MY FAVOURITE READ THIS MONTH
“The Astral Library” Kate Quinn
As someone who loves books, reading, libraries and all that, this one was right up my alley, mixing in some dark fantasy, a nice fight of good versus evil, topped with a sprinkling of helping those in need? Catnip for a bookworm like me. Quinn is a seriously gifted writer – I have read all of her books no matter the subject and will continue to do so, forever and ever.
A TOPIC I HAVE BEEN OBSESSED WITH
The rise of underconsumption influencers
I was browsing the other day and came across this influencer I am watching on occasion – Don’t be a Lemon – and her post on something changing with influencers these days who have been obsessed with “hauls” .. now they are seemingly turning the other way to promote underconsumption and de-capitalism.
Here is another one, about not buying a problem:
I am here for ALL of it, especially when posts like this, talking about home design and decorating, and DIY with $0 pops up in my feed:
Maybe it is just my feed? But I have a LOT of videos and recommendations now about $0 spending, underconsumption, deinfluencing, and basically whatever the opposite of “haul” posts are.
TV SERIES I HAVE BEEN WATCHING
A Gentleman in Moscow
You won’t believe this but I actually saw the TV series first before realizing it was a book by Amor Towles. At any rate, it is about a deposed aristocrat in Russia, having to be hotel-bound for the rest of his life… it follows his life at the hotel, the people he meets, the family he creates.. it is truly a touching TV series that made me cry in many parts of it, showing the complexity of life, and how not everything is so black and white. A wonderful series that I absolutely binged on (and will now read the book).
OOTD INSPO
Scarves anywhere but around your neck
I have a lot of scarves, I also tend to wrap them around my neck mostly. I have tried my head but I don’t love the look nor the feel, and it never seems to stay tied or on my head, so when I saw these lovely OOTD inspirations of different ways to wear my beautiful scarves, I am now doubly excited to give it a go. I know the other two photos are also kind of around your neck, but I never thought of wearing them as a layer, versus tying or knotting it around my neck.
GEN Z’S “THE OFFICE”
Cluely should forget AI and work on this mini series
They started these office episodes to try and bring some attention to their AI (note: I hate AI, I avoid it as much as I can, and I don’t use it deliberately), but these episodes are “The Office” coded, and absolutely hilarious. They are all great actors, honestly. Here are some of my favourites:
LOWKEY LOOKING FOR
MANU ATELIER – MINI TOTE DU JOUR
I like the colour, I like the little belt, and it looks like a nice, simple sack. I just can’t pay that amount of money ($1000) for a bag… perhaps secondhand? But then I am thinking red stains white and lighter clothing pretty easily, especially suede. It may just be more trouble than it is worth.
It’s super cute though.
THE SKINNY
patriarchy = Misogyny
I came across this article about how the far right is using thinness to radicalise women and young girls, and I went down a rabbit hole, which brought me to this substack article on why keeping women skinny is also a tool of the patriarchy.
TL;DR
Women are told the beauty ideal is to be skinny:
This is a change from the past where women were praised for being voluptuous and what today’s society would call “plus-size” which is ridiculous because the bar for women being “plus-size” is so low and manmade. Yes, literally MAN MADE.
It is a tactic to control women mentally….
Being dangerously skinny (society’s ideal, not mine) also means you generally are hungry a lot (don’t lie…), which disrupts your focus on other matters at hand because your brain is sending out alarm signals to please eat a proper meal, and to put down that lemon-flavoured water that you think will trick your body into not being hungry any longer.
…and to control women physically
It also means you can’t build any meaningful muscle or weight because your body is trying hard to just not eat itself alive, which means to many people (based on what I have been reading up on and deep diving), that if you were caught in an altercation with someone much bigger than stronger than you (*ahem* you know who), you are less likely to be able to fight your way out of that desperate situation.
It is not just about being “healthy” which is the propaganda around it
Being too fat is not good. Being too skinny is not good either. You need a balance in between. Being skinny yes, does help with health issues, but you also cannot tell if someone is healthy based on whether or not they “look fat”. It is a manmade (again, emphasis on MAN made) ideal that confuses young girls because someone who is quote on quote “fat” could be extremely athletic and healthy versus someone who is dangerously skinny who has a whole host of health issues you can’t see.
Also, if it was really about health, why are women who weight lift and have serious muscles being dragged for looking and being “unfeminine”?
Honestly, I could go on but I won’t.
There is so much on this topic if you want to listen to what some are saying on social media platforms, but even if you don’t agree 100% with the point of view, it should give you pause and make you wonder what
SMALL BUT IMPACTFUL
ANOTHER USE FOR A BATHROOM SHELF
I hang my laundry outside to dry – saves on electricity, the sun does the work for free, and my clothes smell better – and I was always setting my laundry basked down on the ground which was kind of gross.
Then one day, my brilliant partner says – why don’t we have a little table or something to put the basket on? – and then he found this bathroom shelf that is at table height, is plastic, super lightweight and easy to move around as you are moving the basket along the clothesline.
It has been a small but impactful purchase that has changed my laundry game (I no longer need to bend down and possibly damage my back because who the hell is squatting properly when they pick up another item to hang on a clothesline?!!)
LISTENING TO…
MORGAN ST. JEAN’S – “DO IT LIKE A GIRL”
No notes. She ate.
HIGHLIGHT: ART THAT SPOKE TO ME
James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s – “Nocturne in Black and Gold”
I don’t even know where I saw this painting but once I did, it spoke to me. You can see ghostly apparitions of people by a beach (?), the sky lit up with fireworks (which I am assuming is what they mean by rockets), and the colours telling a story, with flecks of gold glittering across the sky. It is unusual for a painting of this age, as I can tell, and if you are interested in the history here is a whole article on it.
HEAD SPACE
Retro headbands
I like the look of these kinds of headbands. Retro, polka dotted… I am sure I have some somewhere, but this will be my m.o. for summer paired with dresses.
WHAT NOT TO LEAVE BEHIND
Estate Planning
Definitely a First World Problem that a few of us are lucky to have: thinking about what to do and how to parcel out your wealth when you pass.
The 7 worst assets to leave behind in estate planning. I am a money geek and I also want to make sure I make life easy for everyone in my family when I pass on, so I have been learning about what I should do before my time comes, and how best to drain my accounts beforehand.
- Timeshares
- Collectibles
- Guns (seriously? WTF)
- Active businesses (that are still in operation)
- Vacation homes
- Physical items with sentimentality attached
- Cryptocurrency
TL;DR – Cash is best.
Leave Cash at the end.
If you want to read more about estate planning in Canada, I started looking into it a while back and here is a rough guide of Canadian estate planning, and my latest 2025 update.
GETTING SCAMMED
When the luxury price tag no longer justifies the item
I read this Substack post from Interiors of Fashion talking about a bag she had coveted and researched for 2 years, only to realize when she went to finally go and buy it, that the quality had dropped significantly but the price had gone up.
I mean.. we all have seen this right?
Never mind luxury bags, shrinkflation is a real thing, just look at the chocolates of yore (lol) … they used to be bigger, they used to stack more into each tin, and there were no false elevated bottoms to make it seem fuller than it actually is, or worse, they put a little box (?) in the middle of the box, pile the candy around it, and you think it is full of candy when in fact, once you start eating down to the middle, it is missing a huge amount of it.
But it is particularly galling that they raise the prices on an already inflated luxury item where they are making bank off it, to in the same breath, have the audacity to also lower the quality of said item.
Wow.
Here is another one about why luxury goods no longer make us swoon. I am starting to feel this as well, to be honest.
TREND: Powder Blue
I miss butter yellow
This is the new ‘hot’ colour of the season (yes they change all the time), and while I don’t really put much stock into hot colours, I do like it when trendy colours pop up and they happen to be ones I really like. I mean, I am still stuck on millennial pink, which goes to show you how well they know our demographic lol …
Butter yellow was also fun, as it made me think of pastries and eating, but that has been shoved aside for powder blue which I am rather “meh” about…
Anyway, if you see more of this colour happening in clothing or decoration, you will know why.
A PERSONAL W AS OF LATE
Wearing little to no makeup and not missing it
This is a personal win for sure.. but I used to have a pretty extensive makeup routine, obviously fuelled by society, friends, influencers… and it went like this up until recently.. (please note: Skincare routine of washing, cleansing, etc is not included and is done before any of these products)
- Primer – To prep the skin before … anything
- Sunscreen – Non negotiable but debatable if it should have been under my makeup or not, but I can’t see how it could have gone on top?
- Foundation – For some reason, having completely “even” skin tone that looks unnatural but then also changing shades due to the oils in your skin during the day, was acceptable to me; I wore some pretty heavy foundation then moved to medium, then lighter to make my face one even colour where I couldn’t see my skin
- Concealer – For my undereye bags and spots
- Setting powder – To set said foundation in step 2 so it doesn’t cake or move around
- Matte powder – To take the shine off the foundation
- Eyeshadow – For the lids
- Eyeliner #1 – For the lash line at the top
- Eyeliner #2 – For the waterline (lower lash line)
- Eyebrow pencil – I need to shade them in
- Mascara – Eyelashes
- Mascara #2 – Optional: sometimes my first mascara was just for thickness or volume, and this one was for length
- Curl lases
- Lipliner – Must say, this was optional and only if I was wearing a red lip
- Lipstick or gloss
- Blush – To bring some colour back into my skin-less skin covered in foundation
- Bronzer – To bring some depth back to my skin so I don’t look like a mannequin
These days?
- Tinted Sunscreen – Same as before but now it is TINTED.. my favourite holy grail one is EltaMD Tinted Physical Sunscreen SPF 41
And if I am feeling like I need to do more or I want to do more, it is:
- Tinted Sunscreen
- Bronzer – On the eyelids, and cheeks, doubles as a blush and eyeshadow
- Eyeliner #1 – Just on the top eyeline
- Eyeliner #2 – If I want to get fancy, I do the lower one too in another colour
- Mascara
- Curl lashes
*(I no longer shade in my eyebrows either because I had them permanently tattooed and I am beyond happy with how long they have lasted!!)
Out the door.
Even lip balm is optional, only when my lips are dry. The less I have used it, the less dry my lips have become.
For special events I guess I could use foundation or concealer too, but I haven’t reached for it in over 3 years, so I think I am good.
IN THE DETAILS
Prada Fall/Winter 2026
These are beautiful socks. I want to maybe try to embroider some like it… just for fun. Wearing them with heels though? Gorgeous.
I also like the look of these herringbone lace socks with the heels too, it is a novel look for me to perhaps try, that is low risk.
Source: Archivé
UNEXPECTED USES
Earrings anywhere but in your ears
PERFECTION
Structured meets flowy
I really like the look of structured blazers over something soft and flowy. These are pants that match, but with a skirt, it would be really pretty as well, maybe a white flowy one. I have always liked this look.
Want more?
Here are all the previous months’ posts…