Some evenings, Mr. Magpie and I stay up too late talking —
We used to call them “dream talks,” and we’d curl up against one another and imagine our futures, letting improbable fancies and fortunes spool out into the night, as if the darkness offered umbrage to imagination too bold to share in daylight.
Nowadays, we are more grounded, and these late-night conversations tend to circle around relationships, family, work, plans, our children, our children, our children, our children. There are many “I wonder if…”s and “have you noticed…?”s on the parenting front. We propel ourselves through the tough stuff of child-rearing on these nights.
And always, there is music.
Mr. Magpie loves to play the music just a little too loud. He has been this way since I met him as a teen, when I could hear the bass from his black Jeep thumping a good block before I’d see him. Against my gentle admonishments on this front, he has repeatedly told me, since I was 19 years old: “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” And so now most nights, after light bickering over the volume, we will sit, my feet on his lap, and absorb Brandi Carlile or Lauryn Hill or Sturgill Simpson and, when he is feeling particularly wistful, Duke Ellington’s “A Single Petal of a Rose” — always a few decibels higher than I’d like.
We have been on a John Prine kick the last few weeks. I am always touched, occasionally to the point of tears, by “I Remember Everything,” which seems to me a perfect portrait of the impossible ache of grief, but Mr. Magpie loves “In Spite of Ourselves,” a witty and slightly off-color love song that reminds us that, against all odds, love bears all things. This last listen, he drew me into the lyrics, nudging me at the refrain:
There won’t be nothin’ But big old hearts, dancin’ in our eyes
And that’s just how it feels, sitting on the couch these nights, exhausted but sustained by one another, reduced to nothing but heart.
Post-Scripts.
+Those lyrics feel tailor made for some of the sentiments I shared in this love letter.
+Everyone’s favorite slipper is back and available in so many colors. I bought these for my nanny last Christmas and she loved them — though as Christmas approaches, they become more and more difficult to find in all sizes.
+This popular bamboo cutlery set is back in stock!
+This facial palette comes with such good colors. I don’t know how to contour, but I like these shades for blush, eye shadow, bronzer, highlighter, etc!
+Such a great fall flat in one of my favorite colors ATM. Imagine paired with one of the burgundy nap dresses!
+And speaking of burgundy — this Veronica Beard!!! I have a tiered shirtdress in a summer stripe from Mille I have worn constantly the last few weeks and this might be the perfect fall alternative.
+Fun varsity-style sweater at a good price. I would wear this over a nap dress.
By: Jen Shoop
All of my absolute favorite picks for this fall (most of which I own):
I am super excited about my new velvet furlanes (seen above on founders Viola and Vera Arrivabene; come in several other colors, and under $100!) to pair with floaty fall/winter dresses, especially when working at home or hosting guests. Perfect when you want to feel pulled together but still comfortable — an elevated slipper. Especially perfect with a nap dress — did you see they are launching velvet and tartan options October 20th?! I can’t wait. I also feel like the forest green color and velvet material are helpful for “winterizing” year-round dresses — for example, you could pair with a Julia Amory dress and feel just-right for fall, and then wear that same dress with leather sandals in summer. I might even pair with some of my summer dresses, like this white mini I wore constantly, and throw a sweater over top, during these transitional days where it’s 50 degrees in the morning and 70 in the evening. Or imagine pairing the velvet slippers with white jeans and a white tee and a little sweater around the shoulders. Love! See below for more chic inspo from the brand’s Instagram account…
I have to say I was torn between the velvet green, which feel so appropriate for the holidays, and the hot pink seen immediately below! I’ve seen a lot of chic peas wearing these hot pink Velvet Chanels around (including my girlfriend Jen Hunter and HHH founder Nellie Diamond) and was momentarily inspired. But the greens will go so well with all of my fall wardrobe picks and tartan everything!
*Note on these: I find they run wide, but are fairly comfortable. A reader reached out and said she received hers and felt duped because the picture did not match the shoe perfectly. That led me to investigate my shoe versus the picture on the site, and I agree — the pictures are not exactly accurate! The heel is slightly higher and the shoe is slightly wider IRL. However, for $50, I think they are pretty remarkable (and comfortable). I got them in navy — you can see me in them here. I did want to call the discrepancy out, though — thanks to the reader for alerting me to this so I could share!
Weekend Musings: Sweet Somethings.
As I tucked mini into bed the other night, she asked me: “Why do you call Mimi [her name for my mother] every night?” I replied: “Because she’s my mommy, and I love her. I hope you call me even when you’re all grown up and out of the house.” She frowned, and then her lip quivered. “You mean only Hill will live with you then?” I realized immediately the fault in suggesting that there might be a time she would not live with me (such a move is so far beyond her ken, it’s unfathomable — possibly traumatic to contemplate) and was quick to reassure her that such a move was not imminent. She thought about this for awhile. “Well,” she said, finally, turning her nose up in the air in defiance, “Even when I’m growed up, I’ll build a house next to yours.”
Wild how these sweet, narrow expressions of love and unwavering attachment can absolutely bring you to your knees when you least expect it. I was going to pause here and ask you to share some of your own “sweet nothings” — some of the tender little morsels your children offer up to you that remind you of your centricity to their world — and I realized these aren’t “nothings” after all. They are the fiber of love.
So what are the sweet somethings you’ve received recently?
+ICYMI: great movie recs in the comments on this post.
By: Jen Shoop
It’s officially October, so bring on the Halloween plans and decor! I’ve been sprinkling in some great Halloween finds over the past few weeks of posts, but thought I’d collect them and a few new fab finds in this Halloween shop (shop below, too) and mention a few notes:
+If you can’t be bothered with wearing a costume yourself, grab a great sweater instead like this or this, or an orange half-zip with jeans and velvet furlanes! Also love this saucy peak fall top with high waisted black denim.
+If your school or play group has prohibitions against candy/treats but you still want to send something fun in, check out these cute Halloween-themed fidget toys. Imagine wrapped up in cellophane with a bow and a little gift tag like this.
+My children’s Halloween pajamas were just marked down to 25% off!
+If you are on the hunt for a Halloween outfit for your little (pre-costume), a few favorites…
P.P.S. I have been thinking about this post on the early grief associated with this pandemic. Things have progressed and changed so much since that post, and I can’t yet contextualize it.
First: run. I found Diptyque candles in all the good scents on sale, and I’ve literally never seen them on sale before. I love Feu de Bois and Figuier in fall/winter and Baies all year round.
Second: the bric a brac of what I’ve been reading, watching, thinking about lately — windows inside.
+Currently listening to Circe as an audiobook. This is one of the best books I’ve read in the past decade and I just had occasion to gift it to an old friend. I felt inspired to revisit it myself, this time in audiobook format, which my friend Inslee told me was beautifully narrated by Perdita Weeks. It is gorgeous, imagistic writing and wonderfully narrated. I remember describing the prose as “springloaded” after my first read and — yes. The tempo, the density of the images, the depth of the research and literary tradition that uphold it all. Absolutely spectacular. The opening line sends a shiver right down my spine: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” On a literal level, this is true: Circe is daughter to a god and nymph, somewhere between divine and mortal. But I shiver at the subtext: she is prelinguistic, unable to be named, mold-breaking, dissent itself. She is beyond language, beyond identifier. There are no antecedents. And there is an allusiveness to the opener, too: she is speaking herself into being, which is powerful in that Miller is also inviting Circe — the sidelined, misunderstood woman — to tell her own half of the story. Exquisite, powerful writing that operates so masterfully on so many levels. (A full review here, but the TL;DR: do not miss this book. And if it’s audiobooks you’re after, my favorites here!)
+A few chapters in, Circe, secretly aiding a wounded Prometheus, observes that “Bold action and bold manner are not the same.” Pocketing that: beware the flash with no substance. Alternately: actions speak louder than words.
+I stayed up until midnight finishing the new Rooney book last night (my entire fall reading list here). I will share a full review once I’ve let the book percolate for a minute, but for those of you struggling to clip into the book: persist! There is a gorgeous segment towards the end of the book that reminds me of some of her earlier novels and it is delicious. I’m not sure the epistolary segments of the book “work” — the format felt overly convenient, a bit flabby, as a mechanism to advance the intellectual development of Eileen and Alice — but the cinematic bit at the end is where she soars. It starts with the lines: “Only then Eileen saw him, Simon, standing at the Church door watching her. They looked at one another for a long moment without moving, without speaking, and in the soil of that look many years were buried.” I was transfixed by this passage, by “the look” Rooney captures via such limited description, and then the tumble of memories that spills out afterward, some borrowed from Simon and others from Eileen, and the way we shuttle between them. No one writes modern-day chemistry like Rooney. There is something stirring about the way the characters really sit in their own bodies in her writing: we are always aware of their hand movements, their hair, the feeling of salt air on skin, etc. There is a tactile immediacy to her prose that electrifies the relationships she draws.
+I have written a lot about the period of my life that ran from college through my early 20s, and how untrammeled and “opened up” life felt to me at that time. Age and the inevitable ups and downs of experience have disabused me of those sentiments, largely in a good (grounding) way. Rooney captures the exact sensation I recall from that period of my life so well in her book: “All my feelings and experiences were in one sense extremely intense, and in another sense completely trivial, because none of my decisions seemed to have any consequences, and nothing about my life–the job, the apartment, the desires, the love affairs–struck me as permanent. I felt anything was possible, that there were no doors shut behind me, and that out there somewhere, as yet unknown, there were people who would love and admire me and want to make me happy. Maybe that explains in some way the openness i felt toward the world–maybe without knowing it, I was anticipating my future, I was watching for signs.” The optimism, the self-centeredness, the flanerie of it all resonates with me at 20.
+While on the subject of youth: Olivia Rodrigo’s teen angst anthem”Brutal” is on my running playlist at the moment, which — wow. I listen to the lyrics and I am shuttled back to the thwarted desire and painful self-consciousness of seventeen! “All I did was try my best // This the kind of thanks I get? // Unrelentlessly upset (ah, ah, ah) // They say these are the golden years // But I wish I could disappear // Ego crush is so severe // God, it’s brutal out here.” Wow. The agony of being seventeen!
+From a parenting book whose source I do not know (it was excerpted on Instagram): “A lie is a wish that comes out sideways.” We’ve encountered our first few untruths from mini recently, all of them innocuous enough, but I have been wondering about how to point her towards honesty in an authentic and non-pedantic way. The other night, she shuffled some chicken beneath a napkin when my back was turned and presented me with a clean plate, anticipating correctly that they cleared plate would warrant a cookie. When I discovered the discarded chicken, I was torn between laughter (there were many evenings I hid peas in my milk as a child) and a teachable moment. Ultimately, I tried to explain something about her ill-gotten means, about deceitfulness as an unkindness, and she turned to me and said: “Why do I always have to follow rules?” Which…hm. I fumbled my way through an answer but there is so much to reflect on about rules, rewards, deceit, truth. Why is that sometimes parenting feels like an elaborate and persistent invitation to the metaphysical stuff I should have figured out a long time ago?
+Listening to a lot of old John Prine in these parts. I am still riveted by this song. Listening to a lot of Brandi Carlile, too. “Right on Time.” Wow.
What’s on your mind? What are you reading and watching?
+A few readers are already preparing their Christmas lists and checking them twice and have asked for toy suggestions for little ones. I will share some ideas in the coming months but in the near term, I have three toy posts that might serve as a good starting point: toys you won’t mind leaving out, toys my children have been loving lately, and slow-burn toys.
+Speaking of the holidays ahead: have always loved this wreath, and it’s currently 20% off! (Look for less with this — just tie your own velvet bow on the front!)
+And speaking of gifts for littles, my current favorite gift to give to children between 2-4: this book and a plus plus tube.
+Just ordered this cashmere polo sweater in the kalamata color. Love this new neckline style for myself — feels elegant and different. I’m imagining tucked into wide-leg crop denim/pants. Love the color!
+Another easy way to feign festiveness on Halloween: throw this gingham collar on over a white tee or sweater you already own.
+A great belt to throw on over any summer dress to make it feel more seasonally appropriate.
+Little English does the cutest printed turtlenecks — love these cherries for girls and these mallards for boys.
+This short-sleeved cashmere tee is such a great price and I love both colors — so chic for transition-to-fall! Also love this peplum cashmere sweater tee. So chic and in such great colors. (Currently 25% off to boot!)
+Speaking of cashmere, Bellabliss is now selling adorable cashmere baby sets…too cute as a gift for a fall baby.
+Fun fall gingham blouse. Makes me want to go apple picking!
THIS BLOUSE IS DOEN-MEETS-HORROR VACUI AND SOMEHOW UNDER $60
FUN (!) CAPED BLOUSE TO PAIR WITH YOUR FAVORITE DENIM
ALWAYS GET REQUESTS FOR CHIC WHITE DRESSES — THIS ONE WOULD WORK WITH BUMP, FOR A FAMILY PORTRAIT, FOR A LOWKEY BRIDAL AFFAIR, ETC!
AND IN MY CART: THIS POPLIN BLOUSE IN THE TAN COLOR…I LOVE EVERY DETAIL!!!!
A few other accessories seen in the collage below, mixed in with the sale pieces above: my favorite velvet headband, the only style I’ve yet seen that could convince me to try a Mary Jane, navy velvet slippers, Pam Munson Lady Bag, Khaite denim.
Second important note: lots of fun new arrivals at J. Crew worth a look. I am specifically loving…
P.P.S. “Something elastic happens to time once you become a mother. An hour can feel like a lifetime, and a year can zip by so quickly it nearly erases itself, and the malapropisms and baby grammar and peek-a-boo along with it.” More here.
P.P.P.S. Three popular Etsy finds: this blouse, this evil eye necklace, and these labels for your little one’s gear.
My final installment of fashion queries for the month of September! See volumes I and II here and here! Per those previous posts, I always get a lot of questions about what to wear as a bride and what to wear as a wedding guest, so have been keeping those shops updated!
Q: Graduation weekend outfits (was rescheduled from 2020).
A: Congratulations! A few festive but practical outfits (I feel like there is always a lot of walking/standing these weekends!) I love for participating in ceremonies, attending parties/gatherings, etc:
The vibe here is “collegiate chic, but make it festive.” (You can always just throw a statement headband on with a dress you own, too!) Congrats, friend!
Q: Looking for a classic luxury tote – do you have a favorite?
A: The two I use most heavily are my Goyard St. Louis in gray and my Pam Munson straw tote in the larger size. I love them for different reasons. The Goyard is super lightweight and goes with everything. It’s my throw-and-go bag; great for schlepping things on an everyday basis, including with children. I basically used it as my baby bag for both children. My Pam Munson makes me feel a bit more coordinated — more of a statement piece, aesthetically — and it carries a lot (!). It is pretty heavy/bulky on its own, though, so I would not recommend if you are going to be carrying it over your shoulder for a day out or going out to eat at an NYC restaurant (would take up a lot of space on floor/table).
Two other ultra chic ones I adore: this Loewe and Chanel’s Deauville tote,
Q: Dress for fall family photos.
A: I shared some thoughts here, but my advice is always the same: start with a piece you love for yourself or for one of your children and radiate outward from there. It’s too hard to not have an anchor print/piece! A few dresses I personally love at the moment that I would structure a family photo around…
ONE OF MY MOST-WORN DRESSES — LOVE THIS BECAUSE IT IS VIRTUALLY SEASONLESS, COULD BE WORN WITH LEATHER SLIDES IN SUMMER OR SUEDE BOOTS IN FALL
TIERED CORDUROY (OR A CORD MINI) FOR A MORE CASUAL VIBE…LOVE THE TEXTURE AND SEASONALITY…CUTE WITH A PADDED HEADBAND AND BOOTS, AND EASY TO MATCH WITH CORDS ON YOUR MAN/BOYS
Q: A first birthday outfit for my son; the party theme is LumberJACK (his name).
A: So cute! Right now, this is a very on-trend theme. There are so many darling shackets/sherpa pieces to pick from. I’m thinking along the lines of this sherpa-lined button-down (or this overshirt), tiny jeans, and the cutest boots (I loved these on both mini and micro), or these more practical ones, which micro had last winter.
Q: A light brown/tan closed toe shoe for a wedding.
A: I wear these suede pumps constantly. They dress up nicely with a cocktail dress! Also love these Manolo-inspired mules for a less formal vibe. If you are game for a higher-heel, these platforms would be super on-trend.
Q: White maternity dress for photos at 8 months pregnant.
Q: Maternity-friendly sweater dresses to get me through late fall and winter.
A: Congrats, mama! I love this one (not maternity but would work with bump), this one in black (so versatile – pair with statement flats and a padded headband!), and this polo style (this neckline is so trendy at the moment).
Q: 30th birthday dinner outfit in Boston at the end of the month. Just had a second baby, so not too tight!
A: I feel like this, with velvet heels and a statement headband like this or this, is the ticket. Festive, seasonal, on-trend, flattering, not too tight. If you want something more gussied up, I’m swooning over this Ulla with these mules. Another exclamation point: anything from Johanna Ortiz’s latest collection, like this. So unique and absolutely breathtaking. Also love these styles from Cara Cara, SEA, and also SEA.
Q: Fabulous shoes for my rehearsal dinner! Not necessarily white.
A: Congrats, bride to be! There are some fab shoes here worth a gander, but a few to call out:
Q: Super comfortable ankle/Chelsea boots for travel.
A: Envious of your travel! I find Loeffler Randall to be the best quality boots out there, so would encourage you to check these ones out. They do run narrow, so factor that in in terms of comfort/sizing. I like their simple, streamlined styling! These suede moc-boots also look very comfortable — kind of like a more stylish Ugg. Finally, I wore these all winter long last year and highly recommend. It’s more of an aesthetic and I don’t think it dresses up as nicely as a classic leather/suede style, but very warm and very easy to wear.
By: Jen Shoop
J. Crew Factory has so many great deals on fall and winter basics for little ones! (Barn jackets for under $50! Classic gingham button-downs for under $30! LS tees for $10!) Below, a few great scores from there mixed in with some of my other favorite fall finds for little gents!
This might sound ridiculous, but one of my biggest regrets in life is not toasting my brother at his wedding. I was in my early 20s and terrified of public speaking at the time, but even then, I knew I was unattractively shying away from something important in the name of self-preservation. At the last minute, my four sisters and I banded together and clomped up to the front of the room to huddle around the microphone and offer up platitudes. I wept and mumbled, “I love you,” which — to be fair — would have been the principle message in an even more rehearsed and articulate pass at speechmaking. But still. There are so many things to say about my brother, there is so much to love and admire, that I cannot believe I declined the opportunity to share even one anecdote or thread of thought.
I suppose I mistakenly believed at that age I would have many other occasions to praise him, many other nights with knives delicately clinking the edge of champagne flutes and twinkling lights overhead and the polite scraping of chair feet on the ground to mark the start of toast-making. I was guilty of envisioning life as a sequence of Nancy Meyers parties. But the number of reasonable opportunities to tell someone how much they mean to you, how they have defined and shaped your life in meaningful ways, stretch threadbare across decades. Occasions to do so in public run even scarcer. (And in this particular case, my brother and I have lived across the country from one another for many years and are now separated by an entire ocean, and so the logistics mount an increasing barrier.)
A visit from one of my brother’s childhood friends last week drudged up these woes. We were sitting on the back porch of my new home in Bethesda, catching up on life and talking books but mainly swapping stories about my brother. This particular friend has known me since I was nine years old, in pigtails and school kilts. I still remember meeting him for the first time in the breakfast room of my childhood home, which had those old-fashioned white and black checkerboard floors, and I think for that reason, I imagine the entire exchange in black and white, too, as if a scene in a movie that doesn’t belong to me. I was sitting at the table eating Ritz crackers and cheddar cheese after school and in he walked, on the heels of my brother. He was “Black Irish”: fair-skinned, dark hair, and exceptionally tall. My sisters and I immediately took to calling him “the Jolly Green Giant,” and he immediately took to looking out for us — in the years following that meeting, in the hallways of our parochial school, and later, during my brother’s epic house parties over the course of his high school years, when he and some of my brother’s other close friends would cluster in the kitchen to keep an eye on us, and even later, in crowded bars, where he would occasionally give would-be suitors “the business” as he would tower a good four to six inches above most of the guys we would date. It is true, I think, that “you are the company you keep.” My brother’s own goodness shines through all of the kindnesses his friends have extended me.
We revisited all of this, my brother’s friend and I, sitting outside my home last week, and at some point, he said: “You know, I saw your brother this summer for the first time in a long time, and I had to take the opportunity to let him know how much he’s meant to me.”
So maybe it doesn’t need to be the dais. Maybe it doesn’t need to be in tears or dramatic gestures. Maybe it can just be sitting down over a glass of wine on a Tuesday, or via an unprompted email, or in the simplest turn of phrase.
I am old enough to know that life is short. I have lost friends and loved ones. I have missed countless opportunities to tell the people I love and respect most how impossibly good they are, how improbably lucky I am to walk through life with them.
+Just ordered myself a fresh pack of Le Pens. The best pen on earth. The tip is ultra-fine — perfect for tiny handwriting like my own — and I love having different colors. The blue is a great, saturated mid-blue color. It’s the little things!
+Another desk accessory I can’t live without: note pads. I’m a leftie so note pads are functionally useful to me, as well — no binding to contend with. I love the ones with my initials on it, but I also buy these plain white ones in bulk. I love doodling, making lists, taking notes this way.
+This tiny brown crossbody is so luxe for the price! The “belt” detail reminds me of Hermes or something.
+These hand-embroidered napkins are absolutely exquisite (just swooning over these ones). A thoughtful gift for an MIL who loves that kind of heirloom-quality detail.
+For enquiring minds: I ended up buying this costume for Hill this Halloween. I couldn’t pass it up. Too, too cute. More costume ideas here!
+And I ordered these Halloween jammies for my children. Hanna Andersson just marked down a ton of their Halloween prints, too!
+This crib, this skirted bench, and this rug are so chic for a nursery — currently 20% off.
+So into coupes at the moment. I love sparkling wine, especially bone dry cavas, and it is so fun to drink it out of a coupe. My sister also sometimes serves for dessert a scoop of sorbet with a little float of champagne on top. SO delightful, refreshing, fancy!
+We have officially gotten into Halloween mode in these parts. This weekend, we’re going to make Halloween rice krispy treats (dyed orange or purple), wrap them in these individual cello bags, and attach eye stickers to the front before passing out to neighbors.
+I am also trying to conceptualize a big Halloween sensory bin with these and these buried in there. (Lots of sensory play ideas here.)
+One last note on Halloween — mini has been loving this $4 book! We have read it at least a dozen times. It has a great rhythm, incorporates subtraction, and has a clever premise mini loves to “catch.”
+Love this rustic copper pitcher — imagine whipping up a batch of moscow mules or serving fall-spiced sangria in it!
+This white blouse is absolutely perfect for this season.
By: Jen Shoop
A lot of us are in the market for chic everyday (or party!) dresses for fall at the moment. Below, sharing some of my absolute favorite finds for under $200.
Weezie recently launched piped bath mats and generously gifted me one along with some monogrammed towels for my children’s bathroom, seen above. The bathmat is clutch — it is soft, thick, and — (!!) — has little grippy things on the underside to actually keep the mat in place. You can have it personalized, too! I love the script font I used on the towels — such a fun, whimsical way to add color and personalization to a bathroom.
A few other great finds if you’re looking to add some interest to a bathroom in your home:
CAN’T BELIEVE THIS EUROPEAN HOTEL-STYLE SHOWER CURTAIN IS UNDER $20
I REALLY LOVE KASSATEX’S BATHROOM ACCESSORIES, ESPECIALLY IN THIS RATTAN STYLE (WE HAVE THIS FOR SOAP AND TRASH BIN IN OUR POWDER ROOM)
IS IT JUST ME OR DOES EVERY GIRL FANTASIZE ABOUT HAVING A VANITY WITH A STOOL FOR GLAM TIME?
THIS BLUE FLORAL SHOWER CURTAIN IS A BIG STATEMENT BUT IT REALLY REMINDS ME OF A PATTERN BY SCHUMACHER(UNDER $25!), AND THIS $112 BLUE FLORAL STYLE IS GORGEOUS ENOUGH TO WANT TO WEAR…AGUA BENDITA VIBES!
AN INVESTMENT, BUT THIS SCALLOPED + MONOGRAMMED CURTAIN IS EXQUISITE
THIS CABINET WOULD BE A CHIC WAY TO STOW TOWELS AND TOILET PAPER IF YOU HAVE THE SPACE
THESE $15 SOAPS SMELL HEAVENLY AND MAKE BEAUTIFUL GIFTS (OR SHELF ACCESSORIES!)
THIS DIVIDED TRAY WOULD BE CLEVER FOR MANY SURFACES IN A BATH, INCLUDING ON TOP OF TOILET
LOVE THESE MATCHING WOVEN CANISTERS, AVAILABLE IN TWO SIZES AT A GREAT PRICE
Not as much for decoration, but a few utility-oriented bathroom purchases of late that I believe I’ve previously mentioned…
+A 12-pack of inexpensive but absorbent white towels. It is so luxurious to have these on hand for cleaning my face, removing face masks (my favorite masks here, though I have been absolutely *loving* this Follain mask I was gifted a few weeks ago — I wear it to bed and wake up with such moisturized, happy skin), drying hair, wiping down my face after a run (I throw one into my bag before I drive to a trailhead!), etc, with no worries about staining them with mascara or face mask aftermath! I love that I have 12 — could use one or two each day of the week and still have some fresh without needing to launder. I don’t know why I waited so long to do this.
+These bins are now my go-to for organizing all utility/linen/storage closets. They are the perfect depth and dimensions for everything from stationery to shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.
+These tiny makeup removing cloths are great for removing eye makeup sans soap! Great for when you have no energy to apply a cleanser or when you are tidying up and redoing makeup before an evening out.
If you liked yesterday’s post on glitzy statement accessories for fall, you will love Nicola Bathie’s collection launch at Dillard’s. I did not get to the site fast enough to get my hands on a pair of these velvet platforms, which I intended to buy in either the emerald or blue (was going to be a gametime decision, but probably the emerald), but if you add a pair to cart, you can input your email and they will notify you as soon as available, which Nicola has promised (!) will happen this fall. I think they may have only produced a very limited amount of in stock inventory for the launch and will be ordering a much bigger batch based on demand. Anyway, I will for sure be snagging a pair of them as soon as they are back! That said, you *can* still snag some of these adorable pom-topped mules (also come in black), which are super similar to the Aquazzuras in my post yesterday. PERFECT holiday accessory. Also super love these velvet pumps in that dreamy blue or classic black. The shoes are so up my alley, but she has a bunch of statement dresses and earrings for holiday in the collab too.
And while we’re talking new collabs, Target launched its fall designer collections yesterday. Nili Lotan’s collab is EPIC (so on trend and sophisticated!) and sadly has already been majorly picked over, but don’t miss out in this perfect cableknit crewneck sweater (still available in most sizes) and this black cableknit half-zip, which are sure to be staples in your winter wardrobe. These wide-leg trousers are also majorly on point paired with a fall floral blouse!
While you’re at Target, I have to mention that there have been three Target fashion items that y’all have been loving and that basically we will all be wearing all season long…
$35 CLOGS — A SERIOUS CLONE OF RACHEL COMEYS THAT ARE ABOUT 10X THE PRICE
THIS BELTED PLAID JACKET — I LOVE IT IN BOTH COLORS; THE BROWN IS SO SOPHISTICATED!
And, for the children: olive green joggers for your wee man; Doen-inspired dress, $30 sherpa hoodie, and just-like-mama cardi for your little lady; and $5 Halloween crafts and stickers for both.
