Monday Memos // 44

Listening:

"Track A - Solo Dancer" by Charles Mingus

"So Good At Being In Trouble" by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

"Curse Your Branches" by David Bazan

Reading:

Reassuring advice from Toni Morrison and her father: The Work You Do, the Person You Are.

I'm ready for the return of "Difficult People" this week and as always, Julie is a hoot. What Julie Klausner Can’t Live Without.

Temp tee! (image via the strategist)

Craving:

A craving and reading combined, I was looking through the August issue of Bon Appétit: The Simple Issue. Every recipe has five ingredients or less and made my mouth water.

Catching my eye: Jam Toaster Tarts, Corn Flake Cake, Oven-Dried Strawberries, Grilled Halibut and Summer Squash with Pumpkin Seeds, Lentil Purée with Cumin, Cilantro, and Lime... drooling.

"Sweet corn makes for an awesome dessert—if you like carrot cake, you’re going to love this one. You’ll get a corn three-way with fresh corn kernels, a little bit of cornmeal to get a cornbread-like flavor, plus the crunch of Corn Flakes is so damn satisfying." (photo by Laura Murray, styling by Judy Mancini via bonappetit)

"They're chewy—a bit softer than a dried apricot—with a plump, juicy consistency." I could top a lot of things with these. (image by Alex Lau via bonappetit)

Wearing:

Pink. Hot, pastel, salmony. I appreciate the spectrum of pink. 

Button up Hawaiian shirts. Old tees. Bright sandals. Lip glosses.

I cannot wait until I get to wear pink in the form of socks, sweatshirts and jackets. 

Watching:

"Good Girls Revolt." New York in the 1960s | Magazine fact-checkers and reporters | Mad Men vibes | Female inequality and liberation. I'm breezing through this while cleaning and unpacking.

I like following the journalism and outfits. (image via amazon studios)

"Housesitters."

Sometimes you need a palate cleanser between Game of Thrones, the summer heat and angst, and moving. My friend was watching "The Out-of-Towners," which got us talking about Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin, which led to rewatching this oldie. Some easy slapstick humor and goofiness.

Goldie in the grass—this instantly made me think of Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World. (image via universal studios)

I saw this super weird and amazing trailer for "The Great British Bake Off" and can't wait for it. This is where my love of tv and sweets and nerding out collide!

Wanting:

I'm looking into getting tickets to see one of my favorite podcasts live: My Favorite Murder. They'll be in my state in November. 

Stay sexy and don't get murdered. (image by Mandee Johnson via rollingstone)

I would love to see the Color Factory in San Francisco. 

"This two-story interactive exhibition celebrates color and material, featuring work by some of our favorite artists and collaborators... Lose yourself in 10,000 colored ribbons, sink into a giant yellow ball pit, catch some rainbows, smell colorful memories, and taste a spectrum of treats from our favorite stops in San Francisco. The pinks will delight you, the blues will amaze you, the yellows might make you hungry."

Yellow (image via colorfactory)

Swoon. (image via colorfactory)

Monday Memos // 43

Listening:

"This Strange Effect" by The Kinks

"Shark Smile" by Big Thief

"No Matter Where We Go" by Whitney

Reading:

Always Modern Love: How to Stop Breaking Up

Nayyirah Waheed's poems: "Perhaps the most famous poet on Instagram"

Craving:

I'll call it "food to fuel."

I've been so busy this last week. I'll be working, moving, grooving, sweating and suddenly I NEED TO EAT SOMETHING and it will be any number of things. Iced coffee, cold grapes, pizza, fresh fish, toast with jam, a Rice Krispies treat...

I wonder how many gallons of ice cream I've consumed in my life?

I'm not usually partial to pepperoni, but this is picturesque.

Wearing:

Jean shorts, gym shorts, short skirts, dresses that could be T-shirts. 

This. (image via pinterest)

Watching:

"The Incredible Jessica James." A most recent Netflix original movie starring one of the dope queens, Jessica Williams. It was one of the movies I needed in a trying moment and it made me feel significantly better. 

"The Incredible Jessica James is a little odd duck of a film, an old-fashioned romantic comedy that’s decidedly modern in its frame of reference, a character-driven piece that never lets us too deep into its protagonist, a movie as pleasant as it is fleeting."—Vulture

Wanting:

I want to be on my favorite island. The pang of nostalgia hits me hard in the height of the summer.

I want to smell the salt in the air and the slight stink of skunk. I want to taste my grandma's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a scoop of ice cream from Ben and Bill's. I want to feel the soft grass between my toes and the warm spot at the tip of the jetty. I want to hear the honk of the ferry and the old song lingering from the carousel. I want to see those greying shingles and the setting sun turn everything that spectacular shade of green.

This spot, this view is burned into my brain.

I could plop right down in it.

Nearly a decade ago—can you spot the ghost photographer?

Monday Memos // 42

Listening:

"Are You With Me Now?" by Cate Le Bon (This one should be dedicated to all my ceramicist friends out there.)

"About Face" by Grizzly Bear (I'm on a Grizzly Bear kick due to the Instagram account of Busy Philipps.)

"Loving" by Land of Talk (I finally took a break from "This Time" to listen to another song off this album.)

Reading:

I won a slew of summer reading from Riverhead Books, so when I eventually finish "Swing Time," I'll have a nice selection to choose from.

I was instantly intrigued by the writeup of "Barbara The Slut and Other People." "'In Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,' a woman realizes she much prefers the company of her pit bull—and herself—to the neurotic foreign fling who won’t decamp from her apartment... With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, 'Barbara the Slut' is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her."

I got that sweet tote, too. My literary tote collection is growing. (image via riverheadbooks Insta)

Craving:

Peanut butter and jelly (or fruits that make great jams).

I've been tearing through containers of freshly ground peanut butter. Spoonfuls! Forkfuls! Dipped berries and bananas! Then I made these peanut butter and jelly breakfast cookies and devoured the entire batch in three days.

I could be an NBA player with this craving. "They do a PB&J buffet before the games, but the variety of nut butters and Nutella, all kinds of jams and jellies, different kinds of bread — they do peanut butter and jelly shakes, peanut butter and jelly oatmeal, waffles." Yes please.

I'd like these next: Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sandwiches, PB&J Waffle-Grilled Sandwich, Peanut Butter and Rhubarb Jelly Hot French Toast Sammie.

The french toast number. (via halfbakedharvest)

Wearing:

This week I pulled out some old Ked-like shoes I probably could've thrown away years ago, but the color + old sentiments keep them around. I fell down a rocky ravine in San Francisco in these. I moved all my belongings from Massachusetts and Maryland to Florida in these. They cost a few dollars from a place called Trader Fred's and they are just a perfect seafoam delight. 

I was bored sitting in a Super Cuts 4 years ago taking pictures of these shoes. 

Ravine fall dirt remains.

Watching:

"Game of Thrones." I think it's too soon to talk about, but I'm watching it. 

Excited for the return of "Insecure." If you haven't watched it, it's definitely worth it.

Issa Rae slays. (image via HBO)

Saw "Dunkirk." Visually and auditorially beautiful (Hans Zimmer used Nolan's pocket watch to create the clock ticking soundtracks in the film). The story is told in a very captivating manner—so much told through so few words (Tom Hardy has less than 10 lines in his screentime—I didn't even realize he was in this movie until one of the last scenes) and I enjoyed the constantly changing perspectives that intertwined. (I also didn't realize Harry Styles was one of the main characters until I went home and did some Googling; it wasn't distracting like having Ed Sheeran in the first episode of GoT.)

1,500 extras, a crane and a spitfire were used to recreate the miraculous evacuation of 338,000 allied troops. (image via warnerbros)

Wanting:

A (free) moving and cleaning crew. 

A foot massage. 

To win one of the endless giveaways I enter where there's an all-expense-paid trip for two.

What a feeling to have (image via maddy nye for designlovefest)

Monday Memos // 41

Listening:

"Trampoline" by EZTV

"Egyptian Reggae" by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

"I Live For You" by George Harrison

Reading:

I want to read the new David Sedaris book "Theft By Finding." I think it will really inspire and resonate with me due to my own years of obsessive journaling.

"For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.

Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet." 

December 26, 1983 "This is my twenty-seventh birthday. I’ve been anticipating this age for a long time, thinking that when I reach it, I’ll make a big change. I seem old to me now." (image by Nicole Antonuccio via the AV Club)

Craving:

In no particular order or rank: dark chocolate, sweet potatoes, parsley, nutritional yeast flakes, jumbo cookies, scrambled eggs, and scoops of ice cream. 

Parsley illustration from Köhler’s Medicinal Plants, 1890. (image via PD Art)

I dream of Jeni's. (image via Goldbely)

Wearing:

Vintage Salvatore Ferragamo Vara flats.

For some reason I forgot I had these divine shoes, so I dusted them off this week. I lucked out in finding my pair in a thrift store about five years ago for a great deal. I was first drawn to the shoe by way of the blog Calivintage and her cool roof pictures. 

(image via calivintage)

Watching:

"Friends From College" on Netflix. 

In between the Twin Peaks and Handmaid's Tale intensities/works of art, there are times for lighthearted, comedic shows. I watched two episodes so far and enjoy the chemistry of actors. 

"A group of friends from Harvard, played by Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Annie Parisse, Nat Faxon, Fred Savage, and Jae Suh Park, are facing down their forties. With interwoven and oftentimes complicated relationships with one another, "Friends from College" is a comedic exploration of old friendships, former romantic entanglements and balancing adult life with nostalgia for the past."

I actually found the show via Billy Eichner's Instagram—I always want to see what tv he's doing. Fred Savage (left), Nat Faxon, Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Jae Suh Park, Billy Eichner, Annie Parisse (image via David Lee/Netflix)

I also rewatched the end of "True Detective" (season one, duh—blown away by the scenes, story, acting, sentiments...) and "Catch Me If You Can" (a young Leo and Tom Hanks duo is hard to beat, plus Christopher Walken—woohoo!).

My great grandfather "worked for Pan Am" when he was in the CIA. I wonder if there's any garb from that era floating around in some family storage? (image via YouTube)

Wanting:

In the latest installment of "I spend so many hours a week on Amazon and I can't get this _____ out of my head":

The Pandawell 8-pin Lighting Mobile Phone Fan, for quick, personal cooldown sessions.  

(image via The Strategist)

These key rings are nice looking, and my carabiner only completely closes some of the time now. 

(image via Amazon)

This Mara Hoffman Tie Front Dress looks like a great summer wardrobe piece (if only it wasn't $350 more than I'd like to spend).

(image via rent the runway)