This is actually a score from a few weeks ago, but I got so many direct messages in response to the Instastory above that I thought I’d share details below. The case is from Etsy (under $20!) and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I then added these letters, which are on SUPER sale.
You’re Sooooo Popular: The Kitchen Appliance Everyone’s Raving About.
The most popular items on Le Blog this week:
+Apparently I majorly missed the boat on this wunderproduct — had no clue about it until recently, but check out the comments here!
+This cool print, which would be a lovely addition to a gallery wall…
+Can’t get enough of statement shirting styles like this.
+Cozy is the most overused word in the blogosphere, but this is…well, the coziest.
#Turbothot: The Handmaid’s Tale.
Have you read or watched The Handmaid’s Tale? Mr. Magpie and I tuned into the first episode last weekend and were so distraught that we switched it off, turned to each other, and solemnly agreed not to resume watching it ever again. The premise of the series is so dark and disgusting that it was hard to watch. I felt like I was carrying around a weight in the pit of my stomach for the next two days.
I respect art that goes there. And I’ve read my fair share of gut-wrenching books (I was wrecked after The God of Small Things and The Year of Magical Thinking in particular). And I’m further aware that the cognitive dissonance we were experiencing is probably, in certain ways, healthy: we were thinking, reacting deeply, processing. But sometimes I feel that life is too short for such worrisome imagery; there is enough unhappiness and pain in the real world.
What were your thoughts?
#Shopaholic: The Scalloped Swimsuit.
+This scalloped swimsuit looks an awful lot like something from Marysia…but at a fraction of the price.
+GUYS. Have you had chicken salt before? Mr. Magpie and I went to see the Magician Upstairs at The Nomad Hotel (SO COOL) and they served popcorn seasoned with chicken salt and it was OUTRAGEOUS. This is now in my cart for movie night…
“I wonder if I’ll look back in a year and cringe at the size of these sleeves,” I mused.
“Well, at least they’re timeless,” she quipped — “I’m pretty sure women in the Renaissance age wore them that way, too.”
HAHA!
I thought today I’d share some uber micro trends — meaning extremely high-fashion, of-the-moment trends that will undoubtedly be a flash in the pan, and share thoughts/alternatives.
Uber-trend 1: The Padded Headband.
Super fashion-forward outlets and bloggers like Man Repeller and Chiara Ferragni have been pushing the padded headband for the past few weeks. I actually love headbands — every now and then I’ll pull out my tortoise-shell headband, throw on a black sweater and black skinny jeans and Chanel flats, and feel all Blair Waldorf. The padded style is taking me a minute to absorb…but I’m kinda digging it. Splurge on this trendy velvet style (<< you know it’s on trend if Five Story carries it) or save with this $5 steal.
Uber-trend 2: The Exaggerated Cat Eye.
Trendsetters like Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, and Beyonce have all been spotted in extreme cateye shades. Balenciaga featured them HEAVILY in a recent runway show. They’re not my cup of tea — they look like they’re trying too hard. I’m much more interested in the whimsy of the of-the-moment heart-shaped sunnies from YSL. But, if you’re a bit more daring and intrepid on the fashion front, these are your best bet (also available in white here). And if you’re in the mood for a more traditional shape with some pizzazz, I implore you to consider these $60 shades from Le Specs. I bought a pair of Le Specs last summer in a style they no longer make and get asked about them CONSTANTLY. They do great sunglasses at reasonable prices.
Uber-trend 3: The Balenciaga Knife Mule.
These super exaggerated pointy-toe mules (also shown above) have caused quite the controversy among shoe-lovers: people either love ’em or hate ’em. I tend to fall prey to trends in footwear but these feel overly impractical for me–which is saying a lot, because I’m the type of gal who can rationalize a pair of 5″ heels or a twelfth pair of black flats or what have you. I feel like I’d trip over them all the time. Still, I have to admit that they look pretty cool out there in the wild…I like them especially as they are styled in the last picture below, with the exaggerated sleeved sweater and simple black jeans. Tres chic ca. So maybe I am warming to them?! These Alexandre Birmans are a little less dramatic, but get the vibe, and these $60 channel the look for a fraction of the price!
P.S. More fashion-forward finds I’m lusting after here.
P.P.S. If you’re into the frayed sweater trend, this one just went on sale.
P.P.P.S. This would be cute for an expecting mama at a shower for her baby boy…or, ya know, just rocking the ice blue trend!
By: Jen Shoop
Gulp. We’re one month out from mini’s first birthday and I’m seesawing between nostalgic tears and beaming pride. When I’m feeling weepy, scrolling through images of her when she was just three days, three weeks, three months old, I let myself wallow in the tenderness for a few seconds and then turn my focus to the present and its many blessings. For starters, we’re sleeping through the night–we have been since she was about nine months old–and I won’t let myself forget how exhausting those first nine months were. It’s amazing what you can do on very little sleep–but it’s even more amazing to score eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Ha. So I’m still celebrating a full night’s sleep!
One of you smart readers wrote to say that though the going may get tough during the exhausting newborn phase or the terrible twos or the moody teenage years, “Never wish your child’s age away.” The phrase struck me, and I’ve thought of it often–not so much from the perspective that I’m wishing mini would hurry up and get older, though. I think about it more when I’m feeling emotional about how big she’s getting; I find myself swooning: “Ohhh what I’d give to go back in time and cherish those newborn snuggles.” But then I’m not focusing my energy on giving her cuddles now, when she can nuzzle her head against my neck and put her arms around me and cling to me.
Which brings me to mini’s eleven-month update! (Her 10 month update here!)
Mini’s eating habits have been a touch confusing to me. She happily ate falafel drenched in hummus from Taim last Saturday, but Sunday afternoon wouldn’t touch it — she just flung it around the room. Two days later, she would strain her neck away from macaroni and cheese; the next day, she was shoveling it into her mouth. This brings me to three observations/thoughts:
If at first she doesn’t like it, try, try again. I continue to try to feed her eggs; she continues to spit it out. But I’m convinced that if I expose her enough, she’ll eventually come around to it–just like with mac and cheese earlier this week.
I think she’s especially interested in food when it comes from my plate. For example, I had been eating my falafel sandwich and breaking her off bits to eat — and she was excitedly eating from my hand, her little bird mouth open with excitement and anticipation. Not sure where this leaves us, but it seems to be a tried and true way to get her to test a new flavor.
Occam’s razor: the simplest explanation is often the right one. Meaning, maybe she just wasn’t that hungry at lunchtime on Sunday!
However, mini always has room for fruit. She loves it. Especially berries (we’re being bankrupted by the price of berries in winter in Manhattan), clementines, and kiwi. She’s also a snack lover — she currently likes Ella’s Kitchen Milk and Vanilla Cookies; shredded cheese; Bamba peanut snacks; and, of course, puffs.
I am running out of what I call “fallback” meals — basically, lunches or dinners that I can pull together in a few minutes when I don’t have leftovers on hand or whatever we’re eating is too spicy/not going to be ready in time for her 5 p.m. dinner. Lately, I’ve been feeding her lots of peanut butter sandwiches, quesadillas, raisin bread with cream cheese, fish sticks, Dr. Prager’s veggie bites, and pasta/mac and cheese. What other suggestions do you guys have?
Minimagpie: Playtime at 11 Months.
Mini is officially on the move. She’s crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on baskets/chairs, and testing out a range of new gymnastic feats (she routinely hoists herself up into downward facing dog). She’s nearly impossible to keep in one place for more than a few minutes, unless she’s surrounded by a stack of books, which tend to hold her attention for a decent amount of time. (Much to my delight.)
Mr. Magpie and I really need to babyproof the apartment a bit more — I have my eye on these for our coffee table, these for our kitchen cabinets, and these for our sockets. The only alternative would be to buy a gate to section off her play area (one of my friends has this one), but the problems are as follows:
Where would we keep said gate when not in use?! We’re allergic to the idea of keeping it up permanently because our apartment is tiny and it would clutter everything and also make us feel like grownups living at Gymboree. But I just have this sneaking suspicion that if we had it, we would tire of collapsing it and putting it away 10 times a day. And finally — where is “away”? We have no space left in our closets, and I’m loathe to keep it leaning against a wall (we’re already resigned to keeping her stroller out and on display in our foyer…sigh).
We own an expensive Nuna playard/travel crib, and though playpens are highly out of vogue these days, the crib is not that much smaller than the area we would confine her to with one of said gates. (We would probably put the “pen” around the carpet in our living room in front of the TV.) So, why would we buy something new when we have something that would suffice?
How long would we even use a gate? Like, when does it stop being practical? Once they start walking? Which is…in a few months? Meep.
Mini’s favorite toys right now, which aren’t too different from last month: her babydoll (our nanny has taught her to cradle it and rock it back and forth and OMG I DIE; she clutches it in her stroller; she even sleeps with her hand curled around it); her music set (Mr. Magpie and I were both percussionists — he, a drummer; me, a pianist — so this is exciting to us); her Maileg mouse set (<<this entertains her for about 20 minutes every morning while I am getting dressed and making the bed; I put her in her crib with this, and she happily moves the mattresses around from one stack to another); crayons and paper (<<requires heavy supervision, since she tends to like to “test” how the crayons taste; she also prefers the jumbo crayons to the egg-shaped ones — they’re easier for her to grip and control, but my mother informs me both are good at teaching he different motor skills); silicon bowls in the kitchen; vintage wooden nesting blocks that belonged to Mr. Magpie.
Minimagpie: Sleeptime at 11 Months.
I’m happy to report that we’re still in a happy pattern of going down to sleep around 7:15 and waking up for the day at 6:30. The big change is that she’s shifted from two naps to one. [Big sigh.] I didn’t realize how much I loved and needed the twice-daily breaks to grab a quick shower or tend to emails or tidy the house, but…such is life. Right now she’ll go down for a nap around 11 a.m. and sleep until 1; I’m trying to gradually shift that nap until 12 or 1 — after her lunch — because I think it will make more sense that way in terms of meals. It doesn’t feel quite right to feed her at 10:45 a.m. and then put her down on a full stomach; and it also doesn’t feel quite right to feed her lunch at 1:15 or 1:30, after she’s woken up. But then again, I’ve never been super into artificial schedules to begin with, so we’ll see how things go…
Minimagpie: Wishlist at 11 Months.
I’ll do a separate post on all of the items I’m eyeing for her big 1-year birthday (!!!!), but here are a few items less of the gifting variety I’ve been eyeing:
+This transportable playmat bag. I love that hedgehog print, and it might be helpful for containing the mess while visiting friends/grandparents.
+Beaba cutlery — she’s getting to an age where she can start feeding herself with something other than her fingers!
+Stacking cups — she loves anything that stacks/nests these days. These are super inexpensive and would be nice to keep in my diaper bag. (Also, HOLY REVIEWS! Have you ever seen a 5 star review across 1500 reviewers for a product under $4?!)
+I had SO many great reactions/responses to my post on wearing a backpack as a diaper bag — please check out all the ideas here if you’re in the market! — and then one of my good friends texted me and encouraged me to look at this one, too. I’m still undecided, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that this may be a part of the puzzle for me when taking mini out. I just got her Yoyo, which I will more fully review in a few weeks, after I’ve thoroughly tested it out, but the one thing it’s made apparent is that it will be borderline impossible for me to take her out of the stroller and fold it up while also holding a bag over my shoulder. I guess that’s what benches are for? Or…backpacks. The other backpack I’m considering is this one, which you can get handpainted with your initials!!!!
+A friend of mine has a baby two months mini’s junior and she recently told me that she started giving her baby baths in the big tub. I realized I had never even thought about when mini might transfer to “the big girl tub” — she certainly can sit up on her own now…! Suddenly I imagined myself trying to bathe her in her baby tub until the age of six. Womp womp. Sometimes it takes another mama to make you realize something very, very obvious. Anyway, I have this sitting in my cart because I’ve been very impressed with EVERY Boon product I’ve purchased thus far. I also saw another mom on Instagram using this inside her bath, but I’m thinking that mini has probably outgrown the need for that…? (Though — what a great idea for travel if you’re not sure if you’ll have an appropriate bath tub for baby?! I can’t tell you how many times I had to awkwardly “bathe” mini in a fancy pants marble rain shower while we were waiting to move into our new apartment, while crouching on the ground of the shower with her…I would have killed for this.)
+This should give you a clue into what a baby gear geek I am: I was legit excited when I saw the new colors the Ubbi comes in. Not that we’ll ever need a new one, but — what great and chic options for nearly any nursery!
+I snagged a few pieces from Primary — a few of these tees and one of these zipped footies in the stark white color (so yeezy season three). I like their emphasis on inexpensive, unfussy, basic-colored cotton pieces; it makes for easy mix-and-matching. But I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed by the quality of the cotton on the t-shirts. The jammies seem to be better made. I think this could be a good resource if you’re looking for something to coordinate with a specific pair of pants or overalls or need an extra pair of play clothes for school as a backup for accidents, but I’m not sure I’m bought…
+I seriously considered this dress for mini’s first birthday, but went with another…which will be a SURPRISE!!
P.S. Have you checked out my updated LeShop page? There’s a whole section just focused on minimagpie gear if you scroll down, and I’ve updated each to include a description!
By: Jen Shoop
I came across a rather salacious picture of Kourtney Kardashian on Instagram where she’s lounging in a bikini, eating a snack, and the caption reads: “Guac is extra.”
I can’t explain why, but I loved that caption and haven’t been able to put it out of my head. I’ll be flitting around my neighborhood running errands and someone will rush in front of me to cut in line, and I’ll think to myself, rolling my eyes: “Guac is extra.” Or I’ll be dealing with the surly deliveryman who attempted — and failed — to install our new dishwasher in our unit, who was grumbling about how annoyed he was that he couldn’t get into the building before 9 a.m. (this, despite a scheduled 9 a.m. delivery), acting as though I personally ensured that he couldn’t enter the building prior, and the empathy I once felt for this chap with the horrifying plumber’s butt situation will evaporate, and I’ll shrug and think, “Guac is extra.”
It’s a catch-all. A nonsense phrase. A bit of gibberish — sort of like “whatchamacallit” or “whoozit” or “thingamamob” or “widget” (people in business love to talk about “widgets” in abstraction and I hate it).
But it’s gibberish with sass — it’s the Nicki Minaj of balderdash. GUAC IS EXTRA, PPL.
It therefore feels appropriately abstruse to tether this random thought of mine to the following category of fashion finds: 10 trendy pieces that will make you feel like a million bucks but cost less than $150. (Well, almost all of them do.)
Pick No. 3: Heart-shaped plastic shades ($10!) << The quality on these is questionable, but…for a cheap thrill?! Or splurge on the real deal with the YSLs I mentioned here.
OK, so it’s technically February, but accounting’s never been my strong suit anyhow–today, I’m sharing my thoughts on the books I read last month and the ones I plan to read this one. (More book reviews and picks here.)
Book Club Pick No. 1: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown.
Two stars. I found the format of this book — narrative interspersed with snatches of the father’s draft memoir — troublesome and sloppy. It felt as though the author couldn’t decide how to write the book and therefore wrote it in two modes; the convention does nothing additive to the plot. In fact, a lot of the “writerly” goings-on of the book (the father is a journalist and therefore tosses random writing observations into the mix here and there) only obfuscate. There’s one chapter that begins: “Jonathan hung his favorite Graham Greene quote over his desk: A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one choose that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. The job of the writer, he’d learned over time, was not to try to tell a story in its entirety, but to tell an inevitably abbreviated version in the most interesting way one could.” Harrumph. Not a particularly stirring vote of confidence in the direction of this book — in fact, the quote only served to make me think less of Brown in that I felt the suspenseful moment she’d chosen to start her book was a bit of a cheap ploy. It’s as if she’s saying: “Hey guys! Look, I’m writing a suspenseful book and I’m doing it by starting at the most suspenseful moment — not because I’m telling a great story but because I methodically sat down and picked the moment that would be the most interesting to start from!”
I also found a lot of the imagery cloying and exhaustingly specific. Early in the book, the father recalls a morning spent on the beach with his late wife, Billie: “Billie uses Jonathan’s bent legs as her chair, her long hair draping down his thighs. She studies the surfers bobbing out at the break as she scoops up sand and lets it trickle through splayed fingers, absently picking out rocks and twigs. Jonathan reaches out and takes a strand of her hair, one of the silver threads that are starting to lace through the dark brown. He rubs it gently between his fingertips, testing its texture, testing the temperature of his wife.”
I mean — what have we learned here? What is the purpose of this level of excruciating detail? (Sidebar: I spent a good minute or two trying to imagine a human using another human’s “bent legs as a chair” (???) and came up dry.) I have a strong feeling this could have been excised or edited down to something simpler and more evocative, but have no sense for why it was left in. Are we meant to know that they were once close, physically? Are we meant to understand the reflective tone of the day? Maybe both of these things, but I assure you that neither of these details bear any importance to the remainder of the book.
That said, I thought Brown did a good job of leaving you wondering. I must have changed my hypothesis as to what happened to the mom at least ten times. There’s artistry there. While the book jacket’s likening of this one to Big Little Lies is preposterous, I will say that if you’re in the mood for a whodunit that keeps you guessing, this fills the void.
Book Club Pick No. 2: The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine.
Three stars. It pains me to award this book three stars because the writing is unimpressive and there were some truly disgusting moments in it (Mom, please do not read this book), but I have to applaud it: I could not put it down. It’s a page-turner and an easy candidate for my list of must-read beach reads. The technical problems with this book are many, including the laughably ostentatious and lazy villainization of two of its principal characters. At one point, I just started to laugh at how absurdly evil the author made these people: she couldn’t let you empathize — not even a little bit! — with either of them, which makes for a wildly simplistic worldview: there are good people and there are bad people. Full stop. Life is, obviously, far more complicated. That said, there is a WILD twist in the middle that makes for happy reading. If you’re looking for a mental vacation, this is your ticket. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Book Club Pick No. 3: Sisters First by Jenna and Barbara Bush.
Three stars. I’ve written about this before, but I’m omniverous when it comes to the memoir genre; it’s a special form of fiction. This one is middling. The writing is uneven, and I found myself pondering for long stretches of time whether this was a result of bad editing or, perhaps, the Bush twins’ insistence that they write the majority of the book themselves? I especially disliked the theme-driven format, which often sends us elliptically back and forth in chronology, as we shuttle not only from year to year but from twin to twin and are left feeling fuzzy about the details. Still, the book is full of fascinating insider stories and observations about a political dynasty with considerable celebrity, and it certainly paints Bush 43 in an interesting new light that most readers, I think, will find rather alien from his more popular portrait by the public as a dim-witted rancher. I loved the inclusion of emails and letters from their father and grandfather, which made me realize how sad it is that I rarely write letters anymore. (Ya know, when MY biography is written, they’ll need those! HAR HAR HAR.) There were also miscellaneous moments of useful advice sprinkled throughout that I tucked in my pocket for safekeeping. I especially loved this: “As teenagers, when we would come to [my mom] with teenager-sized problems, she always said: ‘I promise. there are very, very few things worth worrying about.’ And she was right. Now, I wonder if her advice was because she had already worried about heartbreaking things and knew what it was to feel overwhelming pain. She saw our anxieties for what they were: childlike.” I am prone to worry; I need to keep Laura’s advice top of mind — see the bigger picture.
Halfway Club.
I’m partway through Grant’s autobiography, which is intimidatingly long and prone to soporific expanses of military history, but it feels like it’s worth reading. There is enough interesting commentary in there to keep me on the hook, including the premise, advanced early on, that all of life is fated. Do we agree?
I’m also midway through An Odyssey, which is, at least at this juncture, more of a eulogy than anything else: an ode to a deceased father told through the form of memoir interspersed with literary criticism. I have some beef with some of his over-intellectualized interpretations, but he’s a gifted writer who has already taught me a thing or two.
Next Up at Bat.
Novel: The Address, by Fiona Davis. Set just a few blocks from where I live!
Twisty-turny Psychological Thriller That Everyone Is Talking About: The Woman in the Window, by AJ Finn. (Ya know, the NEW Gone Girl – Girl on the Train – Couple Next Door…) Bonus points for the cover design, which feels deliciously reminiscent of the yellowed, dog-eared beach reads of trashy summer novels in the 80s.
What’s on your reading list for this month? Any reactions/disagreements?
P.S. I love this chic checked blouse (under $60!) — the belted waist would be super flattering, but the print is fun and loud.
P.P.S. I wore a striped dress similar to this one ALL THE TIME last summer — with chic sneaks to run errands and with espadrilles out to lunch. While we’re on the topic of warm weather: this is fun and well-priced and just the kind of thing I’d want to wear on a honeymoon/trip to the tropics with Mr. Magpie, and this is just darling — I’d wear it as a cover-up over this sweet suit with these sandals!
Several years ago, one of Mr. Magpie’s dearest friends, Andrew Harnik (a celebrated political photojournalist who works for the Associated Press and routinely travels with the president — it’s because of him that I own a pack of Air Force One branded M+Ms), was asked to serve as a judge for the prestigious RFK Journalism Awards. At the time, I was traveling every other week from Chicago to D.C. for work, and Andrew asked if I would attend the awards as his date, as I happened to be in town. I accepted his gracious invitation. The day of the event was a particularly tumultuous one: at the time, I had just stepped into the role of interim executive director for a non-profit organization after the sitting director had rather abruptly stepped down. I was still getting my bearings and felt at once ill-equipped for the job and determined to deliver. I’d flown in that morning from Chicago to a stretch of back-to-back meetings. The staff was at an all-time low from a morale standpoint given recent transitions and dislocations, and I’d decided to put together a somewhat schmaltzy surprise “awards ceremony” of my own that afternoon, where I designed a slideshow featuring every staff member, calling out their strengths, and awarding them with t-shirts emblazoned with inside jokes/names on the back–things like “Hawaii Joe,” “That Guy in the Corner,” etc. You know–nicknames that are amusing within the context of the occasionally strained dynamics of a young workplace. That afternoon, we had a good time laughing at each other, and I felt I’d accomplished something material. Then I shifted gears entirely as I returned to my office for an impromptu meeting with the head counsel of the non-profit’s chairman, who was an inscrutable, daunting fellow — one who tended to stop by unannounced to check in on things, leaving only after he’d made me feel thoroughly ill-at-ease in my new role. (“Can you get a P+L statement to me?” “I’ve never done one –” “Here’s the accountant’s number. Connect with him and then get it to me as soon as you can.” “OK.”)
By six o’clock, I was fried. I’d been awake since 5:30 a.m., then jerked up and down the emotional and intellectual confidence spectrum, and I felt — as I often did back then — as though I was a little girl dressed up as a woman, playing charades, just waiting for someone to stop me and say: “Wait a minute! Who are you and why are you pretending to run this organization? You shouldn’t be here! Who let her in?”
Later, I would realize that I was suffering from a serious case of imposter syndrome, something common among women in positions of authority. That said, I was, on reflection, poorly equipped for the role. Well, that’s not entirely true–I was industrious, dedicated, and good at managing the team. Through trial and error and the observation of a string of very bad managers, I’d learned, over time, to be a mindful manager. The team seemed happier, more at ease, with me at the helm, and we got a lot done together. I managed to improve team morale while demanding — and receiving — a high level of productivity. But I was woefully inexperienced and naive on the business side of things. It would take many years and two additional executive roles for me to learn to think like a businesswoman — to weigh the economics when making a decision, to orient myself around the customer, to understand that no decisions in business are impersonal.
I remember shutting myself into the narrow bathroom of our small Georgetown office — a charming stone building with exposed wood beams and creaky stairs — and wriggling awkwardly into a cocktail dress to change for Andrew’s event. I looked in the mirror and heaved a sigh of relief: “OK, finally a venue you’ll feel comfortable in: a social one, with a good friend, and no responsibilities.” I looked forward to a night “off duty,” without the onus of my newfound responsibilities dangling over my head. I’d recently attended multiple networking events on the non-profit front and found myself intimidated by the other directors I was meant to build rapport with. So many of them were tenured, educated–and over 50. I was young, green, still learning the patois.
I cabbed downtown to the Newseum and, early into the event, found myself shuttling back into the zone of discomfort. I was, once again, an outsider — awkwardly making small-talk with smart, accomplished people in the media, clumsily asking what people did and where they worked with no clue as to what it entailed.
Caroline Kennedy was presiding over the awards, and I marveled at how confident and well-spoken she was, honoring the many talented journalists who paraded in front of me. She was graceful, but with gravitas. When will that be me? I wondered. Meanwhile, I felt as though I should have known all of journalists, but I knew none. I clapped as if I did, grimacing at my lack of sophistication.
At the end of the event, Andrew and I were preparing to leave when Caroline Kennedy paused to thank Andrew and exchange some pleasantries. I stood awkwardly next to him, and was unprepared when she turned to me, smiled, and shook my hand:
“And who are you?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m nobody,” I said with an awkward smile, looking at Andrew. I think I might have also bowed at the waist in a bizarre gesture of servitude, but I can’t be too sure. I might have blacked out for a second.
“What?!” she asked incredulously. “Of course you’re somebody. Let’s try that again. I’m Caroline. Who are you?”
I have often thought back on this watershed moment. I’ve re-told it a few times for comedic effect, miming my graceless, robotic bow at the waist to poke fun at myself–but the truth is that Caroline Kennedy changed my life that evening at the Newseum.
I had intended to say “I’m not in the media,” or “I’m not a journalist,” or “I’m just a guest here,” as I assumed she had been trying to match a face to a name or determine who I was in the industry — but the words spoke volumes about how I felt about myself at the time.
Later that evening, as I washed my face, I looked in the mirror and thought: “You’re not nobody. You’re not somebody yet, but you’re not nobody either.”
Earlier this week, I tuned into an interview with the singer Lauryn Hill, who, after winning Grammys and amassing astounding fortune and celebrity for her work as lead singer of the Fugees and then as a solo artist with her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (incidentally, Mr. Magpie’s favorite album of all time), pretty much ghosted from the music industry. She explained that she hadn’t had enough experience since the release of her previous record to create a new and authentic piece of art. “Life is peaks and valleys,” she explained. “Or as I like to think of it, education, then mastery, education, then mastery.”
All these many years later, I find myself in a similar state of evolution, shedding old identities and forging new ones, moving from a position of mastery to one of learning–always, as I recently shared, in the posture of the novitiate. I am reminded, during these moments of transition, of the exchange with Caroline Kennedy, as I relate to the feeling of greenness that I then had, but with an important new filter: for many years now, I have thought of myself as a somebody, even when I’m trying my hand at something new.
Post-Script: The Staud Shirley + Other Finds.
+This Staud tote has been errywhere (including on the Instas of Eva Chen and Leandra Medine, shown above — so you know it’s good) and I’m so depressed I missed out on it in the croc texture. You can still snag it in white, which is also pretty badass.
+I have been lusting after a classic Burberry trench for at least a decade now, but continue to let my incorrigible habit of buying the latest “It” shoe get in the way. This inexpensive but classic style will do for now. Sometimes I see something like this and immediately think of the entire outfit I want to wear it with (like I did with this all-pink situation) — with this trench, I want to wear these distressed jeans, slightly masculine loafers, and this petal pink cashmere sweatshirt.
+One of you (heiiii MK) recently asked for some exercise gear inspo, and I realized it’s been like 24 years since I’ve featured athletic-wear, which is embarrassingly reflective of my sedentary lifestyle at the moment. Well, that’s uncharitable: I actually lead a highly pedestrian lifestyle; we walk EVERYWHERE, and I take Tilly for dozens of long walks each week. But real exercise? Sigh. I’ll get to it in the spring…? Still: I was taken by the chinoiserie-inspired prints on this collection! Love the leggings in particular. I also love this pair in the gray/white colorway.
+I’m dying over this new print from Roberta Roller Rabbit. SO CUTE. Does mini need these for our trip to FL?
+Inslee’s desktop calendars on sale!!! My bestie gave me one for Christmas and I never knew how much I needed one until she did. I use it CONSTANTLY — when making appointments and plans, it’s so easy to have it just a glance away!
+Mini turns one in a month (!!!!), so I’m stocking up on party supplies like this.
By: Jen Shoop
I’ve recently had occasion to do research in answer to a number of diverse lines of inquiry — for myself, for friends, for readers. (P.S. — Please send me your questions at jennifer@thefashionmagpie.com; I love receiving them and try to answer every single one as promptly as I can!)
So, I thought I’d share this assorted fruit plate with you today…
Q: What are some ideas for gifts for teenagers? I have no clue but need to get a gift for my niece!
A: I feel as though several of the gifts I raved about here would be good options for a teenager; I remember reading Vogue and Elle when I was fourteen or fifteen and lusting after so many of the luxury items listed there — I’d have liked to be gifted as though I was an adult! A couple of other items I’ve dog-eared that feel youthful but fashionable: this fun watch, this neon duffel (for the athletically inclined — perfect for a skiier or snowboarder!), one of these brightly colored totes, or a fun makeup set by a good brand like Nars (what teenager doesn’t love to experiment with makeup?! and high-end makeup to boot! I was into Wet + Wild back in the day because it was all I could afford but would have loved something from Nars or Dior). If you have a sense for the teenager’s style and this works, I feel like something retro-chic in the athleisure department would go a long way (like this throwback Champion sweatshirt) or these Kenzo pool slides — or, for the preppier set, a Lilly tote (cute!) or a monogrammed cosmetic bag.
Finally: I remember receiving a few amazing gifts from Tiffany from my parents and good friends when I was a teen and feeling like a million bucks. This bracelet or these earrings would be such lavish but teen-appropriate gifts!
P.S. Gift wrap ideas! I love the look above — someone painted those bows on kraft paper! Going to try that next year.
Q: I’m so bored of Hunter boots, but need some rain boots. Ideas?
A: While I’ll never cede my Hunters, I hear ya. Too #basic? I eyed these for a long while (so edgy and chic! — available on super sale in select sizes here) and I also love these.
And this is the best umbrella ever. Mine recently broke after years of (ab-)use and I sent it in and they repaired it for me free of charge. Le best.
Q: I need outfits for wedding-related events — bachelorette, shower, and rehearsal dinner — and have no idea what I’m doing. There’s so much pressure!
Q: I want to invest in a great pair of flats for work. I don’t want anything super-trendy because I work in a traditional workplace. What would you buy?
A: You can’t go wrong with a timeless Chanel flat in an everyday color like beige, gray, or black. I haven’t purchased a pair yet, but I’ve heard wonderful things about Margaux’s styles, which nail the Chanel look for less. I personally feel that a pointed toe is always in vogue, so I might also opt for these stunning Pradas in nude. I can’t imagine a look they wouldn’t go with! Finally, I have long felt that if I worked in a more traditional setting, I’d invest in a pair of these, equally at home with a sheath dress as they would be with a pair of pixie pants.
Q: I’m stuck in a fashion rut. I feel really self-conscious wearing anything too trendy but wear the same old sweater and jeans look all the time. Do you have any suggestions?
A: Ahhh I know what you mean. I shared some trendier looks I’m obsessed with recently, but if none of those float your boat, what about an edgier floral statement top like this or this (both under $100). I love how a statement top can transform your favorite lived-in jeans and go-to-flats/booties into something fresh to death. SWISHHHH, girl. Or try a pair of jeans that are a cut slightly outside your comfort zone, like these Levi’s (under $100). (You’ll note that when I’m testing a trend I typically try to err on the side of caution by limiting the spend!) When I’m feeling super stale, I troll Pixie Market and Reformation for trendier styles with great styling.
Finally: my little secret for feeling fashion forward when I’m in a rut is dressing monochromatically or matchy-matchy. Think about wearing a camel sweater with camel pixie pants — WOW. In a rut myself, I just ordered an all-pink look for Valentine’s Day: these cigarette pants in the pink, and if they don’t fit, I’ll invest in a pair of these, and this sweater. Alternately, go for a Candian tuxedo — I have and love this shirt (a super lightweight so it’s easy to tuck in) and would pair it with any denim wash. Purists will say you need to have contrasting denim colors or you’ll look weird, but I’ve seen tone on tone chambray work perfectly. Or go print on print with this blouse and this skirt.
Q: I just got back from my 36 week appointment and it sounds like I’m in the same situation you were in about a year ago. Baby girl is breech AND I have high blood pressure so I’m looking at a c-section in about 2 weeks. I would love ANY and ALL advice you have on every aspect of having a c-section and recovering from one.
A: I can completely relate to how you feel, and I shared some of my thoughts when I discovered mini was breech here. My emotions ranged from disappointment (I’d so wanted to rush off to the hospital in a heady rush of excitement, and to experience labor — it seemed like a rite of passage!) to anxiety. But anyway, here are some thoughts now that I’m nearly a year out from mini’s birth (!):
First — you can do this!!!! You are so much stronger and braver than you think; trust that in a few weeks’ time, you’ll look back and be so proud of yourself — and you’ll have the sweetest baby to love, too.
Second — let’s be real. It’s not all sunshine and rose petals. I remember the crazy mixture of nerves, fear, and excitement that made those few weeks leading up to the delivery almost unbearable. Hang in there and make space for all of those emotions. Go easy on yourself.
Third — I enumerated some practical tips on recovering from a c-section here, including what to order in advance. To this comprehensive list, I would also add:
a) Buy a step stool so that you can get into and out of bed easily. I hadn’t thought about this, but I’m so glad we had one at home already — I don’t know how I’d have done it without it!
b) If you have stairs in your house, go easy on yourself. The doctors said to avoid stairs unless absolutely necessary, but I still went up and down them a few times a day (oops). I was so frustrated the first day or two, when I’d be weak and woozy in ascent, and I remember bursting into tears midway up the stairs one time, annoyed with myself and my body. Mr. Magpie was very firm about this: “Take.your.time.” Take breaks! Go super easy on yourself! Everyday tasks are going to take more time. Period.
Most importantly: every day will get easier and easier. It gets better and better. Trust that. I remember thinking maybe five days in: “will I ever feel better?!” YES. YOU WILL.
A few of my friends had told me to stay on the pain medication schedule TO THE LETTER. So I did. I have no idea what it would have been like had I not, but I’ll just pass that little nugget along. As my friend said: “You don’t need to be a hero and deny pain meds. You already are one — you just had a baby.”
Sending lots of love and support!!!
Q: Where do you buy cute kids’ swimsuits?
I am obsessed (!!!) with Sal E Pimenta and have bought several of their suits for mini. (Also sold here, potentially with cheaper shipping.) I love their sweet prints and bow details — very much my style. I also love the monogrammable styles at Cecil + Lou — mini wore this one last season, and I’m eyeing this one now. I was also eyeing these cute long-sleeved styles from Cover, which boast a built-in SPF!!! For rash guard style suits, check out Boden. Random, but I love the swimsuit print suits here and here. Finally, if you want to splurge, check out the precious suits from Marysia and Minnow.
By: Jen Shoop
My Latest Score: The All-Pink Outfit.
Hey hey, ho ho // this wintry weather’s got to go.
I’m so bored of my sweater routine, I could cry. When I went to brunch with my cousin, her husband joked that winter in their house is like “50 shades of gray sweaters.”
So, I did what I always do when I’m in a fashion rut: I bought a new monochromatic look in a show-off color: pink. Monochrome is the antidote to winter wearies: it always reads fashion-forward and fresh. (If you don’t believe me, spend some time looking through archives of Miroslava Duma’s street style. She is SO good at monochromatic looks and matchy matchy styles. And with a tremendous amount of panache.)
At any rate, I bought this fluffy dream of a pink sweater, and these pixie pants (only $30!). A friend had told me that she loved these pixie pants, and they come in the perfect shade of millennial pink (p.s. – do we all agree that ice blue is the new millennial pink?), so I’m giving them a whirl, though I also considered these because I love the way Theory cuts their pants — slim and elongating. I wasn’t crazy about the slight flare at the ankle though.
+I carry this EVERYWHERE, especially in light of the severity of the flu this season. (Note that the link is for a pack of 6. Which is perfect! Throw one in your purse, your stroller, your car, your gym bag, etc.)
+It was 10 degrees on Wednesday. Ergo, I wanted to live in these this week.
The prevailing credo these days in the startup world is that good businesses solve real problems. Most VCs, startup advisors, and founders — myself included — have adopted and clung to this formulation with tenacity. So much tenacity that one of the most common questions we fielded while on the fundraising circuit was: “What problem are you solving?”
And with good reason: it makes good sense. For starters, necessity is the mother of all invention: if people are frustrated with something in their lives, they forge new solutions. And often those solutions will be marketable to millions of people just like you. What’s more, there’s an old adage that it’s always easier to sell a painkiller than a vitamin. People are willing to put down money to alleviate pain, but it takes convincing to get someone on board with a preventative measure. With painkillers, there’s urgency and the promise of immediate relief! With vitamins, you’re gambling on what might or might not happen in the future, and there’s no real rhyme or reason to starting now or delaying a few days.
At any rate, like the dutiful start-up-founders-in-the-early-21st-century that we were, we employed this patois ourselves. We talked fluently and thoughtfully about the problems we saw, about the pains they caused, about the relief that was so badly needed, in dozens of public talks, interviews, podcasts, pitch sessions.
But then, a few days ago, I listened to an interview with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and learned that he went about building his business entirely differently. He wasn’t concerned with real-world problems. Rather than the problem-forward tack we’ve been educated to employ, his was solution-backward. He explained that he’d noticed that the use of the web was growing 2300% year over year. “Things just do not grow that fast,” he explained, “outside of a petri dish, that is.” A mathematics and statistics whiz, he was drawn to the numbers and knew that — looking at its growth curve in use alone — the Internet was on a trajectory that would fundamentally change the world. So then he said: “How can I jump on board?” And he came up with twenty different ideas for dot com businesses before settling on books. His thinking was that there are so many books in the world at any given time — so many SKUs — that computers, optimized as they are for managing and organizing and numbering large quantities of items, would actually be a perfect fit for an e-business. And so Amazon was born.
A lightbulb went off. There was no story about how he’d searched to no avail for a book he couldn’t find, no language about the “problem” of having to trek to the library or physical bookstore, no testimonial about how much more humans might read if they could skim samples of books in advance of purchasing them. He wasn’t thinking about a customer problem. He was thinking about a statistically significant opportunity.
A veil was lifted: I saw the structuralist forces at play in the way I had conceived of, built, and framed my own business. It reminded me again of how important it is to question assumptions, even those that seem infallible. Now, in this case, it could well be that Bezos is the exception to the rule. And, in fact, many wonderful businesses were born to solve problems in the founders’ personal lives, and we are the happy beneficiaries of their intrepidity and vision. And it could also be — and Bezos admits this many times over in the interview — that his business was, simply, lucky: the right concept at the right time. In his words: “startups need early planetary alignment.”
But I was stopped, for a second, realizing that I’d been carrying around a “truth” — what I saw to be a truth — without having pondered the alternatives.
So, to Jeff Bezos: for not only more or less outfitting my life, but challenging me to think harder and more critically.
+Though I’m attempting to venture out from 50-shades-of-gray-sweater syndrome, I love the sleeves on this beauty (under $100). I love this in the ivory, too.
+You can get these hand-painted with your own initials!!! This is on my lust-list for summer travel.
+The latest bow in mini’s collection. I like picking colors that are a little muted, a little more sophisticated for her — you can’t go wrong with big white bow, but I’m talking things like taupe, mauve, French blue, gray. They’re unexpected and elevate even the most simple outfit — jeans and a little striped onesie — into something more.
+I’m obsessing over these jeans. They’re unlike anything I’ve ever worn before and I love them styled with more sophisticated pieces, like a simple black crewneck and pearls and pointed-to-flats. Damn, I need these. Separately, high-rise jeans with button flies are all the rage right now, and I can’t get behind them. The thought of unbuttoning and buttoning those pants 10 times a day sounds horrible.
P.S. I recently updated my shop to organize the products into categories — LMK what you think! xo
By: Jen Shoop
Last week, I shared a few things I’d learned recently. As a result of this exercise in personal accounting, I have repudiated the word “unlikeable,” which, I’d discovered, I had been using solely, squarely in the description of women with strident personalities. Men of the same ilk were “aggressive” or “assertive” or “brash.” Yuck yuck yuck. YUCK. A few of you had some interesting reactions to this point, so I did a little digging around. I came across an interesting post on the perception of female voices in politics. This observation was piquant: “Think about Jeb Bush’s voice. It’s so—wait, what does it sound like again? He sounds just … like a guy, maybe?” Women in politics, the author demonstrates, are rarely afforded such latitude.
A few other words I despise:
+Shrill. (Same category as “unlikeable.” Overly gendered.)
+Just. (Mr. Magpie and I collectively banned this word from our vocabulary while running our business — we found ourselves writing, flabbily: “I’m just checking in on this note…” or “Just wondering whether…” The just always undercut our let’s-get-down-to-business mentality and cast us as flustered, docile Hugh Grant-like wimby nimbies.)
+Very. (I tend to over-lean on “extraordinarily” as a substitute because sometimes you need an exclamation point tacked onto your adjective, but, in truth, it’s scarcely an improvement.)
+Hack. (I have more of a problem with the meaning of this word and its abuse in the startup world in particular — #growthhacking, #solutionhack. #BARF. In my opinion, there are few short-cuts in business — or in life. Nearly anything worth doing requires hard work and dedication, and approaching these challenges the hard and honest way tends to pay off manifold.)
+Plopped. (A purely aesthetic judgment, but this word is, simply, unseemly. It’s overused in contemporary fiction writing: “She plopped down on the couch”; “He plopped down beside her.” Never describe me as plopping anywhere, pls + ty.)
+Pulchritude. (An unlikely companion to its intended meaning (beauty), this word is hideous. The adjectival form is worse: pulchritudinous. Don’t call me pretty at all if you need to use this behemoth.)
+Synergy. (The most egregious case of corporate speak I can think of.)
+Competitive advantage. (What this really means, in the mouth of 99% of all VCs, is: “What insider do you have a relationship with that will make it easy to close massive deals?” Sounds innocuous enough — “tell me what makes you different and better than competitors?” — but actually winks conspiratorially at the cabalistic practices of the industry: “who do you know?” AKA, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.)
+The usual parade of disgusting medicinal/bodily descriptors: pus, ointment, scab, etc. (These are, however, necessary and aesthetically apposite to the circumstance.)
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
I read Orwell’s piece in high school (woah, second shout-out to the excellent English faculty at Georgetown Visitation in a week!) and took it as Gospel. I’ve since committed a trillion and ten infractions, including in this post, which is — admittedly — written in a mildly sardonic tone channeling a know-it-all grammarian, purely for effect — though even Orwell allows, in his sixth rule, that there are times and places for errythang. (I do not agree, however, with his Hemingway-esque view that simple is always better. We have a beautiful language at our disposal: why not use le mot juste? [Ed. note: Infraction against rule v.] Why not travel the vast expanse of the vocabulary we have to keep things interesting? I recently read an article that left me feeling…smeh. In its aftermath, I was the emotional equivalent of dishwater blond: listless, uninspired, wishy-washy. I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on; the topic had been interesting enough. And that’s when I realized that the author’s writing was bland, drab, unornamented. The word choice (“w.c.” as Mrs. Mattingly used to write in the margins of my papers when I’d used a malapropism or exercised too much creativity) was overly generic. Snooze fest central. So, yah. I’ll strain for the more colorful wherever possible.)
What words do you hate?
Post-Script: Makeup I Love.
I realize this section makes for odd bedfellows with the previous linguistic jaunt, but…c’est la vie. I’ve already shared my all-time favorite cosmetics, but thought I’d share a few recent entrants into the daily regimen:
+Nars liquid blush. This took a minute to get the hang of — the first time I used it, I pumped out a nice-sized blob of product and immediately transformed myself into a clown heading to the big tent at Barnum + Bailey. You need only the teensiest weensiest amount of this stuff, and then you need to learn, through trial and error, exactly where to apply it on your cheek. But once you do, it’s pure magic. It looks natural — as though you’re lit from within. Love love love.
+Peter Thomas Roth Water Drench. I’m loyal to my peony perfecting cream for everyday hydration, but had a tub of this I’d picked up while temporarily homeless in the botched move to New York and decided to give it a try. It’s unlike any product I’ve ever used — it feels like what I imagine “lipids” feel like…sort of fatty/greasy to the touch but then it glides into the skin and really hydrates. I’m impressed with the results. My skin looks plumped, refreshed, alive with it. Worth a test drive during these drying winter months.
+Smashbox Limitless Liquid Liner Pen. WOW. This is my new go-to liner, and here’s why: it dries matte. How many black liners dry with a weird sheen, suggesting, ever so subtly, you may have been wearing it out clubbing the night before but forgotten to dry it off this morning? I love this for everyday wear because the felt tip point enables me to draw the slimmest little matte line to offer definition to my lash line without looking like I’m dressing up as Cleopatra at 9 a.m.
+Makeup Forever Ultra HD Concealer. Not a five-star product, but a solid one, and — as I’ve shared many times, I still cannot find a perfect concealer, so I’ll take it. I like that it is non-drying and non-cake-y. (<< Horrible writing, mais je ne regrette rien, Orwell.) It doesn’t have much lightness/reflection in it, though — v. matte — and I feel more comfortable with something that has a little bit of illumination to it.
+Bumble + Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Primer. I love this spray! I put it on after toweling my hair dry a bit and then sleep in it. It leaves my hair super soft and malleable the next morning when I’m styling it. I also love the scent and love that it doesn’t add any stiffness/greasiness!
+Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser. I have been loathe to switch up my skincare routine because I’m prone to breakouts when I switch things up, but I LOVED the sample I received of this. It has little beads that exfoliate, smells organic-y (haha), and leaves the skin feeling super clean.
+This makeup shelf!!! I don’t own it but DAYUM. If I lived alone in a bachelorette pad, I’d totally install this on my wall. Love.
P.P.S. I have recently heard so many people rave about this, and was then shocked at the rave reviews online — nearly 26,000 reviews and nearly five stars?! Will this change my life?!?!?!? What am I waiting for?! Tell me if you’ve used this!
P.P.P.S. I love this print. Would look great on my gallery wall…
I was changing mini the other day and, mid-struggle with my writhing, “I’d-prefer-to-be-naked” baby, I accidentally ripped the tab off of her diaper, rendering it useless.
“Uh-woops!” I said loudly, instinctively.
Mini caught my eye and burst into laughter, throwing her little blond head back in delight.
It was contagious; I started laughing, too.
And there we were, two girls laughing riotously about a not-particularly-funny happening on a not-particularly-remarkable Sunday afternoon.
I walked around the rest of the day a changed woman. It was one of the first times I’d viewed mini not as a child, a lovebug, or a responsibility — but as a companion. How many times in the future will we throw our heads back in ridiculous laughter together? Countless, I hope.
Minimagpie Musing 2: Can I Pull Off a Backpack?
I took mini to meet a friend’s precious newborn baby and then to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan last week (BTW, moms in NYC: it costs $14 for an adult, and is free for children under a year, and mini was totally obsessed with the play area — I thought it was a bargain if you’re looking for something to do outside of the house but INSIDE during these cold winter months; classes can get really pricey!). I put her in her carrier so we could take the Subway and get around a little more easily, but by the end of the trip, I was so physically exhausted, I could barely move. Mini is almost half my height, and she weighs over 20 lbs now; carrying her around for a few consecutive hours is tough on the old bones — at least for me. This led to multiple thoughts:
Maybe I should try the backpack position and see if carrying her on my back makes things easier.
Maybe it’s really time to invest in an umbrella stroller.
Maybe I need to start working out more often.
I wish carriers were easier to fold up when not in use. When we got to the museum, I took mini out of the carrier but then was schlepping around a bulky black mass of straps and strings (aka my carrier), my ginormous winter coat, my diaper bag, mini’s coat, and mini, and I felt like a complete disaster zone.
The carrier on its own wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t also always carrying a diaper bag, which, at least during these winter months when I’m wearing a bulky parka, cannot fit over my shoulder, so I have to hold it out to the side and it gets really annoying. It made me wonder if I can actually pull off a diaper bag in backpack format. My bestie made fun of me for this thought, but GUYS, it is so annoying to hold a bag in your hand at all times. I was for some time toying with the idea of a Fawn backpack, but one of you lovely readers wrote to mention how stiff it was and how you find yourself shunning it over time. If I were cooler/hipper, I might reach for one of these, which I see all over New York on cool moms wearing Golden Goose sneakers and ripped jeans. StateBags has some clever/funky prints, but — like the Kanken, they’re just not my steez. What are our thoughts on this? Too edgy? I feel like I need to also drive a motorcycle to pull it off. This Gucci or this one (shown above) are more up my alley, but a little logo-heavy for my taste. I have a feeling I’d wear one for a season and then never want to look at it again. Smeh. I’ll keep looking.
Or maybe, just maybe, I’ll retire the carrier and transition into umbrella strollering around. Which leads me to share — and I know you’ve been sitting on pins and needles to hear how this very boring decision will pan out — that I have decided to go with the Babyzen after carefully weighing the pros and cons. Stay tuned for a full review! And P.S. — for those mamas who have and love their Yoyos, I just discovered that their coordinating footmuffs are 50% off here!
Minimagpie Musing 3: How Quickly We Forget…
Whenever I would ask my mom (mother to FIVE, all birthed without pain medication — aosdijasodijasdoijasdioajdioasjd) about childbirth, she would say: “It’s no walk in the park, but you forget about the pain almost immediately because you have a beautiful new baby to love.” I haven’t quite forgotten the misery of those first few weeks of rocky recovery post-c-section, although I’ve blocked out the physical memory of it and now look back shruggingly (“oh yeah, it hurt, but I got through it”) — but I feel as though I’ve completely lost track of the ins and outs of newborn-hood. When I was visiting my girlfriend, mother to a three-week-old, last week, all I could say was: “I can’t remember Emory ever being this small or squishy…she was never this little!”
In fact, mini was that small — even smaller! In the week after her birth, her weight dipped down to six pounds even. Six pounds! I can barely remember anything from that time, least of all the feel of her nominal weight in my arms. I wonder whether this is God’s way of encouraging us to have more than one child. How quickly I have forgotten the exhaustion and confusion and emotional chaos of those first few weeks, when everything had changed. As my sister put it while I cried to her on the couch, adrift in postpartum hormones and pain medication, “the world is shifting beneath your feet. Of course you’re overwhelmed.”
Minimagpie Musing 4: Random Baby Things I’m Eyeing.
+Space is a premium in our petite Manhattan apartment, so we’ll probably need to operate on a one-in-one-out policy when it comes to larger toys, but this is a classic!
+I am nuts for all of the precious dresses by Luli + Me. Mini received a few of these as gifts when she was born and I’m in love. True hand-me-downs! Love this and this in particular.
+Mini wears a light of cableknit tights (these are my favorite) and dresses (I just bought her this, and I love the European labels Foque — swoon — and La Coqueta) during the week, but every baby needs a pair of Osh Kosh overalls. These are in my shopping cart. I’ll layer them over a basic white tee from 1212.
+This looks a lot like the darling but expensive ruffled swimsuits from Minnow, but costs about half the price!
+Such a fun print for a transitional jacket for a toddler. For older girls, this!
By: Jen Shoop
For the women struggling with new roles, new jobs, new identities;
For the women mourning endings or mistakes or coulda-woulda-shouldas;
For the women regretting decisions they’ve made or not made;
For the women who have tried and failed;
For the women trying again;
For the women who are, Phoenix-like, turning new leaves:
These words, from Colin Powell, which I came upon on a cold Monday morning walk through Central Park, and have re-visited at least a dozen times since:
“I’ve spent a good part of my career looking at things that did not go right…You always have to take a failure and turn it into something. Whenever you have a failure or disappointment, what do you do about it? Do you whine about it? Do you hang onto it as long as you can? No. You figure out what you did wrong — not what others did wrong. What did you miss? What did you miss in the equation? Others may have made mistakes, and we’ll deal with them later. But what did you miss? And once I have discovered my faults, then I correct myself, my software, my inner feelings, and then I roll the failure up in a little ball, throw it over my shoulder, and I never look at it again.”
Post-Script.
+Currently obsessing over this book. Written by a literature professor about his relationship with his father, and in a style that strongly parallels the genre he’s dedicated his professional career to studying, it’s pretty much got my number. Thank you to my lovely reader Roya for the rec.
+I’m getting v. bored of the cold weather, but in the interim, have been living in thermals like this, layered under sweaters and jackets. (I’ve also raved about Old Navy’s thermals — they really hold up in the wash and are currently under $5. Wut.) Separately, I loved this from J. Crew’s latest crop of new arrivals.
+I was smitten with this statement top from SEA all last season. It’s now on sale for $207, but you can get the look for less — $100 less! — with this!
+I have an antelope-print rug that I cherish dearly. If you want to blend some of this animal magic into your home repertoire in smaller doses, consider this or this!
+Well isn’t this gorgeous for a feminine bedroom, office, or living room? (Under $100!)
+How cool is this as an alternative for framed prints? Mr. Magpie just got through his most hated task on earth: hanging the 2309823098 paintings, prints, and framed knick-knacks we’ve amassed over the years (no small feat) and he was remarking that he wished we had more hanging objets vs. framed pieces to break things up. This is a cool option.
+I have been obsessed with this print for years. Maybe I should just buy a few mugs to satisfy the craving?
By: Jen Shoop
Here are three random trendy things I want to be wearing immediately:
Look No. 1: The Bodysuit and Trouser
I’m v. into bodysuits (love that you don’t need to constantly adjust/re-tuck, and they make your body look amazing), and I’d like to pair this ribbed style ($38 — or check out this one if you’re not into ribbing) with these ladylike trousers ($395) and Aquazzura powder puff kitten heels ($650 << don’t know why they cost $650 at BG when they cost $795 elsewhere, but…their loss!). DAMN. I feel like I’d run the world in this outfit — it gives me chills!
Look No. 2: The YSL Loulou Heart Shades
Whimsical and silly expensive, these YSL shades ($490) are le talk of le town right now and all over street style starlets, including Giovanna, shown above. Good news: you can get the look for less with these.
Look No. 3: The Puff Sleeved Blouse
The exaggerated-sleeved blouse is the new off the shoulder top — basically, the trendiest shirt you can reach for right now. I’m eating it up with a spoon; see inspiration below (the last shot is of Jenny Walton, who I am legit obsessed with and is wearing Ulla Johnson below). Caroline Constas is a major player here, and my gateway drug was this blouse (also available in more versatile denim), on ridiculous sale, which I’ve worn about 34 times this season. It is super flattering (the fabric has a nice amount of stretch in it) and beautifully made and the print is a little out of my comfort zone so I went for it.
At the top of my lust list — likely because I’ve been watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and I’m into all of the 50s era nipped waists, oversized buttons, and ladylike cuts — is this stunning SEA dress, which looks like a perfect pick for a town hall wedding or bridal shower or mother-of-the-bride dress at a more casual wedding:
P.S. Love this dress — very of-the-moment with the puff sleeve and midi length. Check out their sale section, too — so many epic finds, like this and this.
P.P.S. My beloved mini steamer just pooped out, may she rest in peace. I was about to snag a second, but wondered about upgrading to a Rowenta. I steam my clothes A LOT. Even t-shirts. I have been super impressed with the results of my Rowenta iron so…?
