Happy Sunday night! I'm currently watching the SAG Awards, my favorite award show of the season because it feels so low key. It's focused on acting and the nominees always look like they're having a great time. It's really entertaining and fun!

I got home from Charleston this afternoon and it was a great trip. It was a low-key bachelorette parties with lots of sight seeing, shopping and eating. It was restful and super fun, and just nice to celebrate with my friends!

I'm the type of person who comes home from a trip and immediately unpacks, which is exactly what I did today. I unpacked, loaded up my laundry, showered and then napped for two hours. I'm exhausted and not really ready for the week ahead but Monday is coming fast. I need to do a brain dump of everything that's running through my mind before I go to sleep tonight so I can feel semi ready for everything happening this week.

I'll stop rambling and get right into the roundup!

 I've been in the mood for a thriller to sink my teeth into and The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz delivered. I've seen and heard a few people talking about this and when I looked in my Netgalley queue, I realized I had a copy; I was beyond excited!

I inhaled this book and it was honestly unlike anything I've ever read. It was inspiring, sick, twisted, scary and really fun. It was released yesterday, February 21st, and I need all my thriller lovers to go and read it ASAP!

 Ballet flats have always been my favorite shoe; I've been wearing them since the early 2000s and to be honest, I never stopped. Even when they were technically 'out of style', I was still wearing them with pride. I've always been that type of shopper and fashionsita - I will wear what I want, when I want, as long as it's not completely out of place or really trendy.

To me, ballet flats are a classic wardrobe staple and they never go out of style. I've been wearing my Tory Burch Minnie Flats for years because of their classic yet understated silhouette and they're so comfortable. However, I am happy to see them back and better than ever. The new versions definitely have a trendy twist, and some of them actually look like ballet shoes you would wear in dance class and I love it!

 Happy Friday! This week was weirdly fast and slow at the time same and I don't know if I'm happy about that or not. I went into the office twice (big deal for me!) this week, and I actually worked from a different office on one of those days. It was so cool, so fun and I honestly enjoyed my time there versus working at home. What a different feeling!

I go to Charleston in less than a week and I have not started thinking about what I'm bringing, which is very unlike me. This weekend is a long weekend - thank you President's Day - and I'm hoping that I can lay out my outfits and start packing. 

I discussed the state of my mental health briefly in this week's blog post and weirdly enough, it felt like I was waking up this week. I felt a little more clear and felt like I was coming out of the other side of this darkness that has been clouding my judgement. Maybe it's the weirdly nice weather we had in NYC this week - I mean, it was 65 degrees on Thursday, in the middle of February! Seasonal depression is a real thing.

I'm looking forward to my long weekend - dinner with friends, me time, and catching up on filming content. 

Let's get into the round up!

 I've always been a wellness girlie; I love the idea of a blissfully peaceful and well life; I love workout trends, mental health solutions, and everything that comes with a wellness lifestyle.

Because of that fascination, when I heard of the book "The Gospel of Wellness" I was intrigued. Written by a journalist who has reported on wellness trends in the past, it's like a first hand account of how the wellness industry came to be and has evolved over time.

I was thinking about buying this book but then I saw on the Libby app that it was available to borrow from the library so I took out the loan and read the book within a few days. It was so interesting, so enlightening and I really enjoyed reading it. Will I be unsubscribing from the wellness game? No I won't but I can appreciate more insight into it's origins.

 I've been struggling with my mental health for years and while things have gotten better at times, and I'm much better than I was years ago, the past few months have been really hard for me. I've been having a lot of panic attacks (which is proof in itself that my mental health is on the decline because I only have panic attacks when things are at rock bottom), and just having an overall anxious feeling on a daily basis.

The issue with my anxiety is that it is not situational, though I do experience anxiety in high stress and pressure situations, but rather my anxiety is just always there lingering underneath the surface. Everything could be going fine and I'm extremely anxious. When I don't know why my anxiety is flaring up it's harder for me to fix and find a way to feel better. It's torturous to live with a lump in your throat, your heart beating fast, and just an overall feeling of nervousness and discomfort.

 It was another rough week in my mind and I'm happy, once again, for the weekend. I kind of felt like I hit a turning point this week with my mental and physical health - more on that to come (I know I keep being vague but I'm just not ready to write everything out and share it with the world).

It's just two weeks until I'm back in Charleston and I'm excited! Charleston is such a beautiful city and I'm so excited to explore more. I'll definitely be doing another recap and showcase even more of this historic area.

This weekend is reserved for rest and productivity, mostly focused around physical health. I hit a bit of a wall this week and realized I need to get back on track with it. This weekend, I want to meal prep, go to the gym (I haven't been in over a year, since I got my walking pad) and try to get my thoughts out on paper about food and meals.

I've been saying for years that I need to get my shit together and it just hasn't happened... at least in all the ways I want it to. I feel like I've been on autopilot for a few years and this week felt like I kind of woke up and things started moving. I need to be clearer with my thoughts before I can share them but it's coming.

Anyways... let's get into the roundup!

It seems like everyone in the book world is obsessed with romance novels nowadays and while they were my bread and butter for a while and I always have my favorites, it's not the genre I gravitate towards immediately anymore. I go into every romance novel with a bit of trepidation because I just find it puts me into a funk. 

I know that doesn't make much sense but it's just the truth; I get sad that I don't have that kind of love or that men in real life are never as good as they are in books.

However, I do get sucked into a good romance every now and again, and Just My Type by Falon Ballard is one of them.

I saw so many people talking about this book over the past few weeks and realized I had an ARC that I never read! *I have so many NetGalley arcs it's hard to keep track sometimes - I should probably find a better system.

Just My Type is Ballard's 2nd novel and I had only heard good things about her first, Lease on Love but haven't read it yet, so I was excited to dive into her sophomore novel.

I was not disappointed and I'm already going to declare this a top 10 book of the year. I read it within a few days and actually stayed up pretty late one night reading it because I just had to finish. That is always the sign of a great book.

 As I've gotten older Valentine's Day has become less and less of an issue. Even when I had a boyfriend to celebrate with I never really cared too much. It's just another day and as the years have gone on, I've used it more as a fun little holiday filled with pink and red everything, hearts, and chocolate.

Brands and retailers have done a really good job at making Valentine's Day into more of a treat yourself moment than a day for coupled up individuals. They always have the best product roundups and I just think self-love has become more and more important to the general public.

That being said, I put a little Valentine's Day edit together of some of the cutest things to treat yourself too, or you know, treat someone else to! 

Shop Everything & More Below

xoxo

B

 Gird your loins everyone... I have about 5 new Olive & June polishes to test out so there's going to be a lot of manicure Monday posts coming up. Hopefully you like reading them as much as I like writing them.

This week it's all about shades of purple! I've been wanting this shade of polish for over a year, when it was released in 2021 but something always stopped me from purchasing it.

Well, not anymore because it's in my possession and on my nails! I recently placed an Olive & June order to restock my favorite nail polish removers and decided to add a few nail colors to my order, including Velvet Pouf.

 We're officially in the 2nd month of 2023 and the year is off to a very strange start. It was chaotic yet calm, and brought a lot of anxiety that I wasn't expecting. I think a lot of people were feeling the same way so I take comfort in that.

This week was weirdly long; I worked from home all week, had a lot of meeting sand felt like I got a lot of work done. I had a doctor's appointment, needed to take care of some car things and felt a little more present than I have the past few weeks.

Now, I need to start getting ready for a Charleston trip I'm going on at the end of the month, along with bridal showers and weddings I have coming up this spring and summer. I need to buckle down and get my head in the game.

This weekend is going to be really cold in New York so I can't wait to snuggle up and rest, and then also see some family! Rest and relaxation makes the world goes round.

Let's get into the round up! 

The first month of the new year is officially complete! In my opinion, it went by in a mix of slow and fast. It feels like New Years was a thousand days ago but also the beginning of the month feels like it was just yesterday. Time is so funny and as I get older I find that it goes by more and more quickly. 

January 2023 was a weird one; I was both oddly calm and then an anxious/depressed mess for most of it. My mental health hit a weird decline over the past few weeks and I've been experiencing a lot of panic attacks and mood swings. It's weird because I haven't felt this bad in months so it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm feeling ok now but it was a weird way to kick off the new year.

Because of that, I don't think I was as strong with my goals as I would've liked to been during the first few weeks but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm going to just do my best, start from wherever I left off and make every day count.

Maybe I will do a monthly check in on my goals to hold myself accountable...

Anyways, let's dive right into my favorites of the first month of the year!

I've had this book sitting in my Kindle library for a while and I finally decided to read it late in December. It was the perfect winter thriller to end the year with; super twisty, unexpected and a little scary. 

There were multiple POVs, alternating timelines and a mystery behind every corner. It had an ending that was truly surprising and I didn't see it coming from a mile away, which is the tell tale sign of a good thriller. 

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf is one of the best thrillers I've read in a while.