I don’t know if I’ve ever had a hiatus quite this long. It’s definitely been a hectic past couple of months, and I’ve been working hard to create blogs (including plant and fashion ones!) plus other deliverables for my clients. As I’ve mentioned before, this blog is shifting gears to be a more lifestyle-y blog, but I’ll still mostly be talking about plants, books, and, as promised, style! Yeah, consider this my foray into fashion blogging! After watching a ton of The Nanny, I’ve been digging up treasures at Goodwill to assemble Fran Fine-inspired thrifted outfits — and yes, I’ll mostly be blogging about thrift finds because have you seen the price of fabulousness these days?!
Anyway, I guess I’ll start with what I ended up doing this past Fourth of July weekend! Before cowering from fireworks going off in ten different directions from our house, I went up to San Jose for some thrifting and flea market adventures with my dad.
Early Sunday, I picked up some baked goodies from my favorite hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese bakery: 111 Bakery and Deli. This childhood favorite of mine never fails — I love their palmiers, banh mi, and pâté chaud so much! Ended up grabbing a slice of cake and a ham and egg bun and wish I bought more!
Then, flea market time! Before the pandemic, my dad basically visited the West Wind Flea Market once a week since, well…forever! I did see some plants that I wanted, but the prices were a little high for me, so I simply browsed. My favorite thing to do at the flea market is to sift through the $1 vendors who sell back clothes from Goodwill (that I’m pretty sure they buy by the pound). It takes a bit of digging, but you’ll find some great treasures!
I went a bit ham and picked up an inordinate amount of clothes…The thing about inexpensive (yet pretty high-quality) pieces is that I’m willing to select bolder silhouettes and colors. The older I get, the more I gravitate towards loud prints and funky textures because they make me *feel* something. A few of my favorite pieces include a punchy tropical flamingo crop top, two green dresses, a tweed midi skirt, and a silk red blouse with a qipao collar. Excited to mix and match to share my looks!
I also bought a ton of sweaters. I can’t stop buying sweaters. Half of my closet consists of sweaters. It is generally 100 degrees and higher in the Central Valley during the summer. I will still wear the sweaters.
After the flea market, we visited a couple of Goodwills and a Savers downtown! I actually didn’t end up buying a lot of clothes at the thrift stores. I did, however, pick up some books! Some treasures: The Vanishing Half, Grand Union, and Spark Joy! San Jose actually doesn’t have a lot of bookstores, sadly. Butttttt, the libraries and thrift stores are definitely bumpin’!
We ended our trip with some McDonald’s and a visit to Me-Kong Supermarket! In addition to four packs of Golden Curry, I bought some bittermelon, which I stir-fried with some egg today. When we got home, we fried up some beef patties and made hamburgers. ‘Twas a fun time!
