A couple of incredibly chic finds that look like they cost a lot more than they do…
LE SPECS AIR HEART SUNGLASSES (SEEN ABOVE, HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT THESE SOOO MANY TIMES, BUT I HAVE OWNED IN A FEW COLORS AND JUST LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM; LOOK HIGH END BUT COST UNDER $70)
THESE $79 GROSGRAIN MULES (!!!! WOW WOW, DO I GET THEM IN BLUE OR PINK!) BRING TO MIND LOEFFLER RANDALL
P.S. Just ordered some of these “paint by sticker” books for mini — I think she’ll be super into them. And if you have a little girl, please take a look at these precious bubble. Swoon! Sal E Pimenta always has the most exquisite details. Just look at that collar! Meanwhile, this reversible jon jon is in my cart for micro. I had a jon jon from this brand for him last summer and LOVE that they reverse. Gives you extra style mileage for different events! This brand runs a bit longer/looser/baggier than my preferred style but there’s something about the way their pieces are sewn and the quality of the fabric that they use that really makes them stands out. Sometimes you find these loose, baggy jon jons and they just look cheaply made to me — these are not that way. You can tell the quality a mile away.
P.P.S. Have I already talked your ear off about this $120 side table? Looks JUST like something you’d find at higher-end stores like Serena and Lily. And speaking of S&L, they are offering FREE SHIPPING on just about everything today, which is truly a fantastic promotion because sometimes I’ve eyed a basket or stepstool and then been deterred by the high shipping.
I feel as though I can go months and months without finding anything good at H&M and then all of the sudden, I add 43 items to my cart in one fell swoop. Some truly excellent finds at the moment…
In some ways, motherhood has placed unanticipated pressure on many of my friendships with girlfriends. Especially in the early days of caring for a newborn, I was surprised by how little “down time” I had to answer emails and texts — and even when I did have “down time” while nursing or while the baby was napping, I found myself strangely disinclined to communicate, even with friends who already had babies and therefore “got it.” I didn’t figure out the source of this standoffishness until months later, when I realized that though I might have technically had the time to write or call during those portions of the day, I often just wanted to sit and “be” without giving any more of myself than I had to. Motherhood can feel that way, especially in the early days: depleting. Sometimes I still experience a stab of that emotion nowadays, even though I am well out of newborn territory. There are afternoons where I find myself bristling and in desperate need of not only closing the door to my bedroom but stepping into the cool of my bathroom and shutting that door, too, so I can stand in isolation with no one grabbing at my skirt or whining for milk or asking anything of me for a full minute. Just last Sunday, I went into my bedroom to change clothes, Hill hot on my heels, and somehow, ten minutes later, I was still standing in my undergarments in the middle of my bedroom. In the intervening time, I had cleaned a spill, changed Emory out of her clothing, chased Tilly out of the bathroom trash, consoled Hill from two separate injuries, and scolded him for slamming my closet door shut at least four or five times. It’s not always that way, of course, and often I can find the humor in it, but that afternoon, after a long day spent indoors thanks to inclement weather, I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling and thought how much I wanted just two minutes unimpeded by the demands of my two young children.
It’s ironic, though, that often when I have wanted to retreat the most, to draw myself inwards after a draining day of motherhood, I find my relationships with my girlfriends the most fulfilling. My friend Steph has an uncanny ability to send me a motherhood meme or a “Just thinking of you” text just when I’m at the point of exasperation and I glance at it and something inside relaxes. I am not alone! I will get through this! She was sitting with me through my pregnancy, my c-section recovery, all of my nursing woes, and every last tantrum besides. We don’t often have the luxury of the long-form conversations I used to tie to meaningful friendships with women, but her check-ins and her shrugging, I-totally-get-it acceptance of my occasional day-late responses give me life. We are offering one another what we have at the moment — short snippets of encouragement and camaraderie — and it is enough. As it turns out, friendship is not always big overtures and long heart-to-hearts. Sometimes it’s tiny, consistently-offered “thumbs up” emojis. I’m lucky to have three sisters and a handful of friends like her who honor a similar style of pop-in motherhood support and there is nothing like the unexpected “how’s it going?” text that arrives, no strings attached, when you are in the weeds. It is an invitation to vent or an opportunity to reflect or sometimes just the knowing head nod you need to keep going. The point is: I feel seen by these women just when motherhood seems to be hard at work eroding my sense of self.
Motherhood has also, however, occasionally put strain on friendships because it has exposed differences that feel either temporarily or permanently irreconcilable. I have been surprised by the fact that these differences tend not to be related to lifestyle or life-stage (i.e., whether or not my friends have children, whether or not they work outside the home, etc.) or even to parenting style, but to what I can only categorize as underlying values. As an example, I have found it much, much more difficult to maintain friendships with friends who insist that there is only one way to do a certain thing in the realm of parenting (or life in general) than with friends who have chosen to not have children but are in general open-minded, tinkering people. I had a situation where a friend of mine — hilarious, vivacious, a joy to be around — sat next to me one afternoon and probed as to why I had made a particular decision for my daughter, insisting that there was a better option. I look back on this exchange, and the urgent texts from her that followed, and the several similar interactions that cropped up in the months following, and I trust her intentions to be pure: she wanted the best for me and for my daughter. But the chasm between my live-and-let-live outlook and her importuning one gaped open. Meanwhile, I maintain several close friendships with women who are highly devoted to particular parenting decisions (I specifically remember many close friends endorsing Moms on Call and night nurses as a general proposition), but who are still encouraging and supportive when I have gone in a different direction. I am fumbling through my words here (is it really “underlying values?” or something else?), but what I mean to say is this: in this heavy-on-the-vine season of life, I find my strongest female friendships are based on gentleness and compassion more than anything else. Perhaps this has always been true of friendship, in every season of life, but motherhood has forced me to say no to relationships that fray rather than fill, no matter how much fun or interesting those women are to be around in the meantime.
So cheers today to all my mom friends (and I consider so many of you Magpie readers among this group) — the ones who say “don’t worry about it” after witnessing a colossal meltdown at the playground, the ones who check in with only the barest expectation of a timely response, the ones who answer texts about baby throw-up without batting an eye, the ones who send snarky motherhood memes when you need to read them, the ones who stand next to you in the drop-off line and nod knowingly in the face of naughty toddler behavior, the ones who just sit with you, shoulder to shoulder, saying: “I’ve been there.”
+Still getting a ton of wear out of this striped funnel-neck sweatshirt (currently on sale!) I like it with white jeans and olive green pants, and often layer it over another striped tee.
Wayfair is running a two-day sale — their biggest of the year — and while you can often find items marked down on their site, there are a couple of standout scores I wanted to flag:
THIS DRESSER IS 40% OFF — THE DESIGN IS SO GOOD, AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE (!) THE DRAWER PULLS, WHICH ARE THE SAME AS THE STYLE ON MY S&L DRESSER*…I LIKE THIS SO MUCH I WISH WE’D ALREADY CLOSED ON A HOUSE BECAUSE I WOULD LOVE TO BUY IT FOR MINI’S FUTURE ROOM!
Hill turns two in a month. Partly because he is a second child and partly because he has lived over half of his life in the strange conditions of a global pandemic, a little piece of me flags as I prepare for this birthday and think back on all of the firsts and lasts and could-haves that have slipped by unannounced. There were entire months over the past year in which I existed in pure survival mode, barely blustering my way through the day, and when I’d close the door to his bedroom at night, I’d stand there in the dim light of the hallway, wavering on my feet, the silence in our apartment ringing in my ears, a dinosaur in my back pocket, and a vague fatigue clouding my eyes and pressing down on my shoulders. I grieve those days for him. Life for me was more about putting one foot in front of the other, making it to the other side of daylight. Things eased up in the summer, after my recovery, after a week outside of the city, after we finally secured childcare, but — I grieve those days for him. For mini, too, but especially for him, because mini enjoyed two entire and uninterrupted years of our unflagging attention, and micro has only ever had half of ours, and less than that share during those dark days of the pandemic. I was doing my best, I tell myself. He is happy; he is loved. I can see his chubby figure toddling around the Great Lawn, blissfully chasing his sister, on the innumerable string of afternoons we spent there over the summer, and can hear that belly laugh of his that has punctuated so many of our days in the past year. He is easy-going; he is affectionate; he is a blithe little fellow. Still, I think, those months — a blight.
While I’m lingering on the tough, sinewy bits of the last year, another admission materializes: I can’t remember the last time I rocked him to sleep. It’s funny how that game goes: one day, you are walking back and forth in his tiny off-kitchen bedroom, avoiding the creaky floorboard, your arms nearly giving under the weight of his surprisingly-dense body, and the next, you are tidying up the kitchen, craning to hear his cry, and pleasantly surprised when it does not materialize. Only — the absence of that familiar cry that particular night proves a temporary boon. Because now, on the uncommon occasion he climbs into my lap and presses his body against mine, resting his head on my shoulder, I am weepy with nostalgia. I am awash with wonder. I cannot take my eyes off the movements of his tiny fingers, occasionally parroting my own actions in the unexpected, soft pat of my back — three taps of his little palm in a borrowed gesture of reassurance (!) — but usually moving in that funny idle way of a baby, playing with the hem of the blanket, in constant adjustment and curiosity. I find myself new again, as though experiencing motherhood for the first time: the details so tender and fine-tipped.
I don’t want two to come. It is the eve of attitude and the end of infancy. But here we are, and I know there is much to look forward to, having witnessed the blooms of curiosity and personality and awarenesses in my older child. This birthday, then, induces motherhood in its purest form: I am a heart rent in too many directions.
+More on this notion of keeping time as a parent: “Oh. I know now. She was how she kept time. The all-consuming centricity of parenthood, the reframing of all things, the centripetal force of my daughter. The way I will remember moving to New York through the lens of her eight-month-old self, the cramped and harried naps she took in a pack-and-play in the corner of our hotel room, or in my arms on the unmade bed, back when she was little enough to endure my tremulous voice on stressed phone calls and still sleep soundly through it all. The way I will think of the steps in our first home in Chicago through the prism of the sharp pain I felt ascending and descending them for the first few times after my c-section, wanting desperately to get to her but unable to move with more speed. The way my meals, my available times for phone calls, my weekend plans conform to her waking schedule.”
+More great gift ideas for children’s birthdays here and here.
+Great Zoom top – interesting details, but still professional.
+Speaking of interesting but professional, I’ll forever be a DVF fangirl. I have several wrap dresses of hers I bought just after college that I’ll wear until the end eternity. I like that the prints are bold but the dress is timeless in style (and appropriate for any age). You can just as easily wear with pumps as you can with sandals. I especially love this slightly more feminine flounced style.
+I just saw these sneakers on Jenny Walton and…I think I need them.
By: Jen Shoop
Run! My absolute favorite lipstick of all time, Chantecaille’s Lip Chic in Bourbon Rose, is on sale for 30% off. I have written about this lipstick a lot (!), but it glides on like a balm and imparts the most lovely, semi-sheer color. There are a bunch of other prestige beauty products from Charlotte Tilbury, YSL, Bobbi Brown, and more that are also marked down as a part of the promotion, but I cannot rave enough about the Chantecaille!
I also discovered that Bloomie’s is offering an extra 40% off clearance items, which includes a couple of Roller Rabbit footie pajamas for babies for only $16 (!!! — regularly $55 and I’m ashamed to admit how many of these footies I bought at full price for my children): these in the blue stars and these in the dancing mice. These pajamas are so incredibly silky-soft.
P.S. Not on sale, but I finally — having visited DC a bunch of times looking at homes — realized the utility of a mask chain. In NYC, if I am out of the house, I am always wearing my mask, as it is rare you are walking and not within six feet of someone else. But in DC, when we are driving from house to house in our car or relaxing at my parents’ house between viewings, there are a lot more occasions where I am taking my mask on/off. I got this inexpensive pearl chain and this fun pink chain to wear with all my pastel sundresses (also comes in a tortoise).
It’s no secret that I love a good monogram, especially emblazoned on tiny children’s clothing. Below, a few favorite personalized pieces for little ones…
COVID, for me, has ushered in a new appreciation for the house dress. Every evening, at 5 p.m., I put away my work materials, splash my face with water, reapply some mascara and blush, and change clothes. It’s become a ritualized buffer between “work Jen” and “Mom Jen” and I always feel so much better (more energized, more prepared for the evening rush) when I’ve claimed that small sliver of time as a designated transition. Most evenings, I like to slip into a loose-fitting dress that makes me feel pretty but is as comfortable as pajamas. I’ve written about all of these extensively, but the top five dresses I reach for night after night are:
3 // HILL HOUSE NAP DRESS — I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE NESLI AT THE MOMENT BECAUSE IT HAS SLEEVES AND IT’S STILL KIND OF CHILLY OUT
4 // LORETTA CAPONI DRESS — MINE IS LAST SEASON, BUT SIMILAR TO THIS AND THIS (LOOK FOR LESS WITH THIS)
5 // SMOCKED SEA DRESS — MINE IS A DIFFERENT PATTERN/MATERIAL I BOUGHT LAST FALL, BUT I HAVE WORN IT ABOUT 34909 TIMES THIS SEASON…IT IS SO COMFORTABLE, SO FLATTERING, SO EASY TO WEAR
I am trying to be more mindful of practicality when I order myself clothes — I am a true Magpie, always drawn towards the dramatic and sparkly and novel! — so I literally sat down to evaluate what makes the above-five dresses so precious to me. The commonalities are that all have sleeves, all are midi-to-maxi length, none have buttons/closures that require work, and all are loose-fitting but flattering. I like that I never have to adjust with these dresses — nothing is ever inadvertently revealed or hanging out. When you’re playing on the floor with children or stirring with one hand and consoling with another — you don’t want to also be trying to adjust your neckline or hemline. Lastly, all are attractive enough that if I need to dash out to the store or fetch something from the lobby, I don’t need to worry about my appearance!
Accordingly, below are other options along similar lines that I am eyeing for myself for the evening hour…
A tiny bit fussier, but I have also had my eye on a Sue Sartor dress for awhile, which is in a similar vein, though the sleeves might make dishes difficult.
I am always wearing these velvet mules at home. They are just the most comfortable shoe, and sturdy enough for running down to the lobby (and, occasionally, around the corner for milk!).
P.S. Totally unrelated to the above, but two beauty discoveries since my last beauty-centric post that I’m itching to try: Saie glowy super gel and Cle de Peau lip perfector. And preliminary review: I am in love with that Elemis balm I mentioned earlier this week, but I am having a difficult time fitting into my skincare regimen! At the moment, it’s competing with my beloved daily scrubby facial cleanser — I don’t want to use both because it feels like it’s undoing the work of the other. I’ve been alternating which I use. I know this is more about experience than results, but Elemis just feels like such a relaxing, luxurious step at night. You massage a beautifully scented balm into your skin and then wipe away the day gently with a warm wash cloth. I love it. Meanwhile, Tata has been great for my skin but it is a bit more bracing/abrasive.
P.P.S. My beauty hall of fame here. I stand behind each of these products. Love, love, love.
+Sconce Shades: I love the way Diff Miller added texture to the room above with chic scalloped rattan sconce shades. If you’re looking for sconces similar to the ones she’s used above, try these. More sconce options in this post.
+Mirrors: If you like the look above, check out this S&L, this pre-loved Bungalow 5 statement, and this pagoda style. The white trim just looks so fantastic against a bold wallpaper. I also recently came across this mirror and haven’t stopped thinking about it. The blue would be such a statement! More great statement mirrors here.
+Towels:Matouk Auberge. I have given these as housewarming gifts to countless friends, and we own several sets. I have also given a few sets from Boll & Branch but never tried myself. I also like the look of these from Hill House, which can be personalized in attractive fonts.
+Hand Towels: Nothing wrong with going with stark white towels and then having a couple of fun hand towels to introduce color/drama. I’ve purchased some applique monogram hand towels from Blue Bamboo in the past, and the owner was such a joy to work with. She really went above and beyond to help color-match. She is taking a short break at the moment, but you can sign up to be alerted when she returns! I also adore these scalloped styles from Lettrefina.
+Bathroom Furniture: Depending on your needs and the size of your bathroom, a couple of great pieces…
+Artwork: Obviously so dependent on colors in the room, personal preference, etc., but I just discovered a new resource, Artfully Walls, which has interesting prints and offers framing. (For some reason the prospect of buying art and then taking it to be framed has always felt so irritating and drawn-out to me.). Anyhow, they even have invited renowned interior designers like Mark D. Sikes to curate selections. These blue stripes stood out to me!
P.P.S. All my favorite hand soaps. I’m actually living on the edge right now and testing a new Molton Brown hand soap scent — Orange and Bergamot. All of their scents are just exquisite, and I personally prefer the formula of their soap to all others. It’s not as oily/unctuous as some of the other high end brands. It has a great hand feel.
I feel as though there are two prevalent messages of empowerment circulating in the zeitgeist at the moment. The first is along the lines of Shonda Rhimes’ “Year of Yes,” and the second can best be summarized as “no is a full answer.” One is about receptivity, the other is about boundary-setting. Which do you find more compelling at this stage in your life? I feel I lived out the Rhimes ethos in my 20s and have been struggling to honor my commitment to saying “no” to more in my 30s.
Regardless, thinking back across the past two decades, there are many things I am happy I said yes to, and a few things I regret declining. If I could go back in time, I would urge my sixteen-year-old self to say yes to…
New cuisines;
Any excuse to travel somewhere you’ve never been;
Volunteer opportunities at work (nearly always a good chance to get noticed);
Dancing with your husband;
Traveling to siblings living in far-flung places, or even not-far-flung places — just say yes to traveling to see your siblings, whenever you can, for as long as you can, as often as you can, full stop;
Visiting friends and loved ones in the hospital, even though you dread it;
Wedding invitations (if someone thought to include you, you should try be there);
Nightly dance party requests from your small children, who insist upon listening to “classic rock essentials” and will pout unless there is sufficient metal in the arrangement, even when you are bone-tired;
Specialty cocktails planned and mixed up by a thoughtful host;
Phone calls from siblings;
Eating at the bar at restaurants (always such an unexpectedly intimate experience);
Taking off your heels and dancing barefoot;
Compliments;
Opportunities to volunteer at your child’s school;
Automatic contributions to a 401K;
Invitations to toast loved ones at weddings and other special occasions — you will forever regret not speaking publicly in service of the ones you love most;
Your mother’s offer to come out to help with your newborn baby;
Four-inch-high, hot pink Louboutin mules 70% off at The Outnet (still one of my favorite pairs of shoes ever);
Requests for prayers;
Fresh flowers on a down day;
Any chance to spend time with your grandparents;
Public speaking opportunities (even when they go badly, they are incredible character-building experiences and public speaking is a skill well worth cultivating);
Nearly any occasion to hear live music;
“Will you forgive me?” from a loved one;
Sunscreen;
Dressing to the nines;
Any project that will give you face time with leadership in your place of work;
Driving with the windows down and the music all the way up;
“Will you marry me?” from your best friend.
If you could go back in time, what else would you tell yourself to say yes to?
*Things to categorically say no to: tanning beds, gaucho pants, plucking your eyebrows late at night, friendships with people who make you feel “less than,” jungle juice at fraternity parties, the urge to “be cool” in a way that contradicts who you are, going to bed angry, second donuts (will nearly always make you feel sick), mixing business with friendship, free lunches (they do not exist…).
Mr. Magpie takes coffee very seriously, and this morning, I thought I’d share some of our favorite gear in this department as well as in the neighboring domain (tea!).
Pour Over Coffee Gear.
We went through a long phase of exclusively drinking pour-over coffee, and he used a ceramic Kalita dripper (also comes in a well-reviewed glass version), Kalita wave filters, Kalita glass server, an OXO scale (incidentally, a heavily-used tool in our kitchen — I use to bake by weight and he uses for…everything, including measuring out portions of meals in separate baggies to freeze; he is nothing if not precise), and a Bonavita gooseneck kettle. Mr. Magpie always does copious research into coffee gear, so you can trust his faith in the Kalita brand — he spent days poring over Reddit articles and obscure coffee blogs to settle on this. The OXO scale is highly reliable, easy to use, and we love the pull-out screen, which is handy if you’re measuring something bigger than the base so that you can still read the measurement. (This happens more than you’d think when you’re weighing meat or larger portions of flour, sugar, etc in big bowls/plates.) As for the kettle, though we have loved the Bonavita for years and years now (I use it to boil water for tea often), we have been eyeing the Fellow Stagg EKG kettle. Bonavita works fantastic (and is less than half the price of the Fellow style at the moment) but I do think the controls are counter-intuitive/take some getting used to and we have noticed in the last year (after years and years of heavy use) that the temperature reader is somewhat finnicky — once it is close to boiling point, it will flip between a couple different numbers on the screen. We now assume that this means the water is boiling but it’s somewhat irritating that it does not provide a clear read. Plus, the Fellow style is more aesthetically pleasing! I think that will be our next acquisition.
For years, Mr. Magpie used the Capresso burr grinder to grind beans in the morning, which was a solid entry-level burr grinder. (Burr grinders are preferable to blade grinders because they grind the beans more uniformly, which leads to a smoother resulting cup of coffee.) He recently decided he wanted a mechanical burr grinder to yield an even smoother cup. There is a lot of coffee-nerd detail I could offer to explain the enhancement, but the TL;DR is that for some reason the best electric burr grinders are thousands (!!!!) of dollars, and the next best thing is a mechanical burr grinder. We did not want to spend $2,000 on a grinder so he has been mechanical grinding our beans using a Comandante, which are sadly sold out basically everywhere at the moment. I will say that the runner up that was recommended by many coffee enthusiasts is this similar but less expensive Timemore C2 style. Of course, mechanical bean grinding is probably not for everyone — it requires elbow grease and yields enough for maybe two people! I do not think I would have the patience or dedication to do this every single morning, so God bless Mr. Magpie. (Random notes: I do like that we no longer endure the noise of the Capresso electric grinder every morning, and the Comandante is highly portable in the event we want to take our pourover gear for a trip. And it does yield an amazingly delicious cup. Caveat that there is a “dialing in” period where Mr. Magpie had to continually adjust the settings to get to the right size ground.)
Drip Coffee Gear.
The ironic thing is that while Mr. Magpie has retreated from the ease of using an electric grinder, he abandoned pour-overs and embraced a drip coffee machine right around when our son was born. Our thought was that it would be nice to have a warm pot of coffee waiting for us whenever we wanted to refresh our coffee cups — seriously a priority when you have small children around! — and that it would be nice to be able to brew bigger pots of coffee when we had friends over. (Versus doing a ton of batches of pourover!) He chose the Technivorm Moccamaster which is kind of like a hybrid between pour-over and drip coffee — the technology basically emulates the pourover process. This thing is silent, not too hideous to keep out on your kitchen counter, and yields an absolutely delicious cup of coffee. I also love the heater plate (pretty common in coffee makers, but still, a difference from pourover) because I can get my 10 a.m. refill piping hot.
Tea Gear.
Aside from the gooseneck kettle (which I personally prefer to a stovetop kettle because you can achieve the exact temperature you want — if you are a true tea buff, you will note that certain teas have specific temperature instructions and brewing times), I love using either the Finum mesh brewing basket or the biodegradable filters from David’s Tea for loose tea, which I keep in tin canisters similar to these that I bought from David’s Tea awhile ago. I also like these — great colors! I tend to use either loose tea or non-individually wrapped tea bags from Harney & Sons. (I absolutely live for their peppermint and soba teas — both decaf and seriously soothing.)
+I bought Mr. Magpie these bone china Intelligentsia mugs as a part of his birthday gift (when I also gave him the Comandante hand grinder). I thought the aesthetic was fun — sort of a stream-lined diner style, and coffee enthusiasts say bone china is the best way to enjoy a cup of coffee!
+A couple of other gorgeous mugs below, but first, a personal note: who says you have to have mugs/tea cups that match? Find a few you love and treasure them every morning!
+For to-go, we love our Zojirushi mugs, which keep coffee astoundingly warm and do note leak. When spilling is not so much an issue, I use this insulated stainless steel Byta mug, though I am not sure I would recommend it because it is hand-wash only. I would probably recommend Yeti’s mug or tumbler instead if I could do it again!
+Fellow Vacuum Canister to keep coffee beans fresh. We have tried dozens of brands of beans but are currently in a committed relationship with Blue Bottle. Parlor Coffee is also an occasional order for us — it’s what the coffee snobs we know drink.
+Hario stirrer stick. Totally random and unnecessary but a lot of people use a chopstick to stir grinds during the pour over process; this is simply a more optimal tool for that process and we also now use it instead of a spoon when adding cream and sugar. (I think there is some technical reason why you should not use a metal implement during the pourover process but I forget what it is.)
+I tend to buy loose tea or non-individually-wrapped tea bags, but I do have a smattering of individually-wrapped sets on hand (especially helpful for guests), and this clever tea-bag organizer is such a great, aesthetically pleasing way to keep that section of the cupboard organized and not overflowing with tons of boxes! I feel like I would thoroughly enjoy the process of decanting tea bags from miscellaneous cardboard boxes into that…
+There was a long period of time where I frothed soy or oat milk in the microwave using this genius little gadget. Nowadays, I just use sugar and half-and-half for some reason — just sort of got out of the habit! But it’s a great way to achieve a poor man’s latte at home. I used to heat the milk in the microwave in this tall silicone measuring cup (handy because of the height — you can heat it and then insert the aerolatte right in there to froth to high heavens without splattering everywhere) and then pour into my mug on top of my coffee. Dreamy.
+We do not have an espresso machine (lattes are my out-of-home treat), but when we went to the Hamptons with my sister and brother-in-law last summer, they brought their Breville machine along and good Lord was I happy. My brother-in-law made me oat lattes every morning and it was a dream.
*Image above via interior designer extraordinaire Jenny Wolf. I love the blue color of the cabinetry and of course my beloved antelope rug, which we have in our living room!
My Latest Snag: Le Floral Shirtdress.
I shared a bunch of my latest acquisitions in this post earlier this week, but I have to brag about this floral style I found at Brooks Brothers. It is SO good. I love the colors, pattern, shape, details of the collar/sleeve — just too perfect!
Weekend Musings: Are You the Candle or the Mirror?
Some Edith Wharton to chew on this morning:
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
I love this quote. A reminder that we don’t always need to shine the brightest on our own, to be the center of attention or flame itself, to do good and spread light.
