five on friday

{one} dry bar southern belle
Santa brought me a bottle of this drybar Southern Belle Volumizing Mousse for Christmas and I am a woman OBSESSED.  I spritz and add it from my roots through the ends of my hair on days that I need a little more height in my tease and whenever I'm curling my hair.  It smells absolutely fabulous, and is light, not heavy and sticky which I've found with a lot of the other mousse products that I've tried.  Getcha some-- tease it to Jesus, ladies!

{two} house of cards 
Brian and I have started watching House of Cards on Netflix and are seriously loving it.  Kevin Spacey is one of my favorites to begin with, and the show is just so clever and well-written, which I honestly think can be hard to come by these days.  And Robin Wright is just gorgeous.  Seriously.  Bonus?  Mr. Spacey has an intense Louisiana drawl going on, and I just love it.

{three} closet cleanout
We've been saying for the past three weekends that we were going to clean out our bedroom closet and the coat closet to make donation piles and FIND ALL OF THE SPACE, and I've finally reached my breaking point of hearing Brian yell from the closet "I can't find it!  It's not in here.  I looked." while I walk in and immediately pull out whichever tie/shirt/shoe he's searching for.  It's honestly organized... just an organized mess.  So we'll be spending a chunk of our weekend doing that.  On the bright side, I already have a list of organizing essentials to pick up at Target tomorrow morning that would most certainly make the process less painful (the big red bullseye to the rescue, per usual).

{four} relax
I've been making a conscious effort to really take time for myself and take time to breeeeathe since the kick-off to this busy 2014, and so far, I feel like I've done pretty well.  I typically have so many little things to take care of that I let them build up and overwhelm me, and I end up running around completely NOT calm and NOT collected, and probably leaving Brian wondering what in the hell he's signed up to be a part of for the rest of his life (in my defense, he knew my crazy before he put a ring on it).  

So now, instead of racing around in the mornings to get myself ready, pack lunches, make coffee, etc., I'm setting my alarm 20 minutes early to do my hair and makeup with a cup of coffee while enjoying a little Good Morning America, and I'm taking an extra 20 minutes before I go to bed to pick up around the apartment, straighten the kitchen (HATE getting up to a dirty kitchen), prepping lunch stuff... the things that stress me out in the mornings.  I'm also in bed by 9pm every night with a book and a candle burning.  I'm so highstrung and "I need to have that done yesterday even though it's not due until next week" that making myself just take a breather and take care of myself is doing wonders for me.  Next stop, trying out a yoga class (no, I've never taken one; yes, I think it would only further save my sanity).

{five} superbowl
Let us not forget that this Sunday is Superbowl Sunday, aka, The Day to Eat All of the Food Things and Drink All of the Alcohol.  Since Brian's beloved Patriots and my Cowboys aren't in the game, we have zero plans to do anything elaborate, and I'm MORE than okay with that.  Since I can't punish my man for me being on my fun food and drink cleanse, I'm considering making a snack or two for him to enjoy.  A couple of the contenders (from April?

Buffalo Chicken Bites

Pretzel Bites with Cheese Dipping Sauce