Image description: A girl taking a mirror selfie in a hallway with rainbow arches. She is wearing a short black dress, brown cowboy boots, a blue denim jacket and a letterbox hat and mustard yellow sling bag.
Mary's Long Denim Skirt And Yellow Top. A lovely denim skirt I got on Wednesday at Salvation Army.
Lowkey think I love the pants but no pockets 🤧 can’t justify getting new pants atm anyway. Last pic just showing my own bag.
I feel really grateful lately. Surrounded by some of the best vegan family, watching folks go vegan, others learning to love themselves more, and just seeing this community we built flourish.
It’s been a wild ride and my dream with this community is to help 10 million people find their health (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) through this lifestyle.
I’m happy to answer any questions you’ve got 🙏
Disclaimer: I have over a decade of mass-produced clothing, primarily Torrid and Hot Topic, in my closet from before I started researching how clothes are truly made. I am continuing to love, wear, and repair these pieces because I believe this to be the most ethical action I can take. I list where all my clothing comes from for transparency, but I do not endorse purchasing from these brands. Whenever possible, please shop secondhand or support independent, sustainable, and ethical slow fashion. I am always happy to share more about the true environmental and human cost of textile manufacturing in 2026.
8/14/2026 #1: Tricky lab work so wanted a comfy outfit. Torrid overalls, belt, and boots. Fashion Brand Company tee. Rather Keen earrings.
Summer weather here has not been all I had hoped for. But I tried to make the most of it with the fits. Hope you all enjoy and have been having a better summer than it's been up here.
Mary's Maternity Top And Skort. Wearing my Maternity top which is branded Motherhood with the lovely skort I got on National Thrift Store Day.
Disclaimer: I have over a decade of mass-produced clothing, primarily Torrid and Hot Topic, in my closet from before I started researching how clothes are truly made. I am continuing to love, wear, and repair these pieces because I believe this to be the most ethical action I can take. I list where all my clothing comes from for transparency, but I do not endorse purchasing from these brands. Whenever possible, please shop secondhand or support independent, sustainable, and ethical slow fashion. I am always happy to share more about the true environmental and human cost of textile manufacturing in 2026.
8/13/2026: Back at it with my pj's as outwear kick. Wore this to WFH and then to get my nails done. PrintFresh set and bag. Thrifted Target shoes altered by me. Mon Cherie Shop earrings.
After a horrible couple of months my wife & I decided to head into the mountains for a couple of days. We got a place with a beach and planned to mostly use this time to relax, recharge ourselves, and I used it as a chance to work on some things with my witchcraft as well.
This was my first time being able to wear a fem swimsuit out, so was super excited about that! I felt confident and beautiful and the best I ever had in a swimsuit. I also felt very cute in my fits throughout the trip, it all made me feel fantastic about myself. Everything I'd hoped to do in regards to my craft - research, offering prayers, etc - also went super well.
After the weekend I felt more strongly connected to so many things, including myself. This trip was good for my mind, body, and spirit.
Mary's Pink Tunic Dress With White Denim Skirt. I got this lovely pink and white tunic top on National Thrift Store Day. I am wearing it with my white denim skirt. I feel lovely and feminine and girly wearing this.
I wanted to provide a little update, and thankfully, this one is mostly good news.
Obviously, last week was very rough. I got two more final-round rejections, bringing me to 14 total. And just to clarify, because I know that number can sound confusing: these aren't rejections after submitting an application or even after a first interview. I have well over a thousand of those. These are situations where I've gone through four, five, sometimes six rounds of interviews, made it to the very end, and then heard some version of, "You were our second choice."
Getting #13 and #14 so close together hit me incredibly hard. I'll be honest, it was one of the worst days of my life. I'm glad I made it through it, because at the time, I genuinely wasn't sure I was going to.
But things have gotten a little better since then.
First, an update on my friend who is basically like a mother to me. Some of you have seen her before because I've posted pictures from when I visited her last year. She actually seems less concerned about the situation than I initially was, which has helped calm me down quite a bit. This is apparently something they've been monitoring for a while, and they've now reached the point where they feel they need to take action. So this isn't something that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Obviously I'm still worried, but I'm feeling much more hopeful than I was last week.
On the job front, I'm currently interviewing with four different companies. This is usually how my job search seems to work: I'll suddenly have several processes going at once, and then they gradually narrow down to one or two as I find out whether I'm moving forward.
There is one opportunity in particular that I'm very excited about, but I won't hear anything until next week. Fingers crossed. From everything I've learned so far, it seems like an almost perfect role for me. Now they just have to see me as the right person for them too.
Geno also had his annual vet appointment today! Everything looked pretty good. We're still waiting on the routine heartworm and flea/tick testing, but he's on preventatives, so I'm not particularly worried about those. More importantly, his physical exam was actually better than last year's. His joint issues seem to have improved, which makes me incredibly happy, especially now that my little guy is nine years old. ❤️
And probably the biggest piece of good news came from my dad.
He came over Monday for dinner, like he does most Mondays, and I was expecting a very different conversation. I had made some comments on Facebook recently about just how badly my mental health had deteriorated and the direction I felt myself heading. I'll intentionally keep that somewhat ambiguous, but I think you can piece together what I mean.
Those comments apparently concerned someone enough that either a friend or family member requested some kind of wellness/crisis outreach, and I ended up receiving a call from a crisis service.
I'm genuinely not angry about it. What I wrote wasn't something said impulsively in the heat of the moment. I was trying to be honest about how bad things had gotten. Someone saw that, became concerned enough to do something, and I appreciate that. I actually saved the number they gave me because there may come a time when I need it. I'm mostly just curious who made the call, because knowing who cared enough to do that would mean something to me.
Anyway, I assumed some version of that had probably made its way back to my dad, so I was preparing myself for a conversation about it.
Instead, the conversation was basically: "I'm going to start giving you some money every week."
My dad recently got a pretty substantial promotion at work, and because he's also receiving Social Security, he's thankfully in a position where helping us out for a while isn't going to put him in a difficult financial situation.
I've gotten much better at accepting help over the past several months. My friends have been phenomenal. My in-laws have helped us with food and other expenses wherever they can. And now my dad is stepping in too.
We've done everything possible to avoid taking on debt. Outside of the house, we really don't have much, and we're trying desperately to keep it that way. But after this long without a full-time income, our savings have obviously taken a beating. We've budgeted, then budgeted again, then figured out how to cut things even further.
Before this week, I was looking at our finances and seeing maybe six weeks of runway before we would have to start making some much more painful decisions, like withdrawing retirement money.
There's also an unavoidable trip coming up for my spouse. Without getting into their sister's personal circumstances, she's several states away and will be there for the next five or six years. My spouse hasn't seen her since January, and this is the first opportunity they've had to visit. Their parents offered to pay for the trip, and once I'm working and we're financially stable again, I'll repay them. Before that offer, we were staring at another $1,000+ expense that we absolutely did not have room for, but this also wasn't something I could ask my spouse to give up.
Between my in-laws covering that and my dad helping us every week, our financial runway may have gone from roughly six weeks to potentially the end of the year or even the beginning of next year.
That is an enormous weight off my shoulders.
I cried a lot Monday night after my dad left. I've done a lot of crying lately, but these were very different tears. They were stress-relief tears. For the first time in a while, it felt like I could unclench a little bit and stop feeling like there was a countdown clock hanging over my head every single day.
I still need a job. I'm still exhausted. I'm still scared about my friend. There are still plenty of things that aren't magically fixed.
But compared to where I was last week, I'm feeling hopeful again.
And I'll happily take that.
I got some new dresses today. Do you like them?
Thrift shopping over the weekend with my nieces and found these two sweaters, definitely felt like a Schitts Creek vibe and I am here for it! First one still had the tags on it, the second has serious 90s looks and is in great shape. Thought y'all might appreciate them. Plus, my new do! Shaved my head to reset my wandering Mohawk lines, channeling that Sinead O'Connor energy. 😍
Image description: Image 1 of women with very short shaved hair in a sweater with abstract black and white swirls, big black and white hoop earrings and black skull necklace. Second image of same woman in black and white sweater with swooping checkered patterns and chunky black rocks on both earrings and necklace.