Jen's Weekend Drafts: A Great Peloton Spin + Being Wildly Unchill.

+LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL PELOTON RIDE: The morning we launched the Magpie x Riley Sheehey prints (thank you SO MUCH for the excitement and all the orders!), I did a celebratory Peloton spin set to Taylor Swift’s new album and it was 30 minutes of pure joy. I was actually grinning the entire time, which I cannot say is true of most of my bike sessions. The instructor’s energy, the music, and especially these two gals in the left hand side of the screen (sisters, maybe?!), who were bopping and singing the entire spin! I couldn’t stop watching them; their glee drew me right in! Highly rec. Any Magpie Pelotoners who would be in for a scheduled ride to this class in the next week or two?!

+ON BEING WILDLY UNCHILL: I loved this reminder from Case Kenny; it dovetailed nicely with my thoughts earlier this week on reaching for sincerity even when it feels vulnerable and uncool. This is something I’m working on with myself with considerable focus.

+LEOPARD STREET STYLE INSPO: I am suddenly so into leopard this fall; I wrote about the trend earlier this season but how GOOD does this chic pea look?! (Discovered her on Pinterest.). The low-key-ness of the broken in boat shoe is the perfect contrast to the look-at-me leopard pants. And don’t we love a hair tuck?! Want to recreate the look, especially after I noticed a mom at school wearing a similar pair. Love. I found this style, similar to the gal’s silhouette below, and I also like these and these. If you’re more trend-forward, you might consider these quickly-selling barrel leg ones!

RAILS JEANS // VERONICA BEARD JACKET (LOOK FOR LESS HERE, HERE) // JCREW CASHMERE // TOTEME BAG (LOOK FOR LESS HERE) // MIU MIU BOAT SHOES (LOOK FOR LESS HERE)

+A CORE MAGPIE READER ENERGY: I saw this reel on Instagram and felt like it belonged to us. I love how full of recommendations, thoughts, considerations we are as a community. Just check out the comments on the best book to film adaptations here, and life-changing books here! I was so charmed that one of you wrote that one of your life-changing books actually came from a Magpie reader rec! Just beautiful, this give and take.

+CALLIOPE PRELUDE: I absolutely love that Lucy Dacus’ “Forever Is a Feeling” album begins with a symphonic prelude. Less than two minutes long, it features none of her signature vocals: it is, simply, an invocation of the muses, a tuning up of the strings, a mood-set. It made me think of how all art is more than just what appears on the canvas, on the track, on the album. It is rehearsal, and editing, and pre-writing, and post-production, and background chorus, and the word processor you’re using, and the candles and music that carry you into a generative headspace to begin with. What a gorgeous thing, to include some of that “behind the scenes” energy as the first track on an album? To reference the source of things, the Mount Helicon of it all. So inspiring. I noticed an echo of this at the end of the Peloton ride I mentioned at the top of this post: the instructor gives a shout-out to the back of house team that made the ride possible while Taylor and Sabrina are saying their own “thank yous” at the end of the “Life of a Showgirl” track. I love the way these artists recognize the blurry reality of the creative act, the fact that it bleeds beyond just what you see on the canvas, page, etc. Inspiring.

+EYEING + BUYING:

+OMG, this reversible leopard/black puffer from AYR! How fab!? A perfect way to get the leopard trend without over-investing (you can always invert to the black side if you’re not feeling it).

+Chic Liberty-floral-applique towel sets! This would be a great house-warming gift. I love to give towels; who doesn’t love a fresh set of white towels?!

+I treated myself to this reversible quilted jacket this week! A friend of mine sent me a message and said she’d treated herself to the same one after spending a full day with the shopvac thanks to a leaky HVAC. I so related to that; we were just there a week ago! I had been looking for a jacket like this to “make” an otherwise staple/uniform look of jeans/sweater/flats. I also considered this Julia Amory, but they were sold out in the brown color in my size.

+Two pairs of jeans to contemplate: my favoriteeeeeee sweatpant-level-of-comfortable jeans from Rag + Bone (run TTS; I just cut the hems myself at home; use code JEN20 for 20% off) and these dark-rinse Agolde Rens, of which I know many Magpies are devotees.

+Cozy cashtouch mittens in great colors. I think I might order that chartreuse green to pair with all my camel. Love a pop of color.

+I’ve been living in pointelle! I’m currently loving a last-season henley style from J. Crew; they have a crewneck style on offer this year. I’ll probably end up with all the colors; that olive color is calling my name. These are just my favorite base layers — soft, cozy on the skin — but add a little interest/texture. Love seeing the delicate hem poke at beneath a sweater cuff!

+Just the best suede ballet flats ever. I have lived in these! They are so gorgeous on the foot. Sometimes I feel like a captoe flat makes my feet like stubby – ha. These have a gorgeous silhouette.

+Currently obsessed with this award-winning cloud mascara. Use code JENS-20.

+Landon was SO excited to get this new coffee machine from Fellow — it’s basically an automated pourover. A great gift for a coffee lover in your life. Its major upgrade for us: you can make just one cup at a time. This is huge because Landon frequently wants his coffee earlier in the morning, but I’m downstairs exercising, and so he’ll wait until I’m done — this enables us to make cups separately, and to our exact size preferences (1 cup, 1.5 cup, etc — and it will tell you to the gram how much ground coffee you need). One of the critiques of this machine is that it doesn’t keep the carafe warm. This is in fact intentional on Fellow’s part — apparently keeping the coffee heated in that way ends up messing with the flavor. This is a purist’s machine! We love it. We are still using Sey beans, which we have delivered to our house every other week, and we grind it with this Fellow grinder, which is SO cool and well-designed (even has a little lever to help get all the grinds out!)

+I treated myself to a new set of the Julia Amory toiletry cases in a great fall print. I have a set from a few years ago that I use so heavily. I’ve written about this before, but they’re the perfect sizes; they are machine washable (just invert and let air dry after running through a gentle cycle); the interior is wipeable; and there are pockets inside! Absolutely flawless.