Summer Goals | 2019

As a little follow up on my update post that I posted about a month ago, I wanted to set myself some goals for the summer, some personal some practical. I’m a very goal-oriented person and I’m most motivated when I have a few achievable goals in mind to accomplish seasonally. I can already tell that this summer is gonna be busy from a professional stand point, so all the more reason to set myself some personal goals to keep a good work balance during some potentially stressful periods.

Take more time to unplug ~ Ever since I turned on the screen time function on my iPhone, I have become acutely aware of just how much time I spend on my phone, most of it unnecessarily. I really want to start breaking the habit of picking up my phone and mindlessly scrolling through instagram because it never makes me feel better or more productive. I’ve already begun to set time limits on certain apps on my phone, which is super helpful and something I would highly recommend to any of you who might be struggling with being on your phone too much. I do want to shorten my time limits gradually over the summer to further cut down, and spend more full days where I am completely without my phone.

Focus on climbing ~ I’ve gotten really into climbing over the last three months and it has quickly become my favorite form of exercise. The thing I love about climbing is that it goes beyond your physical abilities and you really have to rely on your mental fortitude to get you through tricky moves. Part of the reason why I got into climbing is to eventually be able to do some climbing outdoors, because Brad and I are lucky enough to live three hours away from the climbing mecca that is Yosemite Valley. In order to get more comfortable with climbing outside I want to pass my lead climbing test in the gym by the end of the summer and hopefully make some small trips to some of our local outdoor crags during the summer!

Save money ~ As I get more and more into my twenties I want to focus even more on saving money for the future. This next year is going to be full of big changes (stay tuned!) and I really want to set myself up the best I can to be able to make those changes. I will also say in the last year I’ve had a much stronger desire to not buy so much stuff unnecessarily, I’ve overall been more conscious about what I buy and how much I buy and I really try to think my purchases through beforehand, instead of just spending money on a whim. I still have a ways to go in terms of buying less and saving more, but no time like the present to start!

Get away from the city more ~ I’ve felt the urge a lot more lately to be out of the city. This is a bit weird for me because I was born and raised in a big city, and I’ve always been able to appreciate all the opportunities big cities have to offer. That being said, I think it’s very easy when you become an adult and live in a big city to get caught in the rat race and not having much else going on except work. I’ve definitely felt the need to balance out the amount of time I spend in the city, with spending a good amount of time outdoors and disconnected from all the stresses of city life. Luckily, Brad and I have a big National Parks roadtrip on the books for early fall, but we both want to take advantage of the California summertime as much as possible, whether it’s going on bike rides through Golden Gate Park or going on a hike on the weekend in the Marin headlands.

Life Lately + Blog Updates

The past couple months have been interesting to say the least. I know that probably sounds incredibly ominous, but what I mean by “interesting” is that I feel like I’ve changed a lot mentally, for the better, in the past few months, and that will most likely change the content I will be posting on this blog. That’s not to say I won’t be posting at all, in fact I want to start posting even more, but my interests have shifted a bit and the content I want to create is a bit different than the content I have been posting for the last year or so. About two years ago when I re-launched my blog, I made it very clear that this blog would no longer be just a beauty blog, and for the most part I tried to diversify my content to include more lifestyle related posts about interiors and living in San Francisco. I’ve loved making that content for the past two years, but I’ve also grown a lot in the last few years, and especially in the last few months.

My interests, as of late, have become less focused around material things like clothes and makeup, and honestly I’ve just stopped caring about those things as much as I used to. A lot of this I credit to the move to have a more sustainable lifestyle and I’m totally content with where both my wardrobe and makeup stash is at. I think I’ve just discovered other hobbies that make me happy and just learning how to enjoy the simple things in life rather than constantly being worried about work or other stressors. I want to focus my content more on lifestyle as that is the content I’ve enjoyed making most in the past few months. I’m not quite sure what the next few months has in store but we have some really exciting summer plans that I am very much looking forward to documenting both for myself and for you all.

Part of these changes will also mean writing some shorter blog posts here and there that take less time to write because honestly with a full time job, I’ve found it hard to write lengthy blog posts consistently. I want to be more consistent with my content overall and I love the process of creating so I want to incorporate more image-heavy posts along with some wordier ones sprinkled in here and there for variety.

A Fitness Update

I’ll be the first one to admit that in the past year I have not been nearly as active as I could or should have been. It’s kind of a chicken or the egg question as to why I haven’t been active very much in the last year. I will be totally transparent and say that my mental health has gone through peaks and troughs the last year, and while I’ve been better at managing the troughs, it can be incredibly hard to motivate oneself to leave the house and exercise, even if you know moving your body is exactly what could be exactly what your mind is craving so desperately (depression is a funny thing, ain’t it?). I will also add, that outside of all of the mental barriers, I’ve found it really hard to find a form of exercise that I was genuinely excited by. I swam for almost a decade as a kid and went on to compete all four years of high school, there was nothing I loved more than swimming, and in terms of a workout, it’s a damn good one. I continued to swim here and there in college on my own because my college luckily had an incredible pool at the rec center, but I never found it as fun to swim by myself as I did when I was in high school on a team. I am a very goal-oriented person and working out just for the sake of working out is very hard for me to do.

I have done yoga on and off for the past four years or so and do love it, but sometimes doing yoga at your home can be too easy to get out of. I especially am guilty of making up excuses as to why I can’t make time for exercise, but if I’m beholden to a class or membership that I’ve spent my hard-earned money on, I’m far more likely to motivate myself to find the time to exercise. I was very consistent about doing yoga in my last couple years in college, but my love for the practice has definitely waned in the past couple of years.

In the last month or so I have started climbing at our local climbing gym, and it’s honestly been a huge game-changer for my mental health and my perspective on fitness as a whole. A little over a month ago, Brad and I were on a ski trip in Tahoe with our families, and on one of the last nights we all watched Free Solo, the documentary about Alex Honnold making the first free solo attempt of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend that you do, I mean it did win an Oscar after all. Now I will say that I have absolutely no desires to climb a 3,000’ granite wall without a rope, ever, but there’s something about that movie that really lit a fire under me to live a more intentional life and pursue a more outdoors-driven life (something that has been important to me ever since I was a kid, but has slipped away in the last few years living as an adult in a big city). It also, not so surprisingly, motivated me to start rock climbing.

I wasn’t completely new to the sport, as I had dabbled in it in high school and my uncle, who I am very close to, has been an avid rock climber for the better part of his life. Brad has climbed for the last few years, and over the last six months or so has gone consistently several times a week. I decided to join him for a bouldering session a month ago on a random Sunday morning and have been hooked ever since. Rock climbing is no joke when it comes to full body workouts, but there’s something in the process of climbing, figuring out problems, overcoming fears, and taking risks that makes it far more rewarding to someone like me than yoga or swimming ever was. Now that’s not to say I won’t ever do yoga or swim again, in fact it’s quite the opposite, I am more motivated to be more active in general and that means incorporating more yoga and other forms of exercise to supplement climbing. I have been going climbing (doing both top rope and bouldering) at least twice a week, and it’s been so nice to finally feel like I want to go to the gym and exercise and feel present and good with my body for the first time in a long time. Who knew that I would find exercise that would also become a hobby!

Our Apartment

I absolutely loved our place when we first saw it, but having our stuff in it makes me love it even more. It just feels so cozy and a real reflection of both mine and Brad's personalities. Since we’ve lived here for over six months (which is absolutely insane to think about), we've gotten almost all the furniture we need to make the space more than live-able. I'm sure we will continue to acquire smaller home items over the course of us living here, and I will continue to update you on those sorts of things, however I think the layout we have now will be the same for the foreseeable future, so I figured now would be the best time to finally share our place with you all!

Desk: Floyd Table, Chairs: Poly and Bark, Bench: IKEA

By far my favorite room in the apartment is the living room. We have super big windows that look out to a bunch of trees, which is super nice considering we live in a major city and coming across views like that are few and far between. The room itself is so cozy and really feels like the center of the place (easy enough when you're dealing with a 700 square foot place). Because we got so lucky with the living room being so spacious, it doubles as my and Brad's office. We ended up getting a Floyd Table for our desk, because it was big enough to fit both of us comfortably, and when we move (although I don't think that will be for awhile), we can always repurpose the table as a dining table. 

Bookcase: IKEA

One of my favorite parts of the living room is our bookcase. I had a ton of books left over from all of my classes in college and because I had spent so much money on them I wanted to make sure to keep as many as possible (granted I found them interesting at the time). It’s definitely not the most instagrammable bookcase, mainly because it’s not organized in rainbow order, but I wanted it to look real and like it actually gets used, rather than it just being a fixture in the room. I will say though, I organized it in alphabetical order when we first moved in and it took me forever, but it does make finding a book so much easier than having the spines be in a certain color order.

Couch: Interior Define, Coffee Table: West Elm, Throw Blanket: Tweedmill, Rug: NuLoom

The couch was probably our biggest investment piece and one that we ummed and ahh’d over for a while. Luckily when we moved in we had a couch to use, however it wasn’t totally our style and it looked too heavy for the space. A lot of our furniture is very mid-century modern and it did make sense to continue that trend with the couch, but I didn’t want our place to look too matchy matchy or like it came out of a furniture store catalogue. I also love the look of mixing styles of furniture! I’ve always loved the look of traditional English roll arm sofas and they are simple enough that they can work easily with other styles of furniture, especially more modern furniture. I found the perfect one at Interior Define, and we are so so happy with it! Its a very formal looking couch because it’s very overstuffed couch, but it has already started to soften up quite a bit and adding throw pillows and blankets helps it to look more casual.

Media Unit: IKEA

The kitchen and the bathrooms were definitely the easiest rooms to put together just because they are such small rooms and they don't really require much in the way of decorating. Luckily our kitchen has just enough room to house our IKEA little table that we had at Brad's old apartment. Because we don't have much counter space, the table also doubles as extra work space. The chairs are from Poly and Bark, and were a complete steal, I think we got a set of four for $120! I am absolutely obsessed with our bathroom; it's so outdated, but there's a certain charm about it. Luckily, even though its outdated, it's been well-kept over the years so it doesn't look too worn out. 

Dining Table: IKEA, Dining Chairs: Poly and Bark

Last but not least is the bedroom. Our bedroom isn't all that big, so we don't spend a lot of time in here besides sleeping, however I still wanted the space to be comfortable and relaxing. Brad had bought the bed last year from West Elm and it definitely is the focal point of the room, mainly because it takes up most of the room. We got our bedside tables and dresser from Living Spaces (and they are almost an exact dupe for a set from West Elm, but came to about 60% less than we would have spent on the West Elm version). One thing that I would 100% recommend if you are either moving or are redecorating is investing in good linen bedding. There’s just something about linen that always looks good, even when it is wrinkled. It also just keeps getting better and better the more you wash and use it. Because we live in such a temperate climate, we don’t need super warm sheets, so the linen also works as year-round bedding for us.

Bed: West Elm, Bedside Tables: Living Spaces, Bedding: Parachute and West Elm

My Month In Film | January 2019

Here we are back on our regular scheduled programming for my Month in Film posts! January felt like the longest month ever, as it usually does. It’s always such a weird month because, on the one hand, the start of the start of the new year always invigorates me and gets my creative juices flowing again. However, on the other hand, January can also be a pretty dreary time of year because the holidays are over, and the novelty of winter can begin to drag and wear on you. Despite the fact that I am excited that January is over, the overall slower pace of last month did give me a lot more time to recharge and to thing of content ideas and just generally make me feel more introspective and creative. Before we know it, spring will be here so I’m trying to make the most of all of the wintery things I won’t be able to do later on this year.