My boyfriend made me this gorgeous @ symbol design for my birthday. I’ve always had a thing for the @ symbol not only because my name begins with the letter ‘a’ but also because I’m a blogger and social media influencer. Also, my full-time job is as a Web Developer and I normally spend most of my day writing code.
Using a template, he carved out the symbol from wood. He then used some glitter acrylic and poured it into the center of the wood. By doing this, he added some glamor to the industrial book of the wood. It created this gorgeous effect that shimmers in the light. I absolutely love my birthday present from my boy friend.
After being stuck quarantined in my 1 bedroom apartment, I really needed some time away from the city. My parents were kind enough to lend us their house in East Hampton at the tip of Long Island. Its a cozy place that is super close to both the town and the beach. My parents have had the house since I was born, but have added an addition and some other upgrades to the house since. This is honestly one of my favorite places in the world.
I’ve struggled a lot with my mental health over the years. After struggling for a really long time in my late teens and early 20s, I’ve now been on the same prescription cocktail for several years now. My longest lasting relationship is my therapist and I would probably never leave the east coast because of her. I struggled for years trying to find “a magic pill” to make my minor problems (which seemed like huge emotional hurtles) go away. I then found Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and I found a logical way of dealing with my illogical problems without making myself feel invalidated or “crazy.”
In times like these, when things seem so out of control and crazy, I like to fall back on some basic DBT skills to cope with all the insanity. These are very difficult times for everyone right now, but especially hard for people of color and people affected by covid-19. Using these skills may help you feel more grounded. Please read this link for more detailed information, but below is my interpretation of the essential DBT skills.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is essentially living in the moment. Don’t worry about what could happen in the future, just focus on how you can help yourself in the next 5 minuets.
Distress Tolerance
DBT has a “Do What Works” policy for distress tolerance (obviously without harming yourself). Let it out, scream, cry, smash something! Your emotions are temporary and you will get past this.
Interpersonal Effectiveness
One of my favorite worksheets from this section is called “D.E.A.R. M.A.N.” and it’s about how to ask for things you need in a way that will get you what you want.
Emotional Regulation
This is the hardest. This skill focuses on regulating your internal emotions by learning where they come from, validating that they are a real emotion coming from a real place, and then learning to get past it and let that feeling go.
Over the years I’ve tried lots of different skincare tools. I wanted to make a list of all the ones I’ve tried and what they did or did not do for my skin.
This tiny little steamer may seem useless at first, but trust me its a powerful device. I love how hot it gets and you can really open up your pores using this. You turn it on and hold a towel over your head to collect the steam around your face. This is an all natural way to open up your pores to cleanse thoroughly.
This isn’t the exact blackhead extractor or pore cleaner that I purchased from Amazon, however I’m sure that all the products of this type are generally the same. I hate these things. They are way too powerful to be using on your skin. My skin was bright red for days and it really doesn’t even get all the junk out of your pores in the first place.
Micro needling can sound super scary, but it’s not. You gage your own pressure and you don’t have to press hard at all. You just roll the needles over your skin after you apply an expensive face serum and you know you are going to get the most out of that product because its going deep into the skin.
I love this face brush from Touch Beauty that I got on Amazon. In my opinion it works just as well as the Clarisionic face brushes but its so much less expensive. Also this one takes batteries and won’t break as easily as a rechargeable face brush. I drop mine in the shower all the time and this one hasn’t broken yet and I got it in 2018.
I realize I make a lot of ridiculous purchases, however, this one I think takes the cake. I bought a hammock chair with this huge indoor hammock chair stand. Totally ridiculous, but also totally completely relaxing. I put the chair in my bedroom which is far away from my computer desk. I don’t want to even think about a computer when I’m in the hammock.
Once I sit in that chair at the end of the day, and the sun is exactly in the right place to engulf the entire chair in sunlight, it creates a magical experience that helps make you feel like your outside. I open my window to get a nice breeze and to hear the birds. I recently got a little wind chime bell that will help create a calming environment. All of these things put together really help me relax at the end of the day.
The best thing about having a man who is as comfortable in his own skin like my boyfriend is getting to do things like skincare Sunday with him! It always ends up being the highlight of my weekend. I often try and get him to start with the steamer, but normally I can just get him to agree to stand in the bathroom for a little while I run the shower really hot for a bit.
Then we wash our faces, normally with a cleaner that is slightly exfoliating. Jack Black or grown alchemist are his two favorites. Once that is done, I can sometimes get him to apply a blackhead peeling mask on his nose and forehead. He never seems to complain or say it hurts, but he’s probably just trying to be manly about removing it. After cleansing, we apply our sheet masks. He normally grabs some type of alcoholic drink at this point and relaxes on the couch.
I received my Olive and June nail polish kit today and so far so good. Their unique tool for applying the polish is called a “Poppy” and it’s actually extremely well designed. The Poppy makes painting your nails by yourself with your non dominant hand SO much easier!
Because I normally use gel polish, I greatly underestimated the amount of dry time I needed to not ruin my nails. But the second time around I did a better job. After a week I’ve noticed more chips on the nails that I did light coats on, like my pinkies, but where I used thicker coats looks great so far, like my thumb and middle fingers.
One of the other great things about Olive and June is that they provide instructional videos on how to do your own nails. After I watch some more videos and do my nails one more time with their polish I’ll have a better idea on what the exact wear time is for these polishes. But so far I’m impressed with the thought they put into their products.
