5 Ways to Add Self Care to Your Daily Life

With everything that has happened over the last year it has been difficult to not sink deep into my usual stress response of survival, and coping mechanisms.  I am so guilty of not taking care of myself when things were “normal” and this has only gotten worst between dealing with the possibly of being laid off (again), financial insecurity and the logistics of having to move during a pandemic to name a few. I know that I’m not alone with this, nevertheless I’ve been actively trying to find some sense of peace in chaos.

And yes, things may seem a bit quiet and boring being under quarantine for so long, yet that too can be a form of chaos for some of us. (Yes, even for introverts.) Today I’m sharing five ways I’ve been incorporating more self care into my routine. While some of these may seem obvious, some are still hard even for me, but I’m trying and I hope you’ll join me.

1.) Get cozy and cute (but only if YOU want to)

I’ve taken to treating myself to some new sleep and lounger wear to bring in some changes to my overall dull WFH wardrobe. Most recently I got this black sleep shirt from the Modcloth-exclusive collaboration with Hello Kitty. It has a classic pajama silhouette with lapel collar, cuffed long sleeves and curved shirttail hem, red heart-shaped buttons down the entire front, piping throughout and an embroidered patch of this Sanrio icon on the chest pocket.  It is adorable and soft though also chic enough that I deemed it worthy of including a few accessories and makeup despite the fact that I’m just staying home because, why not?

I’ll admit that like most people that have been working from home,  I really haven’t been dressing up much, though I try to make an effort at least on those days I have a scheduled  Zoom call.  Somedays I’ll do this and other times I simply don’t care enough to try. Both are fine. The important thing is to do what is comfortable for you.

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Silver and Gold Christmas in the City

As you can tell I love holidays, Halloween and Christmas especially, and I consider myself lucky that I’m able to celebrate in NYC as we tend to go hard here for both. The lights, the decor, the holiday themed food – it all is truly amazing this time of year in NYC.In the past I would spend most of my evenings after work walking around, taking in the holiday sights while doing some my Christmas shopping in stores and in person. This year has been much different, with my holiday prep taking on the form of strictly online shopping as well as cleaning and decorating my apartment. This wasn’t at all as boring as I originally expected as I’ve even managed to do bring in more decor than I ever have which has definitely helped me get out of a depressive stupor.  Continue reading

Sunflower Summer Days

Living in NYC during a pandemic has been interesting.  Like I haven’t left my borough (Queens) except to pick up some things at the office back in May, making this the longest I’ve been away from the city (Manhattan) in years.  My summers usually includes work and taking long walks in the city afterwards usually around the neighborhood. Usually this involves browsing at the local book store, if not the library, meeting my friends for dinner and a movie, going to a marketing/social media/blogger workshop or checking out some of the events advertised on Facebook, like the Japanese food festival I attended last summer. Obviously things were very different this year.

Thankfully even with COVID and quarantine, Summer 2020 was not cancelled as most of us had joked when the season first started. Sure, I stayed closer to home yet this turned out to be a little fun because I got to do things like ride a bike again for the first time in 14 years and read a book under a tree at a park my parents used to take me and brother when we were kids. So much nostalgia and not just in Queens because just this past weekend, my friend Diana and I made the trek to Roosevelt Island, our favorite hang out spot back when we were in college to see how much it has changed since we last visited.

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theCURVYcon 2017 Platnium Swagbag Haul!

Once I knew that I had a Platinum CURVYcon ticket, I was super excited to see what would be included in the swag bag of this level if only to compare it to teal one I got last year. I will be recapping the whole experience of this year’s con in another post but I will say that the Platinum experience brings a lot of perks with the brunch and party, both of which included small swag bags for the attendees which was pretty cool so I had to include some of those items in this haul. If you attended the con this year let me know what your favorite part was and what you think about this bag compared to the teal one I got last year.

Disclaimer: This video was recorded the weekend of 9/16 – 9/17 but I didn’t get a chance to edit it until this week after recovering from the flu.

Style notes: In this video I am wearing Short Sleeve V Neck “Weekend Mood On” Graphic T-Shirt in a 2X. It is actually very roomy and came with some grey shorts so I’ve been using it as loungewear/pajamas..

My Two Cents: Real Fashion Inclusivity?

Well the inevitable has happened –body positivity has gone mainstream. Untouched and unedited ads have garnered so much media attention to the point a straight size brand has “resorted” to featuring plus models in their marketing campaigns to profit of this trend even though these same models don’t fit in the very clothes the brand sells in stores. This particular ad campaign received some backlash on social media, with many people demanding the retailer introduce size inclusive collections that reflect what they currently marketing and of course bringing up the debate as to whether or not plus should be dropped all together as creates unnecessary division. Modcloth immediately comes to mind as a brand that pushed for this as they announced back in 2015 that they would be dropping the “plus size” category on their site. It was a decision that received massive praise across the internet for it implied the idea of shopping by style instead of size. I’ll admit that at first I was ecstatic to hear about this change because I thought this size inclusive shopping experience meant more pieces being available in plus sizes. Sadly that was not the case as there are many pieces up on the site that are only available up to a size 12 if you are lucky. In order to ensure that you are shopping pieces available in plus sizes, you have to refine your search by size which is basically manually re-creating the plus size page they once had.  Now I have to give them credit, they conducted an independent survey on their customers to find out more about their needs and wants in terms of fashion. HOWEVER, the very idea that simply dropping the category is being size inclusive is very misguided.

Which leads me to the what initiated this blog post. Lovesick.

lovesick-ad2

Oh Lovesick…size UP not down. SMH

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