My Latest Snag: The Saptodjojokartiko Organza Mule.
I’d never heard of the label Saptodjojokartiko before stumbling upon their elegant collection at Moda Operandi (see example above!). Are these mules NOT me in shoe form?! I literally gasped when I saw them. I needed them as a birthday gift to myself, and I plan on wearing them with something like this, this, or this for the occasion of my thirty-fifth birthday in late June. Perfection. Also eyeing these flats from the collection. To die for! I am smitten with the entire feminine, gauzey, demi-sheer vibe of the entire label, seen in select images below! (When will their dresses be available stateside, too?!)
You’re Sooooo Popular: The $15 Statement Headband.
The most popular items on the blog this week:
+This $15 pearl-studded headband (similar to my favorite Lele Sadoughi style!)
+This braided seersucker slide.
+This pretty scarf, which I own in a different colorway (great mother’s day gift — more ideas here).
+This gorgeous floral headband ($22!)
+A gorgeous block-print tablecloth (on sale).
+A darling gingham swimsuit for mini for under $20.
#Turbothot: A Quote from Joan Didion.
…because, Joan Didion. (One of her books made my list of the top ten most influential books of my lifetime.)
“People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to the other, more instantly negotiable virtues…. character–the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life.”
This was interesting fodder given my seemingly weekly musings sussing out the boundary between my own agency and fate.
I love the way she’s phrased this and I agree, too. Even if I’m constantly renegotiating my understanding of my role in relationship to fate, or destiny, or God’s plan, I feel a deep sense of conscientiousness when it comes to how the leading and unfolding of my life impacts those around me, and I hope this means that I am cultivating the kind of character Didion captures here. At the risk of sounding punctilious, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people blame others or shrug in irresolve when they find that their behavior has been nettlesome or detrimental to those around them. I once accidentally announced on this blog that a friend was pregnant and Mr. Magpie immediately sent me a note: “Should you have said that? Was that our news to share?” I froze. My heart dropped into my stomach. I wanted so badly to blame someone else — “but everyone in our circle knows!” “but they were so open about it at brunch!” but but but but but. I knew what I had to do: to own my faux pas and apologize.
There have been dozens of occasions of similar hand-wringing on this blog and off of it, and I have not always done the right thing, or done the right thing quickly enough. I hope I am headed towards the realm of “moral nerve” Joan Didion describes.
Blast from the Past: An Ambition.
Because I’ve had so many generous and encouraging reactions to some of my more memoir-esque writing asking whether I will write a book (!), I have been thinking a lot about my ambitions to write fiction. I was reminded of the time I first shared this lofty dream here, when musing on the multiple patrons I have enjoyed along the way, my elegant grandfather included:
“…noting that I was an avid reader and budding writer, between bites of tunafish salad, my grandfather taught me about various and sundry literary conventions, including, most memorably, iambic pentameter. He tapped each of his ten fingers while quoting a Shakespearean sonnet, helping me understand how to measure poetic meter:
“For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings // That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”
BaBOOM, baBOOM, baBOOM…
In large part owing to these kindnesses, I began to fashion myself as a writer. I wrote stories and poems on construction paper and stapled them together into booklets, gifting them to my parents and grandparents on various holidays. The poems were typically tributaries, extolling the virtues of a loved one in banal, forced rhyme, while the short stories were always mysteries I’d cribbed from a book I’d read recently. I recall writing a short story curiously similar to one of the Bobbsey Twin books and insisting I’d divined it on my own. Consuming the Nancy Drew series in large gulps, I dreamed of having my own Ned Nickerson and often included a Ned-like romantic hero in my fictional forays. My best friend Ellie and I tapped out a mystery novella on an ancient typewriter we dug out from the basement. We modeled it on Harriet the Spy after spending several fruitless afternoons stationed in a row of boxwoods that overlooked Linnean Avenue, composition books in hand, taking notes on the passersby as we sought the latest juicy crime in my neighborhood. Over dinner one evening towards the end of my short-lived career in espionage, I insisted I had seen multiple strange cars drive into and out of the embassy across the street from us, and that some sort of international subterfuge was at hand. My parents exchanged looks. “Why don’t you write about it?” my mother offered, generously.”
And so I’ve been writing since I was very young…
P.S. In case you need a word of encouragement in pursuit of your own dreams.
Post-Scripts: New Shampoo and Lace-Up Wedges.
+Just ordered Ouai shampoo and conditioner using the Sephora promotion currently running! (20% off!)
+These lace-up wedges are to die. Pair with a white eyelet dress and be on your merry way.
+Loving the new Paloma Contreras collection for Williams Sonoma — these tiger-print pillow cases remind me of Scalamandre!
+Love these summer jammies (currently under $30!)
+I am all about this romantic floral midi.
+THESE OVERSIZED EARRINGS ARE MAJOR. And under $50. I love them in that neutral/tan color!
+These pearl initial bobby pins are adorable.
+Do I need this gorgeous Emilia Wickstead swimsuit?! In love!
+A perfect fourth of july swimsuit for a little one. You can coordinate with this (marked down to $50 from $170?!)