A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Keeping This Short

It’s Thingies time on the podcast with photographer extraordinaire Noah Kalina! Both toilets and TVs make a showing. It also might be time to try out a Secret Menu membership if you haven’t done that—August new subscription money goes to Operation Backpack, which gets school supplies to NYC kids living in homeless or domestic-violence shelters.

erica’s things

• Getting closer and closer to making “Sheryl Crow fan” my entire personality, and this is at least partly to blame (It’s streamable, too.).

• Investigating the boundless potential of a Saltine pie crust.

• Hopping aboard the Olaplex train: The humidity of the last couple weeks put this stuff to the test, and let’s just say my hair fared better than the rest of me.

• Considering the connection between minimalism and assimilation.

• Keeping tabs on this dinner-party series and that dinner party-series, both the work of impressively charming founders.

claire’s things

• Buying a pair of these for my husband, who loved them so much he promptly turned around and bought two more. Short of the summer!

• Finally succumbing to the Better Things hype after hearing about it for years. Wow, the catharsis.

• Watching the NYC Dept. of Sanitation attempt to come for the TSA’s throne. Keep trying, buddy!

• Realizing that the best Aperol Spritzes…don’t have Aperol.

• Receiving some very good shopping recs.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Putting Little Vases Everywhere

We bring you an addendums episode of the podcast this week—and also a rave review of Milan (yup, the city). Should you want to know our dozen-ish favorite things to do/see/eat there, this Thursday’s Secret Menu will deliver.

erica’s things

• Learning of the existence of white lavender; wanting to grow white lavender.

• Adding “bias-cut” to my search terms after finding two stellar summer dresses by one brand: this and/or this, depending on your strap and fabric preferences.

• Realizing just how much I rely on Grammarly to catch my typos—it stopped working on my comp for a few days, and the fact that I can’t spell “occasion” to save my life was on full display.

• Making the most of teeny zucchini.

• Soaking up Korean art and design by way of this ecomm gem. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest Seoyen Choi’s mini vases.

claire’s things

• Living in an ideal summer pant.

• Praying to the food-media gods that someone publishes the recipe for the walnut larb from Good Night in Woodstock, New York. Until then: very much worth making the trip.

• Thanking the universe for giving us Mira Jacob and all of her wisdom—this time about aging. (It’s from a package on turning 40, which answers so many of the questions we raised in this pod ep, including the fashion one.)

• Marveling on a near-daily basis at how much I love Descript for podcasting…and oohing and ahhing over what appears to be a game-changing new video feature.

• Adopting blender muffins as a Saturday-morning routine that Cam is so invested in he’ll probably be able to make them himself soon enough.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Taking A Closer Look

A Guest Thingies treat for y’all this week: We’re chatting with Lauren Sherman, the chief correspondent at The Business of Fashion and the host of The Debrief, a podcast that’s making us feel more in-the-know about the big fashion news than we have in years. Ooh, also: Do you need some new reading material? You can browse all our book recs in one Bookshop.org place.

erica’s things

• Anticipating the rise of the after-dinner candle as a category, and this is the perfect one.

• Strategizing a transition from Goodreads to Italic Type—an important step in the de-Amazon-ification of my life.

• Participating in baseball season by way of a TV show. Let’s put Kylie Bunbury in more things, let’s relish 10 eps of Mark-Paul Gosselaar as an aging catcher.

• Gasping at this egg-floating trick for making at-home sorbet.

• IDing the optimum art for those with an interest in both surveillance capitalism and Polly Pocket.

claire’s things

• Stumbling upon a treasure trove of travel guides specifically focused on shopping and sourcing. Yes, please!

• Giving an oral book report on Margiela’s years at Hermès to anyone who will listen after pulling this off a shelf at our Airbnb. (Yes, I bought my own copy.)

• Impressing everyone from my toddler to my dinner guests each time I transfer a pack of these from the freezer to the oven.

• Coveting a v. good collab (all made from vintage scraps)—is it too early to start buying holiday gifts?

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Rocking And Rolling

This week’s podcast: a very summery grab bag—we’re talking cookouts, flowers, and shorts that have legs. This month’s Secret Menu org: Midwest Access Coalition, which helps people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest access safe abortions.

erica’s things

• Requesting more hotels like this little one and this medium one.

• Struggling to understand exactly how/why this spray works but being clear on one thing: My skin hasn’t gotten red or irritated since I started using it.

• Expanding my veggie-baked-good horizons with this spinach stunner, a revelation for any carrot-cake or zucchini-bread heads.

• Unearthing a natural podcast companion for my little neighborhood walks.

• Reporting from the stuffed-animal frontlines that a real cute, huggable alt to a weighted blanket has arrived.

claire’s things

• Feeling rocked by a doorknob DIY.

• Daydreaming about this stupidly simple summer pasta.

• Turning my kid’s economy airplane seat into something resembling a flat bed.

• Applauding this list of alternatives to Uline—if you ship stuff at scale, it’s worth weaning yourself off them.

• Staying put inside my romance-novel cocoon, where this one deserves special notice.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Putting Together The Pieces

We prepped this newsletter a couple of weeks ago before we both left the country for a minute, and, well, it turns out not being in America when it breaks your heart doesn’t make it hurt any less. If you need to give your brain something different to think about, we’ve got some getting-older talk on the podcast, and we’re guessing some of you have thoughts on the subject. From your mouth to our voicemail: 833-632-5463.

erica’s things

• Doing a cute napkin fold.

• Needing—needing!—to experience Megumi Shauna Arai’s textile art in person.

• Grinning over so many things about this cookbook—the voice, the vibe, and, most of all, the section on ice-cream toppings. Magic Shell + Utz Potato Stix = genius.

• Tapping a statement nail (as in, the kind you hammer into the wall).

claire’s things

• Nodding, of course I was going to fall for artwork described as “small-format quilts.”

• Coming for the curly-hair inspo, staying for the very good vintage vibes.

• Knowing I shouldn’t be surprised that the makers of *the* best tortilla chip also do a top-notch jarred salsa. (Sidenote: I am very into making chilaquiles at home these days! Dump salsa and chips in a pan, and then fry an egg in it. What could be easier?)

• Filing away this handy app to use when making plans with my GF loved ones.

• Congratulating lovers of the famous-person-falls-for-normal-person romance-novel trope: You have not one but two great new options on the scene.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Breaking Out Our Brights

Happy Monday-after-Father’s-Day-and-Juneteenth. If you’re looking for ways to support more Black-owned businesses allllll year ‘round, Fifteen Percent Pledge and Black Owned Everything both have solid guides built for bookmarking. And, on this week’s podcast: the challenges of getting dressed and making small talk. What else do you want to hear about? Just go ahead and reply to this email.

erica’s things

• Marinating cheese.

• Tripping over these banana-peel safety cones.

• Delighting in a fashion review nearly as much as the work of the designer it’s celebrating.

• Making franciacorta converts out of multiple friends.

• Calling all Brooklynites: Your dose of collective effervescence awaits.

claire’s things

• Slowly but surely eliminating shampoo from my life.

• Giving this spot my stamp of approval based solely on the product categories—but also how delightful do these look, and also they have a great newsletter?! I guess we’re going to Williamsburg.

• Refusing to let a rainy day trap me indoors with a stir-crazy toddler thanks to the genius of this thing.

• Falling for Anne Truitt’s writing and artwork in equal measure.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Pulling Up A Chair

We’re absolute psychos about vacation-planning. To judge for yourself, tune into this week’s podcast episode, and please call us at 833-632-5463 with your tips, tricks, and cuckoo methods for finding the ideal breakfast spot in Santa Fe.

erica’s things

• Buying my first pair of denim shorts in at least a decade. A little loose, a little long, a lot comfy.

• Heralding Harold-ing a Chicago institution.

• Leaning into text-only news outlets when I can’t handle video and multimedia bombardment—NPR for the big stuff, Plain Text Sports for scores and stats (heeey, tennis season!).

• Getting a weekly dose of insight, discovery, and just plain *smartness* from our favorite business publication around. #PARTNER

• Banking this site to scout modernist architectural landmarks all across the U.S. of A. Now I just need a road trip…

claire’s things

• Communing with others who delight in The RealReal deep-dives as much as I do.

• Inspiring my ardently Team Bar Soap husband to switch allegiances.

• Remarking upon how much I enjoy getting hyperlocal news delivered to my inbox—makes me feel more keyed into my community.

• Formally announcing that, friends, I did it. I got a chair-and-a-half (in yellow, of course). And I love it so much.

• Giving high marks to this top for standing up to summer stickiness while still sending that “I put on real clothes” vibe.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Cleaning Our Plates

This week brings Guest Thingies delightfulness from Emma Straub to the podcast, and it also brings a whole buncha outdoor-entertaining recs to Secret Menu. If you want in on that, June new subscriber $ goes to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and all the organization is doing to support Black trans people.

erica’s things

• Waiting for a TikTok vid to name the aesthetic that Gardenheir absolutely nails.

• Switching thesaurus allegiances.

• Dipping back into the cake eyeliner.

• Pausing every few pages of this to play a song or google a video. An immersive reading experience!

• Imagining the possibilities of woven vegetables.

claire’s things

• Acknowledging an affinity for citrus-based DIYs.

• Giving this the award for fast, easy, and extremely crowd-please-y.

• Reccing a Saturday-night date spot that’ll break you out of your routine.

• Coveting lots of things from The Met Museum shop of all places because they’ve done a v. good collab with design hero Madeline Weinrib.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Phoning Home

What watch to get your partner for a big birthday? How to celebrate a retirement, a second baby, or the milestone of a new home? You had gifting voicemails, and we have answers. Keep those thoughts and queries coming at 833-632-5463, pals.

erica’s things

• Losing it over a phone case—a phone case!!

• Sipping on a super-satisfying, mezcal-based, chile-tinged after-dinner drink made by a five-woman distillery in Mexico City.

• Describing a book about the history of textiles as “gripping.”

• Brainstorming things to marinate/douse/toss in this creamy vegan concoction. In the meantime, asparagus works just great.

claire’s things

• Confirming that the hype is justified.

• Wrapping my head around Are.na—is this how I finally organize all of my random bookmarks, notes, and screenshots in a useful way?!

• Finding much delight in hanging a lampshade from the ceiling.

• Counting down the minutes until I can’t so much as look at these anymore because I’ve consumed too many of them, too often, in too close of a time period.

• Calling all peony lovers in the Philly-adjacent area. (Do not miss the cute farmstand down the street, kay?)

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Watching Paint Dry

Packing! Traveling with a toddler! These are the psychological challenges we’re tackling on the podcast this week, and if you have thoughts on other topics you want us to cover, feel free to reply to this email. We love pen pals.

erica’s things

• Watching Dana Piazza make art ‘til my eyes go glassy.

• Naming this soup mix sick-day MVP. It’s comforting and bold enough to get through to battered taste buds.

• Crying over a time-travel book. Friends, I didn’t see it coming!

• Imagining a bright future for an empty Kikkoman bottle: a hummingbird feeder.

• Applauding my favorite kitchen appliance’s glow-up. If you don’t own one and need an excuse to remedy that…

claire’s things

• Feeling like I’m in-the-know about fashion industry news for the first time in awhile.

• Finding but a few kids’ shows (aside from Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger, obv) that make screentime less guilt-ridden, Ask the StoryBots and Stillwater chief among them. Welcoming other recs!

• Serving up an A+ option for an off-registry wedding gift.

• Coming for the 2010s startup-scene nostalgia, staying for the remarkably clear and candid account of grappling with bipolar disorder.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Cleaning Up

The incense, outdoor furniture, and femme sandals conversation you didn’t know your Monday needed, this week on our Thingies episode with guest Collier Meyerson. If you could use a new podcast that’s gripping—but not true crime!—Collier’s Love Thy Neighbor might be precisely what you’re after, and if you’re in the market for a new books, we have many ideas on that front, too.

erica’s things

• Refining my rag-rug Etsy search to “1960s and 1970s Turkish kilim rag rugs.” Achieving tremendous results.

• Requesting more food content like this food content—the “Ask Digestivo” installments especially.

• Learning about ancient abortion meds (and the murky origins of the Hippocratic oath).

• Sourcing books that take place in a specific locale with just a zipcode search. Thrilled to unearth that Indian-American Muslim teen romance set near my hometown, tell you what!!

claire’s things

• Urging you to snatch up tickets to POTUS now because all the buzz is going to make them hard to come by. (Also: Rachel Dratch and Vanessa Williams on one stage?!)

• Mourning the loss of one of Abbot Kinney’s last interesting spots but appreciating that at least this means they’re now online.

• Remembering how incredible this interview is and that I should probably make a habit of rereading it regularly.

• Getting answers to a question I’ve been asking for yeeeeeears.

• Asking you to stick with me while I pitch you on something highly specific: A minimal briefcase is the ideal diaper bag. It’s the only shape that’s not awkward to slide under a stroller, and it pops easily into any tote. Bonus: A travel potty fits perfectly if you’re at that stage of life. Okay, I’m done. (Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, etc.)

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Making A Splash

Record players, catalogs, and the mouthful of a term “business hygiene” all show up this week on the podcast, and if you want to know what’s in our shopping carts, how we’re thinking about travel planning, and the swimwear lines we’re into, sign up for Secret Menu. This month’s new-subscriber $ will support the game-changing work of Amazon Labor Union.

erica’s things

• Eating multiple meals from this cookbook in one week, and something tells me that’s just the beginning.

• Experiencing a fair amount of regret over leaving this vase at the store. It’s even better in person, if you can believe it.

• Freeing myself from an annoying task: changing the capitalization of a chunk of text.

• Keeping tabs on how many cans of cherry tomatoes I have on hand at all times. A superior product! Ideal tomato-to-sauce ratio. Much easier to wooden-spoon squish than their San Marzano cousins.

• Introducing you all to Sheldon, my new favorite Jellycat critter (a totally normal thing for a 39 y.o. to have, I assure you).

claire’s things

• Enjoying a wildly satisfying sloughing experience.

• Fielding provenance questions from fellow parents whenever Cam pulls this thing out.

• Trying not to take too long deliberating on these always-sold-out and very Harry-Styles-esque sweatshirts that could really infuse some joy into my dressing.

• Stepping out on HDVB with this outstanding creation that is blessedly now part of the grocery line-up.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Forever Emulating Diana Fashion

Attn all ATOT shareholders: Consider this podcast episode our first Guest Thingies Quarterly Report. Or maybe you’re in the mood for a rundown of our party tricks? We absolutely want yours—share them with us at 833-632-5463. Please!

erica’s things

• Satisfying an appetite for spongeware, twisty candles, and wavy terracotta with this very new take on an old country store.

• Baking a one-bowl black sesame cake that tastes much more complicated than it is.

• ​​Looking to join a group chat solely to discuss this book (which I predict shows up in “I have an inner life!” paparazzi photos soon).

• Asking myself, “Do people want to know where I got the cutest little lilac bush that arrived in full bloom?” Well, we’re ‘bout to find out.

claire’s things

• Submitting a late answer to a reader Q about chic footwear for vacations that find you walking miles and miles: These performed well!! (More thorough answer available via Secret Menu!)

• Signing up so fast I nearly broke a nail upon discovering that Oliver Burkeman (he of Four Thousand Weeks) has a newsletter. Does not disappoint!

• Dancing around the kitchen to the tunes of Kishi Bashi, especially this bop…and who doesn’t love a perfect cover?

• Finding the Diana fashion moment for me in this bag.

• Trying to remember the last time an excerpt made me want to run out and buy a book as quickly as this one did.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Serving Looks

We have two listening recommendations today: One is our podcast ep with Laura Stylez, co-host of the unstoppable, untoppable radio show Ebro in the Morning. The other is that program itself, which we guarantee will improve your A.M. mood. Try it tomorrow and report back?

erica’s things

• Adding another quickie word game to my daily routine. Ok, maybe two. All I ask is to never know how much time I spend on these things in total.

• Breaking up the Twitter-ness of Twitter with this glorious feed of tennis looks.

• Spending at least as long googling about this outrageous, wonderful movie as watching it—and I consider that time well-spent.

• Making adorable newspaper homes for the seedlings getting big and strong on my windowsill.

• Guffawing through this essay on an underexplored aspect of the dining experience: pooping.

claire’s things

• Breaking out this thing on day 637 of Covid jail and marveling at how quickly my three-year-old picked it up.

• Installing a plug-in so images stop saving as the dreaded .webp. (I can’t be the only one with this niche-but-infuriating frustration?!)

• Leaning on fonio as an antidote to my quinoa fatigue.

• Navigating weird in-between weather with a fine spring/summer jean.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Pocketing The Prettiest Shells

Wedding season is upon us, and we’re taking that opportunity to zip back in time to our own ceremonies and celebrations on the podcast. If you want our thoughts on rings, we rounded up the jewelers doing the coolest stuff in Secret Menu recently, and signing up gets you full access to the archives. Ooh, and: April new-member dollars go to Native American Rights Fund, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

erica’s things

• Complimenting my kitchen timer on its good looks on a daily basis.

• Paging fellow romance-novel heads (and those who are simply romance-novel curious): this one, you gotta.

• Seeking a term for the secondhand joy you experience from partaking in a gift you give someone—in this case, the record subscription I got my husband.

• Seeing seashells in a new light: as canvases for watercolors. Hello! I mean!

claire’s things

• Going almost twice as long between washes as I used to thanks to whatever magic this mask is working on my hair.

• Shifting my perception of what a stand-up routine can be.

• Calling all Brooklynites in search of a small luxury: Ronny will personally deliver you a crate filled with seltzer in those charming, old-fashioned glass bottles.

• Learning that Marvel used to publish their shareholder reports as comics (!!) and suggesting that snagging one might make an especially great gift for the Stan Lee stan in your life.

• Hanging out in the comments section of this wonderfully service-y (and nostalgia-inducing) IG.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Having A Taste For Tang

Do we have thoughts on buying things? Boy, do we. A discussion of in-person shopping, souvenirs, uniform-dressing, and the made-in-America of it all on this week’s podcast. Also: If you didn’t catch our bonus episode, brought to you by the team at Nyssa, the game-changers behind the brand have so many fascinating thoughts on women’s bodies and the things that don’t get discussed (and the products that don’t get created!). Of course, we want to hear any “praise and polish” you have.

erica’s things

• Seeking an ume plum fix here, there, everywhere.

• Marveling at the comedic *and* emotional chops of this show.

• Calling all job-hunters: What a gift theSkimm’s paid-leave database is (especially considering what these policies reveal about the culture of a workplace).

• Looking forward to my chores so I can resume listening to Sabaa Tahir’s hard-but-hopeful book, which I’ll call advanced Y.A.

• Telling the wavy mirror to skooch: The wavy chair stole your seat.

claire’s things

• Harboring an insatiable appetite for knowing how other people use the internet.

• Congratulating babies on finally getting access to way, way better formula options.

• Having one of those “wow, this is so, so special” dinners at Dept of Culture Brooklyn.

• Feeling like it’s rare that I’m stopped in my tracks by a tile pattern these days, but this one did it.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Looking For Something To Hold Onto

More home trends! The JLo stories we can’t get out of our heads! Come join us for this week’s podcast episode. It’s a great one for taking yourself on a nice spring walk. If you end up listening on Spotify, leave us a little rating there, huh?

erica’s things

• Rooting on a sports bar in Portland, Oregon.

• Never tiring of charming + niche famous-roommates content.

• Soundtracking my morning with something I didn’t know my life was missing: heartland country.

• Snuggling up to the brilliance of cruelty-free sheepskins.

claire’s things

• Spending time with Sha’Carri.

• Expanding my sense of what a podcast can be: This one feels like part interview show, part creative exercise, all excellence.

• Feeling grateful to Courtney Martin for surfacing the oh-so-relevant-right-now term “political performance anxiety” and giving it the context it deserves.

• Finding too much satisfaction in the fact that risotto (notoriously laborious and tedious!) is now one of my easy-breezy weeknight go-tos.

• Imagining the potential of these wonderful things to upgrade the back of a door…or the knobs of an Ikea dresser?!

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Threading The Needle

Oooh, do we have a Thingies episode for you: This week, we’re chatting with Véronique Hyland, the author of Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink and a writer whose takes we always, always want. If there are guests you want to hear on the show, how about responding to this email with your thoughts?

erica’s things

• Experiencing the unexpected pleasure of beaded Vans.

• Shaking up bfast with a bag of these in my freezer.

• Finding enough material for a dozen mood boards from two issues of a 100-plus-year-old Viennese mag.

• Recreating one of the world’s greatest fried apps in my oven.

• Getting so much 1) entertainment and 2) education about Deaf culture from this book and this interview with its author. Pre-order this gem, I tell ya!

claire’s things

• Channeling my nervous energy into needlepoint.

• Relieving my bathroom sink of the burden of a thousand bottles.

• Keeping this sucker in my purse in an attempt to reapply SPF with at least half the frequency they say you should.

• Applauding anyone who leans hard into a theme, especially when that theme is oysters.

• Hunting for the perfect dhurrie and finding some strong candidates here and here.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Using All The Emojis

We need to get out of our heads, and if you do too, we have a long conversation about carving out time for creativity on today’s podcast (also featuring shame and guilt—and positive emotions, even!). And: This month’s Secret Menu new-subscriber $$ is headed to World Central Kitchen, which is feeding Ukrainian families both fleeing and staying in their country and providing meals to those hit by natural disasters in Brazil and Madagascar.

erica’s things

• Welcoming this excuse (any excuse, really) to be much lazier about garlic-chopping.

• Giving an absolutely ridiculous pill bottle pride of place on my desk.

• Cementing women in STEM as one of my go-to fiction genres—right next to campus novels—after reading this gem.

• Revisiting a flared yoga pant—high-waisted and cropped this go ‘round, but still!

• Momentarily losing myself in Bahati Simoens’s paintings.

claire’s things

• Applauding Atelier Narcé—have not seen anything that feels this ~fresh~ from the jewelry world in a long while.

• Falling down a Kaiyo hole.

• Eagerly anticipating new releases of immensely delightful and weirdly satisfying emoji portraits from this gal and this guy.

• Letting the comments section of this post nudge me out of my cooking rut.

• Campaigning for national distribution of Brothers Products. I don’t want to travel to the West Coast just for their chipotle hummus and spicy pickled veggies, but I’ll do it if I have to.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Embracing A True Concept Cookbook

Exuberant home trends. Recs upon recs from Rumaan Alam, the author of Thingies-worthy novels. Beauty stuff that actually does what we want it to do. We sure have some top-notch podcast episodes in store for you—and if there are other topics you want us to dive into, WBASAP. Someone recently said of our podcast "everything is nice in here" and we're hoping to keep that up for your sake and ours, since things are feeling quite the opposite outside of here. <3

erica’s things

• Trying in vain to imagine a greater fate for the contents of leaked emails than a cookbook.

• Switching to a plastic-free laundry detergent situation that gets the job done quite nicely.

• Digging the work of Azzah Sultan, who combines fabric and oil paints and blows my mind when she does.

• Revisiting Gap’s heyday in every medium possible. After fragrances come playlists, right?

• Shining a light on this brilliant solution for dealing with a ceiling fixture you can’t stand.

claire’s things

• Telling most everyone I talk to about this piece of NYC history, retold in a way that I can’t stop thinking about.

• Naming a new favorite kid’s mask for our new KN95-only era.

• Experiencing a rare moment of appreciation for poetry. Try this to start?

• Feeling like I’ve been sleeping on a very major pantry staple…mixed with mayo on a sandwich or salad? Come on.

• Approaching spring purging armed with the ultimate guide.