Happy Sunday folks! We are so happy you stopped by. This week our lovely Jess has been galavanting around Paris likely wearing cute outfits and discovering awesome vintage finds. We can’t wait to hear about her trip once she returns (and you can expect a blog post about it, too :)). In the meantime, here are the links we are excited to share with you this week:
This week’s home tour takes us to San Francisco, where a striking all-black exterior contrasts the very bright and artistic interior. It is a modern “maximal minimalist” home that has us completely transfixed.
From Emily: For those of you with kids who like musicals, we just started watching High School Musical: The Musical: The Series which is a TV show set in the high school of the OG High School Musical, but 20 years later and they are re-preforming the OG musical. Listen, we didn’t love the OG High School Musical movies (besides of course our love for Zach Ephron) but this show is SO GOOD. Brian and I both LOVE IT (he even teared up during the episode where the parents tell their son that they are separating which they did so with so much thought and care). The music is awesome, the acting is so good, and the choreography is so good. The cast is refreshingly diverse and gives me hope for the future. I mean, to be fair, we are serious musical lovers over here and think that The Greatest Showman is the best family movie of the 21st century. But if you are looking for a new weeknight show to watch with your kids (over the age of 6 I think) we LOVE High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
From Jess: I found my dream pants and I might wear them every day on my Paris trip (I’m writing this pre-trip FYI). They are SO COMFORTABLE, make me feel cool, the quality is awesome, and I can dress them up or down. Normally I don’t spend this much on pants but as soon as I put them on I knew we were meant for each other. I got a medium and at almost 5’4” I don’t need to hem them (big win:)). I can’t say enough good things about them and might even sleep in them I love them so much. 100000000/10.
From Mallory: If you’re in LA listen up: go check out Olive Ateliers if you haven’t yet!! Their whole warehouse is full of “objects with old souls” and they import awesome stuff from literally all over the world. The best part?? It’s fairly affordable (solid marble bowls for $65, vases for under $100, and awesome wood pieces and paper mache bowls for $30-45). Obviously, some of their large planters & onyx sinks can be pricier but considering that most of these pieces are shipped in from all over, I was impressed. They do “drops” every few weeks that are open to the public but during the week they’re open to the trade. Check it out & follow them on IG 
From Caitlin: Lemme tip y’all off to my favorite budget-friendly date idea: THE MONDO LLAMA CRAFT KIT. Head to Target with your love interest (or even a friend – or even yourself?), pick out a craft (or two different crafts, it’s your date!), pop on a show (something that works well in the background – I can vouch for Cheers or the Bon Appetit channel), and get to craftin’. IT’S THE BEST.
From Ryann: Once again I am looking for good books to get me back into reading. I always go in spurts where I read voraciously and then abruptly it stops which makes me feel, to be quite honest, very lazy and sad. So in an attempt to get myself reading again, I bought How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I’ve heard great things about it, it’s one of those novels that follows several interconnecting stories which I am a fan of, plus it’s about a prehistoric plague that decimates humanity and that’s very intriguing to me (I wonder why??). This is my first book of the year (I’ll let you know my review hopefully next week!) but I would also love some recs from you all so I can keep the reading train going instead of going on Tik Tok every second of my life 🙂
Have a lovely Sunday sweet friends, and come back tomorrow for a brand new REVEAL! xx
Opener Image Credit: Design and Photos by Rosy Alexander | From: How To Add An Addition To Your House Without It Feeling TOO New (+ A Classic Yet Trend Forward Kitchen Island Extension You Need To See)
Zach Efron, please. With an F.
Zac Efron, please. No H. 🙂
Dead 💀
Lol touche. 🙂
Two recent novels that I read this winter: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which I LOVED; and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which I liked a lot. Both are thought provoking with interesting characters. For nonfiction I’m reading The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Waldinger and Schulz. Did Emily recommend this recently? It’s really interesting and full of real life stories and inspiration.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was my favorite read last year. I just finished The Good Life and second the endorsement. I plan to start Lessons in Chemistry tomorrow (I’ve had it in library app queue for awhile).
I have had so much trouble reading since the 2016 election. When I go on vacation to my family’s home on a lake, I read a book a day (there’s no wifi or cell service) but cannot get myself to read once I get home. I really want to turn this around bc I have so many books I want to read! Also, love Mondo Llama craft kits! They had multiple for dia de los muertos that I got for my cousin’s kids but that Fedex lost in the mail – and they were no longer available. SOB!
Remember the room makeover for my mentee, Sienna??
https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/?s=Rusty+makeover
Well, Sienna starts university full-time, tomorrow!!
She’s living in an apartment 5 mins from my house, sharing with another young woman who finished uni last year, and she’s working too.
Sienna’s room is cute, with the same furniture as the Safe House.
I’m sooo very proud of her!
Emily, you made a real difference in her life and it’s helping to this very day.
Thank you again,
Rusty 🥰xx
This is great news Rusty. Congratulations and good luck to Sienna!
That is so wonderful, congrats to Sienna!! Going to uni is huge and have no doubt that Sienna is going to do well with all of it! So wonderful for both of you having made a true connection!
try “The wind Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami.
I read nightly but rarely read fiction. BUT, I picked up Where the Crawdads Sing last year and tore through it faster than any book in a long time. Hard recommend.
For non-fiction, I’m currently reading High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. Another hard recommend!
I will be very eager to hear what you thought of How High We Go in the Dark. Have a box of tissues ready.
I’ve enjoyed all the books from Reese’s Book Club (started June 2017) https://reesesbookclub.com/picks, Read With Jenna (started March 2019) https://reesesbookclub.com/picks and GMA Book Club (started October 2019) https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/shop-gma-book-club-picks-list–81520726.
Oops, don’t try to cut and paste a bunch of links on your phone: the Read With Jenna link should be https://www.today.com/shop/read-with-jenna
Ryann I do the same reading cycle and also always feel better when I’m reading. I just finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and it was great!
If you have a Kindle or other e-reader, you might try reading books downloaded from your local library. Mine only lets me keep books for 2 weeks before they disappear, which is good motivation to set aside time to read. My go-to book recommendation is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
I loved, loved A Gentleman in Moscow! Also enjoyed The Rules of Civility and am on the wait list for The Lincoln Highway at my library. He has music playlists for each of them that make great listening while you’re reading.
Here’s the one for A Gentleman in Moscow: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2gfyN24j3N1aoxsAvWsXgB?si=_Pp4dR8uSbe-3UgwBK9qmg
I have read all three of these, so well written. Great recommendation, Sheila!
Pro tip: If you aren’t finished with the book by the end of 2 weeks, put your Kindle on airplane mode. It’ll be there as long as you need it til you take it off airplane mode!
I definitely do this when reading a longer book or if life gets in the way, but I also use the (somewhat arbitrary) deadline to hold myself accountable! Also, Libby is a great app for managing library books. I tag books that sound interesting to me so I always have something in the pipeline, which helps with that “I finished a book…now what?” feeling.
Ryann, I just finished Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John and also Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and 10/10 recommend both. The book you’re reading is now I just added to my To Read list!
I’ve been reading a ton this year since I have a new baby and it’s about the only productive thing you can do while holding a baby, once all of the zombie shopping has been done. Two that I have absolutely loved: The Firekeeper’s Daughter and Hamnet.
Hamnet was so interesting. I loved the point of view switch. Circe is another that tells a classic story from another perspective. I’ve added The Firekeeper’s Daughter to my to read list.
Circe, A Thousand Ships – great reads and interesting takes on classic tales
I am reading Home Now: How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town, by Cynthia Anderson. She profiles young (and older) refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from East Africa, who have resettled in the author’s hometown, a sleepy former mill town in snowy central Maine. It’s an easy and fascinating read and very enlightening, highly recommend!
Book recommendations:
“Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr
“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig
Anything written by Fredrik Backman
I thought this was a great home tour: of an apartment in Paris. I particularly love the stained glass windows. This is a NYT gift link.
https://nyti.ms/3Y4sUjm?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
THANK YOU very much for the gift link. It is much appreciated! The tour of the Parisian apartment is wonderful. Those stained glass windows are amazing.
Book recommendations: Project Hail Mary, While Justice Sleeps, and Nothing To See Here (awesome as an audiobook).
I would recommend City Of A Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks. I feel like I either have no time to read or am tearing through books. Loved this one.
For those of you who liked Where The Crawdads Sing, there’s a similar book, so good, called Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy. If you like non-fiction, I really enjoyed 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed. And of course I second anything by Frederik Backman. Happy reading! I’m glad to get new recommendations myself.
Ryann – Put The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev on your TBR list. Read it last year, and I’m still thinking about it.