It’s been a minute since I’ve done a 10 pick post, and I know that many of you enjoy them over my other formats, so here we are! Today’s mash up!
Pick No. 1: The Fair Isle Turtleneck
It’s getting cold in New York and I’m pulling out all my sweaters and lusting after a few new additions. This fair isle style ($98) is a must for me. Love the colors and the retro vibe.
Pick No. 2: The Silver Cleaner
As I’ve been unpacking all of our belongings, I’ve tried to take time to clean/shine/polish everything as it comes out of the box. It can be hard to stay on top of windexing and waxing all of our oversized vases and accent pieces when they’re situated. One thing I noticed is that all of our silver pieces — frames, julep cups, and cutlery — were looking horribly tarnished. I was delighted to find these highly-reviewed wipes ($5), which seem a lot simpler than using a cloth and silver cleanser as my mother has done for years. BTW, I love julep cups as an alternative to a bud vase or even, as is the case in our home, a pen holder or a toothbrush stand. We had a few of these traditional ones engraved with our initials years ago, but they’re no longer available; Mark and Graham has a more modern style that’s engravable, or you can get non-monogrammed ones here. I always get compliments on them scattered around our house — they sort of up the ante on what would otherwise be very basic decor items.
Pick No. 3: The Velvet Blouse
I’ve lusted after this blouse ($380 — more sizes here) since I spotted it on Ulla Johnson’s Instagram. However, Wayf has a lookalike style for $98!
Pick No. 4: The Velvet Heel
Speaking of velvet, how perfect are these tootsies ($795)? GORGE. Get the look for less with these for $128! Perfect holiday heel!
Pick No. 5: The Shoe Storage Solution
I got a number of emails and texts in response to my thoughts on making the most of a small apartment and my Instastory about throwing away all of the shoeboxes that accompanied my favorite fancy shoes, and one of you recommended I look into the Container Store’s drop-front shoe boxes (also available in the fabric-sided style shown below). These won’t save me much space over the boxes I had before, but I like that you can so easily stack them neatly and see what’s in them. I’m thinking I might buy a few big bins for bulkier shoes and boots, one of these for my flats, and then a few of these for my nicer shoes and/or the shoes I wear all the time and therefore need easy access to. Thoughts? I’m sort of at a standoff with the boxes of clothing in my apartment — I’m at a loss as to how to organize it all in our limited space. I think we might be looking at a situation where I keep only the 15-20 pieces that I wear heavily hanging and rotate them in and out every few weeks, and keep the rest folded up in bins higher up in the closet or vac pacs under the bed. (I’ll just have to get into an intimate relationship with this.) We lucked out and were able to rent a 6×10 (!!!) storage unit in the basement of our building (seriously lucked out because apparently there is a several year waiting list for one of them! #newyorkproblems), so it’s like a whole other room for all of our overflow stuff, including off-season clothing. But still…as an aside, I love the idea of these for stowing clutches, which are notoriously difficult to organize neatly. I’m always stuffing mine in bins and drawers.
Pick No. 6: The Monogrammed Pouch
These hand-painted monogrammed canvas pouches ($49) have a Goyard air to them. Love the oversized letters and racer stripes. Would make a great gift for a friend — who doesn’t need an extra compartment? I’m the queen of compartments, and never did they come more in handy than during this nightmare of a move, where I was able to (pretty much) find things I needed quickly across about a dozen bags/suitcases.
Pick No. 7: The Texturizing Spray
I mentioned that I have a new ‘do, and it requires texturizing spray to “work” given my fine hair. I’ve been using this, which I love, but Mr. Magpie claims the smell of it “stings his nostrils” (LOLOL). It does have a strong smell — I don’t mind it, actually, but he’s not into it at all. I just ordered this as an alternate, which has strong reviews and hopefully a not-so-strong smell.
Pick No. 8: The Sweater Dress
Now this ($56) is the kind of thing I could absolutely live in all season. So snuggly. If you’re not into the dress situation but like the look, this gives me all the cozy feelings of a Starbucks holiday cup.
Pick No. 9: The KeyTag
I think I need one of these cheeky keytags ($15). How hilarious!? I know I’ve featured these or something similar in the past…getaway car?! HAHA.
Pick No. 10: The Face Oil
I’m playing around with my nighttime ritual when it comes to caring for my skin, and I’m thinking I want to re-introduce an oil into the regimen now that it’s winter time. I used this last year, but this and this have great reviews, too. Any other recommendations? P.S. My other favorite new beauty finds.
Those Valentino shoes are TDF. LOVE!
If you end up not liking your new texturizing spray, I swear by Oribe’s. Their hair products are top notch…I also like their gel serum for taming my crazy hair.
Pick #9 had me smiling — I love Various Keytags! I have one on my keys that says “New York Pair of Balls”. HAHA! It reminds me of my roots while living in Red Sox territory 😉
I’ve LOVED the Bumble and Bumble stuff, but will gladly test Oribe once I’m through this can. I’m always down to experiment! I love Oribe’s shampoo, too…
Agree with Jennifer here in the comments and will even up the ante: once your closet is settled, I’d LOVE to see a closet/organization/storage post where you show how you did yours! I know I will be quickly copying, sooooo SVP 😉 plus I love seeing how people konmarie— it shows you the very essence of their (good, in your case definitely!!) style.
The pressure is ON! I like a challenge!!!
For a face oil recommendation, I love the Goop Facial Oil. It’s all natural, smells good and really works. It sinks in pretty quickly but gives your skin a nice glow. I’ve been wearing it under moisturizer for an added boost during the cold months.
Great rec!! Thanks, Joanna! Hadn’t heard of this stuff before.
I live very close to NYC and have helped many friends try to squeeze all their belongings into a upper East Side closet, and have seen the heartache attached to it, so I feel your pain! While my home is not as space deprived, I like everything to be tucked away and have their space, so I actually use one of those over the door hanger compartments for my heels, and these for my flats (I double up in each, heel to toe): https://www.containerstore.com/s/our-shoe-box/d?productId=10001753&q=shoe%20box since I have 50 flats to one pair of heels LOL. I also got a bench at the end of my bed (my husband likes to sit there and tie his shoes in the morning) that opens up as storage, and that is where I keep all my purses and clutches. It just takes time, you’ll figure it out, but I love ready about the new storage solutions you have found!
Great find, too! I like the pricepoint of those better than other options I’ve seen, too!!!
Love a good julep cup – the first present I received from my husband when we were dating was a pair of monogrammed ones.
Please continue to post about your storage solutions! We are seriously downsizing in San Diego. While not as expensive as NYC, I’m sure, real estate here was No Joke – our new house (we close hopefully next week!) is smaller than our last apartment in MD (and I had an additional storage unit full of stuff too aaargh). I’ll definitely need ideas on how to organize everything stylishly!
Hi Jen! Will do — spending a lot of time trying to make the most of this space, so will keep the discoveries coming!!! Safe travels! xo