Tag: linking up

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Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites #56

Hello all! Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week and are ready for the weekend! I can’t believe we are in back to school mode, this summer truly flew by. Two of my siblings are back in school and the last one goes back this weekend. We had such a good summer and I’m sad to see it go. But in good news, as long as the weather is nice, I can still enjoy plenty of outdoor fun, which is my plan for this weekend. Now, onto some of my favorite things from this week as I link up with Erika and Andrea for another edition of Friday Favorites.

Flower Hair Clips– I am hopping on the trend of big hair clips. I got these big flower clips for my birthday and have been wearing them a lot after a long day at work or on weekends. I love the colors, how they hold all my hair and how they are  a cute fashion accessory. These have easily become a fun fashion trend and I am here for it. 

The cutest hair accessory!

80 for Brady– When I was traveling with my family for our vacation I got around to watching 80 for Brady for the first time on Amazon Prime and really enjoyed it. Although, unrealistic at certain times, I loved the bond between four older women and their love for Tom Brady. You don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy this film. There were so many funny scenes between the main characters and great one-liners, plus a few tear jerkers too! This is a great movie to get you ready for the football season too!

Such a fun movie!

Face Scrub-Sticking with travel, I tried a new product while on vacation. I got this sugar face scrub from Tree Hut in watermelon citrus water. Besides the refreshing scent, which is perfect for summer, I really enjoyed the fact it was a scrub, I felt like my face was really getting cleaned. This would be a great product to take along for a beach trip or to use if you want to give your face a good cleaning. I’m not sure if I would use it every day, since it was a scrub as opposed to a cleanser, but it was fun to try out on vacation.

Some fun new products to try this summer!

Blueberry Muffins– My boyfriend and I went blueberry picking a few weeks ago and I used some of our blueberries to make muffins. I followed this recipe from Mix and Match Mama. I haven’t done a whole lot of baking this summer, but it was so fun to get back in the kitchen and this recipe was super easy to whip up. I even made a few with chocolate chips. These are perfect for back to school breakfasts or you can enjoy them as a post-dinner treat! My family loved them too! Yum!

The best way to use blueberries!

Better than Fiction- I have been going through books left and right, sometimes you hit a really good streak with books and that’s where I’m at now. I recently finished Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin and it combined two of my favorite hobbies, reading and hiking! This book follows the story of a young woman who inherits her grandmother’s book store. As she tries to manage this new project, enter a fan-favorite author. He’s visiting her small town for inspiration for his new book and they make a deal. She shows him around the area and he teaches her how to love books. There’s some bumps along the way, but overall, this book will leave you wanting to go on an adventure and support your favorite local bookstore!

Such a fun read, I breezed through it!

And that’s a wrap on another edition of Friday Favorites! Thanks so much for coming along for the ride this Friday and every Friday! I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Categories
Let's Look

Let’s Look: Worst Habits

Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday! I hope you have been having a great week. Last weekend I ran my first 5K and I’ll be sharing more about what I learned about myself while training and how I prepared for it next week. Since it’s the second week of the month, I like to link up with Erika and Shay. for Let’s Look. Here’s some of the past things we looked at through the year. 

In July, we talked about new favorite summer finds, in June, we talked about best travel tips, in May, we talked about our morning routines, in April, we talked about pet peeves, in March, we talked about Amazon purchases, in February it was about our medicine cabinets.

Today, it’s all about worst habits which is similar to the biggest pet peeves prompt from April, but I decided to change it up and switch up my responses. When I first saw the prompt, I knew I could think of a list of bad habits or things that I’m not good at, which shows me how hard we can be on ourselves. 

Rather than give you a list of bad qualities, I decided to choose three bad habits I have and how I want to work on them. 

Here’s what I came up with:

Over planning– I am a Type A person through and through. I like lists, planners, a schedule and direction and I like it way in advance. But, as I have learned, life doesn’t work that way and you have to adapt and adjust, often or on the fly. Sometimes, I tend to over plan and then when things stray or change, I get thrown in a tail spin which is not good. I will also stress out about things that are out of my control. I will get anxious about something that is days, weeks or months away or may not even happen. I sometimes get so focused on it and get tunnel vision and then it may not even happen. I’m also really working on not overbooking things in advance and instead being more open and flexible to plans and things falling into place. It’s way easier said than done. I’m also working (which I have been for years) on being more spontaneous to making plans with friends and family. It hasn’t been easy but I’m doing my best. 

A look at my overly organized planner and to do lists.

Neat freak– I am a neat freak, control freak, everything has a home freak through and through. I love to clean, I love to make sure dishes are put away at the end of the day and all the laundry is folded and hampers are empty. I have been known to clean and put away dishes and cups when people are still using them. However, living with five other people, I know the house isn’t always in perfect condition. I try my best to let the little things go and give myself grace, but that doesn’t always happen. I love the sense of satisfaction of clean space which I alway try to leave room at home and desk at work in good shape whenever I leave, so when I come back, everything is fresh and clean. Growing up in a large family you get used to chaos, disorder and messes and it’s all a part about being in a family and I wouldn’t change it.

Getting sucked into “Sales and Free Items”– I enjoy shopping and I always love a good deal. However, I am guilty about buying things to get a sale or discount or to get something free when I don’t need it in the first place. For example, I will get emails like many other people about getting a free item/drink/side with a purchase and I will want to take advantage of the offer, because I would get something free too. However, do I need to buy something in the first place? Probably not. I fall victim to spending more sometimes to get a free item or free shipping when I probably didn’t need the item in the first place (I’m looking at you Bath and Body Works and Chipotle!) I will say that McDonald’s app and deals are ones that are consistent and worth the free items or discounts. However, most times, I realize I probably didn’t need to buy the item to get something free to begin with. I have gotten a lot better at simply deleting the email unless it’s something I absolutely need. However, I am guilty of spending when I don’t need to be spending haha!

An example of an email that I try to delete and not give into

I think as I have gotten older, I have seen these habits come out more, they aren’t necessarily bad, but when you take them to the extremes or become obsessed then you have to reign it in a bit. 

My biggest takeaways as I have grown up is that it’s all about moderation and not going to extremes of being a neat freak or over planned or stressing out about things out of your control, what it comes down to for me is about being more flexible and adaptable and less rigid. I’m a work in progress and I’m proud of that. I’m sure if you ask my friends and family about what my worst habits are, they can can give you a full list of other things, but these are big areas I that hope to work on as I grow older.

Now, that I have opened up, tell me, what are some of your bad habits? They can be big or small! Let me know in the comments below!