The Magpie Diary: Nov. 23, 2025.

I slept poorly this week. I tweaked my back doing a weighted core workout (reminder to listen to your body — I could tell the weight I’d chosen was too heavy and should have traded down), stayed up too late reading Heart the Lover (and then tossing and turning in agony over it), and spent one night fretting over something I’d said. Then, fox calls woke me two mornings. If you’ve ever heard a fox vixen scream, you know how unsettling that cry is; it’s often mistaken for a person in distress. I was, as a result, a cranky morning crone, huffing and puffing around these disruptions.

But, you know — I’ve written in the past about interruptions. In a way, they’re like weeds; things (often beautiful things) taking root where we don’t want them to. In a rose garden, even a peony is a weed. And so I caught myself; I reframed. How lucky to be woken by these privileged interruptions, after all. How fortunate that I couldn’t sleep because of good writing and a mildly tweaked back reminding me to listen to myself and a conscience that wants the best for me and wildlife that augurs playfulness and resilience. In January, I wrote that this would be the year of the fox for me, and pinned its characteristics to my 2025 ambitions. I internalized Wendell Berry’s stanza:

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

More tracks than necessary — amen! Later in the year, I was talking to a veterinarian friend of mine about the fox as my 2025 avatar, and she said: “Foxes are a sign of a healthy earth. When they’re around, something good is happening in the ecosystem.”

So, yes — bring on the fox calls, harbingers of resurrection and health. And may I always be blessed by writing good enough to break my heart and patch back together.

In this spirit, let me rewrite my diary. It should have begun:

I woke up this week to wonderful reminders. My body nudged me: slow down, go easy. Lily King taught me new things about clean prose and how to capture love with it. And the fox cried out their complines in the eleventh month of the year: go lightly and practice resurrection.

What has interrupted you this week, and what was it really saying?

Sunday Shopping.

More incredible early Black Friday finds — I had a separate post go live this morning with Shopbop’s just-launched 25% off sale. I curated all my top finds there for holiday dressing (my Inuikii boots included!), but also have a few great other discoveries below:

+Probably my best discovery is that you can get 30% off at LESET. As you know, I live in their pointelle henleys and long-sleeves in the winter. It’s become kind of a problem; I just crave that layer of soft cotton next to my skin during these cold months, and it’s hard to motivate myself to wear anything else. I picked up two new colors of the long-sleeves — beige and creme. I am also deeply tempted by these gorgeous burgundy satin pants for holiday! I almost can’t resist them because of a long-running inside joke with Landon. Have you seen “Best in Show”? We randomly drop their lines to one another all the time and have a field day with the throwaway comment from Hamilton Swan (played brilliantly by Michael Hitchcoc) to his wife (played also brilliantly by Parker Posey): “you’re going to see a lot of merlot out there.” (He’s debating what to wear to a cocktail party.) We love to randomly sprinkle this unhelpful tip in when we’re strategizing about what to wear. But in this case, it would be a propos. LOL.

+Loeffler is offering 40% off a great selection. I can’t believe they included their flagship Goldy boot! Such a classic (and classy) shape. Their bow-topped flats are also fab for the holiday circuit (also 40% off).

+Over at J. Crew — a great time to snag an on-trend patterned fleece or this gorgeous fair isle. I feel like it was made to be worn with these satin pants! What a fab lowkey chic look.

+Fellow precision coffee maker – 30% off. This is my top rec for a gift for your coffee-loving partner/spouse. We got this earlier this year and are OBSESSED with it. It’s so brilliantly designed, and we love the way you can scale up and down the pot amount you want to make and it will tell you the exact amount of grounds to put in. The result is so smooth. ACK! I love it.

+For kids: now is the time to snap up La Coqueta’s splurgey holiday pieces; all 25% off. I love this dress for a girl. They may even arrive in time for Thanksgiving if you’ve left it to the last minute. Their pieces are heirloom quality — I’ve handed down loads of them to friends and cousins but I also hung onto a few to keep for my grandchildren! They’re so special. Pair with these cute Target flats! These remind me of the Loeffler ones!

+My sister’s cat passed away last week unexpectedly and I so deeply related to her grief. The shock of a pet’s absence — !! It really took me by surprise, how painful losing Tilly was. We talked all the way through it. Such a tender time. But I did say I was surprised by how helpful it was to a) look at her pictures when I missed her; b) talk about her, a lot; and c) find a small way to keep her “close.” I had this tiny signet ring engraved with her initial and I treasure it! I wear it often in a little stack on my ring finger. Every time I look at it, I think of her and now it’s mainly a happy feeling — keeping her on that invisible leash 🙂 Anyway, I was looking for the exact model I got and realized my ring is on sale! This is such a treasure. Good way to commemorate someone — or also you could just put your husband or baby’s initial on it. I love it as a way of keeping someone beloved close.

+Speaking of jewelry to hold your loved ones close — I also adore this pendant I had engraved with a photo of my son’s first scribbles of my name. (I also keep a paper copy of this framed on my desk.) There is something so moving about his firstling attempts at writing me on paper — how choppy and uneven the writing is, how he wrote it: MAMAMAMAMA. I love keeping this close to me in his own handwriting. You can send over any little handwritten note to have it engraved! You could also do your mom’s signature, your dad’s blocky ILY, etc. (This reminds me of my friend who had her dad’s handwriting tattooed onto her wrist!)