Photos by Ale Veyna

Outfit Details:

Maison Jules Dress (Similar)

H&M Sandals

Madewell Bag

I must start off this post by confessing that I broke my 6-month shopping ban. My mother convinced me to go window shopping with her, and I fell in love with this royal blue dress. Even though my mother offered to buy it for me as a very early Christmas present in order to prevent me from breaking my ban, I still went ahead and purchased a couple of other items anyway. I’ve come to realize that I really don’t spend that much money on myself, and it’s okay to treat myself every once in a while as long as I’m not making any mindless purchases. Well, there my confession for you all. Now you know that my willpower can only last for a couple of weeks.

I really don’t have many life updates at this moment, other than I had to go back to work last week and that’s been a bit of a transition, especially after such a relaxing and productive vacation. I spent most of my time this weekend studying, cleaning and working on my blog, so it wasn’t the most exciting. As uneventful as it was, this weekend has made me realize that in order to maintain some balance in my life, I’m going to have to back off a bit from blogging and other activities that I use to procrastinate. I really need to set aside some of that time to concentrate on studying for the GRE for the next month, as well as to start working on grad school applications. I’ve been trying to post 3 times a week, and that’s just way too much for me. After all, I did start blogging in order to have a creative outlet, and not to have another source of stress in my life. I also want to make sure that I put in a good amount of effort to whatever I do post on my blog.

I also have to admit that one of the reasons that I want to lay off blogging is because I’m concerned about how much time I spend on social media. I feel that blogging has in a way made me become more obsessed with social media, and made me feel the pressure to put things out there. Athough I’m not looking to completely quit using social media outlets, I would like to learn not to walk around with my phone in hand, while looking for the next thing to post on Instagram. Of course, that’s easier said than done, and we all know how successful my shopping ban was.

This might be a weird place to ask this, but do any of you have any tricks on how to decrease your social media use? I could really use all of your advice.

xoxo,

Helen