thank u, next

Can I tell you something absolutely absurd and quirky about us?  We have every imaginable cooking utensil and gadget known to man (including a mandolin, a rice cooker, a butter warmer, fourteen whisks, and a partridge in a pear tree), but Mr. Magpie insists on stirring our coffee every morning with one chopstick he’s earmarked for the task.  Never a spoon.  Never a different chopstick.  Just that one, specific coffee-stained chopstick that we’ve used every morning for the past eight years of married life together and that has somehow never gotten lost in the shuffle.  Part of me clings to the chopstick, but part of me wants to say: “thank u, next.”  I am thinking I might buy Mr. Magpie a set of these as an upgrade option.  A we-have-a-child-and-have-done-adult-things-like-talked-about-the-virtues-of-a-stroller-for-over-four-hours-and-we-have-bought-and-sold-a-home-so-we-must-beyond-the-phase-of-stirring-our-coffee-with-chopsticks-thank-you kind of option.

Along those lines, I’m not sure if it’s the dawn of a new year or the bleak realization that I am turning thirty-five in June, but I have been looking around our apartment with a dangerously appraising eye these days thinking about all the other elements of our little nest that I want to say: “thank u, next” to. 

Upgrading our bedding put a bee in my bonnet.  (Separately, and I am not touching our bed for a long while now, but these flannel pillow covers (on sale!) and this throw make me feel like I’m in Aspen.  What is it with me and Aspen these days?  Dreaming of getaway…)

Below, a couple of other items I am dying over:

+I have long loved Paule Marrot’s painterly fabrics.  I’ve seen them gorgeously styled in many a well-appointed home, including in designer Rebecca de Ravenel’s home (shown above — she has one of the cloud prints).  I would love to hang one over our bed.  I am especially drawn to this, this, and this.

+I still long to say sayonara to the old oak chest in our bedroom in favor of something sleek like this.

+I’d like to add new colorful dining chairs to our dropleaf: these, these, these, and these have caught my eye.

+I have been head over heels for Nina Campbell’s Farfalla wallpaper for nearly a decade now.  We don’t currently own our apartment, so wallpapering is not an option at the moment.  We are probably going to be moving when our lease is up to a bigger apartment anyway — but oh how I love it.  I actually think the black colorway could be epic in a small powder room.  Maybe, if we get the sense we’ll be staying in our next apartment for longer than two years, I’ll invest in some repositionable wallpaper.  I love this for a powder room and this for a nursery.

+Dreaming of upgrading my desk to a custom CEH grasscloth beauty (love this one in particular), but I was just thinking that we could repurpose my narrow, slim desk as a console of sorts if we end up with extra space (#ha) by adding one of these.  We could then hide bins of toys/shoes/overflow underneath.  

+File this under things never to buy for a small NY apartment, but I daydream about serving up a proper tea situation with something like this.

+If you are lucky enough to have a working fireplace, I love this screen and this one.  I have no idea why I was looking at these the other day, as we certainly have no fireplace now.

+These framed intaglios add a bit of old-world stateliness to an entryway or gallery wall.

+Two great Target finds: this storage trunk and this buffalo plaid stool (strong potential for a nursery!) 

+Speaking of nurseries, how darling is this baby blanket?  I have to say that we received about fifteen baby blankets for mini and we only ever used this one (and man oh man you should hear mini talk about her blanket — she pronounces it “bay-hette” and it slays me).  But this bunny one!  It looks like Hermes or something.  Love.

+And speaking of Jellycat (the brand that makes the blanket above), how beyond are these bunny slippers?!  They make me regret buying mini this pair of Elmo slippers.  I can’t tell you how many weeks I had these in my cart and kept thinking “no, no, no — I really don’t want to fall into the trap of buying her Frozen dresses and Elmo pajamas and Moana t-shirts.”  But then you should see how she reacts when she sees Elmo.  She loses her mind!  And we have literally never shown her Elmo at home — who knows where she picked this up?  Playdate?  A nanny?  Ah!  (We also gave her an Elmo puppet as one of her bigger Advent calendar surprises and her giddiness and squeals when she saw it waiting for her!  Ahh!  I can’t!)

+OK, now I’ve sufficiently wandered from the topic at hand so I’ll wrap up my upgrade list here and leave you with a couple of interior-related musings: how to stay organized, my New York apartment judges me, and things I would buy if I still had a back yard.  Also: I wanna be India Hicks.