This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
This week, we witnessed a mysterious off-season bloom on one of Landon’s amaryllis. He placed it in full sun in the center of the table on our back patio, a blooming tabernacle, and each time I passed by en route to the garage, I was arrested by its trumpeting shock of red petal.
You see, I’ve been feeling out of sync, too. I’ve been lost somewhere between the feverish productivity of my book-writing and the everyday press of motherhood and family. My usual routines have all but disappeared; I’m been drifting between the shift key and the night shift of putting tired little sun-warmed bodies into bed. Even that ritual has been upended: my children are going to bed later than ever, with dirt beneath their nails and unwashed locks. My daughter has on multiple occasions yawningly asked to skip our nightly reads in favor of sleep. I am writing differently, in longer stroke, with more lamination.
I am trying to see that sometimes we are blooming in off-season. Maybe we aren’t comfortable with the sudden surge; maybe we can’t understand that what feels chaotic is in fact change, and good change. I keep thinking of the phrase: “which would you rather: the pain of growth or the pain of being stuck?”
Maybe after all I’m in a leveling up. Maybe I’m headlong in a well of creativity I’ll one day long for. Maybe I, too, am the amaryllis unfolding on its own timetable, unaware of its blazoning bloom.
Post-Scripts.
*In the midst of writing this, I chatted with several Magpies and friends whose amaryllis had also bloomed off-season. I think it has to do with accidental exposure to sun/warmth!
+Meant to include these sell-out-instantly pants in my work edit yesterday. People are OBSESSED. Ordered to try! I love that they have a short inseam available! (Reminder that this top from the same brand is a Magpie reader starter pack item — we all own it and love it!)
+Ahem, a truly perfect transition-to-fall heel. I can’t get over it. Simple, elegant lines in the perfect brown suede. I’m imagining pairing it now with white eyelet and later with leather and fair isle. I’ve actually begun “pinning” items for pre-fall here. Once an anticipator, always an anticipator!
+If you’re still in summer shoe mode, Loeffler Randall (Queen of the Cool Girl Sandal) let me know they’d be launching a sale today…!
+The Nordstrom sale opens up to most of us today — all my top picks here, including the best designer jeans, prestige skincare, and ultra-comfortable (and fun) sneakers.
+Sneaky wardrobe workhorse: a striped tank. Adds such interest to a pair of jean shorts or white gauze pants. I have this one from Sezane but think I am going to order this.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
I know a lot of my friends and fellow Magpies have been returning to the office after years of COVID-related WFH arrangements. One of my girlfriends recently lamented how difficult it is to dress for work after years of getting by with “Zoom tops and stretchy bottoms.” I thought I’d share today a curation of a variety of workwear for the summer — including neutrals and pops of color! Lots of opportunities for mixing and matching. The older I get, the more I find these pieces are easy to wear both in professional environments and personal/casual ones. For example, a great button down will take you from a board meeting (with trousers and heels) to the playground (with jeans and sneakers).
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
I’m heading to Bermuda this month! Have you been before? I’ve read about the legendary pink sand beaches and cannot wait to enjoy a few rum cocktails with friends — one of my all-time favorite drinks is a rum punch, and I can definitely get down with a dark and stormy. Below, some thoughts on what I’d love to bring with me. I own a subset of these pieces and will be packing them for the trip. Full packing idea list here. This dream wardrobe would work just as well for any tropical island destination IMO.
P.S. You can see past “what to pack” posts for Aspen/Vail, Nantucket/New England, and Wine Country! Where else are you headed this summer? Leave a comment below and I’ll add it to my packing guide list.
P.P.S. Great travel tips from Magpies here, and thoughts on how to handle skincare while traveling here. (My favorite travel cosmetics system is currently on sale here!)
P.P.P.S. Thoughts on resetting for the week here. Lots of interesting and different philosophies from Magpie readers. Some of us use Sunday for true rest; others aim to tackle 1 or 2 key chores; and others spend most of the day prepping for the week! Which flavor are you?
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.
Every few months, I receive an email from an expecting mother asking for advice or encouragement as she approaches the birth of her child. The first thing I always say: You know best; trust your instincts. Yes, right now — even when you feel like you know nothing, and everyone else in the world has a more valid opinion. Trust your gut; you do know your body and your baby best. Blot out the noise. The second missive is some combination of “give yourself grace” and “let yourself feel it all right now.” Whatever you are feeling is correct.
And then I send over the essay below, originally published in 2022, which still plucks at a tender part of me. Those early days ask so much of us as mothers. I often strained against its demands, running myself threadbare. I wish I could tell my younger self: It’s OK to retreat from your normal life right now. It’s necessary and temporary. You are spinning yourself into a mother, and you need the cocoon.
Magpies, what would you add to this note to a new mother?
******
A girlfriend of mine with three young boys recently lamented, “I see friends doing all of these things — like going away on girls’ trips together — and I just have no idea how they’re doing it.” A flurry of disparate thoughts drew immediately to the surface, in seek of expression. This is a brief season of life. What nobody tells you about breastfeeding (which she is currently in the midst of): you are tethered to the baby until you wean, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Comparison is the thief of joy. Social media is bioluminescent, anyway: we see sparks in the dark water without knowing the full outline of things. For all we know, those moms are making tough tradeoffs to be on those trips.
But I saw the shape of her solitude, and also the familiar strain of “Does everyone else ‘get it’ but me?”
Phases of motherhood can feel achingly lonely. Even when you know that there are mothers all over the world — hell, all over your neighborhood! — shuffling out of bed to quiet midnight cries just as you are, and marching through the same morning routines just as you are, it can feel at times as though you are a tiny planet orbiting around a tiny universe, colliding with nothing. An enclosed atmosphere.
Earlier this year, I read excerpts from a fascinating book on winter by author Kate May. In it, she writes:
“It is all very well to survive the abundant months of spring and summer, but in winter, we witness the full glory of nature’s flourishing in lean times…Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Wintering is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”
Some of this language does not fit the context of motherhood: early motherhood is anything but “lean.” But there is a rich parallel here in the sense that early motherhood — at least for me — demanded a withdrawal, and I was not always at peace with that change. Still, looking back, I am struck by “the extraordinary acts of metamorphosis” I performed to make my way through. Because during that time, when my social life and desire for domestic organization and even my bandwidth to attend to my older daughter ran uncomfortably thin, I was becoming. I was spinning myself into the loving mother I have become. I was discovering new angles, new strengths, new tendernesses that I had never before seen in myself.
What I mean to say to my friend, to myself, to my fellow Magpies, is that we are in a season of life, and that the foliage looks different now. It is OK to embrace that view for what it is. It is OK to say no to social engagements. It is OK to not volunteer to be class mom. It is OK to skip the birthday parties. It is OK that you are not the mom hanging out with the other moms after carpool. You can give a friendly wave and crawl quietly into the hibernation of winter at home. As I wrote elsewhere on this subject: “our movements in times of adversity need not always be so frictional and against the grain. Maybe there are seasons designed for fallowness. Maybe we learn important things there, in the quiet and bare.”
To my moms in the quiet and bare:
I see you.
Onward!
Post-Scripts.
+A candid chronicle of my struggles with breastfeeding, part I and part II.
+Doen launched an online warehouse sale yesterday! My top picks: gingham and more gingham; a breezy linen tank; my favorite summer skirt in a great blue pattern; and one of my favorite pairs of sandals, on sale from $288 down to $58?!?! Was it a typo? I LOVE these and wear them constantly.
+This J. Crew dress has been a Magpie reader bestseller, and is currently 30% off! As is this fun beaded necklace to throw on with everything, a la the style du jour.
+Discovered that The Outset discounted a bunch of its fantastic products, including this excellent facial sunscreen, currently 50% off. I alternate between that and the Beauty of Joseon stuff. Both wonderful. I also love The Outset’s ultra-gentle cleanser and daily moisturizer when my skin feels upset and needs more gentle nourishing — both 30% off right now. Would also be good as a teen’s first daily cleanser.
+Related: Goop’s microderm exfoliator is included (30% off)! I absolutely SWEAR by it. The best two minute facial. My most common use case: right before going out to dinner when I’m short on time. All my Prime Day picks (list updated!) here.
+I’m a big fan girl of Sarah Creal and just noticed she launched a high-gloss peptide lip gloss! I’m ordering the calm down color!
+As you might recall, I love the hand cream by Soft Services. My sister turned me onto this — as a bonus, it comes in a really fun sculptural dispenser that is a joy to use. I keep it on my bedside table! Anyway, I noticed they have expanded their line of products and am keen to try their “green banana” body buffing bar and clearing mist spray (for body breakouts).
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
A Movie to Consider.
How are we doing this Tuesday? Right now, I’m digesting an interesting movie I watched over the weekend: “The Northman” (2022) featuring Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman. (Do we like Skarsgård? My SIL and I like to have long conversations about “our movie boyfriends” — prior to this movie, I don’t think he’d have made my list. And I still can’t quite get a read on his vibe. But I did like him in this movie; well and convincingly acted, and a true Viking warrior in appearance. He is enormous in it, probably through some combination of visual manipulation (like, his hands in some scenes?! basically wrap around Anya Taylor-Joy’s entire body?) and his fitness regimen prior, which I was so curious about (I mean, he is towering in the movie, and my prior reference point was the thinned out version of him as the investor in “Succession”?), I read about here.) Anyhow, “The Northman” is part Norse mythology, part Hamlet, part Viking warrior revenge flick* — and also campy in its own way, and allegorical, too? The best phrase that I can think of for this movie is “full tilt.” Like, the director goesthere with weird, witchy and trippy scenes; Skarsgård howling at the moon (?!) like a wolf; ultra-intense fight scenes (the raid scene at the beginning is unhinged, and then the volcano battle at the end is wild in its own way); strange, cypher-like visuals. A pretty rich text for a movie I went into with “Game of Thrones”-level expectations: I’d anticipated I’d be mildly entertained and grossed out by warfare gore, and saw it was a movie that both Landon and I could enjoy on a weekend night, but I’m sitting here still thinking about the composition of certain scenes, the use of light and dark, the gender dynamics and specifically complex treatment of the mother character relative to other Norse goddesses referenced. (Nicole Kidman’s character is complex and richly portrayed in spite of relatively little screentime, and then there’s Bjork as the Seeress — I find this archetype fascinating across multiple cultural traditions). Mainly, though, I think about the movie and think of the quote: “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” How useless, how draining, how self-harming begrudgment is; we can waste years of our lives and better selves in its grip.
Have you seen anything good lately? And who are your movie/TV boyfriends or girlfriends? I like Jack O’Connell, Glen Powell, Sam Heughan. I feel like this is the summer of Pedro Pascal but I’m not all the way convinced. (Should I see “The Materialists”?)
*I should note this movie is a known adaptation of the Norse myth of Amleth, which is believed to have inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” not the other way around, but coming into the plot knowing nothing about this legacy, it jumped out at me as a convergence of these three traditions.
A Sale to Shop: Amazon Prime Day.
Amazon’s Prime Day starts today — I added all my top finds here, and will add more as I find good deals. Amazon candidly makes it difficult to stay on top of which deals launch and end when…so I’m always hunting! I wanted to start with a few tech/appliance items that we use EVERY SINGLE DAY and absolutely love, for which I paid full price and have zero regrets, but would have enjoyed getting a little discount on.
01. Vitamix — we use this to make smoothies every single morning. (Recipe: 20g kale, 1 cup ice, 1 banana, 1/2 avocado, 3/4 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup water). This is the exact model we have and we’ve used this heavily since 2020, but especially while on our smoothie kick the last two years. This thing is a beast.
02. Dyson AirWrap — ladies, this changed my hair life. I can’t say enough good things about this tool. I wrote a full review here, but trust me: it’s exceptional and gives you as close to a salon blowout as you can get at home. I also never travel without it. When we left Pennsylvania, I somehow lost the wrap attachment and was aghast — I think it might have fallen out of one of my bags on the way down to the car? Anyway, I’ve never ordered a replacement part faster. This is an absolute top tier “regrettably worth it” item and I can’t live without it! *$100 off!!!!
03. Technivorm Moccamaster Coffee Maker — trust me when I say that my husband is a coffee snob and has done a ton of research on everything from beans to filters to grinders to machines. He even talked about bringing all his coffee making gear (beans, grinder, pourover equipment) when we were away for five nights because he just couldn’t imagine drinking standard hotel coffee…! Anyway, the Technivorm has been his preferred method for coffee brewing the past few years. We use this every day. It sort of blends drip with pourover but makes it less onerous on the person brewing. We love ours.
04. The Hatch Restore — AHHH this clever alarm-sound-machine-night-light hybrid has changed my sleep hygiene for the better. I now sleep without my phone on my bedside table because this gadget wakes me up, plays the most soothing sounds, serves as a nightlight and clock — and all gently, softly. I especially love the way it slowly brightens in the morning, gently waking me up. I wrote fully about this wunderproduct here but have turned at least three friends onto it.
Smaller items below. I always have to include the Paperwhite. I was just talking to a friend about how important this “single-use” technology has been to my life — I love that I can use it without being distracted by anything else (no emails or texts on it!) and it is so easy and lightweight. I read in bed with it every single night! Every few years, Landon upgrades mine to the latest model, and I always say “I don’t need a new one, mine works just fine” but then I realize the latest one is lighter, faster, bigger-screened, and doesn’t have that big scratch on the front…
Other items I’m buying: more of these sheet masks! I love them so much I just gave some away to girlfriends as a party favor! And this excellent highlighter — it’s the one I keep going back to. I have a few different brands but love how easy this is to apply as the final step without blurring or swiping at anything else; you barely need to dab this on and it stays and sparkles. I am also going to add a few extra free-weights (next weight up!) to our basement. Such a good feeling that I’ve leveled up since the start of the next summer. These are the exact neoprene coated free weights I have. I personally like them because they do not slip in my hands, and the colors are an added bonus. Lastly, going to order some of these sanitizer sprays; they’re spendy but they smell fantastic and they don’t dry your hands out as much as standard Purell.
A special callout for Goop products, which I believe will also be included in today’s sale. Do not miss their scalp scrub shampoo. I can’t live without it in the summer! The prelude to a great hair day. More complete review here.
Early Access to Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.
If you’re an Icon Cardmember, you have access to the anniversary sale today. I get access on the 11th and have already been scoping out the deals and sharing my top finds here. I’m mainly interested in stocking up on Bombas socks, ordering these pretty Staub bowls and baking dishes, and am contemplating re-upping my Dr. Diamond Metacine plasma using this discount, too. And if your spouse is as much of a cook as I am, don’t miss out on the discount on these chef-grade Hedley and Bennett aprons. My husband and brother live in theirs! A really great (well designed, high-quality) tool for any frequent or dedicated home cook.
And finally, two little Tuesday reminders about perspective — the latter is an excerpt from this longer post.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation. Image via.
By: Jen Shoop
I wrote in my diary this weekend about the discomfiting feeling of arriving at the end of the day feeling behind. “…Then I browbeat, or scuffle around my room in shades of frustration. How are there not more hours in the day?“
I wondered to myself after writing that line:
what would I actually do with an extra hour in the day?
Would I fritter it away doing more of the to-dos on my list, or would I carve some lines around it, dedicate it to something particular? When we were just-married, my in-laws used to give us cash for our birthdays. On the surface, this might seem a little impersonal, but it was the best luxury and I have cosseted this idea away as the perfect gift for my college-aged children: $200 to do with exactly as they please, at a time when $200 would normally go to groceries and gas. I remember Landon always kept those two crisp bills in a separate part of his wallet, as a visual reminder that it was “his special birthday money.” He wanted to be intentional about its use, not trifle it away on bandaids at CVS and a haircut down the street. Or, perhaps trifle is the antonym of what I’m looking for here; the point was to spend money on something just for him, just for fun, just for celebration, that he might not normally treat himself to: a new putter; a really fancy bottle of bourbon; a date at a high-end restaurant; a plane ticket.
I’d like to think that if I had an extra hour in the day, I’d treat it like birthday money. I’d make bad art outside; I’d play a new board game; I’d drive to the Crescent Trail and walk for a good, round sixty minutes; I’d take up swimming at the adult pool; I’d sit outside and read. I’d do something just for my own pleasure.
Then I sit here and think — surely, Jen, your life is not so crowded-in that you can’t find some “birthday money time” in it as it is. Even thirty minutes; even now. Stand and stretch. Walk to the end of the block. Doodle on your notepad. Etc.
What about you, Magpie? What would you do with an extra hour in your day?
Linen (and gauze) pants have been a warm-weather wardrobe hero for me this season. You know I love my F&E set, but Quince makes a great version under $50, and I also love styles from Donni and J. Crew — and I would quite frankly wear anything Posse (seen above) makes, but especially these pants with the matching vest.
Today, sharing a few easy ways to style this summer staple.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links above, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
Maybe she’s out there eating the peach right off the tree. Maybe she’s getting good sun with the thyme and the rosemary; maybe the air is full and fragrant, and the impositions of the day appear as dim and immaterial as twilight itself: a fading into nothing. Maybe the wind carries her worries with it. Maybe she’s standing with her feet in the forewater, realizing that the ocean has countless beginnings — is all new beginnings. Maybe she’s thinking that the wave exists only on the brink of its own rebirth.
Please try again later; she is changing like the sand beneath her.
A Note.
I am devastated by the news of the Texas floods and Camp Mystic over the weekend. I cannot imagine the grief; holding a space for those families and communities. If you have thoughts on how to support relief efforts, please share in the comments. I find World Central Kitchen a great organization to support in crises like this.
+This eyelet blazer is on sale plus an extra 25% off. Such a chic piece for a stylish work outfit for summer. Reminder that I grouped all my favorite and best FOJ weekend sale finds here. Most of the promotions end today!
+For my caftan gals: this and this are spectacular.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links above, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
Hi! I hope you’ve enjoyed a restful weekend with loved ones. We took in the fireworks at a big party with friends, spent two days at the pool, grilled out, hosted our best friends from NYC here for a night, caught fireflies, drank fancy cocktails (specifically, the Old Salt Paloma), ate coconut cream cake, enjoyed hot dogs for lunch, played board games, and talked into the wee hours of the night on the front stoop of the house. It was perfect.
Wanted to pop in to share a few incredible sale finds I’ve gathered from across some of our favorite sites. I’ve linked to all of the best finds here and will continue to add if I find anything else this evening and tomorrow (when many of the promotions end):
AND – two final standalone promotions to spotlight: up to 40% off at Chappywrap (our favorite, regrettably-worth-it blankets). This blue and white one is a classic (great for gifting) but I personally love this neutral shell print one, seen below —
Last but not least, my favorite cozy great sweatshirt. I literally keep it in my office and even bring it into bed with me (sometimes wake up cold because we keep the A/C cranking in the summer). The inside is like a Barefoot Dreams blanket. It’s the perfect slightly shrunken fit but still loose and cozy. I just love her. Currently on sale for under $50.
My friend Caroline shared a fabulous quote on her thoughtful Substack this week:
“The branches are heavy when the fruit is ripe.”
I’d been feeling a weight this week, and for many reasons, but let me focus narrowly on the pileup of responsibility since returning from vacation, and from the netherworld of submitting the first draft of my manuscript last month. I’ve been putting off so much, mumbling: “when I’m back in July…”; “after the book’s submitted…”; “when my siblings have left…” I’ve been doing just enough to swing (and barely) from branch to branch this past month. There has been no legato to it, no elegance — it’s been a free-armed, gasping grab to get by. I’ve dropped more balls than I can count; hopefully none prove to be glass.
As a result, most days this week, it has felt like I’ve not gotten my day “started” until one or two in the afternoon; the morning dissolves into a thousand administrative tasks (medical forms for school; new goggles for my son; logistics mapping for childcare while we’re out of town; returns; email and email and email; scheduling that damned annual OBGYN appointment) and suddenly I’m alone with my blank screen for the first time and I’m like a coy and nervous crush. “Oh, you again…let’s get acquainted, I guess?” And then there’s the whole courting ritual that must take place, and suddenly it’s six o’clock and what have I actually accomplished? And then I browbeat, or scuffle around my room in shades of frustration. How are there not more hours in the day? Who is sending me all these emails? The damned OBGYN appointment!
In short, I couldn’t have encountered the quote above at a better moment. Isn’t it incredible how that happens? There are words out there just waiting for you. There is writing that takes the exact shape of your need. The plum you’re going to eat next summer, etc.
Because now, carrying those words in my pocket like a talisman, I twist the kaleidoscope and think: “It’s heavy because of the weight of the good in your life.” A book! Kids who are healthy and thriving and in need of new goggles because they’ve outgrown their old ones, and we can afford them! There is nothing to begrudge. There is just the near-term pinch of getting through. The slight leadening of my footfall as I carry myself through this dense thicket. But there is also the promise of a solid bounty ahead, and surely that is enough to assuage or overlook the temporary discomfort. Bear down; move the dirt; onward — ! I’m just in a murky middle.
Shopping Break.
Above, wearing SoldOut NYC’s RSVP dress (15% off with MAGPIE15; so good and so comfortable — like wearing a tank top; bottom is a loose, airy poplin), my Loewe bag, Madewell sandals (a great look for less for Amanu), and a Jenni Kayne hat (sold out, similar here).
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links above, I may receive compensation.
By: Jen Shoop
+MAGNOLIAS AND MOURNING: On my run this week, I noticed the most spectacular bloom of magnolias. My Wednesday morning bounty, just waiting to be noticed:
The blossoms were glossy and perfect — almost like wax replicas of themselves — and I was reminded of a gorgeous elegiac poem by Jean Janzen. The way she presents the merge between the natural world and the human one is breathtaking, and of course deeply sad (the speaker is observing her mother’s final days on earth). The opening of the second stanza is absolutely perfect: the intermingling of the outer world with the inner. Fragrance, open doors, birdsong, the way it all melds together in the moment of this reader’s profound mourning. The line “but birds when they die / find hidden places, sigh invisibly / into leaves” has left a forever imprint on me, and I think it has to do with the secret, knowing solitariness of the vignette against the subtext: “from dust to dust.”
+PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION FILM ADAPTATION: In sunnier news (geez, Jen, way to glide into the weekend on a song), I saw this teaser about the adaptation of an Emily Henry novel and immediately circled January 9th in red. A fun release to look forward to during that post-holiday slump.
+A COUPLE OF GREAT SALES: Three sales I’m excited about this weekend:
1) Marea’s (was just raving about this brand a few days ago — love this skirt and the matching top, and this navy blouse will be perfect easing into fall)
3) Tory Burch! Sale is an extra 25% off. This tennis henley was a bestseller earlier this year and is now on sale for $75, and you know how much I love these sandals!
+LISTENING: I’m not a big podcast listener — I can’t figure out how to shoehorn it into my routine? — but I have been trying to find ways to listen to Amy Poehler’s podcast, “Good Hang.” I absolutely love both her and Tina Fey (who appears on several of the episodes) and find Amy a compelling and surprising host, especially in the way that she makes a lot of space for her interviewees and seems so light on her feet in responding to their occasionally surprising comments. I imagine that must be difficult (?) as a trained comedian, always rearing up for a punchline? Then again she had a start in improv so maybe the collaborative aspect of podcasting is baked into her DNA. Anyhow, currently listening to the episode with Will Forte (always love the “inside baseball” conversations with fellow former SNL cast members), but have been hearing a lot of buzz around her interview with Dakota Johnson. One of my girlfriends, who is not normally “taken” by celebrity personalities, said she found her deeply interesting, especially in the way she pauses and permits silence in the conversation without seeming flustered in the least. (You can see a clip of it here, but I have been only listening to it!)
+FUN LAUNCHES THIS WEEK: Dorsey released its final capsule of Yves paracord necklaces (I have this one) and I have to say I really adore this necklace. It adds a little edge an interest when layered with my more feminine staples, and of course the paracord is high trend right now. And Julia Amory launched a patterned version of her convertible Elle dress, which last time sold out in under 24 hours!
