Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

Sunday Lately, 88

Sunday Lately is a weekly link up brought to you by the Blogger Tribe. Link up and see what's been happening lately!Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (which is being fearlessly lead by Meghan, Nicole, Katy, and myself). We e-hang out every Sunday, sharing a small glimpse into the last week of life in our own worlds. We’d love if you could join us!
This week’s themes: Creating, Finding, Switching, Forgetting, Craving

Creating

The other day, I decided to tear my office apart and rearrange it. I call it procrastidecorating. It’s my favorite, after procaffeinating and procrastibaking. So I decided to create new landing places for to-do lists and art prints with some old, ugly-ass clip boards because really, I could not just donate them or throw them away. I mean, not when I had spray paint burning a hole in my garage! (*Not literally. That would be terrifying.)

A little taste of the before and after..

Spray paint is magical. Transform old and dated clipboards into the perfect backing for art prints and to-do lists!

Finding

Finally (finally) I’m finding my groove again. I blame part of it on the medication I’m taking, but I also was in a super-funky, dark mood and it sucked. I have to say, even though working for and by myself has been a challenge (I really do like people–and talking to people–despite my best efforts to fool y’all), I’m so glad I escaped my office job when I did. I was miserable with a capital I Will Cut Your Face Off If You Look At Me The Wrong Way.

Switching

I am switching back to good coffee. I tried coffee from Aldi (it was the dark roast if you’re wondering) and my god. Did. It. Suck. It was made slightly better with the use of a French press, but ain’t nobody got time for that. Gotta wait for water to boil and shit. No. I’m like Lorelai Gilmore. I need it strong, I need it good, I need it now.

Number 4 was basically me when I tried that mud that Aldi packaged and sold for $3.50. Thank you, BuzzFeed, for the Lorelai gifs.

Lorelai Gilmore is my spirit animalThe WB / CW / Via goldenstories.tumblr.com / Buzzfeed

Forgetting

I am a hard-core summer person. I love summer. I claw at it for as long as I can. I wear bright nail polish and sandals way past the fashionally acceptable time. However, we’ve had a few days of cooler weather here (read: not suffocatingly humid) and I forgot how nice it is to stand outside and not begin to sweat immediately. I swear, I have purchased so much deodorant this summer, Dove and Secret need to give me a kick-back. #ItalianProblems

Craving

All. The. Things. Here’s what’s happening. In an effort to save money, I have been trying to work from home without as many frequent trips to coffee shops/bars to work. And every day, the siren song of the Oreos in my cabinet grows louder and louder. Same with the chips. And the chocolate. Basically anything that isn’t healthy (although since I treated my body like a garbage can last weekend, I did eat a salad the size of a mixing bowl in an effort to make my body like me again.) I even went so far as to buy a grapefruit in the hopes that I would eat it and magically want fruit. Guess what? Grapefruit sucks. I’m sorry for anyone that likes it, but blech..!

What have you been up to lately? Link up with us and share!

start InLinkz script –>


Freeing the funk

After writing about my epic Gilmore-Girl-style breakdown, I’ve been trying to pull myself out of another funk. I said in that post that I didn’t have any answers for you if you’re going through it as well, but guess what? I have answers. They may not be full answers, but at least they’re getting somewhere.

Here are two things that helped me.

Magic spells

The idea of magic spells comes from Molly Mahar. She has a section each year in her Holiday Council sheets that asks you to figure out magic spells for when something isn’t going right. This isn’t the first time I’m hearing this. Nicole Antoinette has mentioned in her podcasts that she wrote a “Care and Keeping of Nicole” guide as a way to help pull her out of a depression. You can also think about it like an IFTTT (If This Then That) recipe if you prefer a more digital example.

No matter how you look at it, it’s important to recognize where things go wrong before you get into a bad headspace because only you truly know what support you need. It seems like something you should just know, but when you get into that funk, sometimes we’re blind to what’s right in front of us. Having a guide, spell, or recipe to follow is a natural step when you just don’t know what to do: when I feel like Y, do Z. It’s written down. So do it. Because there’s nothing else to do. And you know it helps.

Strength in numbers

#squadgoals exists for a reason. Trust me, working from home can make it harder to pull yourself out of a funk because you can retreat so far inward and no one is really there to notice, so long as you’re maintaining day-to-day status. I have to send out a huge thank you to my gang for pulling me up.

If you can, find the ass-kicker, the practical one, the nurturer, the comic. All of these roles are so helpful when you need a mirror to reflect your good qualities and get you back on track. You may not have four people to surround you. Maybe these roles are filled by one person at different times. Or maybe you have an army of ass-kickers with their own unique flavor. Whatever works for you, just don’t retreat.

The biggest thing I can say is to try your very hardest to see when you’re spiraling down and catch yourself or, even more important, tell someone that it’s happening and let them help you.

What helps you recover when you’re feeling funky?

What if today, we were just grateful for everything_ - Charles Schulz

Sunday Lately, 86

Sunday Lately is a weekly link up brought to you by the Blogger Tribe. Link up and see what's been happening lately!Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (which is being fearlessly lead by Meghan, Nicole, Katy, and myself). We e-hang out every Sunday, sharing a small glimpse into the last week of life in our own worlds. We’d love if you could join us!
This week’s themes: Planning, Loving, Reading, Wishing, Feeling

 

Planning

This was a totally dead week for me. Aside from a few things, nothing was planned. I notice that I get really squirrely when that happens. Like, I need plans to feel like I’m doing something worthwhile and being a contributing factor to society.

Loving

Pilates! I honestly never thought I’d say that because I was always more of a yoga person. I wasn’t into that whole “Hold a crunch and do other with your arms and legs for 5 minutes” thing. But I’m working on it. I can feel myself getting stronger, which is awesome.

Dragonfly Pilates in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, PA is an awesome work out!

Reading

I finished up Daring Greatly by Brene Brown and I’m slowly getting into Gifts of Imperfection, but I borrowed 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal from my dad at least a year ago and I have yet to crack the spine and it’s just sitting there begging me to read it.

Wishing

I am so wishing I switched to Squarespace earlier. I was absolutely hating my other site on WordPress to the point where I didn’t want to tell people about it because I was that embarrassed by it. But when you kind of need to tell people about what you do so you can eat and pay rent, being embarrassed by whatcha got isn’t the best strategy. Shocking, I know.

Let me illustrate how much I love the new site on SS: 24 hours after I started it, I remapped AngelicaRoss.co to point there, even though it was still being worked on. I like it that much that I’m totally cool with people seeing it while I’m still adding to it because it finally looks sooo much better.

Feeling

I’m still feeling in a funk, but it’s getting better. It really helps when you just own up to what’s right, wrong, and totally icky. Of course, I don’t want to just emotionally vomit all over everyone, but keeping things holed up really isn’t good. Wondering what I’m talking about? This will clear it up.

What have you been up to lately? Link up with us and share!


Save

An honest talk about what’s real

After two days of Rory-Gilmore-after-drinking-Miss-Patty’s-Founders’-Day-punch-white-girl-on-the-bathroom-floor levels of crying, I can safely say that something is deeply wrong. Just writing that sentence is getting me going again. I’ve been lying. I say that I’m here to help empower women with my own stories of prevailing and standing in my strength. But clearly I’m not doing that. I haven’t been sharing what’s real, so how does that help someone else going through it, too?

I can’t write a blog about growth and empowerment because I feel like a total fraud anytime I sit down to write. I’m NOT growing and being empowered right now, so what gives me the right to write about it? That explains why there really hasn’t been much coming from me lately aside from Instagrams.

I feel horrible about myself because I don’t want to work until 2am on my business, wake up at 6am, and start over. I don’t have people knocking down my door to work with me. I’m not out cutting all the business deals. I’m not recognized. And I freakin’ HATE when people say “Just find what you’re passionate about and it’ll fall into place.” WTF does that even mean?? The second that a light bulb goes off, everything will just land in my lap and it’ll suddenly be easy? I don’t think so.

This is a long-winded way to tell you that I want to burn everything down and start again. I can’t connect with the bigger picture right now. Normally when this happens, I cut my hair, change domain names, and have this big comeback celebration only to realize my problems followed me and the wind gets kicked out of my sails once more. I’ve even started to wipe off some old posts that don’t really belong here anymore, though it’s fun to see the evolution.

I’m stuck in a HUGE comparison trap loop, yet I fall into it once every 5 weeks or so. I guess it’s good that I know that it’s happening and try to pull myself out of it?

My dear friend, Marissa, always has insightful wisdom for when this happens. It’s never too late to course-correct to get back on track. Recognizing that life does suck, things aren’t always perfectly perfect, and being honest about it is my super-power…#becauseimkeepingitreal.

So here’s to recognizing that downward cycles happen. And that things feel sucky. And I don’t have wisdom for anyone who’s going through it with me, just comfort in knowing that you aren’t alone in feeling that way. Sometimes that’s the only thing we can offer each other. I’d be happy to lend an ear (well, a set of eyes) if you have anything you want to share. Just writing about what’s wrong can help get to what’s right again.

An Honest Talk About What's Real Right Now

Sunday Lately, 85

Sunday Lately is a weekly link up brought to you by the Blogger Tribe. Link up and see what's been happening lately!Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe (which is being fearlessly lead by Meghan, Nicole, Katy, and myself). We e-hang out every Sunday, sharing a small glimpse into the last week of life in our own worlds. We’d love if you could join us!
This week’s themes: Completing, Visiting, Repeating, Writing, Scheduling

 

Last Sunday, I woke up with a summer head cold and proceeded to spend the rest of the day in bed. I could have written something while I was alternating between sneezing and coughing, but I watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix instead. I also got a lesson in aphid removal from my mom while she was visiting. All in all, the week was pretty awesome.

Completing

Awkward: I have been stuck in a creative rut recently. I can’t shake anything out when I sit down, so I haven’t really completed much of anything lately. Oops.

Awesome: I did end up going through my hair/makeup/body products with my mom while she was in town and got to clean out a bunch of stuff that I don’t use. I guess you could say I completed some cleaning.

Visiting

Awesome: Last week were two family birthdays in the space of three days. So I was visiting lots of family. It was really nice to see people that I usually don’t.

Repeating

Awkward: I feel like my days are running into each other. Getting a business started is sometimes really repetitive. Wake up, make coffee, sit in front of the computer, don’t move for hours. Repeat.

Awesome: Picking and watering my garden. I planted late, so I’m used to having more on the stems by now. It’s finally coming alive, though.

Fresh garden basil

Fresh garden cucumbers

Writing

Awkward: Nothing. Insert crying emoji here.

Scheduling

Awkward: I feel very much like I’ve been scheduling nothing, too. Oh well.

What have you been up to lately? Link up with us and share!


Save

Let’s Play

           

People Really Dug These

We Belong in the Garden Together