Goodnight Moon stamps, a checkered sling bag, and cloud shaped trees
Plus, do you have a favorite month?
I had never admitted this before, let alone to virtual strangers, but I have two months of the year I consider ‘lucky’: May and October, and two months that I deeply despise: November and March. I have always thought having such persistently strong feelings about individual months was irrational and something I was a little ashamed of, honestly. After all, life grinds on in its inexorable and inpenetrable way; good things happen and bad things happen outside the confines of what we consider months.
However, this week found me gamely making small talk at my coffee shop, wherein, as part of a conversation about the weather, I admitted to my secret. All four baristas immediately chimed in about their strong sense of certain months being “good” and others being despicable. And suddenly we weren’t just making small talk - we were in a full-blown existential conversation about the nature of time, irrationally, and the essence of what makes us human. It still makes me smile to think of the easy laughter of the moment; our collective realization that we *all* held - irrational but not shameful- preferences for various months, and that none of us had ever talked about it.
I love to write this newsletter for many reasons; it gives structure to my week, provides a purpose to my bottomless desire to look at objects and the internet, and more broadly, in writing the newsletter, I often synthesize and document ordinary moments that I might otherwise forget.
I often take an experimental approach — to interior decorating, to cooking, (to life?!), and, as it turns out, to this newsletter. I’m working on an interview series that will launch in the next few months - one where I ask my favorite people to share an important object, a small joy, and a fun thing they bought recently. However, I’ve hesitated to start the series, as it would make this Sunday newsletter even longer. The logical alternative might be to send two newsletters a week, since, as a friend reminded me recently, “sometimes all I have time for is a snack.” I write this newsletter for you, so I decided I’d just ask:
-OR-
A. To keep my sister and me busy while we were waiting in airports, restaurants, and doctor's offices, my mother used to fold origami - and when we were old enough, she taught us the various folds so we could do it ourselves. Ben, Alex, Tim, and I were waiting for dinner one night recently at a new (and a little slow) restaurant. Everyone was crabby and not up for our usual game of exquisite corpse. Muscle memory and a well-timed Google search had me teaching the kiddos this Origami Piano and Box.
B. The Goodnight Moon stamps are finally here! I've had trouble finding them at my local post office, so I ordered some online today.
C. As the weather has warmed up, I've returned to the small joy of a bowl of cold milk and corn chex. These Cornish ware bowls make me happy every time I open the cabinet—the color blue reminds me of easy summer days (real and imagined).
D. I'm always alert to good color sense - I was drawn to something about the color combo of these sticky tabs; while I haven't made a quilt in years, these made me want to pull these colors out of my fabric bin in the basement and start sewing again.
E. It's probably my New England roots, but it takes a lot for me to retire a backpack. Recently, however, it became clear it was time for Ben to get a new, larger backpack when he exited the car at school drop-off. His lunch box, water bottle, and extra shoes exploded onto the slushy sidewalk, including the water bottle rolling dramatically under the vehicle. I was the shame of the drop-off line! I looked for a new one that would hold everything and be comfortable to carry, which led me to this one from State. Not only does it keep the papers, the lunch bag, the water bottle, the change of clothes, and the backup shoes, but it does it all in style!
F. The matching lunch box fits into the backpack nicely and has also held up exceptionally well to the daily wear and tear of 1st grade.
G. I schlep a lot - laptop, files for various projects, books, packages, two water bottles since the ocular migraines hit, etc. I mostly use this extra-large LLBean camo tote as my "daily carry". The size and weight don't matter since I live out of my car (I put 1,000s of miles on my car each month). When I need to dash into a store, I usually take my keys, phone, and wallet and jam them into the pockets of my parka. Now that I’ve finally put away the winter coats, I’ve been trying to hold the keys-wallet-phone trifecta in a single hand. Everything came to a head this week when I inadvertently put my phone down in a local store and spent a panicked 15 minutes searching high and low. I ordered this bag shortly thereafter.
H. As part of the Ben backpack rethink, I ordered these stainless steel lunch containers, and they have significantly simplified the agony of lunch prep. We'd had slightly too large containers in the past, which I couldn't offer enough variety for my fairly picky eater. We ordered multiples of the 9oz and the 5oz.
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I put a few bonus finds here for subscribers as a tiny thank-you.
I love this conversation about lucky months! I love summer months, but don’t count them especially lucky.
HOWEVER, I have very strong feeling about time + luck. 12:34 is very lucky to my mind, and I love to catch it on the clock. And my husband thinks this is nuts, but I also think it is *unlucky* to set an alarm for a round number. I would never set it to 6:30…always 6:32 or something like that. (This thought process seems extra strange typed out, but I will persevere with posting ;)
I'd prefer you pick the schedule that will work best for you to be able to maintain it. Some of us will read as soon as you publish and others, like me, will read when I have, regardless of your publication schedule. I want you to be able to keep at it, so please pick what works best for you and all the things that are important to you!