A gift-wrapping hack, suncatcher dots, and dopamine hits galore
plus daydreaming of an iridescent birthday party
This week, I found myself returning to one of my most reliable sources of joy: the simple act of looking. Some of my earliest memories involve leafing through exhibition catalogs with my father and studying tiny painting after tiny painting with wonder. This joy of observation has followed me ever since —searching for perfect skipping stones on the walk to the neighbor's pond, exploring tables laden with treasures at local auctions with my mother, scanning the colorful covers of the cassettes in the "video department" of the Putney General Store, and later, in college, losing myself among art books in the library. Museums were a revelation (those exhibition catalogs brought to life!), as were cities (so much to see!) after a childhood spent in rural Vermont. Once I graduated and moved to NYC, I loved to ride escalators in Bloomingdale's after work just to observe the choreography of fashionably dressed New Yorkers as they moved through the store. In graduate school, I discovered I was an indefatigable archival researcher —I could happily check one more microfiche, another periodical, one last database for additional avenues of possible insight (god bless my patient thesis advisor!). My awareness of the pleasure looking gives me has, over time, strengthened into a habit that I can reliably turn to.
This week, while searching for birthday gifts for two April-born friends, I kept coming across iridescent items. The vitality of these mutable, light-catching objects seems to embody one of the joys of looking — that objects can reveal themselves differently depending on how we look.
A. “There is a theory that human beings associate emotions with shapes, and with circles, they feel happiness. It is with that specific idea that I designed these polka dot rainbow-making suncatchers.” What a beautiful idea and product. $13 at Hemleva
B. This stone paperweight is hypnotic.
C. This leather makes me want to make wrap bracelets for friends.
D. One of my favorite and most sustainable“hacks” is to wrap a gift in a new Baggu - this pansy bag is perfect for spring birthdays!
E. I saw these gifts wrapped in cellophane with confetti and wanted to try it!
F. Cellophane roll - I’m going to remember this wrapping idea as a smart reuse of cellophane from packaging, which would be much better for the environment.
G. Confetti!
H. Fun ribbon!
I’ve wanted to find a way to share some of the riotous joy that my daily jaunts around the internet give me, so this week, instead of Reading Notes, I’m experimenting with a new layout and what may become an occasional section:
1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 //
As iridescent items kept crossing my path this week, a daydream bubbled up about what an iridescent birthday party might look like….
I hope you found this newsletter short, sweet, and interesting! If you enjoyed it, consider clicking the ❤️ button — it really does help other like-minded readers discover my writing (oh, algorithms!). And, if you’re feeling chatty, know that it is a true joy to read your comments - they make me feel less like I’m just typing into the glowing void of my laptop screen and more like I’m having a conversation with you.
I often have a few finds that don't fit into the main image (my favorite part of the newsletter to create and the hardest to get 'right') or the overall flow. I put a few bonus finds here for subscribers as a tiny thank-you.