A Handpicked year
Kind of a tl;dr of all the 2024 newsletters
Hi my dear readers! Today’s newsletter is the best of Handpicked in 2024, all in one place. Links like cross-stitched porcelain vases and Denise the Heaven Receptionist (who makes me cry laugh), plus 10 quotes, my favorite photo of the year, and a few paintings.
If you’re still in shopping mode, here are meaningful presents for the kids we love, men we love, and women we love. Thank you for your clicks!!
I’ll see you on January 1st with a fun mini newsletter to start 2025.
Wishing you the happiest of holidays! Stay warm!
handpicked 2024
Us if Nate Steele won a Golden Globe:
What we have here is a redwood forest ranger with Jack Black energy, which is precisely what we need.
25 rare photos from the set of The Sound of Music.
A tip I liked if you’re not ready to quit Instagram cold turkey, but want to change your behavior/ usage: unfollow everyone you don’t know. No more influencers, chefs, news, anything — ONLY people you know. Sounds doable!
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”
— Helen Keller
Behind the scenes of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Kacey Musgraves curated a moodboard for Etsy and I am now deceased (via Rachel)
Super into this cursive font.
Sorry to my college astronomy teacher but I was shocked (and amazed!) to discover that the Solar System is moving.
Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every moment with love, grace, and gratitude.
— Denis Waitley
Kacey Musgraves’ new album Deeper Well is a masterpiece. Adding “The Architect” to my list of songs I can’t listen to without crying.
Nate mercilessly teased me through the whole Le Creuset outlet store for adding another mug to my [substantial] collection. Little does he know I’ve also got my eye on this braided purple one, handmade in Los Angeles :)))
“I love the idea of this pea pod art piece. And I love pearls because they’re my birthstone.” —Eleanor
Green marbled picture frame, be mine! (I’d put this in it)
“A [woman] sees in the world what [she] carries in [her] heart.”
— Von Goeth
Just being a champion lumberjack, y’know!
Confession: I *rarely* purchase an item of clothing without texting my sisters about it. Exhibits A and B.
If I had $1m laying around I’d buy us all this scrumptious blouse. (via Moriah)
Have you ever seen such a gorgeous, rainbowy octopus? She is “one of the only females in the animal world that is more colorful, more iridescent, more shimmery than her male counterpart.” You go girl! (via Big Salad)
Makes me cry my eyes out: Brandi Carlile’s The Mother.
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”
—George Bernard Shaw
That’s Enough. One part of motherhood I was completely unprepared for: the haunting possibility of a school shooting.
I answered 10 questions on You’ve Got Lauren!
Never-before-seen photos of British royals over the last few decades. I love the one of the four royal mothers.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
— Margaret Atwood
10 special items people framed. Makes my heart pound!
1,000+ free coloring books.
When I’m pissed off, I write a lot.
I don’t want to live on the moon.
Found: a healthy pasta that’s not gluey or planty. We added some pesto and buttery whole-roasted garlic cloves… yum.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works cooperatively against common threats.”
—Charles Darwin
my favorite photo of 2024
Quick pick-me-up: scroll your favorite flower on Pinterest.
Did you see that commercial with the football on fire? Nate and his team made that! Here’s a cool behind-the-scenes look at how they did it. Fun fact: they shot it on the summer solstice so they could get the longest golden hour possible.
You guys, have you ~listened~ to Pride and Prejudice?! Rosamund Pike narrates!
Cannot stop laughing at this, it is SO TRUE in our family. PTL for Emily, the real parent of us all.
High school football players being really freaking amazing. The “thank you, boys” at the end, ahh.
“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?”
— George Eliot
Tell me I’m wrong: all of our husbands and boyfriends would look hot in this sweatshirt.
Babywearing statues — seeing fatherhood represented in this creative way brought me to tears. Also, give. all. of. the. dads. paid. leave.
If you’re into LDS/ Mormon stuff: here’s a talk I gave in church last month about why I bake sacrament bread.
Well, I wasn’t ready for a Where the Wild Things Are book report to make me cry, but here we are.
When you’re cooking with vegetables, look up their spiritual meaning. For example, google “spiritual meaning of butternut squash.” You will be blown away, I’m telling you! All of a sudden your food will mean so much more!
“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb... and I also know that I’m not blonde.”
— Dolly Parton
I’m thinking about getting five little moons tattooed inside my left arm in honor of my five miscarriages.
Too much love. (Crying.)
These guys always make me and Nate laugh so hard, we play their videos twice. (FYI, some cursing at the end)
Calling all Texans: sign up for a brilliant NEW newsletter all about Austin, TX written by lifelong Texan and breakfast queen, my artsy friend Rachel Giberson.
Actually gasped at these cowboy + flower photographs. The center of my Venn diagram!! (via Audrey H.)
“From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.”
— Henri Matisse
“Never forget how alone we are not. The moss, the mountains, the redwood tree, the marigold, the mourning dove calling for her love’s return—are our allies. Every natural thing in this world is invested in the peace of this world. All that is good and gracious whispers, ‘We are with you.’”
—Andrea Gibson
last thing
Most popular link from last week: the too-cool jeans (y’all, I looked so bad in them. My daughters gently informed me I looked “a bit dorky”)
Readers today: 1,877
Grateful for you. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!
What a year!!