip to the store. During the week, if I notice I am running low on grocery items or basics I can easily add it to my shopping cart and hit the checkout button at the end of the week. Within two days I usually get a big box delivered to my doorstep with face wash, cereal and whatever other items I needed that week. Planning for my new apartment is easier than I thought because I am ordering furniture to my house for free and can have it all boxed up ready to throw in the UHual.

Things I Am Wearing

This week on the blog, I shared a blog post dedicated to stripes for National Stripes Day.I have dozens of stripe tops in my closet because they can easily be worn casually or dressed up for work.

Products I Am Loving

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I know I have talked about it before on the blog, but I thought I would mention it again because I am about to use it all up. Garnier Micellar Water is a night and day time favorite after I wash my face. It helps get all of my makeup off and I know that my face is really clean and ready for makeup in the morning. I cannot praise this product more because it really is that amazing! img_0326

Now that it is officially Spring, I have been kinda obsessed with the color pink. My spring wardrobe is making its way into my closet and my makeup has become a bit more rosey. I have been using the Maybelline City Kits in Pink Edge because I love how it gives me that pop of pink and brightens my face.

 

On The Blog This Week

National Stripes Day with J. Crew!

How To Save Money When You Have No Money To Save

How To Save Money When You Have No Money To Save

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

I recently logged into my American Express account and I flinched a bit when I saw my balance. I knew I had the money in my checking account to pay it off in full, but I kinda wish I could keep that balance in my savings account instead. Over the last year, my spending has definitely changed in a good way, however I have more room for improvement. This time last year, I was working on paying off a bit of credit card debt accumulated because of two big trips planned back to back and some life changes. For the first time ever I did not have the funds in my checking and savings account to pay off my credit card in full and honestly, it was terrifying. With this realization it caused me to make some big life changes. Now a year later, I have enough in my checking account to pay my bills and even more sitting comfortably in my savings account.

This is how I got comfortable saving money while spending money….

Automatically Transfer Money To Your Savings

This is something that I do every single Friday after I get paid. When I was still paying off my credit card balance, I still made an effort to keep money in my savings while having enough to pay my bills. I sat down and added up how much my monthly bills were as well as a budgeted amount for other monthly spending. The rest of my money went into my savings.

Budget Your Spending

This minimum/maximum in my checking started because after being dumb and not watching where my money was, I kept overdrafting my checking account on automatic payments. I would forget my student loan or car insurance was coming out that day and my money would be in my savings instead of my checking. After learning that mistake the hard way, I created a minimum/maximum of funds to keep in my checking to limit my spending while the rest goes into my savings.There is a minimum and maximum amount I have in my checking – no more and no less.  I make it a rule to not transfer money from my savings back into my checking keeping it another way to keep my spending on track.

Don’t Buy Coffee

This is a difficult one for me, but once I cut out buying coffee or food, I immediately saw a difference. I only function with multiple cups of coffee a day, so it was a big life adjustment to stop buying coffee. Instead I brought into work my own Keurig and some K Cups. If you look at my spending a lot of money is spent eating out. I am horrible at packing a lunch every single day for work, so I try to limit grabbing Wawa just once or twice a week. Buying lunch is like wasting $10 a day and it can add up if you do it a lot a week.

Use The “How Many Times Will I Wear It Rule”

Okay, I admit… I like to buy clothes. While I do have a closet packed with a lot of  clothes, I am smart shopper. I like to wait for a major sale or more often when the item goes to clearance. One of my favorite stores, Loft, can be a bit pricey, but the styles I fall in love with often go to clearance. Before I buy anything, I have to justify that I will wear it multiple times and that it has more than one function.

Avoid Shopping

Whenever I was bored or needed to get out of the house, I would walk around Target or Homegoods. The browsing turned into buying things I did not need and spending money that I did not have to spend. I now avoid shopping as much as I can and only go shopping when I need a specific thing. I even started ordering a few groceries online and have them shipped to my house to avoid buying things I don’t need.

Make Smart Choices

When you make financial decisions now and stick to them they become financial habits. Set up your bills to be automatically paid in full each month to avoid late fees and interest. By setting aside the budget to pay off your bills for the month, you can focus more on putting money in your savings. Cancel those subscriptions for a few months and enjoy the money in your savings account instead of on a gym membership you rarely used or that magazine you read once. I also like to buy generic everything when I can to save money whenever I can.

A Blonde Moment

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

As a result of the snow storm this week, I ended up with a three day weekend in the middle of the week leaving me very disoriented. At work this morning, I forgot what day of the week it was and I am struggling to keep up with everything. My to do list at work is growing, but I have to admit it was nice to have three days off to catch up on some housework. With my house on the market, it has to be in perfect shape at all times in case a realtor takes a family through it. That means that beds have to be made, kitchen counters cleared (no crumbs!) and my bathroom sink has to be clear of any products! Right now my next obstacle is that our closets have to be emptied for the next open house. This is kind of a difficult task in that when I box up my things; 1) I have no where to put them besides the basement, which also has to be empty 2) I still have to get dressed everyday!! 3) I now have no clue where any of my personal things are!

I hope everyone had a productive snow day even if that included sitting on the couch binge watching Netflix…. it is something we just don’t do enough!

Things I Am Loving

Elan Gale You're Not That Great

With this crazy cold weather and constant snow, I am still grabbing my favorite blankets to curl up in at night. It is technically Spring, but my cozy Pottery Barn throw blankets are going no where anytime soon! If you have the budget, I would highly recommend investing in one or two of their blankets. They are seriously worth every penny! I started to read again before bed and I am really loving You’re Not That Great (but neither is anyone else) by Elan Gale. An easy read, very honest and a full of things that we just need to remind ourselves sometimes.

Things I Am Wearing

old navy haul

When I was in Atlanta last month, my friend and I went into Old Navy and ohhh myyy goooodness! We did a lot of shopping because there were so many cute things that I needed to have! I did a full blog post about my recent Old Navy finds that you can find here. They have really stepped up their fashion game lately!

Products I Am Loving

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This month, I have teamed up with Supergoop and Influenster to use and review the Invincible Setting Powder . So far I am in love with the setting powder and the fact that it offers SPF 45 makes me like the product even more. On Monday, I have a Botox appointment scheduled because of years of sun damage. Now that I am inching toward my late twenties, my commitment to skincare is stronger now more than ever.

Things I am Watching

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After some scrolling looking for a new show, I stumbled upon the old show, Brothers & Sisters. I quickly binged watched two seasons and it is so so sooo good! I highly recommend it. I have always had a girl crush on Calista Flockhart after watching Aly McBeal last summer, so it easily became my new favorite tv show. I literally race home after work so I can crawl into bed to watch another episode.

 

On The Blog This Week….

I Lost My Confidence, But I Plan To Find It Again

Wear It Wednesday: Old Navy Haul

Ways I Am Simplifying My Life

I Feel Stuck & Why That Is Okay

 

Ways I Am Simplifying My Life

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

The past month has been a complete blur with so much going on leaving little time for the blog, sleep or just being able to balance my life. My parents in one week bought a home in a different state and started the process of selling our current house with a realtor. Let me tell you, getting a house on the market in less than a month takes a lot of work! There were a lot of late nights of getting some work done on the house, purging and making the house pretty for an open house. On top of getting the house ready for photos and open houses, work has also been keeping me busy. I often come home so exhausted that I cannot move, but stay up late to pack up my bedroom and work on house projects. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add this to the blog, but while I was not looking, I started to date, someone. It is still in the early stages, however, it just feels fun to see where this is going to go. One thing I have learned this month is that you cannot plan your future or the path you are headed on. So much has happened that was not planned, however with these changes they have brought me so much joy and most importantly a new direction in life.

On that note, I wanted to share on the blog ways I am working on simplifying my life. I don’t have all the answers or the perfect solution, but with a little bit of effort, I can stay on track instead of falling behind.

1. Digital Detox

At first, this may sound terrifying and I had no intention of neglecting social media myself. It kind of just happened by accident because I had no time for it in my day. I decided to just delete my Facebook page to see what would happen and after two days I no longer missed it. Shocker- no one noticed I deleted my page. It also helped improve my self-confidence and overall happiness too. There are constant engagements, baby announcements, friends getting brunch and going on cool adventures while I am using in cat pajamas in my room or at work on a weekend. FOMO is real for all of us, so by eliminating a platform that shoves your friends having fun without you in your face, it definitely helped improve my happiness. I still scroll on Twitter during my break at work and maybe check Instagram for a minute at night, but I don’t spend as much time scrolling as I used to. I also found it such a waste of my time when I started to have very limited time left in the day for myself.

2. Reduce Your Stress

There are so many things that are out there that can stress me out, but this month I have worked really hard not to sweat the big stuff. I have been sticking to my routine and accepting that I just cannot get everything done in a day. At work, I often forget a lot of things and I am constantly dropping things or knocking them over, but now I laugh it off. It is just one more trip to the back room or I have to bend over and pick it up. I can do that easily, so why have it ruin my day? My mind almost always gravitates toward the negative, but my power to control how I respond to things is helping me push on. I was recently in a disagreement with someone and instead of just taking a few breaths before jumping to conclusions, I went for the worst case scenario. Bad idea because what was a miscommunication turned into a much larger thing than it had to be. Breathe and take your time before making your reaction.

3. The Five Minute Rule

I am not kidding when I say that my to-do list is often a never-ending list especially with all the things that had to be done to get the house ready for an open house. I would come home from work exhausted and not want to do anything, but then I told myself that I could get it done in 5 minutes and if it took longer than that, I would move on. It sounds silly, but it helped me go through my to-do list. We often have so many household chores and errands to run, but by giving me a time limit to get each one done I was able to get a lot more things done. It works best with smaller tasks that you can get done immediately before you start your day or get a few things done before bed. Make your bed in the morning, empty the dishwasher, answer those emails or sort your laundry- it is amazing what you can do in five minutes….

4. Keep A Stocked Kitchen

The worst thing in the world is when you open and close your fridge hoping for food to appear. I am constantly running out the door in the morning so I like to keep my kitchen filled with grab and go breakfast foods and then a snack drawer full of pre-packaged goodies. Most weeks I do not have to go food shopping, so I started to order groceries online and have them delivered. I promised to never be that person, but ordering cereal, snacks and other items through Target online has definitely saved me time in my week.

5. Routine

What has been helping the most is creating a routine. I have been waking up at 6am (ish!) and really taking advantage of all the time in the day. I start off my day by getting a few things that I want to get done in the morning and it helps me feel productive for the rest of the day. When I get home from work, I throw on some comfy clothes and while I make dinner I also pack the next days lunch. However, what helps me the most is by going to bed at 10:30pm every night. This is completely new for me because I have been going to bed after midnight for months, but after I set a bedtime and started to stick to it I finally have more energy in my day.

6. Declutter Your Life

This one kind of happened by accident while getting the house ready for open houses. I spent weeks taking everything off my wall, boxing up my stuff and only leaving the essentials out. My room looks so empty, however, my room is a lot more relaxing without that pile of dirty laundry on the floor. I threw out a lot of the things that I didn’t need, donated a lot more clothes and had to justify keeping each item. There are going to be realtors with clients walking through my house every day without notice, so I have to keep my room very tidy and perfect for the next few weeks. It is a lot easier to clean up my room before I leave the house in the morning when everything has a place and I have a lot less stuff…