September Favorites
Pink spritzes, Fragrance Hyper-fixations, and the post-wedding hobbies that are getting me excited for fall
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always kept a running list of my 10 favorite things in my iPhone notes app. It started as a way to remind myself to be thankful for little things that make my life better, and I’ve found myself maintaining it just because it’s fun.
So every month, I’m bringing you a list of 10 things, in no particular order, that have earned a place in my life lately. Don’t expect a theme and don’t expect pressure to overhaul your entire routine - just 10 things I’ve genuinely been loving this month, and why.
1. Ballet
I started taking adult ballet classes about a year and a half ago and fell completely in love. There’s something wonderfully soothing about the structure of a ballet class. You come in, settle at the barre, work through the same fundamental movements, then progress into adagio, turns, jumps. It requires an intense amount of concentration, but at the same time, the repetition shuts my brain off in a way very few things do.
Sadly, when wedding planning became all-consuming this spring, ballet completely fell off my schedule. But lately, I’ve finally been going back.
I think one of the stranger parts of life after a wedding is figuring out what to do with all the space that suddenly reappears. I’m trying to be intentional about filling mine with hobbies and creative pursuits that make me feel more like myself, rather than handing those hours over to scrolling or bed-rotting.
I love the artistry of ballet. I love the aesthetic. I love that it’s genuinely difficult without feeling like another workout class. Mostly, I love having something I do simply because I enjoy doing it.
2. My Digital Camera
In March 2020, trapped inside a tiny South Boston apartment with literally nowhere to go, I decided it was time to start a vlog. This was peak Boston quarantine. It was freezing outside, my neighborhood Stop & Shop had run out of flour, yeast, and seemingly every other ingredient required for the baking hobbies everyone else had picked up, and going for a walk meant bundling up for a 40-degree + high-wind pilgrimage to Castle Island.
(Boston people who survived that particular version of COVID are built differently.)
So naturally, with no prior experience and absolutely no evidence that I would ever become a vlogger, I bought a G7 X.
Plot twist: the vlog never happened. I used the camera approximately never, tucked it away somewhere, and forgot I owned it until digital cameras suddenly became cool again. I was halfway to convincing myself I needed to buy one when I remembered that I already had a very good digital camera collecting dust in my house.
Photography has actually always been something I loved. In high school, my most prized possession was a Canon DSLR, and I became the unofficial photographer of my friend group. I knew essentially nothing about photography then and still wouldn't pretend I do now. I just really like taking pictures.
So lately I've been teaching myself how to actually use the G7 X by experimenting with settings, lighting, composition, etc. and figuring out how to get it to take the photos I want. It feels less like picking up a new hobby and more like rediscovering an old one, which might be why I'm enjoying it so much.
3. Sarti Rosa
I am not ahead of the curve here. The Sarti Spritz has very much had a moment this summer, and I have happily joined the bandwagon.
To be fair, I’m a spritz person in almost any form once the weather gets warm. This summer, Sarti has been the hyperfixation.
Sarti Rosa is a bright pink Italian aperitivo with blood orange, mango, and passion fruit notes, traditionally mixed with Prosecco and soda for a Sarti Spritz. It’s fruity without being sweet, refreshing, and light enough that it works particularly well for daytime drinking.
So why Sarti in September, you might ask? Something people who don’t live in Texas may not understand is that “fall” here has zero to do with weather changes. You can be watching college football outside while it’s still approximately 90 degrees, which means my ideal September beverage is not remotely autumnal. This year, it’s ice-cold, bubbly, and pink.
For Dallas friends: Birdie’s in Lakewood has one on the menu and a great outdoor setup. Consider this my pitch to keep spritz season alive well into fall.
4. PHLUR Vanilla Skin Body Mist
August was quite possibly the sweatiest month of my life.
I spent 99% of my free time last month in CorePower Sculpt teacher training, which meant 15-20 hours per week spent in a heated room learning anatomy, practicing sequences, and taking/observing sculpt classes, plus hours at home cueing Kevin through imaginary classes and walking around Dallas rehearsing music formulas to myself like a crazy person.
Doing a heated yoga teacher training during a Texas summer is, in retrospect, a slightly diabolical choice. Needless to say, my shower, deodorant, and fragrances were working overtime.
Somewhere along the way (out of pure necessity), I discovered PHLUR Vanilla Skin Body Mist. It has vanilla at its core layered with pink pepper, cashmere wood, and sandalwood to keep it from smelling saccharine or overpowering, and it makes me feel 20% more put together even when I’ve just left a 95-degree fitness studio looking objectively unwell.
Definitely coming with me into fall.
5. CYKLAR Body Wash & Cream
CYKLAR has been on my radar since Claudia Sulewski launched the brand because I’ve followed Claudia since the early YouTube days. Before “clean girl” became an entire internet aesthetic, she was already living in that beautifully organized, understated corner of the internet I desperately wanted my life to resemble.
I resisted buying CYKLAR for a while and then finally caved on the Crescent body wash and cream this month, and unfortunately for my wallet, they’re really good. It smells expensive - less like a traditional body product and more like something you’d encounter in a very nice hotel bathroom. The scent also stays close enough to the skin that I can layer perfume over it without feeling like I've created a Bath & Body Works circa 2009 fragrance cloud.
The body cream might be my favorite part. I hate body lotions that leave you feeling sticky or slick afterward, but this absorbs quickly while still leaving my skin moisturized.
The body wash is pricier than your average drugstore version, but the bottle is huge and a little goes a long way. More importantly, it makes showering feel more luxurious, which matters a lot during the infernal months when I’m averaging 2-3 showers per day.
6. Earle Meets World on Netflix
Kevin and I intentionally made no plans for Labor Day weekend. We have a very busy September ahead, and after an equally busy summer, we wanted a few days to do almost nothing: get our lives organized, sleep, reset, and generally re-enter society before fall really starts. Naturally, I used some of my valuable restorative time to watch all 8 episodes of Earle Meets World in under 24 hours.
The Netflix series follows Alix Earle and her endearingly chaotic blended family. I already liked Alix going into it - obviously she is beautiful and lives an incredibly aspirational life, but I’ve always respected how intelligently she has handled becoming crazy famous overnight.
What I admire most about Alix, though, is that she has somehow maintained a little mess around the edges. She’ll show the glamorous trip and then show herself waking up hungover with Taco Bell next to the bed or crying about a breakup. She can be extraordinarily polished without pretending her actual life is. The same vibe emanates from her family as well: they argue, there are uncomfortable dynamics, everyone isn't constantly performing. And yet you also get the sense that they genuinely love each other and are extremely family-first.
The show made me think about how influencers became popular in the first place because they felt more accessible than traditional celebrities, but somewhere along the way, influencer culture has become so polished that many influencers now make the most iconic celebrities seem down to earth in comparison.
I think the reason Alix has been so successful is because she straddles both sides, giving the world enough glamour to be aspirational while leaving enough imperfection to still feel human. I loved the show. No notes.
7. BÉIS The Carry-On Roller
This recommendation is neither groundbreaking nor niche. I know you know about BÉIS. But September for me involves a wedding, a bachelorette, and a weekend trip to visit friends, which means my Carry-On Roller is about to be put into heavy rotation.
I've owned mine for four or five years and abused it considerably. I am not a minimalist packer. I am a “but what if I need three different jackets for a weekend trip?” packer, and I have forced this suitcase to accommodate choices no carry-on should justifiably be asked to accommodate. The zippers remain undefeated.
It isn’t cheap, but considering how many trips mine has survived and how aggressively I pack it, the cost per use has become quite simply economical. If you are also an overpacker masquerading as a carry-on person, I recommend this suitcase wholeheartedly.
8. The UPS Store
The most glamorous recommendation on this list: The UPS Store.
One thing no one adequately warns you about when you get married is that after you finish the endless admin involved with planning the wedding, the U.S. government assigns you a second round of full-time admin: changing your name.
And my generation has one enormous disadvantage when navigating this process: we do not own printers. I have not owned a printer in at least a decade. This has never been a problem because I live in the year 2026 and conduct my life accordingly. The United States government, however, has chosen a different path.
Enter: my local UPS Store.
At this point, I am on first-name basis with the employees at the Skillman Street UPS Store. I've gone in to print forms, scan signatures, take passport photos, photocopy documents, buy envelopes, mail applications, and various other analog tasks that I’m genuinely shocked have not gone extinct.
At one point they took my passport photo (minimum 10 retakes until I didn’t look like I was being held at gunpoint), reprinted the photo multiple times until it looked right, printed and assembled my entire application in the correct order, and mailed it out directly to save me a trip to the post office. It was spectacular customer service for something I had mentally prepared to be a huge pain.
So, to every fellow millennial who refuses to buy a printer: when bureaucracy comes for you, go directly to The UPS Store. They've got your back.
9. Nespresso Decaf
Anyone who knows me knows I love coffee. Unfortunately, I also take ADHD medication, and over time I’ve had to accept that combining it with caffeinated coffee created a unique brand of energy that neither I nor the people around me particularly needed, which means I had to part ways with caffeine a while ago.
Giving up caffeine itself wasn't actually the hard part; giving up good coffee was. Decaf drinkers know the struggle. Decaf coffee tastes like someone described the flavor of coffee to a cup of hot water.
This month, my world changed when I discovered Nespresso's Vertuo Decaffeinato pods. They make a full 7.8 oz cup of coffee and taste like real coffee, completely devoid of the sad-decaf quality I had previously resigned myself to. This sounds like a small development in my life, and it is. But having the ritual of a hot cup of coffee back feels disproportionately wonderful.
10. Mariposa Picture Frames
Kevin and I got our wedding photos back a few weeks ago, which means I have entered the next phase of being a newlywed: figuring out what to do with hundreds of beautiful photos besides over-posting on IG.
Professional framing gets expensive quickly, but I also think picture frames are a little home detail that matters more than people realize. The right frame makes the photograph feel special and becomes part of the room around it.
I've loved Mariposa frames for years. At our wedding, we had a table near the guest book filled with framed photos of our families and of us, and my mom sourced almost all of the frames from Mariposa. They were beautiful.
Then, for my birthday this year, my aunt and uncle gave me a simple white Mariposa frame. It was a gift that seemed small until we realized how perfect it is. We had just gotten our wedding photos back, the frame fits beautifully in our house, and now I get to choose one of those photographs to live in it.
It also made me realize what an underrated newlywed gift a beautiful picture frame is. After the wedding, everyone suddenly has photographs they care deeply about and nowhere to put them. If someone close to you recently got married, buy them a beautiful frame.
And if you're looking for the frame, start with Mariposa.
