It feels so good to get back into thrifting! I took a bit of a hiatus last year because to be honest, I was not finding much at the thrift when I would go. With the growing popularity of thrifting, it was not leaving much on the racks to discover in my area. So, I took a break and during that break, I discovered my love of estate sales. I was actually leaving an estate sale recently one Saturday morning when I decided to drop into Goodwill. I started this new year optimistic about thrifting again and my first thrift trip of the year was so fruitful.
You know they say that the beginning and end of the year is a good time to thrift because of so many people cleaning out their homes for tax season. I could not believe how full the racks were. I found so much! Plus, because of my new love for estate sales, I have broadened my horizons to thrifting more than accessories and clothing. I have started thrifting more housewares, such as glasses, utensils and more.
As I have been getting back into it, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the most common things you can find at the thrift store. It's not limited to clothes and the best part is that EVERYONE can find something.
Outerwear is by far one of my favorite things to thrift because of the ability to find high quality pieces. You can find amazing vintage blazers, coats and more at the thrift store. Plus, you can find trendy ones, statement ones, etc.
Sis,
Is this a safe space? I have to be honest in saying that making creative friends over the last few years has been incredibly hard for me. I hate to say that, but I believe there is power in being honest. Being a creative is such a unique experience because we have our quirks, we have our art forms we love and some of the world just does not understand what we do and why we do it. That's why having creative friends as a creative is so key. You need people that get you and most importantly, see you. They see the beauty in what you love and why you choose to create.
Knowing the importance of having community within the creative world is why I originally built the Triad Women Bloggers Network several years ago. I know how essential it is to have a place where creatives can come together, learn and talk about our journeys with people that truly understand. Although the group is deactivated, I still know the significance of finding your creative community. That has been my personal struggle over the last few years.
In fact, it has been a pain point I have often brought up in therapy. I currently do not feel I have creative friends that I can turn to for support and that's hard. It wasn't always this way, but I slowly started to see a change over the last year. I've seen creative friends that supported me heavily online for years slowly stop their support. I understand that people have lives outside of social media and the algorithm does not always show our content, but this was different.
I had to learn to stop over giving. I'm so big on supporting other creatives that I was often blind to the fact that that support was repeatedly one-sided. I had to learn to fall back on that. I also learned that at my core, I do have a big heart for people in general. There will never be anything wrong with that, but with that, people can take advantage. Your discernment has to be on point and you have to know not to ignore it. 
As much as I love being a creative, I've had a few times where being online has reminded me of high school. I was never in the in crowd in high school and I often feel the same about social media. However, I had a few close friends in high school that meant so much to me and I'm hoping that one day I will find those same creative friends today. The journey has been hard, but it's most certainly not over. Here's to manifesting I connect to the right people this year...
God bless & stay fab,
Sis,
A few years ago, it was brought to my attention that a lot of my friends are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. It was an observation spoken, not in a malicious way, but it was noticed. I suppose as a Christian and someone who identifies as heterosexual, it may be something that others didn't quite understand. I kind of laughed at the observation at the time, but when I thought more in depth about it, I realized what they stated was a fact. Many of my friends do identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. 
Do men still complain about the cost of dating these days? This thought came to me last week because if you follow me online, I have been outside a lot these days. From art galleries to music events, I have been going out and enjoying myself. All of the events I have been to lately have been free and several have even had free alcohol as well. This is why the question of complaining about the cost of dates came to mind for me recently. I have been married for almost nine years and one thing my husband and I have been big on since day one is continuing to have fun and date each other.
Beauties,
This year is my husband and I's third year celebrating Air Max Day. I look forward to Air Max Day every year now because it's a time that we get to celebrate something we both enjoy together, sneakers! As I shared the first year, my husband gifted me the first Air Max silhouette I fell in love with and each year, we've been celebrating with a new silhouette. The cool thing about this year is that I was able to take a moment to really put on my creative hat and think about how I wanted the vibe and feel of our pictures to be.
This year has been a little different for me creatively because although I always love using a professional photographer, I've taken a step back from it to start creating more on my own. I've seen a lot of people talking about how true creatives are those that create something out of nothing. I think that is so true and lately, I've wanted to stretch myself creatively. I want to spend more time seeing if I could come up with ideas, execute them and bring them to life.
With that in mind, I knew that it was really important to me to keep this annual tradition of Air Max Day going for us. So, I looked on Pinterest about a week before Air Max Day to see if anything stood out to me. I knew I wanted to include flowers since it's Spring and so much is blooming in our area. I found a few images for inspiration, went to Trader Joe's and bought several bouquets of flowers and came home to get started.
I created my own bouquet and showed my husband the theme I was going for. He chose his outfit, which was perfect for the feel of the images and we took our tripod and remote to a local park and got these images in about 30 minutes. I felt so accomplished that day. Always remember, nothing you create is small. Everything you deem important is important. Keep creating because you deserve to share your gifts and the world needs them.
God bless & stay fab,
