The Baller on a Budget June 26, 2020 Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites Vol. 15: Longer Natural Lashes, Tangle-Free Necklaces, & Are Tarot Cards Actually Evil?

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*Gameshow voice*: Hello, helloooo, and welcome to another edition of Friday Favorites! Just in case you’re new, I’m always trying new things and wasting my money so that you don’t have to. Every week I curate a bunch of my favorite things of the week from every category that I’ve given the green light to in the hopes that something adds to a little more beauty, convenience, or just a little more spice to your life!

What’s New This Week:

I confess: I am emotionally, mentally, and physically burnt out. 2020 has turned my life upside down (as I can imagine just like with many of you as well) and my brain has been feeling incredibly scrambled at the moment. I’m not sure if it’s due to my autoimmune symptoms that are causing my fatigue or maybe I’m feeling overwhelmed with 2020 events in general (or honestly, maybe it’s a little bit of both). I’m losing a lot of hair, I’m constantly tired, constantly itchy, and I’m having trouble focusing on anything for extended periods of time.

A good friend of mine suggested I ask my doctor to run some blood tests and check if I’ve developed gluten sensitivity or intolerance, and I actually think I may do that. I’ve read in a few different places that dietary intolerances develop in tandem with autoimmune diseases and symptoms, so I just want to check if it’s something pertaining to my diet so that I know it’s something within my control.

So if anyone has any suggestions or insight on dealing with hair loss (or my other symptoms as well), please let me know!

Moving on – here’s Volume 15 of Friday Favorites!

More Friday Favorites:

Beauty: Babe Lash Eyelash & Brow Enhancer Serum

1 ml: $28.00

As my DIY lash extensions began falling out, my friend Wynn from Wander x Luxe told me she and her coworkers were using Babe Lash to grow their lashes and they were all seeing a lot of success. Asian women have short, straight, thin lashes, so if Wynn, an Asian woman, was able to grow her lashes to the point where she doesn’t even have to use mascara anymore, then that means a lot. I’ve been using Babe Lash for a little over a month now and I’m seeing a huge difference in my lashes – especially my bottom lashes, which are never noticeable even with mascara.

I should share that my eyes were super bloodshot when I first started using this serum, but only because I was applying it on my lash line and on my waterline. The serum was getting into my eyes as I was sleeping, causing them to get super red and irritated. However it cleared up once I stopped applying it in my waterline though, so make sure not to do the same thing! I got the 4 ml which is a bit pricey, but people say that it lasts for almost an entire year, which gives you much more value. However, if you just want to try the smaller sizes just know that it takes between 1-2 months before you start seeing visible results.

Style: 8-Piece Necklace Clasps For Layering Necklaces

$8.99

I love wearing necklaces, but you’ll never catch me wearing just one. As much as I love to layer my necklaces, I hate the tangled ball that happens after a few hours of wear, making my necklaces look disheveled and uneven on my chest. At under $10 I decided to try out these necklace clasps and see if they were a good solution.

Admittedly a few of the clasps are a bit hard to unclasp, but for being under $10 it was still way worth it! Maybe someday when these break I’ll look to a more expensive brand I saw on Instagram for a replacement, but for now these are a great solution for me to layer my necklaces without tangling them (and it’s much easier to put them on all at once!).

Food: Easy Air Fryer Donuts

Ever since I got an air fryer I’ve been trying some recipes I don’t normally attempt. Anything that requires making dough from scratch always intimidates me, but this easy air fryer donut recipe calls for Pillsbury Grand Flaky biscuit dough, so you don’t need to make it from scratch! The only other ingredients are sugar, cinnamon, and butter. They also bake in 6 minutes in the air fryer, which is super fast! I whipped these up in a total of less than 10 minutes and they were so delicious out of the air fryer.

Health: Gaiam Essential Yoga Blocks

$12.88

I spent a lot of my time in April, May and a good chunk of June playing video games or reading books, so you can imagine with doing little to no exercise and sitting down 24/7 my back has been aching. I’m trying to get back into the habit of doing some light yoga, weight lifting and walking around for every 2-3 hours of sitting, and it’s been helping a lot! I’ve always wanted to do certain stretches but since I’m not limber enough, I can’t do them without the assistance of yoga blocks. This set of 2 is only $13 and gets the job done!

Home: TCL Alto 7+ 2.1 Channel Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer

$129.99

I’m not sure why, but I’ve owned 3 Sony TVs now and each one always had pretty terrible audio. For some programs, I had to raise the volume up to 70-80 and the voice was still super unclear, and then for other things, volume 10 would result in the actor screaming in my ear. A soundbar has always been on my to-buy list in hopes of really balancing out that terrible audio output, but I was always intimidated by the prices. I did a lot of research and found that TCL’s Alto 7+ was the best contender for soundbars under $300. In fact, the soundbar alone is $79.99, and with the wireless subwoofer included brings the price up to $129.99, which is a great deal! It’s gotten a lot of amazing reviews on Amazon as well as third-party consumer reviews, so if you’re just looking for budget-friendly upgrade that I definitely suggest this one. It was really easy to set up and doesn’t take up room at all. Audio-wise, we never watch TV without the soundbar now because everything is coming in much more clearer than the built-in speakers!

Lifestyle: The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

$15.31

Tarot is widely misunderstood thanks to the church dubbing it “the devil’s work” as well as movies and TV using it to paint an ominous foretelling of the future with the most sinister-looking cards like The Devil and Death. Little do you know: in Tarot, the Devil represents indulgence and denying yourself of pleasure, while Death means the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. Like all the cards in the deck, they only carry interpretive meanings.

To be clear: Tarot reading does not require asking any spirits for answers to your questions. Pulling a few cards from the deck helps our subconscious mind better paint a picture of the question we already have in mind so that we can examine it and look for more insight or a better solution. Our brains better process and understand a situation when it is retold through a story, and Tarot does exactly that.

Tarot has been one of the most powerful healing tools for traumatic experiences and relationships (and part of the reason why I started my other blog, The Magic of Soul). If you are looking to heal your own wounds or are looking for a better way to understand yourself and your surroundings, I highly recommend picking up the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. It’s the standard Tarot deck, which makes it easy to understand Tarot rather than other more advanced decks. I also recommend grabbing The Ultimate Guide to Tarot for newbies, because the small included pamphlet is very basic and doesn’t give enough context for beginners.

Entertainment: Villainous

$34.99

I’m really impressed with how much thought and care was taken when creating Disney’s Villainous: every player chooses a Disney villain and has a different strategy, and the goal of the game is to be the first player to complete their own agenda. However, you can also sabotage other players and send Disney heroes in their way to prevent them from meeting their goals before you do. Be warned that this is not a game that you can understand in just a few minutes, but if you really enjoy strategy games and are willing to learn a more complex and competitive game then definitely pick it up at Target!

Podcast Episode: Throw Away Your To-Do List (The Life Coach School)

Can we talk about to-do lists for a second? I’m a big fan of them, but I also have a lot of dread when I can’t cross everything off my to-do list (which is basically every single day). To-do lists are the weapon of every overachiever, but they come with horrendous feelings when you can’t complete the entire list. Brooke Castillo of The Life Coach School had some really great insight on how to-do lists can be incredibly damaging to our productivity as well as our self-worth, so I definitely recommend listening to this podcast episode if you’re a to-do list junkie like me.

This Week’s Quote: “The history of liberty is a history of resistance.”

Despite there being so much free information online to self-educate and better understand black oppression, there is almost an equal amount of resistance from others who are unwilling to read, watch, listen, and learn more. I think part of this is due to refusing to acknowledge that a spectrum of privilege exists, and we all fall somewhere within it. Understanding systemic racism forces us to acknowledge that this system benefits certain groups while oppressing others; if you fall on the more privileged side of things due to your race then you have to be proactive in avoiding complacency, otherwise, your inaction places you on the side of the oppressor.

The bottom line is that change requires discomfort, and on the subject of racism, privileged people who are staying silent are afraid of change because they equate it with loss (whether consciously or subconsciously). It likely explains why there is so much resistance to admit that black people are still oppressed or that racism still exists. I feel like it is a fear that stems from the idea that once these changes happen, they will walk away with less (which is definitely not the case, but this is what colonization teaches us).

I’m not saying that willfully ignorant behavior is okay. It is always going to be uncomfortable to create radical change when other people are choosing to keep their eyes shut. The history of liberty is a history of resistance, and where we are fighting for change we are also going to have a lot of pushback. Civil rights were never given because anyone asked nicely.

I’m hoping that when you feel fatigued from fighting racism, remember that this discomfort you’re feeling is pushing us towards change.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Favorites! If you liked Volume 15, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below so you get informed as soon as I hit publish on a new Friday Favorites post. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram!

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1 Comment

Ashton
June 30, 2020 / 11:30 am
I’ve done Tarot readings before every big decision I’ve had to make for the past 10 years. I use just a simple 4 card spread, but I always come away with a sense of clarity about whatever situation I’m trying to solve, and so far I’ve always made the right decision.
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