September, my favorite fresh start.
Lately, I’ve felt a little overwhelmed. I removed myself from social media for over 24 hours and wow—was that liberating! It was kind of nuts how within the first few hours I noticed myself on autopilot reaching for my iPhone with no purpose. Just your average mindless reflex! I never want to feel like my phone owns me… or look back and regret how I spend my downtime. So these little self check-ins are necessary. Especially in 2020 when self-care is absolute key.
After slapping my own hand amidst the reach several times, I eventually lost complete interest and it felt so nice to detach from that world, the news, the noise. I realized I was feeling burnt out by allowing myself to consume way more than I usually do, and really needed a moment of pause to shift my priorities back to a preferred orderly fashion.
In normal times, I am pretty good at maintaining a healthy degree of screen time, but the pandemic has brought on some bad habits, and it’s time to nip them in the bud! Back to my mantra of more creating, less consuming.
On a lighter note! There’s something about September that inspires me to turn a new page and start fresh like no other month in the year. Just what I need right now… focus on what is actually important—my family, staying in touch with my friends, spending time on my curiosities. Oh and finding a house! This apartment is getting smaller by the minute, haha…
September Agenda
Matt and I have fun plans next week for Labor Day, but after that, we are taking this month to dive into house hunting! We’ve already started to look around and plan to visit areas we are interested in on weekends to get a feel for a our future lifestyle change. Such an exciting chapter in our cards that I can’t wait to share with you along the way.
This month I am devoting more time to self care off screen. Lots and lots of reading—every day as of late! Going to link my book club page here, which is just a collection of reader recommended novels as well as some of my very favorites! Finishing up interior projects I am working on. Dreaming up and saving design ideas for when we do buy. If the sun would like to come back, I would also love more time on our roof and at the park. Cooking up summery dishes while we still can!
I’ve been ideating new ways to operate and create content. I have been feeling like I need to put more of my energy and efforts into my site over fleeting Instagram stories. Can you tell I have a love/hate relationship with the app? On top of being a bit of a distraction, these days it just feels uninspiring and repetitive. So, expect to see more blog posts. 🙂
By the way—did you notice a little homepage clean up? I’m always tweaking things as I love change! But to be honest, I’ve also seen my site (and work) recreated quite a lot over the last year around the web and social media… always striving to keep things unique and fresh and evolve in new ways. Still playing around with a few things but I’m really enjoying the simplicity right now. Hope you do, too!
Inspired by
I had a whole bunch of new design books arrive that I am SO excited to open up this week! I also pre-ordered a handful that I can’t wait to get my hands on. My current novel stack is looking good as well—I will link all said books below. I am still very much so in a Nancy Meyers movie marathon—brightening these gray days so much. Escapism is everything in 2020.
This time of year in the city is usually the most beautiful—and with the thought of potentially moving in the short term future, I am inspired to soak it up the best I can while there’s so much at my (sanitized) finger tips…
A Few favorites lately
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So I was in a bit of a rut, with stressing about this being my last year of college and that big question “so what comes next ?” and my best friend sent me a link to your blog and all I can say is Thank You! with the craziness of the pandemic on top of university life has been a blur at times ,and your blog is such a refreshing reminder to be kind and compassionate and enjoy life!
Aw, hi Franchesca!
That makes me so happy to hear my site has helped to uplift you! This year has definitely been a wild one… a rollercoaster to say the least. The moments of uncertainty ultimately lead to us figuring out what we need to do to feel like ourselves and what is best for us… I always try and remind myself of that!
Everything eventually connects, just keep taking care of you! xx