Hermes The Three Graces Scarf 90 in Bleu Vif/Marron/Verf:
The Three Graces Scarf 90 in Bleu Vif/Marron/Vert
Gubi Pacha Lounge Chair in color Kvadrat Vidar:
Gubi Black Upholstered 3D Lounge Chair with sledge base (they don’t have this color option upholstered, but they do offer an unupholstered semi-matte version here:
Pale faces. Straight eyebrows.
Girls walk around with rollers in their hair in public.
Guys walk around with masks covering their nose and mouth (and I’m not sure it’s for the air pollution).
Guys wear foundation.
Girls’ hairs here are impeccably blow-dried, waved, or flipped.
There is a pressure to be “thin,” 105 – under thin. In a moment of relapsed insecurity and all things folly, I think to myself, “thank god I’m tall. It stretches me out.
Start: Pot + 5 tulip bulbs
Flower Bloom:
The beautiful prints and propeller shapes formed by the overlapping petals.
Can you see the pretty fuzz on top of the tulip? It’s supposed to be mold though. 😦
The richness of the flowers’ robes.
13 hours time:
Inspired, so I paint (acrylic and watercolour):
Another day:
Chop chop :
I placed the flowers in a mason jar and headed to my sister’s to surprise her.
2 Days Later: My sister, inspired like me by their beauty started drawing as well.
She is the best drawer in our family by far. 🙂
I don’t call myself the ideal homemaker, and my friends know I rarely cook. I’d also prefer to use FlyCleaners, but they “don’t yet service in my area”.
However, thanks to the Amazon savvy lady that is my mother, combined with my penchant for taste, I have picked up some tips and tricks à la “Health, Household, and Baby Care”
that make me feel somewhat better about my aforementioned failures.
The Harmless One
Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk
My All Time Personal Favorite
warning: it does have a strong English garden-like smell to it.
Batiste Instant Hair Refresh Dry Shampoo: Floral & Flirty Blush. I found this at Boots back in England. It will be a staple for life. I only recommend this scent. I’ve tried the others and I wouldn’t say I recommend.
What The People Say
Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray: People have recommended this to me as one of the best on the market, but frankly the smell really irritates my nose and affects my sense of smell. Perhaps you might enjoy it. After all, we are all different.
If you are busy, sometimes messy, and selectively lazy like me, you’ll need something quick, effective, and something that won’t frustrate you for taking so long to remediate.
Shout Wipes is your man (your men?). Many people swear by Tide Pens, but this is has taken out more stains for me from experience, and I also appreciate the fact that it’s technically impossible for the treatment to “dry” out before you use it because they sell these in single-use AIR TIGHT packs that retain all that good moisture and active chemicals. That’s what I primarily don’t like about Tide Pens. The pens aren’t dependably juicy. I like consistency.
Start with a 24 pack (I’ve linked you to that one), but I’d say go for the 80! No regrets.
If you don’t believe me, take a look
While the current humidity level of your rooms won’t affect most of you, you should care because your clothes are the ones that will receive the brunt of all the moisture. Save yourself the emotional pain that comes with a moth having eaten away at your $2,000 mohair knit sweater and buy these miracles that are the Damp Rid Hanging Moisture Absorber.
The smell is also quite nice.
The end.
But wait!
One more.
This isn’t really a home – grooming hack– it’s really just a life hack that’s made my life incrementally happier this past month:
Limitless Coffee, an lllinois based coffee and tea company, has created some of the best flavored coffee I’ve ever tasted in The United States of America. For context, I’m a big coffee enthusiast, and while I don’t regularly go to cupping classes and such, I feel I have sufficient experience to tell you that this truly is different [a gem!] from any of the coffees that you or I’ve ever tasted— even judging against the big coffee names and my favorite coffee makers such as Toby’s Estate Coffee. I don’t know how else to say it.
It’s not sold in Whole Foods yet, but I hope a buyer finds it and places some big orders for New York, and quick!
Complement this homey read with some splish-splash music by Caravan Palace, a fairly unique electro-swing French band. My favorite song of theirs is Aftermath.
Today is my last day in England and I’m honestly a bit sad to leave.
England ended up being the perfect place for me to rest and freshen up– in part because nothing felt new here.
[For context, often times when you are traveling to a new country and it’s too unfamiliar (whether it be from the transportation style, interpersonal behaviors, lifestyle pace, or type of cuisine), the trip ends up feeling more exhaustive than healing, especially.. when you’ve decked out a week’s itinerary befitting a music band on tour]. Fortunately now, due to the the rampant innovation, cultural and people exchange, and systemic adoption of technologies that have lead economic centers to operate and appear fairly similar to one another, one can expect a growing predictability for navigation and assimilation in any urban or cosmopolitan city. You will quickly feel that New York reminds you of London, London of Seoul, and that Seoul reminds you in turn of a bit of Paris.
Shoreditch Grind – I really appreciate the energy of this neighborhood.
Coffee shops were frequented, a disgusting amount of desserts were dabbled in, and dance floors conquered. I ate this delicious cheese that tasted like caramel fudge (The Gjetost! Mon dieu!). I even danced my first Scottish dance, and met a gentleman in full Scottish garb with dagger.
What is life without dancing to techno in a room full of old master paintings?
Amidst the buzz of catching up with old friends and partaking in some good old entertainment, I was able to spend a great chunk of my stay exploring and appreciating all that nature had to offer unique to the terrain [and sheer size] of its country.
Out to see a boat race on the River Cam.
It was the first time in my life experiencing first-hand so many kinds of birds (they were everywhere, omnipresent, realy all about England) and I’m certainly leaving Heathrow with a newfound affinity for them. Watching their activity across various environments, feeding,
Imagine seeing a horde of birds feeding and sticking their butts in the air as if under a spell of strange choreography, and seeing this against a backdrop of some beautifully landscaped park or skyline– it’s comical.
and passing so gracefully through the weeping branches of willow trees all lent me feelings of relaxed freedom and calm. I felt very glad.
The pigeons and the geese here were also surprisingly cute here and I sympathize a bit for the ones back home (perhaps if we didn’t treat ours like termites, they might appear more clean and endearing like the ones in England, I don’t know).
I also saw herds of cows in their natural habitat during my walks which was really nice.
Like Gustav Klimt’s The Park. I grew up in a suburban area and close to New York, the city of cities, so I was never exposed to much of anything nature outside of grass, skinny trees, and mountain trails my family would take road-trips to. And half of my childhood interaction with nature was spent in the shelter of a car, with me looking through a window.
I walked nice trails in well protected parks multiple-vehicles-wide. And oh! Everything was so well gardened and trimmed.
I smelled flowers with aromas so strong and heavenly I became overwhelmed with feelings of different shades I’ve never felt before.
Captured in a 4 x 6: Me becoming overwhelmed by nature.
This is a beautiful plant I saw, although I have no idea what it is. It reminds me of the skin of freshly picked Concord grapes. Lusciously juicy.
My favorite. If a flower was a pretty song.
Overall, this trip was a good time for me to re-center myself, slow down, and to re-learn an appreciation for the things right in front of me.
I am leaving re-charged.
Bises, Soo
It’s hard to get into a routine, because the word itself implies that you are blocking off a finite resource, time, of yours for an extended amount of time to invest in a variable reward, and sometimes starting one for the sake of doing it for accomplishment or because it aligns with your value-based identity just isn’t that sexy of a pull.
From my personal experience though, investing in the time to develop these practices has probably contributed to the greatest positive changes and developments in my life.
They keep my character, spiritual, physical & mental life strong.
Getting to a point in which you regularly exercise habits that require little to no cognitive effort to initiate (holla heuristics) is also a great reward in itself (less work for increasingly more rewards!).
They also help me keep my positive, optimistic, and energetic demeanor (which are arguably my most marked characteristics) in a way that’s as close to 100% authentic and sincere.
Anyways, it’s 9, I’d best start my day. Happy Memorial Day. I remember and honor those who gave their lives up for us.
“Don’t just fill up on things that you’ll have forgotten the next day”- Jonathan McReynolds
“What is the value of a fine watch if you don’t keep winding it and it can’t keep time.?
Atomizer imported from Germany, hand stitched cover
Tin can commemorating in 1935 the King and Queen’s Silver Jubilee ball
Art Deco moonstone silver ring (so many inclusions on the stone, but I love it!) and silver ring with miscellaneous etchings
While the holiday season is indeed a time for many a celebration of significant histories propagated by religious institutions, it also heralds in a month of humanly epic proportions of consumption…
Engineer the perfect setup for a cozy evening in your urban abode this holiday, and use this time as an excuse to get some self-loving R&R.
Patented intelligence and one tiny, savvy, smart sound system that packs an immersive sound experience in a very large room.
OR
Bose Quiet Comfort 35 Headphones
The first time I got my hands on Bose Headphones was when I “acquired” my dad’s QC 15s. Ever since, I’ve been hooked and fiercely loyal to this headphone line.
One of the best headphones I’ve ever used in my 24 years of existence– It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing, but personally, I really value being able to listen with uninterrupted focus to my music sans NYC noise over looking cool with my headphones. Function over form wins here for me.
Cnet Review: https://www.cnet.com/products/bose-quietcomfort-35/
While Jean Cocteau was rather infamously remembered for being an aggressive social climber (cool fact: he was actually slighted in a portrait painting by Modigliani for these very reasons) and a “celebrity friend,” I deeply appreciate Cocteau for the writings, films, and doodles he created throughout his life. I think these reveal most significantly the contents of his character which do deserve remembering.
Pouilly-Fuissé 2014 – Maison Louis Jadot
Not cloyingly sweet and not too crisp. I generally prefer red wine over white, but this one was really well balanced, and truly enjoyable to drink! Wine Spectator rates it in at a 91 — Good for drinking through 2022.
(Pouilly Fuissé is the appellation (A.O.C.) for this white wine (spec. Chardonnay grape) grown in Maçonnais (subregion) of Burgundy, France.
The labeling regulations for wine labels are very lenient; according to federal law, one is only required to list alcohol percentage if the proof is over 14%, and has liberal authority over what metric is signaled on the label header (such as Producer; Wine Region; Grape Variety). As a young wine drinker, these kind of things posed a great logistical challenge for me as I was trying to have deeper drinking experiences beyond that of a mere somatic examination. The Wine Spectator had an op-ed on this issue earlier this year, I’ll link it here once I’m able to find it– a much more informative source, if you’re interested in learning more about the consequences of unsystematic wine labeling!)
Zalto Denk’Art Universal Glass
Boasting a modest, but sublimely delicate design, the Zalto Universal is competitively suited for all kinds of magical, multi-purpose drinking. It’s an absolute pleasure drinking from this glass and being able to indulge 3 senses.
I’ll be having a very warm and agape holiday season, and I hope you do too.
Bises,
Soo
The “great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard to his day,” “he persists in looking upon those hours from ten to six as ‘the day,’ to which the ten hours preceding them and the six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue.”… “utterly illogical and unhealthy.”” – How to Live on 24 hours a Day. – Arnold Bennett, English Writer
Bennett pleads to all of us salary men: Think of the hours beyond your 9-6. Think of the potential. Revisit your dreams. Create things. Create things again.
