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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 >.<

September 2023 Recap

The gorgeous primary bathroom of the house in Reno.

 

Did

Not so much something I did, but rather something I caught. Yep, after 3 years of dodging Covid it finally got me (and the fam) sometime over Labor Day Weekend. It was probably inevitable since our last vaccine shot was well over a year ago and life is back to full swing (and fully maskless). Luckily my symptoms weren’t too awful (a little headache, fatigue, brain fog, and loss of taste). But my husband was wiped and in bed for days. And it’s a good thing I was functional since my daughter ended up getting it too. Whew, just glad that that’s over. Now bring on the cruise! (lol kidding, sort of). P.S. This is also why there was no post last week, sorry I just couldn’t keep on top of it.

We kicked off September with a trip with our friends to Reno. Sadly it was raining and cold so we didn’t get to enjoy the outdoors (or the house pool), but the house itself was very lovely and we had a great time with friends. If you want to take a peek of the place, it’s currently in escrow but listed on Redfin here. We tested positive for Covid right after we came back but luckily we didn’t infect all our friends with it while we were there.

Used ChatGPT for work for the first time and wow it’s crazy what AI can do these days. It’s also pretty scary. I mean why work to write anymore? Maybe the art will be in the editing? Why should I even write this blog, maybe AI can do it better (just kidding 😂 AI doesn’t have my writing voice—at least not yet).

Updated the following reviews: Quince Turkish Bath Towels Review (with the addition of their Organic Waffle Towel Set), my Planetbox Review (it’s been one year, do I still think it’s worth it?), and my Valextra medium bucket bag review.

And this month I watched a lot of things, but some of my favorites were The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (on Prime Video) and Mo on Netflix. I originally watched The Lost Flowers because Sigourney Weaver is in it and I loooove her, but wow it was so gripping and talk about a tear-jerker. Mo is a comedy about a Palestinian refugee living in Texas, and I loved the humor but also the portrayal of the real trials of a refugee in the US. I also watched Painkiller on Netflix, which I thought was interesting on how it showed the roots of the opioid epidemic and weaved that with the legal court cases against Purdue and the Sackler family. But it was jarring at times and a bit hard to watch.

 

Bought

Loewe Small Puzzle Bag in black: After much back and forth, I finally decided to go for a black Loewe small puzzle bag from Matches. I admit, I’m not a huge fan of black bags, but it was hard to resist the 20% off promo code. And after the trials of buying and returning the secondhand Loewe puzzle bags (which I couldn’t determine if they were fake or not), I thought it’d be best to get it new from a reputable store. I just don’t know enough about Loewe bags (yet) to be able to be certain whether or not a bag is authentic. But the best way to learn is to buy the real deal first. And a black puzzle bag is not a bad option, at least it’s a classic color that I can wear forever.

 

Andie Swim Swimsuit: In prep for Labor Day I bought a new swimsuit for the first time in years, and my first one piece since I was pregnant. I kept getting ads for Andie Swim on Insta and I finally caved because I really wanted to try out a one-piece made for long torsos that didn’t expose the chest (because tbh that just means more sunscreen to lather on). I got in a medium (I’m usually a size 6-8 these days) and it fit perfectly. I ended up really liking their Malibu one piece because it has snaps at the front so you can choose how exposed (or not) your chest is, and the long torso option was perfect. It’s just too bad it rained all Labor Day Weekend in Reno so we didn’t get to use the pool at all (whoomp whoomp). I look forward to using it the next time I’m in Hawaii.

Lego Organizer: This month my kid started to really get into legos. I was never a legos fan as a kid but now that she’s into it, I’m into it lol. And I bought her several kits already (this 3-in-1 Unicorn one and this Frozen one are her favorites). They were also the perfect activities for the duration of our quarantine during our bout with Covid. And since I always see Eva Chen complaining about lego storage, I thought I’d get ahead of it by ordering this awesome organizer. They also have a one layer one and a three layer one right now in green. But yea if your kid loves legos, I highly recommend this storage box.

P.S. If you’ve been eyeing something from Fashionphile they’re having a 10% off all sale items starting today and going until 9/28 with the code FPSALE10. Just thought I’d give you a heads-up. I may also try this code with somethings I’ve had in my cart for a long time: this Bottega Jodie bag and this Hermes 24/24 bag in 29 (but I’m just dreaming really lol).