Did

What’s the most October thing you can do? The pumpkin patch of course (well especially if you have kids). This year we drove the extra 30 minutes to go to a farm in Brentwood (Three Nunns Farm—I highly recommend it!). And even though it was 90 degrees when we went there (luckily they really worked on adding shaded benches to their grounds this year), we had a blast. We also got 7 pumpkins for $16 (we got 15 pounds free for the price of the tractor ride). And one of my favorite parts about going to farm, as opposed to a temporary set-up in a vacant lot, is that you can pick the pumpkins off the vine (but watch out those vines and stems have prickly little hairs).

At the end of the month we went on out annual Autumn Airsteam trip. Over the last several years we try to head up to Ashland, OR, to see the Fall foliage and this year we went just in time to catch some of the most beautiful colors at Lithia Park. For those interested in the RV route, from the Bay Area we usually stop off at the Healdsburg/Cloverdale KOA, then head up to Elk Prairie Campground (where we caught large herds of elk there this year!), and then to Emmigrant Lake in OR, and heading back down the I-5 to Buckhorn Recreational Area and then home. We’ve done some version of this route for years now, and it’s one of our favorites. This year we added a stop at Eureka in the mix (see my Old Town Eureka shopping Reel here) and it was the perfect 6-day trip to kick off the colder months!

Revised the following blog posts: My Boston Clog Birkenstock Review and my Quince Sweater review with the Quince Organic Cotton Cropped Polo Sweater.

I also converted my blog Shop page back into a place where I can sell some things from my personal closet. As fun as the experiment (to turn it into a small zero waste shop) was, it just wasn’t a viable option. Plus there are so many people already doing that on a larger scale. So for now it’s back to a closet shop and my first listing is my Celine Blade bag, which I love but don’t use anymore. I’ll probably add more bags, but would you guys be interested in clothes too?

Bought

New iPhone 15 and charger: So I didn’t fully purchase a brand new iPhone, but when our family switched carriers from Verizon to T-Mobile (T-mobile has great 5G coverage since they merged with Sprint a few years ago) my husband and I both got free iPhones (well we paid an extra $100 each to get the 256 memory capacity). I love that the new titanium iPhone is a tad lighter than the iPhone 12 and up (I compared it with my husband’s 12), and it’s a big upgrade in terms of speed and camera quality from my iPhone 11. And because it’s my first magsafe phone, I got this charger (pictured above) to go along with it and I love it since it can charge my watch and airpods as well.

Yes Friends T-shirts: I’ve been wearing my black and white tee (that I first reviewed here) all spring and summer and they’ve held up really well. They look as good as the day I got them with no noticeable fading or collar wear (as in they’re not all stretched out and wonky). So I decided to get a couple more in different colors. I got Ecru (which is the one I really wanted) and a light pink (because why not). Since my first review their price has gone up by $3 but that’s just par for the course these days. Anyway I’m really happy to be adding more organic cotton and ethically-made tees from them.

Quince Organic Cotton Cropped Polo Sweater and Australian Merino Wool Half Zip Sweater: I got these two sweaters on credit in September (so thank you to all those who made their first purchase through my referral link—I really appreciate it!). Even though I didn’t care for how much Quince’s alpaca and thick cashmere pills (see my Quince Sweater Review here), I love their organic cotton sweaters. So when it started to get a bit chilly in the mornings here I decided to try out their Organic Cotton Cropped Polo, which gave me some serious 90’s J.Crew vibes lol. And I love it because of the cropped length (great for my 5’4” frame). And since I hadn’t tried Quince’s thick merino wool yet and I’m a real sucker for the half zip look, I got the Merino Wool Half Zip in the light gray. It’s not quite cold enough for wool sweaters yet here so I haven’t worn it out. But full review of these two to be added to the Quince Sweater Review soon (and I’ll let you know about it another monthly recap).

La Portegna Bag: Do you guys know about Tanner Leatherstein? As a consummate bag lady, I find his deconstruction of bags and his rough estimation of the leather and production costs to be really interesting. And for the most part I find his reviews to be similar to my opinions on bag brands: high-end luxury bags tend to trade on their name while skimping on actual quality. He also had a whole ordeal with the RealReal and verifying authenticity (which is why I very rarely buy bags from them). Anyway, one of the brands that sent their bag in for review was La Portegna, and he regarded their quality to be well worth their price (review of it here on youtube). So they’ve been on my radar for a bit. When the other two color ways in their Adelina bag sold out, I decided to snag it in black. And I can confirm that the construction and quality are impeccable. I love that the Adelina has two little knots that remind me of old Acne Studios Musubi bag. I think La Portegna is on par with Polene in terms of price point but their quality control is better because everything is made somewhat locally (they’re a Spanish brand that makes their bag in Ubrique, a Spanish town well known for high quality handbag production, and not coincidentally also where Polene makes their bags) and they have a smaller run of bags. Currently the Adelina is available for pre-order in burgundy, which is the color I originally wanted. {May 2024 Update: I never used this bag. I tried a couple times but it was much heavier than my usual bags (either the Loewe Puzzle or The Row Park Tote), so it never made it out of the house. Since it was just sitting there for over 6 months, I decided to finally let it go. I sold it for less than half of what I purchased it for. I should also mention that the leather is thick and durable but also easily dried out. I conditioned it with Leather CPR once before letting it go so that the next owner wouldn’t have such a dry bag. Overall I can’t recommend this bag brand.}

Jeans, pants, and dresses from the RealReal: I forgot to mention in my September recap that I also purchased some things from the RealReal with selling credit. I think all the fashion week hoopla seeped into my consciousness and I was craving some new clothes and a bit of a more polished style. I also went shopping for some dresses for a friend’s birthday party (which is going to be in Vegas—what do middle-aged millennials wear to Vegas clubs? 😂). Anyway if you follow me on Insta, you’ve seen some of the things I got. But overall I’m pretty happy with some of the risks I took (as in they were 70% off and not returnable). But how else can I get Agolde jeans (already hemmed I might add) for $50?

Rothy’s The Point II Flats: Back in 2018 Rothy’s only had two different styles of shoe, the Point and the Sneaker (both of which I reviewed). Since then they’ve come out with so many different styles! And even though I was a fan of their original Point, I ended up selling them (for a very good price point for a very used shoe I might add) because after I gave birth, my feet were no longer comfy in what used to be my comfiest and chicest work flat. After walking in the original Point flats all day, my arches would ache. Well I haven’t really looked at Rothy’s until then, but thanks to Kristen’s review here I was interested in trying out their more supportive Point II flats. So what did I think?

Returned

As a treat for several milestones this year I decided to get the Hermes 24/24 bag in size 29. I got it during Fashionphile’s extra 10% off sale, and so it came out to several grand under retail. Unfortunately when I got it, it turned out to be a fake. I made a little video of it here showing how I knew it was not authentic. So of course I returned it, but I’m quite discouraged about the secondhand luxury market these days. There are a lot of fakes in circulation and authenticators are not doing a good enough job weeding them out. In the case of the two Loewe puzzle bags I got from Fashionphile back in August, I thought one was a fake but both of them could very well have been a fake. I just don’t know enough about Loewe to be able to authenticate it myself. And yes I could go through authentication sites but TBH I didn’t love both bags enough to go through the effort. Unless things change I’m starting to see that large secondhand luxury resellers are becoming less of a viable option if you want authentic goods 🤷🏻‍♀️.

P.S. I just want to add that I know since October 7th, with the Israel-Hamas War, things have been very heavy. I’m not turning a blind eye to it, though I’ve not been sharing as much about it on the blog or on social media. I feel almost a survivor’s guilt at times (why am I so lucky to live here in California, with a healthy family, and a comfortable home) when others have seen so much tragedy and generational trauma? I’ve honestly been coping with doom scrolling, social media, and over-shopping (like waaay too much). Not healthy, I know. There’s no right answer on how to absorb all this, but I hope you are coping as best you can and helping where you can. Sending love to whoever reads this because there just doesn’t seem to be enough of it these days.