The Magpie Diary: Jan. 26, 2025.

The following content may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation.

One long freeze has settled in along the East Coast this month. Even in the sunshine subtropical city of Raleigh, North Carolina, where I spent 36 hours this week, it was sixteen degrees above nothing, and birds and critters hiding in the oaks had to learn to shrug the rime off in the morning. I watched the robins on the frozen grass in the front yard of my friend’s home, pecking at the earth for worms, and I wondered if they were confused by the frost, by the sudden seeming dullness of their beaks. They could not possibly understand the new verglas separating themselves from their morning meals, or that it was a temporary condition.

These cold weather ministrations are of course as essential as breathing in the tundralands up north — life continues apace in sub-zero conditions in my former hometown of Chicago — but not in the South, and not even in the Mid-Atlantic. In Montgomery County, we have had three snow days and multiple late starts since the dawn of the year, and I can’t tell you how many activities have been postponed, canceled, delayed besides. This month has felt a like calendar whack-a-mole: this and that rescheduled for then and there. My mind has become a porous fog of fungible deadlines and dates. Weird how that happens: the city comes to a slow stop, as though freezing itself, liquid turnt solid, and then here are the parents, swimming frantically in vast volumes of thaw on the other side, our flailings met with cold disinterest.

But as I anthropomorphized those Raleigh robins, and I know I shouldn’t have — could in fact remember the birding guide in Aspen chastising my sister-in-law for making a joke about the rituals of the male kingfisher relative to the female one — I thought to myself: “but this is a temporary condition for me, too.” This short freeze in which I am, like the robin, pecking frantically at the hoarfrost, will eventually thaw.

I wish I were as easy as the birds, just taking things as they come, trusting.

******

I was in Raleigh this week in order to hand-sign, hand-number, and package a limited-edition collection of prints that my friend, the talented artist Inslee Fariss, and I collaborated on. I absolutely cannot wait to share these, and the full backstory, with you when they launch this Wednesday, January 29th, on Inslee’s site. This is the first time I have ever made my words available in a tangible format that you can put on your desk, or hang in a special nook of your favorite creative corner, and I couldn’t be prouder that I brought this to life in collaboration with a woman I deeply admire as an artist and treasure as a friend. A creative sisterhood! Just like the community here at Magpie. This project has been a dream come true for me.

****

Sunday shopping.

VERONICA BEARD BLAZER // B-SIDES LASSO JEANS (LOOK FOR LESS WITH THESE) // LIZZIE FORTUNATO EARRINGS // ISLE OF PARADISE BRONZER // NEW CROWN AFFAIR PRODUCTS // NEW TORY BURCH BAG STYLE — THE ROMY! // ISABEL MARANT SNEAKERS // TARGET PILLOWS

My latest Veronica Beard blazer acquisition. I treasure my collection and they are honestly wardrobe workhorses. They are the foundation of my “hero dressing” formula when I don’t know what to wear — jeans I feel good in, a high-quality tee, and a great blazer. // New bronzing product from Isle of Paradise — not a tanner (I have bad luck with those) but a bronzer / illuminator you can apply all over. Can’t wait to try. // Crown Affair just released a new shampoo and conditioner that people are freaking out over. I’m obsessed with their dry shampoo so MUST try this next. // Really love Tory Burch’s latest bag shape, the Romy. Polished but slouchy-casual. Like the Lee Radziwill bag’s downtown cousin. // Isabel Marant’s Beth sneakers are a perennial favorite. // Always love Lizzie Fortunato jewels — this pair of drops are fun. // $25 scallop edge throw pillows! // Saw these jeans on someone and thought the fit was perfection. Look for less with these!