Weekend Vibes: Edition No. 38

My Latest Score: Return Address Stamp

With Christmas cards going out shortly (have you ordered yours?  do you do this? — I love these!), I decided to have a stamp made with our new Manhattan address to save time and money (it’s expensive to get those return addresses printed!).  I scoured Etsy and fell in love with all of the styles from The Stamp Shoppe, including the Christmas one shown above.  At the end of the day, though, I went with this one (shown below), which felt classic and very me (and I’ll be using it on errrrythang).  I also considered this one, also shown below.  If you follow suit, don’t forget to order some of this — I got mine in festive green!

You’re Sooooo Popular: 

The most popular items on Le Blog this week:

+My favorite makeup removing pads — I’ve featured these in literally 34898 posts because I love them so much, but a lot of you snagged ’em this week!

+Very cozy sweater dress, under $60.

+My best friend now that all my clothes are crammed and folded and jammed in every nook and cranny of our house.

+This looks like something a chic NYC Mom would wear layered under an elegant topcoat with cool sneakers while running errands.  Can I be that mom?

+Would love this hanging on a wall or running down the middle of a table!

+My go-to winter perfume.

+I’ve raved about the utility of this mini brush for, like, a year?  But seriously, I have only been using this little power tool to style my hair over the last few weeks.  Is that ridiculous?  I have a whole bin of brushes but they’re blocked behind something so…

+Such cute holiday flats.

#Turbothot: Rug Pads + Adulthood

I thought I’d become an adult when I started buying melons at the grocery store (and also, when I started writing letters of grievance), but I officially became an adult this week when I ordered rug pads (these are the best) for the rugs in our apartment.

I feel as though I turned a major corner in the course of this move and no longer find myself taking shortcuts when it comes to the management of our home.  Mr. Magpie has never cut corners (in our home or anywhere else in his life), but I — well, I would be the one who would overstuff the washer or dryer out of laziness and then cause a leak, or would carelessly throw everything in the kitchen sink into the washing machine and dull the blade of an expensive knife, or would get lazy about keeping an organized closet and suddenly have messy piles of clothing.  I’m very tidy, don’t get me wrong, but I occasionally subscribe to the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality and can let drawers and closets get a little hairy.

No longer.

I’ve now become a purist organizational addict.  It’s a strict “put that thing back where it came from or so help me” situation, and I’m slightly OCD about keeping things ordered in every drawer, cabinet, closet, and shelf.  (Even the spines of our cookbooks are now color coordinated.  And our spices are alphabetized.  OMG.  I am my mom.  I’m my mom!)  Maybe cramped New York quarters necessitate this rigor?  No — I prefer to believe it’s because having a baby and moving to a new city have nudged me (no, nudged is far too gentle — hurled me) into a new level of responsibility and orderliness.  I need things to be in their proper place to maximize efficiency — like, the other morning, when I was making mini a new breakfast — a banana-pumpkin mash — from my favorite baby food cookbook, Tilly was eyeing the countertop with a questionably untrustworthy look and mini was fussing, and I needed cinnamon STAT.  Thanks to my organizational skills, I managed to find it in 2 seconds flat vs. rifling through a wall of jars for 20 minutes, as was The Old Jen’s way of doing things.

Also, maybe — just maybe? — I’m coping with a feeling of chaos by exerting authority over domains I can: kitchen cabinets and spice racks and slippery rugs.

P.S. I do not need a new runner, but I love the style of this one.  It strikes the right balance between modern and traditional for my tastes and I feel it would look perfect in nearly any decor.

P.P.S.  If you do order rug pads, don’t worry if they don’t have the exact size of your rug — just order the one closest to your rug’s size and you can trim the pad with scissors.

#Shopaholic: The Blogger Throw

+Love this throw blanket.  I feel like bloggers feature “cozy throws” way too much — how many “cozy throws” do you need?  (I actually have about 6 too many.)  But those oversized poms make me want to curl up with a bowl of popcorn and watch a Christmas movie.

+I ordered a duster-length cardigan last year from Gap and have already been living in it this season, especially around the apartment, and usually with these.  So comfy and warm and #basic.  Gap has another great style available this year that I am loving.

+While at my mom’s house in D.C., I thumbed through her huge collection of cookbooks looking for weeknight dinner inspiration.  She was particularly effusive about this Ina Garten cookbook, whose premise is compelling: all recipes that you can make earlier in the day and finish later on.  Very attractive for entertaining or for making the most of time when the nanny is here or baby is napping so I can enjoy a glass of wine with Mr. Magpie rather than launching right into cooking the minute mini goes to sleep…

+Talk about the chicest kid’s desk chair of all time.

+I found some EPIC and affordable cashmere pieces recently, but I neglected to mention this find.  OMG, so chic and cozy.

+This dress looks so comfy, and would coordinate with the dress I just bought minimagpie…#twinning

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