My go-to source for custom frames

Hanging shit on your walls is one of the easiest/most effective ways to make your space feel homey, cozy, and nice. It’s also kiiiiind of a pain to do and can quickly get very expensive. 

For a while, I was using Framebridge, which was effective but also…not cheap. The price (and overall onerous process) meant framing multiple prints was taking a while, which isn’t ideal. When Kiyana and I moved into our new apartment last year—with a lot more wall space to fill—I knew it was time to find a better option. After poking around a bit, I decided to give Frame It Easy a try. I figured I’d order one frame and see how I liked it before committing to any more. Now, 12 (!!) frames later, I’m here to sing the brand’s praises. 

All the frames on this wall except for “New York Ain’t Perfect” are from Frame It Easy

The frames on the right and the left above the desk are from Frame It Easy

You can order frames to your exact specifications, and there’s a nice selection in terms of styles, mats, and clear covers. The prices are very doable (for example, one 11 x 17” frame cost me $56) and the products are made in the U.S. And when I had to contact customer service at one point—because I was assembling everything while sitting at our kitchen bar, and I accidentally knocked a crucial piece of hardware between the counter and the stove and that thing is not coming back until we get a new stove—they were great! They accidentally sent me the wrong replacement piece the first time, but were just extremely lovely and human in terms of getting me the right one, and it was an all-around extremely pleasant experience. 

My biggest/only complaint is that there aren’t more frame styles available, and that you can’t get very small things framed (5” x 5” is the smallest option). That means that I’ll still use other sources from time to time, particularly if I want to frame something super unique or special. But when it comes to, say, buying white square frames for a couple of prints that are going to go on a gallery wall, Frame It Easy is definitely my guy. 🖼️

A flower quilt for my mom

After finishing my first and second quilt, I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my mom. My plan was to make it for Mother’s Day, and because I appreciate when the gift aligns with the theme of the holiday, I wanted to find a pattern that represented flowers in some way. I looked at a ton of different options (some of which I loved, but were not beginner friendly) before eventually settling on Then Came June’s flower tile quilt. I knew my mom (who retired from her job as an elementary school art teacher last year) would really like the bold, graphic style, and I was excited to make something that felt completely different from the two shoofly quilts I’d already made. 

Before I started making it, I ordered a lot of fabric to try and find the perfect colors that all worked well together. Kiyana suggested using blue for the flower centers, binding, and backing to make the quilt feel less Eastery, and I think it was the right choice. 

This is the first quilt I made where I truly enjoyed the entire process. Even though I had to redo several things (the diagonal corners that form the squares required a new-to-me technique, and it’s kind of fussy in terms of making sure the blocks are the correct size), I found myself surprisingly unbothered by it all. It was ultimately a very low-stress quilt, which is a huge win to me! And my mom was impressed, which is the main thing that matters. 🌼

I read all 1,200 pages of ‘The Power Broker’ and now I have beef with a dead man

You know how they say you’re never more than six feet from a spider? In New York City, I feel like you’re never more than six feet from Robert Moses.

I mean this both literally and figuratively. Here, for example, is Curbed deep dive about a project in my neighborhood that I read yesterday, where the infamous city planner comes up repeatedly. He’s also name-checked in a recent Atlantic article about abundance politics. I’ve also literally read the document Moses wrote making the case to build the apartment building I now live in. And looking at important, timely topics like congestion pricing, Open Streets, the MTA, and the current mayoral election, let me just tell you…the ghost of Robert Moses is everywhere. (If this guy had been obsessed with trains and tunnels instead of bridges and cars, we’d be living in a very different America right now!)

In both New York and across the U.S., we’re still dealing with* the negative effects of his 40-year (unelected!!!) reign, which is why The Power Broker—Robert Caro’s 1200-page Pulitzer Prize–winning accounting of Robert Moses’s life and work—was such a fascinating and infuriating read. 

I had often heard people talk about The Power Broker because of how long it is, but…no one ever really talks about how good it is! And not just good in the sense of, like, “I’m learning so much from this, it is Important,” though that is also true. But it’s really, really readable. It’s juicy! The stakes are so high and there’s endless drama, gossip, humor, and pettiness, coupled with the kind of epic narrative arcs that feel more like fiction—it really doesn’t feel like reading a history book. (My jaw actually dropped at times.) Robert Caro does an incredible job of making the case for why we all need to know this bastard’s name, and laying out just how destructive, nasty, cruel, and prolific Moses was. One of the worst people to ever do it! I initially decided to just read the intro to see if I wanted to fully commit to the book, and by the time I finished that, I was…panting. I truly couldn’t put it down. (And before you ask: Yes, Moses has replaced Samuel Pepys as my #1 historical enemy.)

Because 2024 was the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication, there’s been a ton of renewed interest and media coverage in it. 99% Invisible (a podcast I love!) did a multipart series on The Power Broker last year, which is definitely a worth a listen if you know in your heart that you’re never going to read the whole book. It’s very light/fun (one of the co-hosts for this miniseries used to write for The Daily Show), and does a great job of communicating the key takeaways. (At minimum, you should definitely listen to the interview they did with AOC, wherein she talks about why the federal government…is the way it is. Her interview starts at 1:51:16 and is so good and will also make you want to scream.)

One of my biggest takeaways from The Power Broker is just how much impact a single person can have. Even in a city as big and as complicated as New York, it’s increasingly evident to me that a few loud NIMBYs with a bone to pick can stall progress for years. And yeah, Robert Moses didn’t do what he did alone…but the book was just a stark reminder that, for better or for worse, people built the world we live in, and people can change it. 

Some related content:

• I’ve really been enjoying The War on Cars podcast. (I loved the free parking, Tesla, and Rick Steves episodes!) 

• I recently picked up City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways from the library. I also have Jane Jacobs and Wrestling With Moses in the queue.

• “Can Andy Byford Save the Subways?” I remember reading this in the New Yorker when it was published, but I re-read it after finishing TPB. And now, just this week…Andy Byford is back! 

• “The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth,” from a three-part Times series on the failures of the MTA. 

• Streetsblog is a great resource if you care about what’s happening in terms of transportation policy; I read the NYC edition daily and it’s very in the weeds (in a good way!) about what is currently happening. 🛣️

*Here’s a very salient example: The Second Avenue Subway comes up a few times in 'The Power Broker;' it was first proposed in 1920 and is mentioned toward the end of the book as something that the city still “desperately” needs (so, in the 1970s). I was curious what ever happened with it so I decided to look it up…and discovered that only the first three stations and two miles of track on the line have been completed to date, and this only happened in…2017.

‘Death Becomes Her’ is everything I want in a Broadway musical

Our friend Ryan came to stay with us last week, and one of the items on the agenda for her visit was the Death Becomes Her musical on Broadway. It was my second time seeing the show, and I already want to see it again. If you’re in New York City—or just near enough to take a weekend trip here—I highly, highly recommend it! It’s campy, stupid (in the best way!), and just a really goddamn good time. 

I saw the show for the first time right before New Year’s, when I won the ticket lottery. I had seen the movie, but I went in knowing literally nothing about the musical or what to expect. And I was surprised and delighted at every bit of it. 

The music? Fantastic, catchy, so funny. The stunts and staging? Excellent, clever, perfect. The cast? Well, this is actually a Megan Hilty stan account now, and I just loved Christopher Sieber in it. (His Act II solo is probably my favorite number in the show, but it’s honestly very hard to choose a favorite.) 

Death Becomes Her is the rare adaptation that a) is extremely faithful to the source material, b) somehow manages to improve on the source material, and c) stands on its own as a unique and complete piece of media. (The Devil Wears Prada movie is the only other thing I can think of that completed this triumvirate.) 

You really don’t need to have seen the movie to have a good time, but if you’re not familiar with the story, the (very) basic plot is that two lifelong frenemies drink a potion that promises eternal youth and beauty, and makes them immortal…but it doesn’t protect them from, say, sustaining catastrophic injuries (without actually dying), so they essentially turn into hot, falling-apart zombies. 

It was really interesting to see Death Becomes Her right around the same time I saw The Substance and the Sunset Boulevard revival; it felt like the three were in conversation with each other (the theme being “woman turns 50, develops psychosis”). 

Like, here’s Megan Hilty singing a song that contains the lyrics “I gotta nip, and tuck, and fill, and freeze / And Restylane the lips and Juvederm the knees / Fix the bits, lift the tits, try to hard the scaaaaaars” and “Wrinkled, wrinkled little star / Remind them who the FUCK you are,” fully belting and sounding like a villain during Disney’s golden era (compliment!!!): 

I really can’t say enough great things about Megan Hilty’s performance—she’s so good. (When we saw she show last week, we found out once we were in our seats that her understudy was actually going on, and it was, respectfully…not the same show without Megan!) I loved her so much in this, in fact, that I went back and watched the first season of Smash, the truly awful 2012 TV series about the making of a fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe (that was recently adapted for Broadway…it’s honestly all too meta, I can’t even get into it here). 

While we’re on the topic of the thea-tuh, here are some stray thoughts on other shows:

• The Cabaret revival is very good; I thought Orville Peck was great in it!

• I saw Oh, Mary! twice before it transferred to Broadway and hope it sweeps the Tonys. Absolutely loved it.

• Yeah, I’m planning to see BOOP! at some point! So sue me!!! 🎭

May library book haul

Going to the library never fails to thrill me. Like, I just get to take these books…for free? Incredible! And given all the vital functions libraries perform and all the ways conservatives (and some dumbass liberals) are attacking libraries right now, it’s especially important to support them as much as possible.  

One of my favorite things about the New York Public Library is that when your requested books become available, they’ll transport them to your “home” library, so you don’t even have to go across town to pick them up. Again: This is all free of charge! In this economy! It’s amazing! (Related: Please enjoy this video of the NYPL’s book train in action.) 

Anyway, here’s what I had waiting for me this morning:

The Bean Book. A couple weeks ago, I found myself wondering if there was a good cookbook devoted entirely to beans…preferably fancy but not fussy preparations. Kiyana mentioned that Rancho Gordo might have something, and she was right—and this is one of the brand’s cookbooks. Given how much I like Steve Sando’s beans on toast recipe (that’s a gift link, btw), I have high hopes.

How to Seal Your Own Fate. This is the sequel to a cozy mystery I read a couple months ago, How to Solve Your Own Murder. To be honest, the first one wasn’t amazing, but it was also fine. (I think I read it in its entirety during a long hair appointment.) But to me, this is the exact type of book to get from the library! 

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. I generally prefer to read non-fiction but I’ve been in kind of a slow period lately. I can’t remember how I came across this book, but I think I’m going to love it. (As much as you can love a book that’s about an infuriating topic anyway.) 

Also, as I was leaving the library, I got a notification from Libby that the e-book edition of The Berry Pickers was also available for me. This one is a little out of my wheelhouse (I don’t love straight-up fiction) so we’ll see how it goes!

And when it rains it pours…because I’m actually in the middle of reading The Power Broker right now. (More on this another day…this book has become my new personality.) It’s 1200 pages long, so it’s definitely taking up my entire brain, but I’m currently on page 900 and really blasting through it because it’s so, so good, so I think I’ll be done by next week and then I can start on the others.

What are you all reading lately? Anything good? 📚

Growing a terrace garden in NYC (part I)

When Kiyana and I started apartment hunting last year, our biggest non-negotiable was some kind of outdoor space, as that is functionally the only way we can socialize because of my weak immune system. We didn’t have major expectations for what this space would look like or even how big it would be…we just wanted something. We ended up getting really, really lucky: We found a place with a large terrace and an incredible view of downtown Manhattan. (The trade-off was that the interior of the apartment was aesthetically….challenged. More on that some other time!) We’ve been slowly adding furniture to the terrace since moving in last summer, but we knew that this was the year we would really start making something of it…which meant getting plants. 

I started doing research in earnest in March…and was immediately very, very overwhelmed. Gardening is science, and though I successfully grew tomatoes and basil at our old place, the flowers also fried. Figuring out what would grow 200+ feet in the air with our exact lighting and wind conditions was pretty intimidating, and I didn’t want to put a ton of effort into something that was ultimately destined to fail.  

While poking around on Reddit, I came across a website called the Gnome Network, which connects New Yorkers with plant professionals. I posted an ad describing that I was looking for (basically just some guidance/direction on what would grow well up here—and what we should avoid—to increase our chances of success). I got a lot of responses and we were ultimately able to find someone (Erik) who turned out to be a great fit; he’s just getting his solo landscaping and consulting business started, and he immediately understood what we were hoping to do. 

A few days after our initial conversation, Erik came over to see the terrace in person and learn more about what we were hoping to grow; the type of planters we wanted to use (e.g., we were hoping to make use of the two big pots we had at our last apartment); and where we’d ideally like to place them. Kiyana and I were hoping for a mix of flowers, herbs, and vegetables, but weren’t married to anything in particular and really just wanted plants that would grow. 

The next step was observing the light, which ended up being a really fun task. Basically, I set an alarm to go off every hour and then popped outside to see what the sun was getting up to. It was fascinating and also kind of beautiful—I loved it seeing how exactly the light moves hour by hour! I took photos and made detailed notes, and then sent my full report to Erik. A few days later, he sent over a doc with all of his recommendations. Turns out, even though our terrace is fully in the shade until nearly 2 p.m. every day, we get enough hours of afternoon sunlight to be able to grow a lot. 

Then came planting day! Kiyana and I had initially planned to DIY it, but we liked working with Erik so much that we decided to have him take the lead and I’m really glad we did; he brought so much expertise and even just watching exactly how he watered everything was helpful. We learned so much from working with him that we simply would never have figured out on our own. (He also just has a great vibe!! We had a lot of fun chatting with him.) 

Here’s everything we’re starting with in our garden:

• Ranunculus 

• Peruvian lily

• Nemesia

• Threaded coreopsis

• Beard-tongue

• Snapdragons 

• Nasturtium 

• Lettuce! Buttercrunch, red oakleaf, summer crisp magenta, and encore mix

• Herbs: Chives, Italian parsley, lavender, English thyme, oregano, and cilantro

• Carrots

• Radishes

• Green onions

• Costoluto Genovese tomatoes

• Super Sweet 100 tomatoes 

(You can see more of the progress in the TikTok above. Also I am now on TikTok!)

The plan is that we’ll make some swaps in June/July—at that point, it’ll be too hot for a lot of these plants to continue to grow, so we’ll replace them with summer veggies. We’ll also be adding a climbing rose and some hanging baskets with petunias (!!) in a few weeks, once it gets a little bit warmer, and we’ll transfer the tomatoes into their permanent pots. I’m also getting a plant stand to go under the flower pots to elevate them slightly, and we still need to hang up string lights. 

Just planning this garden was a huge mood-booster, and actively tending to it for the past couple of weeks has brought me so much joy. All of the plants are thriving, and it’s really amazing to see how much they can grow and change from one day to the next, and even from morning to afternoon. The radishes and carrots—which, along with the green onions and cilantro, we’re growing from seeds—have started to poke through the dirt, and blossoms have appeared on the nasturtium and Peruvian lily. We’ve also been sitting outside a lot in the evenings to watch the sunset and then stargaze, two activities I love. (Lately we’ve been able to see Jupiter and Mars pretty reliably!) We still haven’t harvested anything edible yet…honestly, it feels crazy at this point to be like “I’m going to pick and munch my friends.” 🌱

Some Mother's Day and Father's Day gift ideas

When it comes to smaller holidays, I really like letting the theme inspire the gifts; for example, I love a Valentine’s Day present that also happens to be pink, red, or lavender. For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I’m all about pretty, springy things that either nod to or inspire time spent in a backyard or garden. (And yes, I’m putting moms and dads into a single list, because I’ve personally always found the way that gifts for the two are gendered to be extremely alienating! Some moms like to grill and some dads like flowers!!!) 

So if you’re hunting for something to give each of your parents (or the parent of your kids, or honestly whoever) for Mother’s Day/Father’s Day, here are some ideas that I hope will spark something!

Nocs zoom tube

I’ve been gifted several pairs of Nocs by the brand over the years and wholeheartedly recommend them; they are very nice starter binoculars that don’t feel like heavy-duty “gear.” I’m a fan of the singular zoom tube ($75), which can easily be tucked in a jacket pocket on a morning walk for impromptu birding.

Tree Finder and Flower Finder

I love these classic paperback books, which were first published in 1955. Both are currently $5.53 from Bookshop: Tree Finder and Flower Finder. (I also think they’d pair so nicely with the Nocs zoom tube!) 

Fellow travel mug

After drinking coffee out of a standard mug for my entire adult life, I’ve seen the light: An insulated vessel keeps coffee so much hotter (especially if you’re a slow sipper, like I am) and has improved my quality of life considerably! When people stay with us, they always comment on how nice these Fellow mugs are, and we’ve gifted them to a few people (including Kiyana’s mom). Also, the Fellow’s splash guard really works! It comes in several different colors; get one from Fellow or Amazon for $35.

Devotions by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver just writes so beautifully about nature, and reading this anthology while sitting in a park or on the beach is pretty sublime. Get the hardcover for $29 from Bookshop. 

Toyo steel toolbox

I actually have two of these—a smaller one ($44 at the Container Store or $35 from Amazon) that I use for actual tools, and the bigger cantilevered one ($135 at the Container Store or $129 from Amazon), which Kiyana gave me for Valentine’s Day to use as a sewing box. I love the bigger one—it’s really practical, and the creamy white is quite striking. (Note: If you are willing to do some Googling, you can find additional color options across retailers!) 

Cadence toiletry kit

I own and love these customizable magnetic toiletry containers, which are ostensibly for travel but are also great for other forms of storage. (For example, when I was juggling a bunch of different meds, I used mine to mete out doses and keep track of what I’d already taken.) You can choose any combination of colors, adjust the sizes, and have labels made or keep them neutral. The bottles are leakproof, easy to clean after a trip, and just genuinely very convenient. A seven-piece set of 1.32-ounce containers is $168 from Cadence.

Meyer lemon phone wristlet

Kiyana gave me one of these cases along with two different beaded cords for Christmas last year and they bring me so much joy; I use them whenever we’re going out to do something that feels a little fancy. There are a bunch of different styles, but I’m partial to the fruits. Get the strawberry cord + case for $75 or the Meyer lemon cord + case for $110 from Ossa. 

Wingspan board game

I’ve been extolling the pleasures of this game for years and actually taught Tom and Danny to play when we saw them earlier this month. (They loved it and bought it for themselves immediately.) It’s so mellow—it has beautiful art, and is just a treat to play. Get it from Stonemaier Games for $59. (Note: I’ve heard of people accidentally buying counterfeit versions on Amazon, so I’d recommend buying directly from Stonemaier or at a local game store.) 

Crepe paper flowers

Flowers are a classic Mother’s Day gift, and I love a version that will last for years. I have tulips (in the living room) and peonies in the bedroom, and both bouquets are really beautiful! (The peonies actually look real at a glance.) A set of three tulips is $76 from floresparasiempre on Etsy, and the shop offers a bunch of other flower options as well. 

Popsmith popcorn maker

I never really cared about stovetop popcorn—I’ve always been fine with a bag of Orville Redenbacher—until I was sent a Popsmith to try out few years ago. The popcorn is delicious (I recommend getting the popping kits—they are worth it), and the process of making it feels like an event (in a good way!). The starter bundle is $213 from Popsmith or $249 from Amazon. (Note: It comes in three colors; I have the cream one and I think it’s really pretty.)

Stanley water bottle

I’ve already made my feelings on this water bottle known! Get it from Amazon or Stanley for $35.

Moccamaster 53921 KBGV Select 10-Cup Coffee Maker

If you’re willing/able to really splurge, this coffee maker is pretty life-changing; it simply makes the best (and fastest!) cup of drip coffee I’ve ever had. It’s also really aesthetically pleasing and available in several colors. I actually bought my mom one on Black Friday as a Christmas last year because she kept talking about how good our coffee was when she visited. Ranges from $319–$380 from Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, and Moccamaster.

That’s all I’ve got, but let me know what you’re gifting this year! 🌷

I have to give it to the Stanley water bottle

After seeing the Stanley water bottle craze all over social media for the better part of a year, I finally gave in because I wasn’t drinking enough water during the day and I knew my vessel was part of the problem. (Look, I’m as susceptible to hype as anyone—that’s how I ended up at the Wicked movie.) The Stanley (sorry, the Quencher H2.0 Flowstate™ 30-oz. Tumbler) checked all of my boxes: I wanted something dishwasher safe and insulated, with a hard straw, and not too sporty.

You guys…I’m here to tell you that I love this water bottle. So much that I now own two identical ones, as well as a Stanley-shaped ice cube tray that you definitely don’t need and a straw cleaning kit that you probably do. 

Kiyana was anti-Stanley, but even she has had to admit that it’s pretty convenient and keeps water so cold throughout the day. She even borrows it from time to time when she’s working out! Her one complaint—that I think is completely fair—is that it’s kind of top-heavy, meaning it tips over easily if you set it on the floor next to the couch and then your partner doesn’t see it when she stands up. (My guess is the bottom is narrow to fit in a car’s cup holder.) 

I was surprised to learn that you can also put hot drinks in this bottle and sip through a different hole on the lid that stays covered most of the time. That’s not something I have any interest in doing (honestly, I can’t even imagine putting any other cold liquids into it) but I figured I’d mention it in case that’s a selling point for anyone else! 

Get it from Amazon or Stanley for $35. The ice cube tray ($12.99) and straw cleaning kit ($3.59) are also both on Amazon.

Also, I ended up really enjoying Wicked! Sometimes things are annoying on social media and also worth it. 💧

I think I’ve finally cracked lunch!

Lunch: Ugh! I find it weirdly overwhelming and annoying to have to consider it every single goddamn day. I’m very happy to eat leftovers for lunch, but they often run out faster than I expect. And even if takeout didn’t cost a million dollars right now (see also: this perfect TikTok), I don’t live in an area with a ton of great options. And because my energy levels aren’t amazing, I’ve been avoiding buying a ton of ingredients for meal prep that I then don’t end up using—or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, getting way too ambitious, not being able to eat everything I make before it goes bad, and ultimately wasting time and money before falling off again. 

You know how it goes! 

But last week, frustrated yet again at lunchtime and craving a big bowl of healthy slop, I decided to dip a toe into meal prepping…with guardrails. I made a plan that prioritized conserving energy (and saving money) via lots of shortcuts, plus foods that wouldn’t go bad too quickly. 

This was my grocery list:

• One 5-lb. bag of dried brown rice 

• One 18-ounce container of peeled and cubed sweet potatoes

• One 10-ounce bag of pre-washed broccoli florets

• Two 12-ounce bags of frozen Brussels sprouts 

• Two cans of chickpeas

• 2 lbs. of chicken breast 

• All of the ingredients I needed for two different dressings (creamy mustard and tahini ranch) from What Goes With What by Julia Turshen 

I prepared everything over the course of a few hours one morning. First, I got three cups of brown rice going in the rice cooker. As the Zojirushi worked its magic, I…

1. Roasted the chickpeas using a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. (This one is very similar!)  

2. Roasted both the broccoli and sweet potato at the same time in a 425-degree oven (the recommended temp in The Joy of Cooking). I took the broccoli out after 30 minutes and let the sweet potatoes go for 40ish. (My plan was to save the frozen Brussels sprouts for when the broccoli ran out, but that happened after just two bowls, so I ended up roasting the Brussels sprouts the next day.) 

3. Prepared the perfect chicken.

4. Made the creamy mustard dressing recipe, which came together in like 5 minutes. (You can find instructions for making it in the chart here; the proportions work out equal parts mayo, olive oil, and white wine vinegar.)

All of the above, including the batch of Brussels sprouts, was enough to assemble 10 very generous bowls (and still have some chicken left over), an amount I’m very happy with! The bowls were really filling and delicious, and I loved not having to think about what to eat for lunch every day. And because so much of this was passive cooking time—meaning I was able to sit and chill between each step—I didn’t feel totally wiped by it. 

Better yet, I still had plenty of dressing ingredients and dried rice to work with. On Sunday, I bought two bags of frozen broccoli florets and a bag of dried chickpeas (since dried are cheaper/will go further). On Monday, I made new batches of rice and dressing and roasted more broccoli and chickpeas, and now I’m back in business! (The grocery store didn’t have cubed sweet potatoes so I skipped them for now, but I can always add them later this week if I’m feeling motivated. And I actually think replenishing the different components on a staggered/rolling basis sounds like an even easier way to do this going forward.) 

I’m really relieved that this turned out to be a lot easier and more pleasant than I was anticipating! Buying frozen/pre-cut vegetables and choosing prep methods that all basically amount to “dump this thing on a sheet pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper” made a huge difference—I find washing, peeling, and cutting produce so tedious, and removing that barrier did a lot, both mentally and in practice. And even though I don’t mind eating the same exact thing day after day, I also think it’ll be easy to make small tweaks here and there to avoid any boredom that does arise. (See also: sauce theory!) 🥦

A shoofly quilt for my favorite cozy gays

I finished my second quilt last week! This one was a gift for my friends Tom (who just sold his first novel!) and Danny; the two of them just moved into an incredible old farmhouse in upstate New York and I wanted to make them a housewarming present. (Also, Tom works for the ACLU and Danny works in international human rights, so I especially wanted to do something nice for them at this exact moment.)

I used Penelope Handmade’s shoofly pattern again, but I made some changes this time that made the entire process a lot more enjoyable; the biggest difference was that I quilted on the diagonal (meaning the lines get shorter as you work toward the corners, which is nice!) and I sewed fewer lines overall. Ultimately, this one was a lot easier and more pleasant to make than my last shoofly.

This was also my first time making a quilt with more than two fabrics; turns out, ensuring everything works together is a lot harder than it looks, but it’s also a pretty fun process. I decided on a blue, green, gold, and chestnut palette, with chocolate brown for the binding/backing. Since Tom and Danny’s house was first built in the 1790s (!!!), I was aiming for something that felt very Classic Quilt but still modern, and I opted for patterns inspired by their life in the Catskills—so, a mix of flowers, tiny stars, and gingham.

As I rounded the corner on finishing the quilt last week, I panicked a little bit; I suddenly got worried that they weren’t going to like the fabrics I had chosen—like it would feel like my idea of them and their aesthetic versus their own idea of themselves. But they really loved it; Danny had apparently already told Tom that he was hoping to convince me to make them a quilt when Kiyana and I visited, which made me so happy to hear. And we had a great time hanging out with them this weekend; their home is beautiful and they are great hosts, and I just think the world of them! 🧵