Hi Hart Beat! Sorry to miss you. My mom and I are HEADING TO THE BEACH! We’ll be gone for a week exploring Costa Rica and I hate to say it but I’m so excited to get out of grey New York and see some color. This picture last year was from Antigua and I’m excited to visit the other name on the signs. Any suggestions? I’ll take them!! xoxo Hart Beat
P.S. Follow along on Instagram while I’m away!
Evening Hart Beat. What are you up to? Pedro and I are plowing through season two of The X-Files (still going strong👊) and I’m getting back to knitting the sweater I started last month. While sitting here knitting I started thinking about how I got started with the hobby originally and thought it might be something you’d like to read.
I’ve mentioned it here before but over the years I’ve had struggles with depression. This winter I have been loads better (!) but I’m still finding myself doing things that were habits or projects picked up from when I was sick. Things like the vacation that my mom and I take, while now greatly appreciated, is something that used to be prescribed.
Knitting is another habit that I picked up over the years. When I first started it was really a way to do something with my hands while I repeatedly binge watched Friends or How I Met Your Mother. Knitting is repetitive and consistent. It doesn’t take a lot of thought, especially when your just knitting unnecessarily long scarfs like I was at first.
Before this year, I had never knitted anything I would gift or even wear myself. I still have totes full of unfinished projects stored at my parents house. This fall though I thought it was time to try something more difficult. That’s how I ended up with this sweater here.
The sweater in progress.
It’s a amazingly soft, grey-tan (my favorite hue) turtleneck sweater and I can’t wait to rep it out of the house. Pedro calls it my Drizzy sweater and he may not be wrong. Either way, it means so much to me this year. I’m not sad knitting this time and I think I might finish it before winter is really over. My security blanket 2.0 as I’m thinking about it. Cheers to happy times, Hart Beat.
Hey Hart Beat. Happy weekend! I’ve been mucho busy lately since in two weeks I’m taking some (well needed) time off and heading to Costa Rica with my mom. What does that mean to you? Well, it means now that this week and next I’ve been swamped getting all my work done at Food52 so that I can sign off for the full week I’ll be away.
I was thinking the other day about my job at Food52 and how maybe some of you might wonder what it is I do exactly at the company. So here we go.
For the first year at the company, I was our Email Coordinator and pretty much built and sent all those annoying but beautiful emails from our editorial and shop sides of the company. And now? I was promoted to our Merchandising Manager at the beginning of this year! So besides writing these posts to you, and taking some baller Instagram shots, I work full time planning, strategizing, data diving and designing your onsite experience with the Food52 Shop.
A behind the scenes photo with a handful of the props we have on hand.
I’m not gonna lie Hart Beat, it’s pretty cool. It involves so many different kinds of thinking. Even more exciting, all these big ideas that I have for our shoppers I get to see actually happen on our site, in email and in social. On any day I’m meeting with our Product Team thinking about cool ways to display content on the site, planning our monthly email calendar to promote new and older but beloved products, watching our talented stylist and photographers bring to life the products we sell, or like, a million other things. It’s both creative and data driven and that combination is so fascinating to me.
One of our photographers James Ransom setting up a photo shoot in our office kitchen.
I also get to do cool things like write articles for the site about things like Pedro and me painting our kitchen and how to build the perfect fire and share some recipes I have up my sleeve likemy family’s famous Booby Rolls and my “world famous” pasta and meat sauce. And sometimes I even get to attend events at the office and take photos for the site (Ruth Reichl! Food52 Wedding Registry!) Plus I met Cookie Monster!!!!!
A photo I took for said Ruth Reichl dinner party of Amanda, Kristen, and Ruth.
I go goo-goo eyes for Cookie Monster when he came to the office.
So there you go. Maybe that made sense? I don’t know, it’s how I explain my job to my parents’ friends. We can also do a mini AMA (ask me anything) in the comments here. So ask away Hart Beat! And I’ll try to tell you more about what it’s like working in merchandising at Food52.
Hey Hart Beat! Happy Mondaythatwe’reallatworkbutwishwewerehome. Just me? Anyway, this week I’m pretty stoked because I’m FINALLY getting a new phone. My upgrade is here and I am taking full advantage of it. To celebrate I’ve been looking for some new photography for my phone screen, and on that note, for my computer.
One of my favorite bloggers Alice Gao is also an extremely talented photographer and has a whole slew of gorgeous shots on her professional site. I thought I’d share with you my favorites. Let’s live casually through Miss Gao today.
All photos by Alice Gao.
Afternoon, Hart Beat. Let’s talk beauty. Last week our favorite ladies over at Of a Kind release an amazing array of their favorite beauty products. The collection is both luxurious, surprisingly affordable and wrapped with the most beautiful packaging. This week, Claire and Erica continued the conversation on their podcast and talked about their love for these beauty products.
While I love me some buttery soft lotion (weird description? probs) I confess that I have a problem accumulating lotions and products. I know that all my past roommates can confirm that at any time next to my bed I have at least three bottles of lotion and three different kinds of mascara floating on my dresser.
This is a problem, Hart Beat. Especially when people like of a kind email be lists of beautiful beauty products that I want, nay, need. What I realized after loading my shopping cart with pretty much their entire collection, I stopped. Do I really need all these products when I have an apartment full of pretty much the same thing? I mean, I really want them all (like no joke that hair towel is everything) but can I make due until I actually need to replace my towel instead of adding another one to the massive pile?
Yes I can. So I’m challenging myself to something and I thought, if you’re anything like me Hart Beat, you might want to try too. I decided that I’m not going to buy any more beauty products until I finish everything that I own now. No more face lotion, no more shampoo, no more lipstick. Sorry Claire and Erica 😞.
What do you think, Hart Beat? Do you have the same problem I do? Want to try this with me? Or are you thinking I’m crazy because buying new beauty products is one of the most satisfying things in the worls (no lie). Bet you I go longer with what’s stacked up in my medicine cabinet…
Both photos by Of a Kind.
Evening, Hart Beat. Sorry for the radio silence for a few days there. I promise I’m back and have a few posts for ya. This first one comes from a suggestion of a friend at work. In our All Staff slack room she posted this genius google mail plug-in Just Not Sorry and I was like OH MAMACITA DOES THE WORLD (do I) NEED THIS.
If you didn’t pick up from the screenshot above Just Not Sorry is a gmail plug-in that warns you when you use words or phrases that undermine your message. The words will be underlined for correction plus each correction gives you a quote or summary of how the phrase might be perceived.
I hate to say this but I am 100% guilty of qualifying things I say at the office. It’s something I don’t understand (for real though). I should say what I mean and mean what I say! Yes that may be a Dr. Suess reference but whatever, this stops now. It kind of reminds me of this post I wrote last year about using exclamation points too much in work email. Since then I’ve definitely toned down the exclamation points and now, after this plug-in, I have a reminder to cut back on the “just’s,” “sorry but’s,” and “I think’s.” Are you with me, Hart Beat?
Plug-in recommended by Kenzi Wilbur and top photo of Debbie Harry from The New York Times.
Happy Saturday morning, Hart Beat! I hope you’re having a nice, relaxing time. Other than making some coffee and praising the fact that the headache I’ve had since Wednesday is FINALLY GONE, I’m also celebrating a few new acquisitions that I made to my kitchen.
If you don’t live in New York you might find this story a little unusual but if you do then you’ll know what I’m getting at.. See these beautiful chairs here? I found them on the street!!
That’s right, on the street. One weird thing about living in New York is that I’ve found a few of my favorite pieces on the streets of Brooklyn. And it’s not just me! I got my beautiful kitchen table in outside my old Greenpoint apartment while slightly drunk on a Saturday night and Pedro’s cousin found a handful of framed, original Keith Herring prints resting on the corner of a Brooklyn back ally. These stories aren’t that bizarre and I bet if you’re not from here if you asked anyone living in the dirty they’ll have a similar story.
By far though, my favorite thing found on the streets of New York are these two wooden folding kitchen chairs. I found them when out walking the dogs in my neighborhood! I was walking by an old building where, leaning casually outside, sat these two just polished collapsed wooden chairs. I didn’t know if they were good or bad but one trick about scooping things from the trash man is to take now and question later. The worst is to walk by something, think, oh that’s nice, and then twenty minutes later come back and see that it’s gone to someone else. You can always take things home and then if you hate them, put them back outside you’re apartment for someone else to grab! Karma is real people.
As soon as I got them home with these chairs though, I realized how much I loved them. I’m not sure if the chairs are anything special but I don’t care, they are perfect in my eyes. They’re simple, stable, and sit just right in our kitchen. Plus they are hella comfortable.
One caveat though. BED BUGS ARE REAL PEOPLE. This is why having termite treatment precautions in place are super important. Never bring in anything that has a place for bugs to live. Furniture = good because you can disinfect the crap out of it. Mattresses, couches, chairs with pillows = DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
P.S. The linen dishcloth, if you’re interested, comes from a little site called Food52.
Evening, Hart Beat. Have you heard about OKREAL? I can’t remember how exactly I came across the site but it’s one that I’ve wanted to share with you for a while. I mean, who doesn’t love inspirational quotes like the one above of this one below?
OKREAL is a site that pulls quotes, articles and advice from women working in creative fields. From the time that I’ve followed their Instagram account they have interviewed Ann Friedman (LURV HER), Rachael Yaeger and Joy Bryant among others. Aside from original interviews and articles, the site also pulls inspirational pieces by writes that we all know and love. One of my favorites was this speech written by my role model Mary Karr.
Not only does the OKREAL website have a treasure trove of life advice, baller women inspiration and general MHM HELL YEA moments but they also have a great Instagram account that brings these three feelings into your feed when you’re on the go.
All quotes and images via OKREAL.
Need other inspiration, got another post right here waiting for you.
La la la Hart Beat. This month my mom and I are taking a break from chilly New England and New York City and heading south for a week. Instead of heading to the Caribbean where we have gone the past few years, we’re heading even further south and going to Costa Rica. Perhaps you’re planning to some day go to Costa Rica make sure you enjoy the best of Costa Rica’s nature at Buena Vista Eco Adventure Park and Hotel.
I went to the country for about a month in high school but since I was there for school, I spent the entire time in San Juan and never actually made it to the beach. When my mom asked if I wanted to go now and see the ocean my response was immediately YES YES YES.
In preparation I have a couple of posts for ya but this first one is about a new bathing suit line that I ordered for the trip. Are you familiar with Hackwith Design House?
I can’t remember when Hackwith Design House first got on my radar but when last year they announced the debut of their Swim I was up in arms happy. This winter I decided that my five year old Victoria’s Secret bathing suit was finally ready to be retired and in it’s place I decided to splurge and order the knot top and the high waisted black and white panel bottoms.
I love them so much, Hart Beat. They fit exactly to size and are so flattering. I remember seeing a few people over the summer on the Cape with high waisted bathing suit bottoms and let me tell you, they are in real life amazing too! I’m not ready to start posting bathing suit photos of me here on ye old blog so I’ll have to let some of the models from Hackwith do the talking for me. I’m so smitten in fact that I think I might order another top like this crazy cool front and back two-in-one top that is new for this winter season.
First, second and last photo via @hackwithdesign.
Evening, Hart Beat! How was your day at work? I hope that the trifecta of the first of the Month, a Monday and being in the depths of winter didn’t effect you too much. Speaking of winter….. IT’S FEBRUARY!!!
And that means so many good things! It means the days are visibly getting lighter, it means it’s the month of love and it means it’s the month of Aquarius aka my birthday! Those things might not make you too excited but they do to me. In that vein, I thought I would share a few things that I’ve loved lately that I thought you might too.
1. Watching for the first time the entire run on The X-Files. Um, Scully, can I have your pant suits? Can I have them?
2. Basking in the love of this new hat that I got over the weekend in Greenpoint at one of my favorite stores. Because wearing white makes me tan and now my face can at least appear like it has some color.
3. Reading this book about Anthropologists in New Guinea and realizing today that it’s the same cool Claire and Erica are using this month for their Of A Kind book club. Great minds ladies…
4. Preparing for the Jenny Lewis concert this Thursday.
