MishMash.

Hola chiquita bananas!  I missed you guys last week — I was home with the entire family and totally, blissfully unplugged.  I spent most of my time lounging on my parents’ oversized couch in their stunning DC home, reading, catching up with my siblings, doting on my nephews, watching the Olympics, and eating entirely too much food.  (You know how it goes: breakfast platter of bagels, then mid-morning fruit platter appears, then pre-lunch snacks, then lunchtime sandwiches, then happy hour nibbles, then dinner, then late night seconds of dinner…my sisters and I definitely inherited my Italian grandmother’s mentality: food is a gesture of love.)  We enjoyed blue crabs smothered in Old Bay, steamed in our kitchen with corn, dunked in malt vinegar, and eaten standing up around a table covered in newspaper.  (The only way to eat blue crab, really.  No butter — that’s for the true Northerners — and no sides — that’s for the wimps.)  We cheered on Michael Phelps.  We listened to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (my sister had one of their duo albums and it felt just right for the weekend).  We drank a lot of wine, then fernet.  We toasted to good family news (new houses! new jobs! new cities! new beginnings!) and caught up on all of the minutaie of each others’ lives–the stuff you just miss when you live far apart, like which TV shows people like (Stranger Things was oddly polarizing among the fam, but I loved it), and how people take their coffee, and where people are traveling to in the next few months, and what people are reading (I picked up two books from a fabulous local bookstore, Politics + Prose, which has been in NW DC forever — Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, recommended by several family members, and The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close, a trashy beach read set in DC…Allibabs, please tell me you’ve already been all over this).

So I was very sad to leave home this past weekend.  Family is everything.  As my half-Italian Dad commonly says while clinking glasses, “a la famiglia!” — to family.

Despite being disconnected from le blog and le job, I still managed to keep a running list of things on my shopping radar (it’s…a problem).  So, here we go.

OK, so this is maybe a boring pick, but I’ve realized recently that we run out of coffee mugs real quick in the Magpie household.  I like to eat cereal and soup out of them (weird), so we run through our oddly small set of six or seven too fast.  I am thinking of stocking up on either these elegant classics from Villeroy + Boch (on sale for $15 each! — or try this similar style from Pottery Barn, 4 for $22!) or these chunky munkies from Le Creuset ($14) in white or pink.

I also thought these were charming, though not as much my style.  This Juliska style with the sweet bamboo handle ($29) is right up my alley, though a little pricey.  And this holiday style, also from Juliska, is such a classic — I want the entire place setting.  Sob.  For something a bit more playful, these or these caught my eye.

Like LesBonBon earrings but can’t stomach the ($275) price?  Check out these lookalikes for only $48!  Even though I own a pair of Bon Bons, I had to snag the multi-colored steal!

I know, I’m going a little hard on jackets when there’s a massive heat wave on the East Coast, but this gray coat is so affordable and so chic at $49!  And I also love this.

You know I love the brand Cuyana — I wear one of their everyday totes most days of the week, and I also have their cosmetic kit and key chain — and I’m constantly getting compliments on all three.  People want to know where it’s from — Prada?  St. Laurent? — but little do they know my little (more affordable) secret.  I’m now into this bucket bag ($375) of theirs, convinced it’s the hippest shape for fall.

I need a velvet flat for winter, and these Pradas ($620) with their ginormous, happy, grosgrain bow, are my new lust list topper.  (Also, in case I haven’t mentioned them enough, these bow-bedecked, velvet heels from Banana are…A PLUS.)

FINE.  One final coat.  I promise I’ll lay off winter wear for a little while after this.  But ZOMG, this peplum denim-and-tweed coat ($495) is TO DIE.  Also RIDICULOUSLY cute in the straight up denim (on sale for $209!!), or this delicious blush leather ($995).

These customizable gold rings from Etsy store Capuccine — you pick the coordinates or date for an important/sentimental location or date to customize! — are so gorgeous and timeless ($225+).  Love.  I can’t decide which I want: the coordinates or the date.  (Also, there’s a super cheap lookalike style available for $32 here.)

Love the boxy shape of these simple sweaters in such great transition-to-fall colors ($65 — camel and blue).

I’m OBSESSED with these Sisley phyto lip twists ($50).  I got a sample in one of the pink shades and it goes on SO smoothly and leave the most gorgeous, semi-sheer color.

The Outnet has so many cute, discounted gold necklaces with fun/funky statements and expressions — check out these $68 hope earrings or this “amor” necklace for $56.  Or why not these adorable “mon cheri” earrings for $197.