One of my beige flags...
Also the floral installation I am beside myself over
Hi! It’s Wednesday! What are you up to this week? We’re squeezing in a few more summer “lasts” – our favorite pizza in LA, a trip to the sticker shop – before school starts.
Today’s Handpicked is 100% free. We’ll be back tomorrow with a Deep Dive for paid subscribers, all about visiting museums with kids!
cowboy wisdom
Last week, I called my brother David on the phone to vent about a thing I was especially heated about. Now I can’t even remember what it was (that’s how often I call my siblings to verbally process), most likely it was about someone not doing a thing I felt they *needed* to do. But I loved my brother’s advice; after I concluded my lecture, he calmly replied with, “Well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”
Our cowboy grandfather used to say things like that to us all the time. It was the perfect combo of face-palm-duh/ tough love/ simple wisdom. My Grandma Verla has lots of one-liners too, things like, “It won’t be noticed from a galloping horse, and that’s the kind I ride,” and, the one I yell daily, “Use your own head, mine’s busy,” which I want to embroider onto a t-shirt, haha. Do you have any one-liners you live by? I’d love to hear.
Before we get to the links…
I’m giving the audio feature another whirl, this one includes one of my beige flags and how one wise woman carves a more efficient path in her life.
today’s bouquet
If I spotted a flower flash in public, there is 0.00% chance of me keeping my cool/ not bursting into tears.
Wishing I got to pick a first day of school outfit! It’d be a Garden Party dress.
Okay, these pink suede flats just might be the prettiest shoes I’ve spotted all year. The grosgrain detail! That deep rosy pink! They’d go great with this.
Absolutely screaming for Simone.
Can’t stop thinking about this quote from The Second Coming of Joan of Arc.
Just discovered Katie Merchant’s styling work. *immediately adds to Want To Be Friends With list*
Thanks for reading and clicking! Friendly reminder: Some of the links I share in Handpicked are affiliate links, which means I can earn a small commission if you buy something after clicking one, at no cost to you. xo
Find out what it’s like to try to immigrate legally to the US with the Green Card Game. I played twice and was denied both times.
Cannot *wait* for Erin’s new book, Making Things. She makes it look so easy!
Gosh, what a terrific hat.
A reflection on the brilliance of Daniel Tiger.
Ravioli with mint yogurt, pine nuts, and brown butter!
Whenever the boys are asleep, my girls and I make quick, clean collages with stickers, usually from the Antiquarian Sticker Book collection. Just added their new Imaginarium sticker book to my cart.
Cute back-to-school hack: name labels. I love this notebooky one.
From my sister Sarah on a book she just recommended to me, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating:
“It’s so very unusual. It demands patience, but not in a grueling textbook kind of way, more like watching bread dough rise gradually as the yeast labor vigorously. Slow, but deeply satisfying. And I’m learning *so much* about a creature universally labeled as both dull and hazardous. The story is undoing a stereotype and engendering a huge appreciation for the brilliant details of this little species’ existence. I love the real life implications of that.”
Featured print of the week: it’s gotta be Matthew McConaughey, right?! Thank goodness we snatched this glamour shot in the front yard before he left our family (if you haven’t heard it, read his story here). Get the printable for $9.99 here.
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
New Sunday night tradition: playing Scrabble after the kids are in bed. (I have never won.) Also, are we old?
Nate showed me this US state Sporcle quiz and all of a sudden I remembered how much I love Sporcle!
Eater’s coming out with their first cookbook next month: 100 recipes for dishes found at the most popular and influential restaurants across the country, from Jon & Vinny’s in LA to Una Pizza Napoletana in NYC. Definitely pre-ordering, snoop that I am.
Rihanna brings us nursing bras, thank yooouuu!! Related: thank you, Strategist, for this extremely helpful roundup for people who don’t super love wearing one of these at age 33, despite that it fits better than most.
If you, like I, have spent north of 100 hours reading these, it’s time for your Goldbug tattoo. Or perhaps you’re more of a Bananas Gorilla girly? PS: jammies, too.
LOL: “If anybody needs me…”
This map shows the warmest day of the year by location in the US. Where I live in coastal LA, summer is mild until the end of August, so it will be a minute til I can justify this beautiful thing.
I wish this delicate bracelet was somehow a very tiny watch. Lately I’ve been hunting for a watch that doesn’t look like a watch! Lmk if you know one.
The iconic Stendig 2024 wall calendar is now available. They usually sell out, so if you've got your Helvetica-printed heart set on one, now’s the time.
When you use your whole yard to create a Rube Goldberg machine!
last thing
Coming tomorrow: a Deep Dive on taking kids to museums!
Reader count: 1,156
Last week’s most popular link: the teeny tiny toy Target trolley
Quick version of 5 things from Trader Joe’s: brioche burger buns, frozen garlic cubes, inner peas snacks, mint chip ice cream, coconut yogurt
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