Jen’s Weekend Drafts: Messy and Light.

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+LET IT BE MESSY: Last month, a Magpie reader wrote that she was enjoying the way I was exploring “the messes around love.” It’s been a theme on my mind this year; it was the pith of my unorthodox New Year’s resolution. I loved this quote from Maha Rose as quick summation of the ethos: “Let is be unpolished and messy and true.” This gets to the heart of my post on letting my children be little blackberry thickets — and letting my writing be the same. I was talking with my friend Inslee when I visited her down in Raleigh, and she was asking how I come up with some of my list-form creative nonfiction, like 10 I Love Yous and Marriage Is. “Do you sit down and write it all in one go, or do you work on it little by little?” I told her that it’s a little of column A and a little of Column B, but I do find that once I have an idea, and I sit down to get it onto paper, the first pass is usually where the magic happens. For me, the heart of the writing rarely emerges in editing or revision. Editing polishes and assists the flow, improves the language and form, but the spirit of the work, its raw energy, comes through in the messy first draft. Something important for me to remember as a creative principle: be alert to and protective of the magic of those wild and loose first passes.

+HAIR GOALS: Creative Caitlin Burnhamm has the most gorgeous hair — I love the long layers and the way it bends under at the ends. I also love her denim on denim look!

These photos inspired me to book a visit from Glamsquad for an at-home blowout last Thursday. It felt luxe to head into the weekend with great hair, and reminded me — and I’m aware how silly this sounds — how great hair can make me feel charged-up, ready, polished. Re-sharing my codes for Glamsquad below — my favorite beauty indulgence.

+EYEING + BUYING: The chicest denim jacket of all time — this is already in my closet and seems to go with everything. A splurge but I know I’ll wear it forever. I love the look of denim jackets and have a few in my closet that I trot out now and then but I’m so petite up top and find they tend to overpower my frame and/or hit me at a weird part of the hip. I love that this Ulla has a cinched waist while still honoring that classic mid-wash denim blue heritage.

Meanwhile, these fun Cleobella pants stopped me in my tracks. Major Zimmerman vibes, but for a fraction of the price. Also shoppable at Nordstrom.

ULLA JOHNSON DYLAN DENIM JACKET // AYR TANK (15% OFF WITH BESTBUDS) // CLEOBELLA PANTS // NEW QUEEN MUSIA COLORS – HAD TO HAVE THIS Y2K PINK // NEXT IN MY TBR PILE // MY NEW SCALLOPED BATHMAT // STILL CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THESE DENIM FLATS

+”HOW LIGHTLY THEY ACCEPT THE GREAT TASK”: One of those Gretel and her breadcrumb trail moments this week (i.e., when it feels as though everything I read and encounter is leading me to the same thought pattern): no sooner had I written the line “is there anything more felicitous than a daffodil stem?” and, separately, noodled over the concept of the Sunday reset in the context of all the micro-tasks that pile up on our plates each week, did I came across Mary Oliver’s poem, “Spring,” in which she’s describing a pair of mating flickers meeting and writes:

This was the exact sentiment I was groping for when fawning over the daffodils. Their shocking conviction in emerging through the dead and brown ground each March with their unbearably green stalks! At the same time, I was feeling the pinch this week of all the micro-responsibilities on my plate as a mother — hence my musing on “the Sunday reset.” And here was Oliver reminding me how beautifully, how gracefully, the flickers “accept the great task of carrying life forward.” A gorgeous avatar for this season, those flickers and the daffodils now-green in the barren earth: go lightly.

This in turn reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from Aldous Huxley:

+BESTSELLERS: The way-high curve jean from Everlane, which I also ordered! Available in a shorter inseam.

01. EVERLANE BARREL JEANS // 02. J. CREW KIDS FITNESS DRESS ($12!) // 03. LOEFFLER RANDALL QUILTED JACKET // 04. TUCKERNUCK CASHMERE CARDIGAN // 05. VARLEY SWEATSHIRT CARDIGAN // 06. PIXIE MARKET WHITE SKIRT // 07. LA LIGNE COLBY PANT // 08. G. LABEL DRESS (15% OFF WITH SHOOP15) // 09. DENIM SHIRT // 10. FRANK AND EILEEN POPOVER