thrift with me!! spring friendship gifts, life & sewing update

Hi, thrifting besties. We are at one of my favorite thrift stores. We are back at Rusty's Boutique and I am so excited just to take a look around. Look at what vintage or maybe antique cottage core things we can find. We'll just have a cozy shopping day. And I also want to share with you what's been on my heart recently with my own mental health and just finding joy in the mundane season. All right, let's head in. Thrifting besties, I have been wanting to go thrifting so long with you all, but life has been lifing as life does. And these past couple weeks have been a little bit hectic for me. First off, starting with sewing, I have had so much fun running my handmade small business called the Thrifting Therapist Co on Etsy. And I've been doing in-person markets. I'm just learning as a new business owner how to balance in-person markets and Etsy orders. I'm grateful for every single Etsy order. I'm still pinching myself that you all are even loving and buying and looking at the stuff I make. It brings me so much joy, but I'm also just trying to navigate inventory, which is so new to me. And I've been wanting to go thrifting for so long. Thrifting is my happy place. It's my mental health. My mind expands. And I know that's not always the case for a lot of people, like stores like this, antique stores. Thrift stores can be very overwhelming with items. And I hope that as a thrifting bestie, if you do get overwhelmed, my videos can bring you a little bit of calm, like you're shopping with a friend. It's a little bit more curated and you enjoy coming along with me, seeing what piques my interest, like this beautiful floral dish piece. Essentially, my style is very cottage core, so I'm looking for vintage antiques. But I will tell you, if I find a mug like this mug, this cup of happy, I'll pick it up for my friends, actually. So I love thrifting gifts. I think it is so fun to find something that you know someone else in your life is going to love. And thrifting for yourself is awesome, but I love thrifting for others too. So in addition to starting my own small business, which has been incredible, I've also been dealing with a stomach bug and a stye in my eye. I think that's what it is. It's a clogged stye. I had to go to urgent care. My eyeball swelled to three times its size in the socket and it hurts so bad. And I've learned that I get these when I'm stressed out or I'm just doing too much, I'm burning out. So I've really had to take a step back from serving at my church, from making YouTube videos, from even sewing, which is so hard. The things that bring me a lot of joy, I feel connected with God and I'm healing my mental health because I know for so many of us, we tend to run at a hundred miles per hour and feel like we have to go, go, go. And that's me. My brain and my ADHD is always running and it's so important for me to slow down. And that's my encouragement for you today. When I was editing this video and going through, you know, what do I wanna talk to my sweet thrifting besties about, what came to my mind was slowing down. And I talk a lot about that in mental health on this channel because in practice, I am a licensed, I'm a licensed addiction and trauma therapist. So it's really, it really just exudes from me for all of us to take care of ourselves. And this is my encouragement for you. Even though things feel really urgent right now in your life or they could be, or something feels really urgent, don't forget to care for yourself. Don't forget to slow down, to get the babysitter, to book the massage, to really take time to feed your soul because everything is going to pull at you all the time, but you're gonna be the one that has to fight for your mental health. You're gonna have to fight for peace and fight for calm. And that's okay. Creating that space is going to serve you in the long run. You'll be more sufficient, or I'm sorry, not sufficient. You'll be more efficient. You will be more productive thrifting. Now, the cute part of this store is half of the part, half of the store has seasonal decor. And I was just in heaven looking at all the fall and Halloween decor. I mean, come on, y'all. I am so ready for fall. I don't mean to be that basic, but I'm gonna be that basic. I am ready for fall. They have this adorable Easter section with little bunnies. And I am just in heaven. I love decorating my home seasonally. I know that is not always the case financially for a lot of people. And I don't go all out. I mean, I guess I could go way more, but I love decorating for the fall and the spring and Easter and all the things. The last thing I love to do at Rusty's is they have this beautiful cabinet area with vintage jewelry. I love to look at it. All right, let's go home and unhaul. Hello, thrifting besties. We are back home. It is like a week and a half later from our actual thrifting trip because the eyeball is feeling a lot better. You can see it's still a little bit red, but I have a lot more energy and time and I'm so excited to unhaul. Now this trip, I thought I would find more vintage items that I could not live without in Cottagecore. And they were just a mess. The things I did love were really expensive. I did find a 1920s purse that I really wanted to take home, but it was $100. So another day. But I did find two really fun gifts that I'm going to be able to give to friends or family on their birthday. The first is this natural life mug for $4. It says cup of happy with a little smiley face in it. These mugs, natural life, they usually go for like 15 to $20. So for $4, it was a seal. I love the way it feels. I love the little boho design here. So yes, you can never go wrong gifting mugs. Let me know down below what you tend to gift for people. Do you tend to gift picture frames? Do you tend to gift home decor? I know I have one friend that loves to give teacups and I've done that too. I love it. And then as I was about to leave Rusty's, I wanted to keep this one as a surprise for you all. I found this vintage, well, I say it's vintage. It's really not that vintage. I would say it's, well, it could be, honestly. So I am a 31. I just had my birthday and I used to buy these when I was probably like 10 to 15 at Hallmark. They're these little flower blooms that you open them up and there's a message in there to a friend. And this one is, thanks for being a great friend. Now I say vintage because in our world of thrifting, anything that is older than 20 years old is considered vintage. Antique is over, I think it's like 50 to 100 years, if I'm not mistaken. So if this came out, you know, in the early 2000s, it is vintage. But anywho, I am a sucker for a handmade card. I'm a sucker for words of affirmation. So when I found this, I picked it up for $6. It retails for 17. And I just thought it was so beautiful, kind of a blast from the past. So while this thrifting trip, I was hoping I would find more of that Victorian cottagecore style. I just found beautiful gifts for friends and I'm not upset by it. Do you all see this crazy mess behind me? This is a little sewing update for y'all. I'm preparing for my next market. It's called Faithful Finds. It's in Peoria, Arizona, May 9th. So it's Mother's Day weekend. And I am sewing like mad because it is my largest market I have ever done with the most attendees. I'm making my clay earrings. I have all this liner fabric that needs to be sewn. Look at all these straps for these Bible bags. So much fun. Another thing I'm doing in my bags that's kind of new is I'm adding Bible verses. I wanna show y'all. It's so, so fun. There they are. And I'm sewing those on. So when you open up your bags, you see a verse that really inspires you. And so I'm gonna link my Etsy shop down below. I'd love for you all to go check it out. Give me a holla on social media. And did I just say holla? I did. It's early in the morning. I'm recording this while my kids are still sleeping, but thank you all so much for being here. I'm gonna be coming out with a new antique shopping with an actual antique that I purchased in Gilbert, Arizona. And I'm so excited to show that to you all for the next video. So friends, you know the drill. Be gentle with yourself. Find something to smile about before you go to bed tonight. Until next time. Bye.