Coffee Break: Bamboo Gardening Gloves
This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Not a fan of having to work hard to clean dirt from under your nails? I don't mind getting dirty while gardening, but having to vigorously scrub my nails afterward bugs me (no pun intended). (What can I say? I'm impatient in most areas of my life!)
After scrubbing the dirt out the other day — after pulling up a ton of grass and weeds in a light drizzle — I went online and bought these gloves from Bellingham. I must have tossed my previous gardening gloves before our move, and these are an affordable replacement. I'm sure I won't use them for all gardening tasks, but they're handy (no pun intended, part two!), and I like how they're made from bamboo. They have great reviews, too!
The gloves are under $15 at Amazon and are available in four sizes — with free returns!
Sales of note for 7/11:
- Nordstrom – Designer clearance, up to 60% off!
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Athleta – Extra 30% off semi-annual sale, up to 60% off reader favorites like Brookyn and Endless pants
- AYR – Ooh, good sale section — but lots on final sale. Readers love (LOVE) these comfy work pants and these jeans.
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- Brooks Brothers – Up to 40% off sitewide + 40% off 3+ items
- Cuyana – Archive sale, up to 60% off
- Evereve – Extra 30% off sale!
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- Hobbs – Up to 50% off, extra 30% off sale
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Margaux – Save up to 50% off, including archive sale
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 50% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Strathberry – Up to 30% off select styles
- Talbots – 40% off your entire purchase + extra 15% off markdowns
I know that with T2 diabetes, you can make a lot of health differences with diet and lifestyle. Same with kidney disease. Does anyone know of anyone with heart failure (specifically, right-sided heart failure) who has moved the needle at all on this? It doesn’t seem that you can reverse it, but in theory, you can really reduce the impact of it vs just taking any suggested meds (like diuretics).
They will not just recommend taking meds for heart failure. In addition to the meds, they’re going to have specific diet and lifestyle recommendations.
My dad has an aortic aneurysm that his doctors are watching, and they gave him what sounded like some fairly specific diet/lifestyle recommendations as part of that. I can’t speak to the exact details, but I do know that he’s followed them closely and the aneurysm has not grown or changed in the past decade.
Not a doctor, but why don’t they fix that? My understanding is that if it ruptures, it’s a total emergency and with traffic in my city, I don’t think I’d get to the right ER in time.
Any possible fix also has risks. So they watch it to see if it’s getting closer to rupturing.
The risk of rupture is very different based on the size of the aneurysm, so with a small one, barring additional risk factors, it’s normal and standard to monitor rather than immediately operate.
Remember the puberty lecture about what is happening to your body then? I feel like I could use a version tailored to the 40s and each decade thereafter as parts go out of warranty.
Reporting live from a gnarly torn rotator cuff surgery at 41 from no actual injury just having the audacity to live…… yes, this.
I feel like I have a lot of professional dressing questions lately, as I keep trying to shop my closet for a changing body (hi, hormonal flux stage of life). As much as we try to type questions in the abstract, I feel that I’d benefit from a human looking at me (with head cropped out) do a spin in an outfit to help me figure this out. Is there a site where you can upload a twirl? Like anon snapchat of OOTDs? IDK if I could get an in-person stylist for this (most in my city specialize in occasion oufits), but is really what I need.
That sounds terrible. What random human are you trusting to give you advice? How will you feel if they say something nasty? I would look into an in-person stylist. Maybe they market their services for occasions, because that’s what makes a lot of people pull the trigger, but they are running a business, and I would imagine that many could accommodate everyday clothing as well.
Maybe it would be terrible to crowd source, but you all are at least interested in work outfits. IDK that someone who just does occasion work understands what office jobs are like. In my city, it feels rare for women in their 40s to still be working in jobs that require formal outfits. More often, they are in healthcare professions with a uniform, real estate (where there is an unspoken dress code that is different than what I wear to the office), or education-related jobs (their own style, depending on if college or K-12). A lot of women at higher income levels don’t work at all. I might trust strangers with jobs over someone used to working with other groups.
Post your outfits with head cropped on the r/businessfashion subreddit. People will chime in. You can see if you think you trust any of them.
You Look Fab has a forum where you could post your pictures. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve been on those forums, but I got some good advice back then.
They don’t know anything about proper office dressing though.
Yeah, no. They are not versed in professional office wear.
If you have a standing, regularly scheduled club/group, how committed are you to avoiding scheduling conflicts. I have been a member of a writing critique group for over 10 years. We meet every other Wednesday evening. It is always on my calendar, and I strenuously avoid scheduling conflicts. I miss meetings occasionally for work events which I cannot control, but other than that, I treat the group meeting as a commitment and I schedule other things around the meetings. Lately, though, my fellow members have been missing/skipping meetings because of movable conflicts–like going to see a garden exhibit, packing for a trip that leaves the next day, going to a free drawing class. This is starting to annoy me, because the group meetings do not work as well when too many people are absent, and sometimes it results in us cancelling a session. I have not said anything yet, because I may be way too anal about this issue.
Maybe the thing to do is to have someone send RSVPs and note: event subject to cancellation if we don’t have at least X people by date Y.
Sometimes, things aren’t priorities or are just secondary ones. Our scout troop went under like this because it didn’t work with the same 2-3 kids attending even though 15 more really wanted to have Eagle on their college applications. They just didn’t want it more than the play or the soccer team or whatever.
Since you said this has been happening lately – has there been a vibe shift in the meetings that might be putting some people off? Because my honest answer is that I treat regularly scheduled groups as a priority until I stop enjoying them as much, and then they become less of one.
+1. I think every other week is fairly frequent (IMO) for group meetings like this. And summer is particularly tough. I do not know much about writing critique groups, but would it work if the meetings were only once per month?
From my restaurant server friends: summer is chaos and their hours and tips tank because a noticeable chunk of our city is on vacation for any given week.
+1 to this. My book club that meets monthly struggles to reach our “quorum” in summer because of so many vacations and conflicts. We meet anyway because those of us available would rather meet as a small group than not meet, but I’m impressed that anyone can regularly attend 2+ times a month on a weeknight!
Yes, this.
If it is something that I really enjoy, I prioritize it very carefully. Also, if I’ve made a commitment and it’s an activity that needs a certain threshold number of people to be effective or worthwhile, I try to honor the commitment unless it’s truly unavoidable. It’s great that you’ve had this group going for such a long time, but I wonder if this is a matter of shifting priorities as people’s lives have evolved. The examples you gave do seem like movable conflicts, yes, but people might also be legitimately trying to balance competing schedules in ways that aren’t obviously visible. It might feel worth skipping the 2x month meeting for a garden night a friend is only free to do on that Wednesday. It might be time to reevaluate with members – is this frequency still working? Is the time and day still good? Would an rsvp process to make sure you have enough people to move forward be worthwhile?
Or a summer hiatus and a December hiatus? Those times of year are crowded with travel, office events, etc.
I was going to suggest breaks for July/August and December.
I think the priority level depends on someone’s life stage and family commitments as well. I would try to have a little grace for people.
yes to this. is this a purely recreational group like a book club or a hiking group? if so then interest is flagging. if you want to be more active or regular time to find a new group. If this is a volunteer organization like an HOA board or PTA then I think it’s fair for the president to make expectations clear but there isn’t a lot you can do when people aren’t working for you and being paid.
For things that are important to me like my weekly consulting group, I prioritize it because it keeps me on track for work/professional goals that are important to me. That is the kind of group that people get out of it what they put in. You can’t control if people decide it doesn’t matter as much to them. For other types of groups, I generally try to keep them on my calendar but will move them if something else comes up. I think the key thing there is not to rsvp yes if I can’t come so people aren’t waiting on me to show up.
People are saying, via their attendance, that it’s no longer a priority for them in the way it used to be.
Also, what has changed about how much and when the people are writing? It’s hard to keep up a creative endeavor (writing) at the same level for 10 years, especially to keep it up to the extent that you want/need a critique group every two weeks. That’s either a group of professional authors of a highly committed and steady group of hobby writers.
After 10 years, I’m also assuming the people who are serious about writing have either made progress with it and become much better, have gotten published or not, etc.
Has anyone had little red itchy bumps break out on their forehead that get redder and itchier after sun exposure? I’ve been trying all sorts of things but nothing seems to work!
This is probably a sun rash/sun poisoning. I’ve generally had luck with aloe or colloidal oatmeal cream, but you really need to just spend time out of the sun. My experience also is that if this happens once, it is more likely to happen again. You may need to start wearing a hat!
no – maybe see your derm? sounds like a reaction to wearing a hat; if there wasn’t a hat i would worry.
My mom had this. It turned out it was a reaction to a gel manicure of all things. Cisaplast helped. But we think Cisaplast is like duct tape: fixes everything.
Hopefully, a light question– can someone explain Goyard bags to me? I had never seen one before, and now I’ve started seeing them everywhere where I live. I genuinely like this style, but I cannot justify spending that much money on a bag, and I am surprised there are so many people that seemingly do? Are all of these people actually buying the real bag or are these dupes that I’m seeing?
For context, I live near a very wealthy area of town, and my kids go to a very bougie preschool, but I haven’t seen this bag at our preschool, which is I think a lot of my confusion. It’s mostly been out and about and most of these women are dressed ok but nothing is screaming wealthy about them other than their bag.
I live in a similar area and I upgraded to a Lo & Sons bag from my LL Bean Boat & Tote bag that I got at a conference. LOL. But the SAHMs at our church had LV bags and the ones too cool for school need to one-up that and got Goyards, maybe 10ish years ago? You used to have to go to Europe to get them, which I think was why it was seen as an upgrade even though it was just another coated-canvas bag. Now I think you can get them in the US.
My sister (not wealthy) has a fake from Amazon. You’re probably seeing those.
Yes there are good Goyard fakes out there and it’s hard to tell them apart from the real ones unless you look really closely.
Im not a purse expert but I haven’t seen a lot of these lately. At one point the real bags were difficult to get outside of an actual store so I think so maybe they had a little more exclusively compared to say a Louis Vuitton which you’d buy at the mall in any upscale town. I’ve seen people sell fake bags, but not goyards specifically, at the kinds of charity lunches where they also do raffle baskets. Maybe someone was doing that recently? Or maybe someone in town offered to make a trip to a real store and offered to buy them for whoever was interested?
Yes. Lots of people spend money on bags and clothes and jewelry and hobbies. In ways you might not agree with and might be judgmental about but they do it. Lots of people also buy fake stuff so you think they did. Some people have more money than you think they do. Some people are in debt and have horrible shopping problems.
I don’t spend time speculating on that stuff. It doesn’t really affect my style or shopping decisions because the fake stuff makes me feel like a fraud and the real stuff makes me feel like a sucker.
I thought the Goyard trend had died among adults a few years back when college girls started carrying them, but in the past year I have seen them on a lot of college moms.
I think people like them because they are large-ish and more colorful than the LV Neverfull (which is a bit less expensive but way more common). I see real ones and fake ones in West LA. People aren’t as familiar with the logo so the knockoffs probably read as a bit more impressive.
If I was going to spend that kind of money on a bag, I’d buy a Bottega Veneta tote or a Loewe Amazona.
to me they’re an outdated trend like from 10 years ago. i would definitely not buy one new if you like, lots of better things to spend your money on. they’re not even a true wealth kind of thing, it’s like LVs – the logo is always the stupidest bag, the epi leather is so much classier.
I had to Google what they look like since I’ve never seen one. My first thought is that it reminds me of those Liz Claiborne bags with the tiny triangles on them. They were hugely popular when I was in high school in the 90s.
I used to have a green vera bradley tote that was almost exactly like them, but the straps wore out and I ended up donating or tossing. I wish I had kept it now! It would have been a perfect fake!
I’ll bite on this question as someone that owns them. You never buy them as your first designer bag. Because you can only buy them in person, they are normally happy memories of impulse purchases on vacation. They always seem like the responsible choice compared to whatever else you are looking at with a VAT refund. Adding to their being the “responsible” choice for a souvenir/prize from Europe/NYC, they take a lot of wear, are super light weight compared to most bags and the non-totes have nice things when you are travelling like zippers.
I think since the authentic bags look inexpensive, I would be in line to buy a knock-off. I don’t find them specifically unattractive, and I see them as practically appealing, but they don’t look luxury to me, so I would not want to spend the money. To me, it is the essence of conspicuous consumption, and I am fine not passing judgment from the person who places importance on this.
To the poster this morning with the abusive spouse. I am so so sorry your mother said she would side with him. I can’t imagine saying that to either of my daughters. Also- u say you have videos- make sure they are backed up somewhere and you see a medical professional to get any injuries documented.
As a mom, I also can’t imagine saying that to my kids. I realize logically that my daughter is a legal adult, but if she wanted to leave an abusive husband I’d be packing up her stuff and setting up her bedroom for as long as she wants to live with me.
I’m so sorry your mom is like that, and I say that as the daughter of a mother who sides with my spouse 98% of the time because he’s more pleasant than my own father.
Seconding all this. The best example my mother set was when she finally had enough of staying together for the kids, stood up for herself and divorced my dad.
Unfortunately, that dynamic is not at all uncommon, especially when said mothers have narcissism or self-esteem issues that cause them to fawn over charismatic, charming men.
I didn’t read the morning post. But my mother told me from the time that I was a young girl that if a man ever hit me, leave immediately, and never go back. She had not been in an abusive relationship nor raised in an abusive household. And she believed in pushing through tough times in marriages, including hers with my dad. But violence is absolutely non-negotiable; there are absolutely no circumstances that justify it, no matter what someone says. None. If he hits you, get out.
I don’t love the current crop of A-line midi dresses but they do work with flat Mary Jane type shoes. My feet need a strap to stay in flat shoes. I swear the shoes would frump up many other types of outfits (a skirt suit or sheath dress) but my feet are at least happy for 2026 fashion.
For the morning poster whose husband was depressed:
My husband suffered from terrible anxiety and depression and refused to take meds or see a therapist for reasons that were not clear to me, but rigidly important to him. There were two important shifts for us. First, I realized that he was dumping all of his anxiety on me at night – so I said, “I can’t talk to you about this in bed.” And I held that as a firm boundary – to the point that if he wanted to talk after I’d gone to bed, I’d literally get up and go sleep by myself in the guest room. I wasn’t punishing him; I was protecting myself. But having that boundary forced him to reckon with the consequences of his own anxiety rather than passing it onto me, and I think made him realize just how bad it had become. Second, at some point, I finally said, “I love you, but I cannot live like this. I will not be able to stay married to you unless you do something to manage your illness. There are at least three evidence-backed ways to get better: exercise or therapy or meds. I hope you do all three. But you have to do something because I just can’t keep going like this.” He started going for runs and that actually healed his brain just enough for him to be able to talk to his doctor about medication, and now he does both and sees a therapist and meditates and uses a full set of tools. But he had to pick one to get started. I did not want to ever have to threaten divorce but ultimately, I had to acknowledge the fact that I couldn’t live with that level of unmanaged anxiety anymore. It was hurting me. And I only got there with the help of an individual therapist.