A Day of Self Care and Comfort Cooking Reading Skincare Vlog

Hello, happy Friday, well it's Friday for me at least. We're getting ready for holiday weekend here in the US, excuse my phone, but it is July 4th weekend and typically Matt always works on the 4th so we don't really do anything but this year he is off and I think we're going to drive to the beach with some friends so it should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it and I am desperate to get to the beach and get into water because it is so hot. We're getting to that part of summer where I'm just over it and I'm ready for it to be fall even though fall here is kind of like late summer and it's even hotter but hopefully we can escape somewhere this year that's a little bit cooler at least for a long weekend. That's what I'm hoping. I wanted to film a video today just sharing kind of what I like to do to reset, to put a little more focus on self-care because this weekend I want to focus on self-care. To be honest this past week and just it hasn't been a great one. I felt kind of off. I haven't really been motivated and I feel like I need some time to myself and take a bath and just to unwind and just kind of talk to you about what I do when I'm feeling off and how I kind of go inward and be present because I feel like during the week we're all on the go and just trying to get things done and it's hard to remember to slow down, take a breath, find comfort in just being. So that's what I wanted this video to be about. It's kind of like a old school pamper routine but also just sharing what I find comfort in and what makes me feel safe and warm and calm when I'm feeling like I need to hit reset or like when I need some time just to myself to nourish my soul. That is my intention for this weekend. That is my intention for this video. Let me know in the comments what you like to do to find comfort and when you're feeling low what is your go-to but I love you guys. Thank you so much for being here and for watching my videos. It truly means the world. So grab a cup of tea and let's get started with the video. To me comfort is the foundation of self-care and the great thing about comfort is that you don't need anything fancy or a ton of money to find your own comfortable space. I find so much peace in my early morning walks when the dew is still on the grass and the birds are chirping and everyone is just beginning their day. I bought these beautiful orchids last week from Lowe's to bring in a little plant life into our apartment. Having flowers and house plants around brings me comfort and immediately lifts my mood. I don't know about you but when I need a reset I love to eat big salads for lunch like this. They just make me feel really good and energized and it's a great way for me to get in a lot of greens. So I just have some mixed greens in here, some spinach, arugula and I take my kitchen scissors and I just go in the bowl to chop up the salad because I like it to be finely chopped. I just find that when the greens are chopped up a little more finely it's easier to eat and to chew and digest and all of that. So you want to have some kitchen scissors so don't use your regular scissors for that. So these are roasted chickpeas that I made in the air fryer yesterday and I like to make a big batch of these so that I can have them in a salad throughout the week. It's really simple to make and I just put on some chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, toss it and a little bit of avocado oil before I put them in the air fryer but not not too much because they come out really crispy in the air fryer. Another thing that I like to do that brings me a lot of comfort is keep a gratitude journal and just a journal in general where I can write down my thoughts. If something comes up and I feel like I need to re-center myself and get more present, I pull out my journal, jot down a few things and then it helps me to regroup. This is the look that he gives me when he's ready to play and you can't be stressed out when you're playing with your pets, right? So I love this puzzle that I found on Amazon because it is an opportunity to play with him. It's very interactive and he loves it. We do this at least twice a day. 20 seconds later, he's finished. Oh my goodness. So you put the food in here and in here and then he, so slobbery, he has to push this open, watch out buddy, and then slide this over to get that one out. You did it all! I wanted to document this moment even though it means something to me but it probably means nothing to you but I was just getting ready to make myself a cup of tea because it's three o'clock and around this time I like to have a little snack with some tea and my teapot. It's done. I have reached the end of using this, my beloved, very first purchase of Le Creuset which I felt very adult when I purchased this eight years ago I want to say. It was when we lived in Charleston. I've had this, it's been through many moves with me and it is time to retire her because I left it on the stove and I had almond milk in the like just a little bit left over from making a matcha in the morning and I guess it was the stove was still warm or something but it burned and it just smells, it smells terrible. There's no way I can use it. I ran it through the dishwasher. It still smells terrible. I have scrubbed and scrubbed to try to get it whatever it was. There's a little water in here now for me trying to wash it out but it is, it's just gone. It's time to say goodbye. So I've had it for very many years so I definitely got my money's worth but now I'm going to be on the hunt. I actually want to get an electric kettle so if you have any recommendations let me know because it would be a little bit easier than using this in the morning. I know it's much faster. So I guess I'm gonna have to take out a saucepan to boil my water for my tea but yes goodbye tea kettle that has been with me through many many videos, many moves, a different state. I wanted to show you what I'm making. I just made a piece of toast and this oddly shaped bread is the base culture of bread. This is actually a local brand to Florida but it's grain-free, gluten-free. It has really good ingredients. Matt does not like this one because it does taste healthy if you know what I mean but I actually really like it because I like a seed bread. I've always liked that and for tea I know that we're going to be staying up a little bit past our bedtime which is typically around 10 o'clock to watch volume 2 of Stranger Things so I'm making myself a cup of the jasmine green tea so that I can hopefully stay awake which I'm sure I will. I can't wait to watch it but anyways back to what I'm making. I'm gonna put some of this Trader Joe's sunflower seed spread. It's just a sunflower seed butter so it's basically like a peanut butter or a nut butter and then this fig jam which I love. I'm gonna do a little bit of that and enjoy my tea. Curling up with my favorite blanket and some good books is another way that I find a lot of comfort and right now I'm reading A Fine Romance by Susan Branch. I've been reading this for a while. I'm savoring it. It's written as a diary style and if you have not heard of Susan Branch I highly recommend looking her up. She is the epitome of cozy in my opinion. She's a very talented watercolor artist and then writer and she also has cookbooks and her blog is just fantastic. I highly recommend it but this book is like I'm taking a vacation to the English countryside with her. It is my favorite thing but I just sat and read this while drinking the rest of my tea and watching the storm and it was perfect. I always like to do some sort of face mask when I'm taking a long bath so right now I'm going to cleanse my face with the One Love Organics Vitamin B cleansing oil. I've been using this for a long time often on throughout the years but I love this because it's very gentle but it does a great job at removing all of your makeup including your eye makeup and it leaves your skin feeling really soft. For my face mask I'm using the Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Mask from Kiehl's. This is a deluxe sample that I got. I showed it in I think two videos ago when I went to Sephora. This isn't my first time using this. I've used it in the past back when I sold Kiehl's when I worked at Blue Mercury but it has bentonite clay. It's a really nice deep pore cleansing mask but if you have drier skin I would say this one's probably not for you just because it is a clay mask and it does get really deep into your pores but it's great if you have oily skin or normal to combination skin. Before I get into the bath I like to do a little dry brushing. This is a body brush that you use and you basically take it towards your heart. I would recommend googling it because I can't really show how to do it because you're not supposed to be clothed when you do it but you get the idea.