Secondhand September Update

Howdy! (I'm from Texas, I'm allowed to say that.)

How is it already September 25? Where did September go?

Unfortunately September in South Louisiana has been HOT. Today was 93 degrees outside. Needless to say, it feels like fall is very far away. But every once in a while a nice little breeze will come through and a few leaves will fall off the trees and I'm reminded that autumn IS on it's way. Just maybe not as fast as I would like it. Oh, I just can't wait to wear my tights and boots!

Remember how I was going to only thrift clothing this month for the #SecondhandSeptember challenge? Well, um... in the spirit of honesty... I bought a few things that aren't secondhand. I don't regret my purchases, but I do feel bad that of course I made them during the month I said I wouldn't.

(One purchase was a top I've had my eye on for a month or so now at a local clothing store. I was afraid they'd sell out of my size if I waited until October to get it! The other was at Dirt Cheap, where I bought a pair of gray boots and a pair of black boots that are the exact same style as my pink boots I bought at Target last year and wear ALL the time. I've already worn both pairs--I love that they are cute AND comfy!)

One thing I've definitely wanted to do this month is highlight my secondhand items and show that thrifted and secondhand items can be stylish and cute! I've been sharing pics on my Instagram stories when I think to take photos. And I want to share them here too!

I wore a vintage scarf and purse to dinner a few weeks ago. The scarf was found at an antique store and the purse was from my Gramma.

Speaking of vintage scarves, I also got this one at the antique shop. How fun and cute is this print?

 I love the color of this thrifted skirt. It also has POCKETS!

Saving the best for last... this vintage dress... that belonged to my mom! I'm so glad she saved it. She, however, was much tinier than I am. The cardigan is hiding the fact that the zipper doesn't completely zip all the way. (But no one was the wiser!) This is the best twirling dress!

Our First Camping Trip

I mentioned in my Things I Love August post that Casey and I recently went on our first camping trip! So here I am sharing more about it.

Here's the thing: I'm NOT the camping type of girl. The last time I went camping I was 14 or 15 and it was horrible. I refused to potty in the woods (we were gone for like 24 hours). It was freezing cold. And whoever grabbed what they thought was the bag of blankets had accidentally instead grabbed a bag of fabric scraps. So it was freezing and we had NO covers. And I had to pee and just couldn't make myself use a tree.

So when Casey mentioned one day that he wanted to go camping I was like, "Ummm... how about not?" After some discussion, we finally decided to compromise: I'd give camping a shot as long as there was a bathroom around. Which basically narrows it down to state parks. Thankfully we have a few in our area!

A few days after coming to this conclusion, Casey came home with a tent. I figured he was excited about the potential future camping trip. What I wasn't expecting was to go camping two days later!

Our church was having "Family Week" and encouraged every family to go on an adventure. He came home one evening and I asked, "So what should our adventure be?" And Casey said, "How about camping?" Casey, Oxford, and I were on the road an our later to a park Casey had already picked out. (Tigger was not happy about staying home by himself. He hates being alone.)

After setting up our tent and piling up some wood to use for our fire later, we went for a hike. It was gorgeous! First through the woods and then through this beautiful swamp and beach area. The wind was blowing and it felt wonderful!

Then we went back to the camp to make dinner. We'd brought a lighter, but forgot it takes actual skills to build a fire and keep it going. As I was piling up the logs and trying to get the darn pile of sticks to actually catch fire, Casey managed to cut his finger with a knife. I saw some large drops of blood, but he covered his finger with a nearby towel. I was so afraid he'd cut his hand to the bone, despite the fact he was telling me he was fine. (The boy has a high pain tolerance, so you can see why I was just sure it was far worse than he was telling me.)

As he held his fingers wrapped, head on table because blood, I turned around and noticed Oxford had wandered off a little... and was facing off three ginormous wild pigs. I yelled, trying to get Oxford to come back to me. Y'all, this dog is afraid of everything. Loud noises, other dogs, you name it. So why he suddenly decided to be brave and face off these pigs I have no idea. He probably was trying to protect me. Thankfully, I got him to come back and the pigs wandered away, but Oxford was then put on his leash (which he was supposed to be on in the first place... but no one else was around and he loves to walk around without his leash).

Casey's hand was totally fine. Literally just a scratch but there was initially more blood than would suggest a scratch.

It began to get really dark and we were struggling with the fire. Turns out, wood burns faster than we anticipated, and we hadn't piled up enough. We couldn't go searching for more because we were dumb and didn't bring flashlights. Also there were spider webs and very large spiders between many of the trees. We had to be so careful everywhere we walked because we did NOT want to run into those guys. Since we couldn't' see them in the dark, we basically decided to not go into the woods.

Despite the fire debacle, we DID get our dinner cooked. Hot dogs for the win. But once the fire went out, that was that and we decided to get in the tent.

It. Was. Hot.

So hot we couldn't sleep. Did sleeping on the ground bother us? Not a big. But the heat? Dear goodness, it was miserable. As we were leaving the next morning, Casey admitted that at one point during the night he'd considered making the drive home, getting some sleep, and coming back the next day to pack up camp.

We made it through the night and Casey wanted to pack up and get breakfast somewhere. I told him no, the camping wasn't over until after breakfast. I cooked up some sausage and bacon, as he packed up, and we ate before we finally left. We were both so tired for the rest of the day.

I know that my describing it doesn't SOUND like we had a lot of fun, but we truly did and we made some special memories we won't forget. Honestly, I just like doing anything with him. Things become fun because we're together.

I'm actually really glad that our first trip was spur of the moment. I think I would have been overthinking everything had I had time to plan. But I didn't have time to overthink. I just quickly packed a bunch of things I thought we might need, and, as we realized what we SHOULD have brought, we made a list of things we'd like to bring next time. (On that list: flashlights, battery operated fan, first aid kit, coffee...)

We already can't wait for cooler weather to try out a second camping trip!

Secondhand September

Whilst perusing Instagram the other day, I came across #SecondHandSeptember, a movement encouraging people to only shop secondhand for the month of September instead of buying anything new. I'm joining the challenge! Here are some rambles about it, plus photos featuring some of my secondhand items. (Except for that marvelous dress in the first pic, which was a bit too small, but it was a thrift find!)

(fun fact: I wore this yellow skirt to work the other day and my coworker looked at it so confused. "I had a skirt just like that," she said. I asked her if she donated it to Goodwill. She said she probably had. So there is a good possibility this was her skirt! ha! I thought it was cool.) This jacket was also a thrift find.

This year I've been making an effort to shop secondhand more than buying new things as a way to be more ethical in my clothing purchases. The little I've read about fast fashion is truly sad, but also fast fashion makes it tempting to shop more often, buying the new trend for every season. As I've gotten older, I've realized that I prefer to wear clothes that I love instead of what is specifically in style or trendy. I think this has also partly helped me decide to thrift more. Thrifting means that I can find unique pieces that no one else has!

I do, however, buy a few new things here and there, so I'm saying no to that this month. I'm excited to share my thrift hauls (if I even go thrifting or find anything - ha!) and even more so to share outfits that feature some of my secondhand pieces. I actually have a bunch. My friends know I love to dig through their piles of clothes they plan to donate, and my bestie Julianne often brings me a bag of secondhand goodies when she comes to visit. (I'm not-so-patiently waiting for cold weather so I can wear the hot pink and bright orange sweater she gave me!)

This flowy cardigan was secondhand from a friend.

When I first got into blogging around 2010, the fashion blogging world was completely different. It was just starting out and sponsored posts were the exception and not the standard. My favorite bloggers didn't wear outfits with links so you could buy the exact same pieces--rather they focused on how to take the clothing you already had and remix it to make new outfits.

That's a thing I really miss in the blogs I see today. So many posts, not only on blogs but especially on Instagram, feature gifted items with a link and a discount code so everyone else can buy the exact same thing. I'm not against sponsored posts or anything -- I did a few of those back in the day too -- but I wish that more people would focus on the idea of the outfits rather than how to copy it exactly. One of my favorite bloggers used to create an "inspiration calendar" each month using photos from bloggers with a "challenge" for the day that was inspired by the outfit. "Wear something blue." "Mix patterns." "Wear a hat." "Belt a cardigan." It was so fun to gather inspiration from outfits and create an outfit using pieces I already had that were inspired by my fave bloggers.

My grandmother gave me this cute dress when she didn't want it anymore!

I definitely just chased a rabbit there (can we call the rabbit Fred? Let's call him Fred.), but one thing I like about outfits involving thrifted pieces is that there is no way to link to the same piece. Rather, I hope, it inspires others. "I've never thought to wear my olive cardigan over my mustard dress." "I'm going to try layering a collared shirt under my favorite sweater." "I'm definitely going to wear my hair scarf as a neck scarf!" Honestly, I just browsed my "style board" on Pinterest for all those ideas.

Anyway, my blue is showing and I'm getting really wordy here, only to say I'm joining in on Secondhand September and can't wait to share more about it!

Jacket and skirt were both thrifted!