I also saw on TikTok that it's super easy to return clothes to SheIn (because I suck at this) and that most of the time they don't even make you send things back they just give you a refund. And that's exactly what happened with three of my items. One pair of jeans (even though both were the exact same size) was too big, one of my jackets was ripped and one jumpsuit was totally see-through. So I returned all 3 and they only made me send back the jacket. So now I have an extra pair of oversized mom jeans and a see-through jumpsuit which I put up for sale on my Mercari & Poshmark. So there ya go, it' a win-win in my book.

I always buy cheap jewelry pieces for weekend trips like this because I'm okay if it tarnishes or gets lost and that's exactly what happened with these gold pieces, but they lasted the whole weekend so pretty happy with that. The flats were surprisingly not bad! I'll be happy if they get me through the rest of the wedding season (for those who don't know I assist Abby Jiu Photography during wedding season). The other pair of mom jeans were super comfy and so were the jackets. I was really happy with the purses! The houndstooth one was actually my favorite! But I was REALLY shocked with the green velvet sparkle wrap dress. I saw this on the model in the photo and knew this would be the dress I wore for the boat, but I didn't think it would look just like the photo when I tried it on. I was VERY shocked and VERY surprised but ultimately VERY happy with this purchase. Hands-down though my favorite pieces from this haul is the black corduroy overalls and half button crop long-sleeve shirt. I have worn this outfit more times than I care to admit and it's amazing. Can't recommend these two purchases enough!

Obviously since I had to return some of those items and the jewelry is totally trashed now, I'm only showing the pieces I have left, but nonetheless enjoy this  try-on haul and be sure to follow me on TikTok @micheleonelblog for more content!

Houndstooth Crossbody Bag | Flap Pocket Hem Coat | Half Button Drop Shoulder Long-Sleeve Shirt | 2pc Gold Necklaces | 10pc Gold Rings | Green Velvet Sparkle Wrap Dress | Light Tan Overall Shorts | Black Corduroy Overalls | 2pc Faux Leather Knot Headbands | Designer Dupe Chain Crossbody Bag with Coin Purse | Faux Pearl Decor Suede Flats | Acid Wash Mom Jeans | Pink Ankle Cut Jumpsuit | Red Belted Jumpsuit | Oversized Corduroy Jacket | High Rise Mom Jeans

May was a pretty good month—busy, but good. We are in the middle of moving which is super stressful. But through it all, we've had a very productive month. I re-worked my resume (shout out to my brother), my boyfriend and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary and the weather is getting so much warmer so I'm happy about that! Here's to the upcoming summer!

Highs: I had a handful of good things this past month but not one thing was better than the rest. Our trip to Philly was fun, we celebrated my boyfriend's birthday and our 7 year anniversary, we made it to the semi-finals for soccer and the boys team made it all the way to the finals. One of my friend's got engaged and I got to see one of my friends who is having a baby soon 🥺. It was overall a very busy, but productive month!

Lows: Just like the highs there were a handful of lows too. We're moving which is stressful, we didn't win any soccer finals, and my office determined we have to stop working from home and go back to the office in July which I am NOT looking forward to.

We all know my favorite designer store is Tiffany & Co. and if you didn't—you do now. I even took a T&CO bag to Home Depot to get color match for paint and painted my childhood room that exact color. I am obsessed to say the least. I saw this girl on TikTok who purchases the least expensive or most unique and affordable item from designer websites and I thought wow, this would actually make a great blog post if I round up a list of things that are under $100 but still designer. I hope to make a series out of this, but for now, let's start with the holy grail, Tiffany & Company 😍🤍✨.

Are we really shocked that I'm starting with pet supplies? It is my ultimate goal in life to have Oliver hooked up with the staple Tiffany Blue Collar and Leash one day, but to keep it $200 and under he'll have to settle for a classic 1. Dog Bowl and a 2. Please Return to Tiffany's Dog Collar Charm.

I never knew how bad I needed this mini crossbody purse until now. This 3. Mini Drawstring Crossbody Pouch in Tiffany Blue Leather is everything I could want and more. To go with it is the 4. Card Case in Tiffany Blue...it's so pretty I could cry.

If you think that I'm going to buy my boyfriend a 5. Tiffany Blue Diamond Point Silk Tie then you are absolutely right. And to be even more obnoxious I would totally get this 6. Sterling Silver Golf Tee for my dad 😂.

I have to include the 7. Sterling Silver Pen because my boyfriend got me this for my birthday because of how much I journal and it was the sweetest thought behind this gift, it still makes me smile when I think of it. Plus imagine how put together someone will look when they pull out their T&CO pen to write something down!

I have never wanted a silk scarf in my life until I saw the 8. Tiffany Blue Manhattan Map Scarf. I would probably frame it because it's too beautiful to wear.

There is a whole section called "games and novelty gifts" on the Tiffany & Co. website which includes a Tiffany Blue set of pool balls. They're unfortunately out of the $200 range, but the 9. Sterling Silver Pool Cue is not...so ya know..start small with the pool cue and work your way up. With that being said my family is a huge card game fans so this set of 10. Metallic Playing Cards would be a staple at family gatherings. 

If these 11. Color Block Candles smell like Tiffany & Co. somehow please buy me 1,000000 of them. Again, these 12. Bone China Tiffany Boxes replicate the boxes that things come in, but I am obsessed. And yes, I will be drinking all of my liquids from this 13. Color Block Teacup and Saucer for the rest of my life.

I have actually been wanting this book, the 14. Assouline Windows at Tiffany & Col. Book, Small Memoir Edition, but the big version is very expensive. I didn't know there was a mini version and it's only $30!! I wonder how small it is though...

We all know I love my journal. It is started to get filled up though and I will be needing a new one soon. How AWESOME would it be if my journals came from Tiffany & Co. This set of 3 15. Notebooks in Bookcloth is everything I could want and more. It's the journal of my dreams.

I would almost be too scared to have these in my cabinets but the set of 4 16. Diamond Point Shot Glasses in Tiffany Blue Crystal is jaw dropping. As well is this 17. Tiffany Ampersand Crystal Stemless Champagne Flute, it's perfect for the champagne drinker (me), the Tiffany lover (me) and a person who works in editorial (me).

There is nothing I love more than my morning coffee. Imagine if I had this set up every day, I would feel so classy each morning. 18. Tiffany Blue Colored Paper Cups (not actually paper, but again to replicate it), an 19. American Walnut Sugar Shovel (why a shovel? who cares I'm getting all my sugar with a shovel from now on) and the 20. Manhattan Map Mugs in Tiffany Blue (I would never use another coffee mug again).

Okay, I'm sure there are tons of jewelry pieces that also fall under $200 but to keep it simple we're going to highlight the Return To Tiffany's Collection. This is—of course—my personal favorite and always the most affordable. You can also get a lot of their newish fragrance collection for men and women for under $200 as well.

Dress

Philly, Philly!! Even though I am a die-hard Washington fan, my boyfriend is an Eagles fan which means he loves Philadelphia. For his birthday this year I decided to plan the ultimate birthday weekend trip in his favorite city, Philly!

This was not an easy trip to plan though. Have you ever tried planning a weekend trip for almost 20 people? If you have then you feel my pain. Not only is dealing with a large group of people, but Philadelphia is super strict when it comes to COVID (even though we're at the tail-end of it, like what?). Finding an AirBnB was almost non-existent because of how big our group was or because some places weren't having "short-term" rentals, which is confusing because like...that's what AirBnB is? But we found the perfect townhouse smack dab in the middle of city center so we walked everywhere and it was pretty big! The pictures don't do the place justice in my opinion, it was perfect. Anyways, once that was settled the next difficult part was finding things to do in Philly!! 

Friday night, since everyone was getting in at different times we decided to just have a night in and party. I had a custom chocolate and peanut butter cake made by Sandie's Sweetz that contained all of Omar's favorite things including; the Philadelphia Eagles, DragonBall Z, our dog Oliver and his X-Box. The cake may not have made it the 4-hour car ride 😂, but luckily she took photos of it before we left VA. It was still so freaking delicious though!! Be sure to check out Sandie's IG page and hit her up for any custom sweets you need!! Can't recommend her enough! The next thing I had for my boyfriend was sushi for dinner. I do not like sushi so it's not something we typically get for dinner, so I went all out and got him some classic rolls and some fancier one from Crazy Sushi. I also bought the infamous sushi train off of Amazon and had it all set up for him when he walked in. He loved it 😂. For those who didn't want sushi we got Rosy's Taco Bar and it was BOMB!

Since restaurants weren't taking reservations past 6 people that pretty much left us with just doing our own thing in small groups throughout the day, but I was NOT going to let Saturday night go to waste. For Saturday, instead of a fancy dinner for everyone, I planned a night time boat cruise...aka a party boat!! This charter boat fit 20 people perfectly and had a bar on board. It was seriously so perfect and my heart was so warm with all the compliments of everyone telling me how fun this was and how this was the best part of the trip. It really was...even if some of our friends got a little too rowdy. Afterwards we went to a cigar lounge before heading back home. I loved this day because everyone got to do their own thing during the day but we all cleaned up pretty nicely and made it to the boat in one piece. Making it home though...that's another story 😜.

On Sunday, after we cleaned the AirBnB we all headed home, but a couple of us got brunch at Trademans. Let me stop you right there and tell you IT IS NOT WORTH IT. This place was dead at 12 p.m. on a Sunday and for good reason. Hands down one of the worst service experience I have ever had and I wasn't the only one who thought so. My boyfriend, who won't even send a dish back if his food is wrong, created a Yelp account just to leave a bad review!! Okay, you know it's bad when that happens. Starting with the fact that when our waitress came up to take our drink orders...she didn't. She suggested the bottomless mimosas (which is why I wanted to go here) but then informed us that if we want to do bottomless everyone at the table had to purchase it. WHAT?? That's $32 per person and we had a minor at the table. That made no sense... how can you force people to have a bottomless drink if they don't want it? I've gone to restaurants before that do bottomless drinks for brunch and they don't make everyone at the table get it. Then when we finally got our drink orders in, she skipped like 3 people, and when I ordered just one mimosa I never got it... I had to ask for it twice and she said, "Oh you wanted one?" She had checked my ID and everything at this point. She had to bring us three rounds of coffee because when she brought us the first round we asked for cream and sugar and it took us asking two more times for cream and sugar before we got it and by that time our coffee was cold. I could go on and on... but is half my blog really going to be able a poor brunch experience? All I can say is...don't go here. It was dead during peak brunch hours for a reason. -10000/10 for me.

Overall, the trip was really fun and everyone (I think) had a good time. Especially the birthday boy which is all that really matters 😍.

For April I interviewed author, podcaster and church owner Jennie Lusko. Everything that could go wrong with this interview went wrong 😂. There were so many technical difficulties, but we made it work and Jennie was able to share her stories with our readers. Click here to see the May issue, click here to listen to the podcast episode and click here to read the May currents page. And always, please remember these are interviews I do for my job, it doesn't mean I agree with everyone's opinions!

*Disclaimer: To start off, I work at Salvation Army National Headquarters in the publications department. The magazine I work on is called War Cry. I will be doing a post later on about my job and what it's like working for a non-profit, but that post will be later on. I do feel I need to add a disclaimer here, I am not a religious person so when I took this job I did my research and made sure that my personal values and opinions weren't being compromised. I can proudly say they are not (don't let one idiot skew your opinion of the millions of people who work for a company) and I'm pretty proud of the work and accomplishments I've made while working here. I am the Assistant to the Editorial Director, but I do so much more than an assistant's work. My managers have really entrusted me with a lot of responsibility and anything I can do to enhance my skill set and build my portfolio I take the opportunity to do so. Though I am not a religious person, the people I do interview are and the questions recall faith-inspired answers. 

Rooted in her love for the sun and beach, West Coast native Jennie Lusko had no intentions of living anywhere else. That was until she met her soon-to-be husband Levi during an internship in Albuquerque, NM. The two instantly fell in love and through their journey wound up in Montana. For the first time in their adult lives, Jennie and Levi took a leap of faith and followed God’s path for them as they created their own place of worship in Fresh Life Church. Through trials and tribulations, Jennie and Levi have built a safe haven for people to worship, read the Bible and foster community.

WC: Tell us about yourself. 

Jennie Lusko: I was born and raised in California, and my husband and I met in ministry where I believe is the best place to meet your mate—in the church and serving the Lord. I’m so grateful that I met Levi in church serving in youth ministry. We moved to Southern California a year after we got married, then we moved to Albuquerque, but after just a couple years we felt God was calling us to Montana. We always had the calling to reach people with Gospel so we assumed we would end up in a major city such as New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, but our hearts lead us to Montana, even though everyone else told us we were crazy and there’s no one in Montana.

But we felt God was leading us in that way. We were reading the Bible where God told Abraham, “Hey, I want you to go to this place, but I will show you when you get there.” And it was kind of that crazy faith that inspired us to move to a new place we’ve never been to before, and as a California native, I had never even seen snow before! Being in this new place, we knew we had to follow God’s calling to preach the Gospel and create a loving community. After 17 years and five children, I am so grateful for what God is doing in my life.

WC: How did you meet your husband, Levi?

Jennie: When I moved to New Mexico, I was interning in their Missions Department, learning how to plan mission trips, growing in my walk with the Lord, and within that year, one of the guidelines for that year was committing to not dating romantically for a whole year. Since I was just getting out of a relationship, I was very much looking forward to that. And so I moved my life to Albuquerque, NM, started this internship, and about halfway through that year, I met Levi, and he was serving in the youth ministry. He didn’t make a dating commitment though, so it was really special because there wasn’t that pressure of like, “Oh my gosh, does he like me?” Well, it was pretty obvious that he did but there was no pressure of wondering if he was going to ask me out on a date because I had committed and told him that I was not going to date during this time. Through this, a truly beautiful friendship developed and right after my internship ended, we went on our first date.

WC: What led you to create Fresh Life Church?

Jennie: Levi and I both grew up in church and Levi is the son of a pastor and even when he was young, he knew he always wanted to be a pastor too. And for me, I grew up in church, gave my life to Jesus at a young age and loved church and loved learning about God. I have a natural passion for serving and helping people, and it felt as if God was creating a path for us to meet later on in life. I even knew at a young age that I wanted to marry a pastor one day, and I didn’t know exactly what my adult life would look like, but that was a desire that I felt like God put in my heart. 

When Levi and I first started our life together, we both knew we wanted to serve in a church but we both had this dream of creating our own safe haven to preach and teach the Bible. We wanted to lead people and we had this great crew of people to support us. At the time, there was this family from our church that vacationed in Montana and they kept telling us that we should think about moving to Montana and start a church out there, but at the time it was not something we were interested in doing. But we couldn’t get the idea off our minds, so we turned to God and asked, “Okay, God, are you doing this? Is this something that we should do?” That’s when we decided we would commit to this project and gave ourselves a five-year mark. We left the rest up to God at that point. And within five years, the church had grown so much, and we had grown so much and it was obvious that God was doing work.

WC: What makes your ministry different from others?

Jennie: At the end of the day, churches are created to give people a safe space to worship. And when we first started it, our heart was to provide a place for everyone to be welcomed and a place to preach the Bible. We give space every weekend for people to give their lives to Christ and to surrender their lives to Him. We have a super simple approach because sometimes it can feel like more of a burden to go to church rather than a willingness. We want Fresh Life Church to be a place of refuge and safety that anyone can use. When people show up and learn the fact that their loved by a God who created them and see that He has a purpose for them, where they can grow in community, that is why we do what we do.

We really seek to make it not all about what you can do for God, but what God has already done for you and how that can radically change your life to live a life of strength and flourishing vibrance. You can face your struggles, heartache, pain, grief and difficulty with hope and with a fresh look and perspective on what you’re going through. And so that really has always been our center point in serving and leading people to the Lord. It might be different than some churches and that’s what’s so cool about the body of Christ too, across the world is that there are so many different ways to approach church, and for Fresh Life Church, it’s really about loving God, loving people, being in a community that’s where you’re going to find strength and of course to serve Him.

WC: What are some challenges facing your ministry?

Jennie: I think some of the biggest challenges facing all ministries right now is moving everything online and adapting to a changing and constantly moving world, especially during the pandemic. So now there are people who are watching multiple church services online, which isn’t bad, but it’s not allowing you to root into one place and finding that community to flourish and grow with. It’s almost like binge-watching Netflix, you get a little of this and a little of that, but people aren’t planting themselves in one place where they’re tithing, where they’re serving, or where they’re placing themselves under the leadership of one. But if you can commit to letting yourself be under one pastor, then you’re receiving everything in one place.

Another challenge we are seeing more often is the challenge to not offend people. I think that in this day with social media—even if you don’t mean to—you can easily offend someone. You have to truly balance and take into account what is good for your soul and those are the people you should follow and interact with. You’re never going to get the whole picture on a phone screen. You’ll never truly understand a person’s story or what’s causing them to be so angry to the point where they are willing to attack others online. And so it’s hard when you’re getting that thrown at you and you’re just wanting to love God and lead the best that you can—imperfectly, yes, because I think there is no perfect leader except for Jesus—and so we’re going to make mistakes and we’re not going to do everything perfectly right, but I think that that is definitely a challenge when you’re trying to teach the Bible and then things can either get thrown out of proportion or your words can get twisted and you end up hurting someone without even realizing it. 

I believe that there is a beauty of planting yourself in a church and letting yourself be offended and seeing what comes out and how you can learn and grow through it and learn from your leaders and small group leaders and pastors. We should be able to humble ourselves and put ourselves under leadership and allow God to teach us through that. I believe that God would really be able to get to our hearts and that there would be more humble believers and more Christians who want to hear what someone else is saying, not just immediately judge or want to understand where someone is coming from and not put a label over them. Jesus shows us what it looks like to love, to eat with sinners and how to love them. I never want to be someone who’s pointing fingers, judging and stirring up stuff. I want to be a vessel of God’s love to people and yes, that sometimes means having tough conversations and showing tough love in moments, but it’s with the heart of humility knowing that I’m not perfect and I cannot perfectly lead and perfectly love. That’s Jesus’s job. And when I do face challenges in ministry, I just have to remind me of that.

WC: With everything being moved to online in this post-pandemic world, how do you handle negativity that you might see on social media, online or even on your Church’s website?

Jennie: My natural human response to negativity online is anger. It’s that feeling I think we all get when that just anger kind of rises up and you can almost feel it in your throat. You feel as though you want to yell at the world, but you can’t and you know that you shouldn’t.

I find in those moments that I have to take a deep breath and pray. I ask God to give me His perspective in this situation because usually people will lash out or be mean because they’re hurting and they just want to hurt someone else. I mean, we’ve all heard the saying that “hurt people hurt people,” and so in those moments, when I see something, I don’t usually respond. But there are times where I have felt that God is leading me to respond in love to someone who takes a jab and so, in those moments, I take a deep breath and I pray to Him, “God, give me Your eyes to see this person. Give me Your eyes to see the situation. I ask for Your wisdom. I ask for Your love to exude from my response.” And every time, He is so faithful to do that. 

When I receive negative comments in real life, my husband and I tackle the situation head on. My husband is really good with that, sometimes better than me. He will pick up the phone and just say things like, “Hey this is where I was coming from, where are you coming from? What do you think we can do to solve this issue?” That is so huge! If we all just seek a conversation versus condonement right away, I feel we will be more understanding people. We should be able to hear someone else’s perspectives and be open minded. It’s okay if we say things that people don’t agree with 100% of the time, but that doesn’t make others “wrong.”

If a friend or a person you care about is giving you a cold shoulder, ask them about it, don’t talk to someone else about it. The other thing is though, not all friendships are meant to last our whole lives. There are friendships for seasons and friendships for a lifetime. I think it’s important to nurture and treat all friendships with respect, but something that God has taught me is that I could hold on so tightly to a relationship or friendship, but I have to keep an open hand and allow God to bring people in to and out of my life. I always pray that they’re better because of my influence in their life as they go, but how beautiful and how much stronger would relationships be if we would just have the courage to have that hard conversation from the beginning. I feel like that would change everything if we all just had a listening ear.

To learn more about Jennie visit jennielusko.com and follow her on social media @jennielusko.