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Moving from conspicuous to conscious consumption and doing reviews along the way.  Find plenty of unsponsored reviews of Quince, Everlane, Grana, and Cuyana on the site!  I'm working towards a minimal waste lifestyle, and oh yea I love bags >.<

April 2023 Recap

The Flower Fields, Carlsbad

 

Going back to a monthly recap because it’s just easier that way. Anyway April was a super fun month for us with a great RV trip and some sunny weather!

What I Did

 

Airstream trip to Southern California: For Emi’s spring break we decided to take our Airstream to LA and Carlsbad for the week. In LA (or rather Anaheim) we went to Disneyland! This was Emi’s second time, but her first time in the Magic Kingdom side and oh boy did she love it. I personally am not a huge fan of Disney thanks to working at the Disney Store as my first job in high school (let’s just say they pushed us to sell sell sell with managers evaluating our performance after every shift). I lasted two miserable months and have avoided anything Disney for the most part since then. Buuut now with a four-year-old who loves all things Disney, her enthusiasm has worn off on me and I’m starting to come around. And dare I say I look forward to going back to Disney soon. In Carlsbad we were planning to do Legoland but then changed our minds because our girl is not really into legos (at least not yet). So we’ll save that for another time. But instead we drove down to San Diego, checked out the New Children’s Museum, and then drove back up to Carlsbad to see the Flower Fields—acres and acres of ranunculus. It was so gorgeous and I couldn’t stop taking pictures. Anyway it was a very successful trip and we can’t wait to go back down to Southern California again soon.

Updated my Quince Fine Jewelry Review (added the Diamond Astrid Scatter Ring to my review), my Etsy jewelry seller recommendations, and updated my Birkenstock Boston Mules review yet again.

I binge-watched Transatlantic and Beef this month (haven’t really binged anything for awhile) and thoroughly enjoyed both. Transatlantic is a fictionalized story of Varian Fry, responsible for helping thousands of Jew escape Nazi occupied France (I love the multi-national feel along with the 40’s fashion and Gillian Jacobs). Beef is a story about two slightly deranged people involved in a road rage incident that escalates. It was a bit intense to binge watch but the moments of darkness are lightened by some great comedic moments.

Also this month I really enjoyed Neela’s thoughtful post about spring cleaning and emotional durability.

 

What I Bought

Secondhand Old Celine Vertical Cabas from Fashionphile (pictured above): I had been eyeing this bag for a really long time (at least 6+ years I think). I never pulled the trigger because I didn’t want to pay so much for such a simple bag. But I happened to be browsing Fashionphile (for a link for my Celine Tabou review) and found a really beat-up but well-priced vertical cabas in white. I’ve always avoided white bags because of the fear of getting them dirty, but if it already come with marks and it still looks decent then I have no need to baby it. Plus there’s something charming about a well-worn, well-loved bag

Two organic cotton scarves from Madewell (also pictured above): I happened to be killing some time in Madewell (it’s the first time I’ve gone into the store in like a year and a half) and of course I find something to buy in the sale section 🤦🏻‍♀️. It was 30% off $8.99 so it came out to about $6 per scarf. I’d been looking for some scarves lately to shield my neck from the sun (as a way not to have to slather sunscreen on my neck, which for some reason I just don’t like the feel of). As I’m officially middle-aged, I realized that I need to protect my neck better because I’m getting quite a few moles. I remember my dad’s neck was quite peppered with moles and I’m trying to avoid a similar fate.

Dropps dishwasher pods: After speaking to another eco-minded friend about my Puracy dishwasher pods, she turned me onto dropps. I love these dropps dishwasher pods because they come in a well-packaged recyclable paper box (no more plastic because even the Puracy pods came in a plastic bag). And even though each pod is smaller than the usual size they do an equally great job of cleaning. Also I was able to use Shop Cash (from the Shop app) to get a discount on these so it was a win-win!