Hi my girls (in this house, girls is not a gendered term)! I know I’ve been loosey goosey, flaky, hard to pin down, etc. lately, but it’s that thing where the wedding is in a month (not my stomach churning over typing that out) and I’m actually quite busy balancing work and life?

What have I been up to, let’s see… I spent $250 on flowers at flower market (which I have a whole post about!) because I wanted to practice arranging in the little vases I picked for the wedding and narrow down some color palettes. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

I wore some outfits that I liked (dress, jacket, and blazer from Nuuly of course), below:

The farmer’s market is coming back in full swing and I’m simply elated for the spring and summer produce.

So here’s the thing, I’m going to be doing the newsletter biweekly for at least the next few months while I’m treading water. I’m hoping I’ll have the gumption to work back up to once a week, but for now, I’ll be rap tap tapping on your chamber door every other Weds/Thurs.

On My Brain

I Truly Can’t Imagine Wanting to be at Coachella

Tell me—does anyone see videos of people at Coachella and think “god I wish I was there?” I mean, they must, since 250,000 people go each year, but that could literally never be me. I only see snippets of the festival on TikTok and the scant few people I follow on Instagram who might be there, but it really looks like my idea of hell. A dirty, dusty open field with no shade, a bunch of influencers in their underwear, and throngs of people so thick and sweaty you’ll never reach the stage… shudder. It seems like a Saturday afternoon in Soho on steroids—my idea of hell.

And guess what! I’ve done the music festival thing, camping and all. It’s… not that fun? Suer, it’s fun to see multiple headlining acts in one day, but feeling dirty all day and sleeping in a tent in 100 degree weather seems hellish. For all that $$ I think I’d rather just go to 1-3 concerts of the people I really want to see and spare myself the exhaustion of being around all those peacocking people.

Am I just getting older and more curmudgeonly? Or do other people feel this way?

Nathan Fielder is Back On My TV

If you have yet to watch the masterpiece that is Nathan for You, I recommend you stop what you’re doing and go watch it. You know that TikTok sound “I hope you’re hungry… for nothing”? That’s Nathan, the little shit. He does a socially awkward rendition of a Bar Rescue type show, where he offers insane advice to struggling small business owners, and he never takes his foot off the cringe pedal.

His new show The Rehearsal is effectively a drawn out, high budget version of Nathan for You—duping regular people into bizarre, deadpan scenarios and never once breaking character. Last season he made an elaborate set/world in which he cosplayed raising a child with some random lady (amazing) and this season he seems focused on aviation safety (?) and I delight in thinking about how much money HBO has given him to live out these unhinged scenarios.

In My Cart

I Think I Picked Wedding Earrings

I had my second dress fitting and finally got to try on my veil (which my mom and I made!) and earring options, which I’d already whittled down to these ones and these ones, but now I’m pretty sure which ones I’m gonna go with. Which ones would you pick (either knowing my dress bc I’ve shown you or imagining it with the context clues of all the ones I tried on, etc.)?

Brown Boots 4 Spring

Something was missing in my spring wardrobe, and that was a pair of shoes that was less casual than a sneaker but more casual than a Mary Jane… enter: My Poshmark credit. Every time someone buys something from my Poshmark closet, an angel gets its wings (read: I get $ in my balance to use toward more second hand purchases). And this week, I got fixated on the idea of a pair of brown Frye boots. I somehow don’t own a pair of brown boots—I have black cowboy boots and square-toed burgundy boots, but no brown boots—and they felt like a necessary addition to wear with skirts and dresses in the coming in-between months. Sadly, I’m part of the wide calf club, and the boots I ordered are a little tight around my calves, but I think I’m gonna try some hacks to stretch them a bit, or take them to the cobbler to see what they can do.

Sunglasses Celeste Has that I Now Need

The best way to go sunglasses shopping? Trying your friends’ on. I get totally overwhelmed by choice in a sunglasses store, and shopping for glasses online is a crap shoot, but trying your friends’ on? Perfect. I tried these Akila glasses of Celeste’s on while we were in Mexico and she so graciously let me wear them one of the days, and by hour 2 I knew I had to have them. The black and tortoiseshell colorways are sold out on Akila’s site, so I ended up getting the black ones from this site I’ve never heard of—fingers crossed it’s legitimate.

In My Belly

Biweekly Chicken Zucchini Patties

Ali Slagle is a genius, okay??? In a food landscape cluttered with people trying to reinvent the wheel (or, alternatively, doing the same thing over and over), she somehow manages to manipulate pantry and produce staples into dishes you never would have thought of, and I adore her cookbook.

One such recipe is these chicken patties with dill and zucchini. The grated zucchini prevents the ground chicken from drying out, and it’s paired with more pan fried zucchini that’s tossed with red wine vinegar and raw shallots. The shallots mellow out and gently pickle in the vinegar, and per Ali’s rec I always serve it with Greek yogurt. I skip the fennel in the patties and add a little minced garlic, but otherwise, it’s perfect ❤️

We Have Korean BBQ at Home

I was craaaaaaving grilled meats, KBBQ style, the other day so I marched (drove) over to 99 Ranch and got thinly sliced ribeye, red leaf lettuce, corn, scallions, a fresh jar of kimchi, and a little tub of ssamjang (the spicy umami paste that’s served with meats at KBBQ places).

For the meat, we (being Celeste and I, hehe) just seasoned with salt and pepper and threw each slice in a med-high cast iron skillet for about 1-2 mins, until cooked through and browned on all the edges. We ate each bite in a leaf of lettuce with a scoop of rice, topped with kimchi, some scallions, and a little dollop of ssamjang, and it was so simple and good.

It’s not KBBQ without cheesy corn, though, so I browned three cobs worth of corn in a pan with some butter, then mixed it with 3 tbsp mayo, 1 tbsp sugar, salt, and pepper. I topped it with some mozzarella and whacked it under the broiler for a few minutes until it got bubbly and crispy. Also SO GOOD.

Need a gift suggestion for your mother-in-law’s birthday? Stuck on how to rearrange the furniture in your living room? Want to know what to do with a jar of marinated artichokes? Come to mama. Hit me up with your questions, and I'll answer them in an upcoming letter.