Welcome back to my monthly wrap-up, a retrospective of book reviews and my favorite things I’ve tried and loved through the month. Looking for more book reviews and recommendations from past months? You can find ‘em all here. This is A LONG ONE (in a good way— lots of stuff to recommend for your TBR!) so click here to view in browser.
Happy June! I am coming back to you, of course, forever changed, having famously gotten married but also gone to Italy for the first time on what we have optimistically dubbed “our mini moon” in complete agreement that it was “not long enough” and we’ll “need more.”
It was the best few weeks of my life, I’ve undergone a radical personality and priority transformation, as one does, and it was really amazing to not be on my phone or computer. I have extended that spirit as long as I possibly could, if I’m honest, until the tidal waves of to-dos now threaten to drown me entirely.
I thought I’d be coming back to you and wanting to write all about it, the wedding— but now I almost feel that’d cheapen the experience, to try to capture any of it that way. It was the best, the people were the best, are the best. I miss it and them too much to dwell on.
My wedding did gobble up all of May though— my recs, reads, and everything in between. Here are a few of the highlights that got me through a busy, bursting month somewhere between the beach on Long Island and Portuguese coast.
I’ve always been obsessed with Negative’s “Whipped” fabric (and it seems many readers share my obsession!), but I hadn’t ventured out into “non-Whipped” pajamas until this perfect summery tank and short set. They cost more than I’d typically spend on PJs, but they’re LUXE— quality is there tenfold. New favorite, ugh!! Another Negative order is in my future, this pair and another Whipped Boyfriend Tee for sleeping and lounging (I like to size up).
I basically packed two elephants’ worth for my wedding week (mostly Etsy finds) and I had to get ORGANIZED for real— my mom has and loves this toiletry bag with organization built in, and I tried the “small” out for this trip and can’t recommend it enough if you are sick of a messy toiletry bag with makeup smearing or caps falling off mid-transit. (The small is VERY small, but I barely wear makeup. I would buy the medium next time, or, if you wear a lot of makeup, the large!)
Another recent discovery that served me so so well in my May travels: these classic leather sandals from Margaux. I’d always wanted to try, but the price tag made me shy. Now I’m fully converted! I went with the Palermo, but if I could do it again I’d go with the Palermo Wrap or The Wrap instead. If you’ve ever been to Lisbon, you can appreciate how insane it is to break in a new pair of sandals— or any shoes at all— there. These, miraculously, passed the test…
The only purse I used the whole time I was in Europe was this under $100 woven bad boy that I wrote about finding on Etsy. It absolutely earned its keep and then some.
I already wrote about Camp Snap’s faux disposable cameras (and Super 8!) and how stoked I was to have them passed around at our wedding, and they were a bigger hit than you can possibly imagine. (I also loved being able to look at the footage ASAP.) When I met up with the girlies at the hotel pool the day after the wedding and offered the extra cameras up for the next leg of anyone’s Euro summer vacation, the crowd went wild… consider it motivation to leave your phone at home or as a good gift for your Gemini friend. (I have a code for you: FIRSTRODEO7.)
Confession— it was May 21st and I still hadn’t read a single book in May. I DNF’d not one, not two, but THREE buzzy books that I just couldn’t get into. More on that below the paywall, I would hate to come off as a Negative Nancy talking about something an author put their whole heart into, even if it was really not for me.
As you can imagine, it took a BANGIN’ book to bust me out of that DNF streak. I had to pull out the big guns, but it worked.
First off, my attempted reads but ultimate DNFs. I tried my hand at but couldn’t finish…