Blog

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 >.<

Tips on Starting a Blog, part one: How to Start

{Update: This is part one. You can find part two about social media and monetization of a blog here. Part three is about Google Analytics and Google Search Optimization.}

As I start a new blog here (though of course not completely from scratch) I feel like it’s a good time to touch upon what I consider the essential steps of starting a blog. When I started this blog (formerly known as Temporary Housewifey), I really didn’t know what I was doing. So I went to a Bloguettes course in LA that helped me learned the basics (how to do simple photoshop things, learn about affiliate networks, etc.). It was a start but I learned so much more from just doing. So here are some things I’ve learned on how to start a blog after blogging for the last 5.5 years:

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Fairly Curated Values

This post is a bit like my mission statement for this blog, as in what does it mean to be “fairly curated.” And these are the goals I’m setting for myself and for this blog. I will try my best to adhere to these curation guidelines whenever I purchase something or review it on my blog. Of course I will mess up from time to time (or who knows, maybe a lot), but I promise to keep trying and I plan to use this post as my North Star, so to speak. So to be fairly curated, items must check at least one of these requirements (but preferably more):

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Beklina Review: The Matisse Criss Cross Platform Slides

I bought these Beklina Matisse Criss Cross Platform Slides back in November and if you follow me on Insta you’ve probably seen them a lot. I first heard of this small women-owned ethical brand from Erica (my number one enabler/tempter lol), but had seen her shoes before (especially her clogs and sandals). So when she had a November sale I couldn’t resist getting these platform slides in buff (with the 50% off sale I got them for $115 including tax and shipping—such a good deal for ethically made clog-type shoes).

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My Thoughts About 1/6/21

I decided to write a short blog post about yesterday’s invasion of the US Capitol Building by domestic terrorists because I didn’t feel like I could adequately express all my feelings in an Instagram post. Plus I didn’t want to just add to the noise and repeated re-posts (of things like the picture above). If you’re reading this long-form, stream-of-consciousness post then you’ll probably most likely forgive some political ranting from an unpolitical blogger.

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Unsponsored Arq Underwear Review {Updated July 2021}

In some cultures it’s lucky to wear new underwear for the new year. So what’s more fitting than my first review here to be about new underwear for the new year on my new blog? And what better color than green since it signifies better luck for this year than the last. Here’s hoping 2021 is a much better year! So what did I think of the much instagrammed ARQ underwear?

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Fairly Curated: Why I Renamed My Blog

Hi guys and welcome to my new blog name! If you’ve been following me for a bit, you know I’ve hinted at this name change for quite awhile now (I think it’s been over 2 years— I remember talking about it before Emi’s birth). Anyway I hope you were able to find me alright here and I haven’t lost too many of you guys in the name change (I’m not sure if you have to re-subscribe if you follow via email or RSS feed. Please let me know if you run into any issues!). It’s still just me writing the blog and the content will remain largely the same (reviews, reviews, and some personal posts).

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year guys! We’ve made it to 2021! Every year I write a new year’s post and most years I feel like doing resolutions. This year, not so much. I guess it’s because I don’t want to add a bunch of expectations to the year since things still seem so uncertain. Well I do have one blog-related resolution: this year I will be changing the name (and the url—ugh gonna have to move everything)! Stay tuned for the name change! Also because of this I might be slowing down on the posts for now. But once everything is up and running I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled reviewing and posting.

Anyway I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! Are you guys doing resolutions for 2021? If so please share! Maybe you’ll inspire me to make more. 😁

What I Bought in December

Well I’m ending this year of “What I Bought” posts with a bang. I definitely bought a lot of stuff this month and I chalk it up to sales, fatigue from resisting sales, and just getting caught up in that consumer frenzy that goes around this time of year. Ah well at least most of my purchases were from slow fashion brands and secondhand and I was good at not shopping for most of the year (well that’s what I’m telling myself to justify it lol). Without further ado here are the last things I bought this year:

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Everlane Goodbye 2020 Sale

I took a glance at the sale today, not so much because I wanted to buy something (since I have pleeenty of Everlane). But more because I wanted to see how much excess STUFF Everlane wanted to get rid of, and boy do they have a lot. A bit too much for an “ethical” brand if you ask me, but ok you didn’t and I should put my judgements aside. Especially since I’m about to list a couple of recommended items here (and don’t want to seem too hypocritical >.< lol). Well as much as I’ve been disappointed with Everlane and I’m unsure of my future with them, I have to admit they make some good things and now they are on sale for a good price (and they may no longer produce them again). So even with my past break with Everlane and getting rid of a lot of Everlane from my closet, there are still a handful of things I couldn’t get rid of because they are just too good. And I’m going to list the ones on sale here:

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Unsponsored Ruggable Review {Updated November 2024}

When we first moved into our new house last October, I knew I wanted a rug for a spacious living room area. In the past I’ve purchased rugs from Ikea and Target, but I always end up donating them or dumping them because I was moving (to a smaller space) or they were too dirty to clean. So this time around I wanted something that would last and something that I could clean. I first heard of Ruggable through a friend who was an early adopter of the brand. She is very picky and very clean so I knew if this rug brand was good enough for her it would more than good enough for me.

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Most Worn Items of 2020

I don’t tally my wears anymore (I used to do it with the StyleBook App though I might start again in 2021 just to see where things stand). But having done the exercise for almost 2 years straight I have a pretty good feel for what are my most worn items and how many times I’ve actually worn them (my big takeaway from those 2 years of tracking is that when estimating, you probably haven’t worn them as many times as you think you did). Anyway I thought I would do a quick post about my 6 most worn items for 2020, a year of staying at home and a transitioning style. They are (in no particular order):

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Quince Review: Mulberry Silk Beauty Pillowcase {Updated January 2023}

Now I’m no stranger to washable silk pillowcases. I first purchased and reviewed the original Slip silk pillowcase over two years ago and an Amazon dupe for the Slip silk pillowcase (tl;dr of the two reviews: I thought the Slip silk pillowcase was worth its $79 price tag (ok now I see it retails for $89) while the Amazon dupe, which sounded the same on paper, was not the same and I thought it was worth getting the original). If you want to see all the benefits of a silk pillowcase, refer to my review of the original Slip pillowcase (and I really do stand by those benefits).

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Only Child Linen Cove Pants vs. Linenfox Ocean Pants

So the idea for this post is all thanks to Andrea, who asked me what the differences were between the Only Child Cove pants and the Linenfox Ocean pants. I briefly went over it in my Linenfox Linen Wide Leg Culottes Review (this is before they decided to call them the Ocean pants) but I don’t think I really did the measurements and comparison justice. I also went off of my gut feeling (and didn’t actually bust out my measuring tape) so I think this brief comparison review might be helpful for those looking for slow-made, ethical wide-leg linen pants. Also if you want to read the full review of the Only Child Cove Pants you can find it here.

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Unsponsored U Beauty Review: The Resurfacing Compound {November 2021 update}

I first heard about U Beauty (a women-owned, POC brand) through Jennifer Fisher’s Instagram, though I’ve known about Tina since her BagSnob days (one of the OG bag blogs). I’ve trusted JF before when she led me to Augustinus Bader (I talk about that in my Augustinus Bader Rich Cream review), so I thought I’d take a chance with this U Beauty Resurfacing Compound on her recommendation.

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Quince Review: Turkish Spa Bath Towels [Updated March 2025]

Since I talked about these Quince Turkish Spa Bath Towels in my last two posts (My Fairly Curated Gift Guide and What I Bought in November), I figured I’d bump up my review of them. Because you guys, these are some really great towels. I’m not a bath towel aficionado, but I’ve had more than my fair share of buying them due to running our Airstream business in the past.

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Rakuten Review {Updated March 2021}

So I know most of you guys use Rakuten or something similar to get cash back for online shopping, so this post is for the handful of you guys that don’t use it. Plus isn’t Cyber Monday the perfect time to talk about it (especially since for many retailers Rakuten has a larger than usual cash back percentage today)?

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