Catching Up

Coffee table books, yacht rock playlists, $4 candles in the library

I hope you know how very honored I am to have my writing land in your inbox every Friday morning, a little letter of stories and thoughts I spend all week thinking through and then Thursday nights scribbling down. It feels like an old daydream of mine, back when I was an eighteen year old and just wanted people to read the things I wrote, to understand how my mind worked but also know the worlds within it, ones with fictional characters or just thoughts on my days.

Other than being Price’s wife and Kit’s mother, being a writer is the only thing I’ve just always, always wanted to be. And for right now, in my pajamas, sitting at a tiny desk lit with pink lamplight, being a blogger is close enough.

That all being said, my thankfulness for the hundreds of you happy to read these stories, I thought a more thoughtful, long-winded question & answer session would be sweet as you get to know me, the blogger, the writer, the, most importantly, mother and wife. I’ve organized the questions by realm. Let me know if you have any more in the comments…I’d be happy to continue the chatting there!

Home

Q: How do you find all your decor books?!

A: I think the most important thing to understand about me as an interior designer is that I never buy things with the purpose of pure decor. With books especially, I pick them out with the intent of reading them, and if not for reading, they’re picked out with the purpose of them meaning something to us. For example, our formal living rooms is stacked with coffee table books that revolve around Rhode Island, where we honeymooned…golf courses in New England (my husband is a golfer), Newport homes, summers in Newport. I think books can tell a story in a home, a story of who we are and what we read. We have coffee table books of two museums in Europe I visited as a college student studying abroad, old 2000s wedding inspiration that were once my dad’s (a florist), Ralph Lauren (a great source of home inspiration for us), a commemorative book of William and Kate’s wedding I received for my thirteenth birthday, stacks upon stacks of the yearbook I edited in college (and stole multiple boxes of when I realized we weren’t coming back to school after COVID.)

Q: Kitchen runner recommendations for right under the sink?

A: We have a House of Noa standing mat and love it! I’ll link it here. I think one day, though, I want a jute runner in the kitchen to add some texture.

Q: Might not be a blog item but would love registry recs for wedding!

A: Here is an old post with my most used registry items! I say to focus on timeless, useful pieces: a good set of dishes (we have 18 place settings of Lenox French Groove), tablecloths and napkins, nice sheets and neutral bedding…

Q: Favorite scents/music to set a cozy scene at home?

A: My favorite, favorite part of the night is after Kit has fallen asleep, tucked away in her bassinet, and I wander back into the library where Price and a lit candle is waiting for me to eat ice cream and watch a show together. I light candles every single night, the smallest but most comforting luxury of my tiny days. Right now, I alternate between Walmart’s Fall Farmhouse and Cozy Comfort, each $4 each, believe it or not. I also during this time of year love Trapp’s Fireside Pumpkin, and when I’m hosting, somehow I always end up burning Aromatique’s Smell of Spring, the scent my dad hid in sachet packets all around the church when Price and I were married. It smells like family to me now.

As for music, the correct answer here is obviously Norah Jones. However, I spent a lot of time growing up in my grandma’s kitchen, listening to Michael Bublé and the Carpenters, Johnny Mathis and Barry Manilow. And, I love a wide range of yacht rock that reminds me of my Uncle Thad for whatever odd reason. Really, just reminds me of helping my grandma chop celery for salad on her blue countertops, our cousins on the barstools and piled around the lace-clad kitchen table, and now of escaping on a last minute trip to Rhode Island, which Price and I did last spring with abandon, listening to this playlist.

Q: Your favorite go-to dinner recipes!

A: I make a lot of Salt & Lavender recipes — especially her soups or orzo recipes! My favorite cookbook is Euna Mae’s, her cream cheese enchiladas, buttermilk cornbread, and chicken & dumplins always making me feel like an accomplished and seasoned cook. I also started making a rendition of multiple soy sauce concoctions in college:

• 1/4 chicken broth

• 1/4 soy sauce

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• Spoonful minced garlic

• Salt & pepper

We use this sauce to bake vegetables and chicken in, for ramen noodles, as a glaze for potatoes — mashed or baked, and recently, I’ll put a pork tenderloin in the crock pot with a cup of water, minced garlic, salt and pepper and cook for four or so hours on low, then shred and let it soak up a pan of this sauce…divine.

Q: How did you start your home library?

A: My home library started when I myself was in diapers, learning to “read” (or as my mom says, sat on my bed and talked to myself with an open book in my lap). I’ve been collecting books my entire life, accumulating more and more as I’ve gotten older. I’d say just start by buying hardbacks you know you love, or ones from authors you have loved in the past. Keep a running list on your phone of books you want to read and add them to your birthday and Christmas lists every year. A precious and curated library takes time!

I also will add that books are something I will always, always be completely fine with buying secondhand. More story that way anyways, to see what lines meant something to someone, old bookmarks, to wonder if a dog-earred page was just a placeholder or to mark something important.

Q: Is this your forever home?

A: Sadly, no. This house is just barely 1,500 square feet, two bedrooms, one bathroom. Neighbors entirely too close on all four sides. I pray for a house filled to the brim with babies one day, and I think the cap here would be two and a tiny one in a bassinet. But I can’t think about leaving without crying, so that’s the end of this answer.

Family

Q: When did you know you were ready to enter the season of motherhood?

A: To be completely honest, dreams of a baby started as soon as we were married for me. We both hated our jobs, lived in a house we couldn’t afford if I stayed home, and so it wasn’t a point of conversation. But it never was this discovery of being ready…I always, always was prepared to be ready. And the Lord so sweetly gave us Kit at the perfect time.

Q: How has your own mother and childhood influenced how you mother?

A: There is not one single detail to my childhood that I don’t treasure. My brother was married this past May, and at his rehearsal dinner, I delivered a speech far too long. But everything I said was extremely important to say, given it’s just the two of us…haha. At the beginning though, I wrote that I wasn’t exactly sure when childhood ended, but I had a heartbreaking inkling that it ended that night. As I wrote that speech, I thought about growing up, in our blue house and then our rock house on the corner. I couldn’t stop writing tiny scraps of memories, eventually having to just delete things that would only make sense to the four of us for the sake of time. It made me realize how desperately I want my babies to feel about their childhood the same way I feel about mine, the same way I cried over mine at Gabe’s wedding.

My mom and dad are of course the greatest reason for this. My mom is my very best friend…always has been. I never want to be far from her, and I hope Kit feels that way from me one day. She is the greatest listener, she is slow to argue, she is a homebody, and she is comfort embodied in a person.

Q: How did you and Price meet and fall in love?

A: I uploaded an old blog post I wrote about it during our engagement — it’s called A Custom Made Love Story! You can find it in the archives.

Q: How did Price propose? How did he pick your ring?

A: Price asked me on a warm Sunday morning by the river, both of us nervous and feeling a tad feverish…Price tested positive for coronavirus that next morning. But we were neighbors in the nicest apartment complex I’ve ever stepped foot in, and so we quarantined in our rooms and the short hallway between them, wedding planning and watching Lady and the Tramp, taking slow, slow walks around the garden to remind us of sunshine. That week or so following our engagement was so precious to me, despite the worst headache of my entire existence.

As for my ring, I worked at a jewelry store during my first two years of college. Price bought me my beloved ring from my time working there, a ring I never in a million years imagined would be in a dish on my dresser every night.

Q: I would love to know your favorite traditions! Big and small. Any new ones with Kit?

A: When we first got married, I felt so overwhelming with joy and opportunity at the power of creating traditions for our family…I love the idea of honoring sweet memories of our childhood and creating our own versions with our babies.

Things we’ve already done with Kit and before, and I’ve decided we will do until the end of time, include: watching the Masters at home together (saving two days of Price’s PTO especially for this week), walking to where our wedding reception was and dancing to our first dance song — Johnny Mathis’ Misty on the night of our anniversary, pumpkin shopping the last weekend of September, matching wool pumpkin sweaters on Halloween night, Thanksgiving lunch at Price’s parent’s home, watching When Harry Met Sally on New Year’s Eve…

There are tiny little ideas of things I’ll have throughout the year…wanting to watch Gilmore Girls every fall with Kit, Saturday morning breakfast at home, big Sunday lunch, homemade stepping stones every year on their birthdays.

Q: Anything on enjoying motherhood as a first time mom versus being stressed/overwhelmed by it?

A: I’ve only been doing this for six months, and I have had plenty of moments feeling so, so lonely and overwhelmed. But I do feel confident as a mother, more than I thought I would have at this point. I think because 1.) God designed the beauty and purpose of motherhood, and He gave me Kit. He would not have if I was not abundantly capable of being her mother. And 2.) sadly, Kit is already six months old, seventeen pounds, can sit up for five seconds on her own, is so very close to crawling. I didn’t realize how quickly every tiny stage would disappear. Every routine we’d settle into, changed the next week. She’s growing far too fast for me to wallow. Time is a curse in that way…but it’s also a comfort: anything that is hard right now will pass.

Day to Day

Q: How do you balance creating content and trying not to be on your phone all the time?

A: This is something I constantly remind myself of…especially as Kit has found such an interest in watching screens. She reaches for my phone, my Kindle, remotes, is enthralled by the television, which I don’t think is a direct representation of the usage of these things in our home, but rather, screens are eye catching for babies. Still, it has me so, so aware of how she is already aware of what I’m consuming.

For me, content creating, while a creative outlet for building a community on the internet, has significantly changed how I capture our lives…more pictures, more videos, more moments documented of our mundane, every day life. How I have chosen to create the content I post I think contributes to my ability to balance being on my phone and not. I capture moments quickly and as they’re happening, not staged. And I share those moments online while Kit is asleep, concentrating on a toy, with her dad.

Q: How do you have time to read with a baby?

A: I read while she has her bottles and naps! Price got me a Kindle for my birthday last year, and that has been the single greatest thing in my life since Kit was born! I found a pop socket on Etsy so I could hold it with one hand, the other holding the bottle, and it’s just the most wonderful thing. She only contact naps, too, and so that is a good chunk of time. I also read in bed every night. Reading makes me feel like myself, and so I prioritize that time, even if just for ten minutes here and there!

Q: Favorite books?

A: I have a blog post planned just for books at the end of the year, but for now, here are the books I’ve given five stars: The Night She Disappeared, The Good Sister, Can’t Look Away, The Rachel Incident, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Here One Moment…

Q: Yours and Kit’s current favorites!

A: Kit’s favorites: her Fischer Price jumperoo, still reaching very, very hungrily for her Bobbie formula, her tiny bunny and elephant jellycats, Burt’s Bees playclothes, when Price comes home and bounces her until his arms burn, and most especially, playing with Annie Boo.

My favorites: My mother-in-law gave me a pair of Hill House pajamas for my birthday I’ve washed and rewashed one million times so far, sitting on the porch with Kit and Annie before lunch and before Price comes home from work, Lisa Jewell’s books, tiny cans of Dr. Pepper in the afternoon, of course the Toast podcast, Blake Lively’s shampoo line, rewatching all the episodes of Hometown, listening to the Chicks in the kitchen.

Q: How to get back into writing?

A: For me, I’d let far too much time go by without putting pen to paper. No journaling, no story writing, nothing but love letters to Price here and there. But last spring, I realized I needed my life documented, and I started writing in my journal every morning. I started reading again that summer, feeling so inspired by these authors who just wrote it down. I found my seven-year-old notes of a book idea and wrote 60,000 words in front of the window in my office. Then I got pregnant and haven’t written anymore of that story, but I will again, soon. This blog is a vital step in my journey of writing, to practice storytelling, practice stringing sentences together and describe my mind in a way someone else could see, to have real readers. So my advice? Just start scribbling it down. Your thoughts are worth far more written than they are silent.