The Catch-Up | Vol 18

Summer knits I swear by, pajama obsessions, colorful totes, and a new venture in the works

Jul 24, 2025

Hello friends!

Happy Thursday and welcome to the eighteenth edition of The Catch-Up, my weekly column that arrives in your inboxes every Thursday. The Catch-Up consists of everything that has caught my eye, heart, imagination, interest, and family throughout the week.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I desperately wish schools in Charleston started back from summer break after Labor Day. A day sooner is just too soon. We start multiple days sooner and my boys’ preschool isn’t even on the early side for Charleston schools. I have an unabashed love for summer and I just find it to be the easiest time of year to find happiness in what we already have, the perfect time of year to remember we are all doing the most important things every day, and the most effortless season to savor childhood. The last thing I want to do is rush through it. Personal space and alone time be damned! School will start and those things will come, but not yet. Luckily, we still have weeks of summer to go so the fun will keep reigning supreme.

I’m writing this right now while listening to the rain fall outside my window. It is alternating between a pitter patter and a full-on downpour. Summer rain in Charleston is so magical. It moves out as quickly as it moves in and makes everything so lush and green. The frogs go crazy after the rain. I can’t get enough of it. “All My Love” by Coldplay just randomly came on my Spotify. It’s been a long while since I’ve listened to the song and I forgot how simple and sweet and brilliant it is. Chris Martin croons, “You got all my love / Whether it rains or pours, I'm all yours.” It feels like too good to be true timing for the song to slip out into the room all around me. I love a little life surprise like this. A reminder that there is beauty everywhere. I’m going to add this song to my rotating list of songs in my head that I sing to my boys at bedtime. Edwin has worked with Coldplay many times and, if you ask him how Chris and the band are, he’ll very simply tell you they are incredible. He’ll say it not in a starstruck way at all, but in a matter of fact way. That always sticks with me when I’m listening to them.

If there is anything in particular that you like seeing from me, please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment and let me know! Thank you for being here and for reading my thoughts, inspirations, and obsessions.

P.S. If this post is ever too long for email, simply click through to read it in Substack.

What you may have missed on the blog this week:

My Summer Athleisure Edit including the skirt y’all can’t get enough of, my favorite active wear dresses, and the exact leggings I swear by

Our family trip to Exuma + everything you need to do on a trip to Exuma

what caught my eye

Shop Links

a few quick things:

I’m very much looking forward to seeing one of my favorite authors talk tonight on tour for his new book, An Inside Job. I usually devour his book the week it comes out every summer but I’ve been waiting this summer until tonight because I’ll get a copy of the book at the event. Can’t wait!

The colorful totes from Underwater Basket Weaving are everything. Would you believe I have four different ones in my cart? I’m narrowing it down to one before Edwin and I fly the coup for two nights and head up north the week after next. Help me decide! Rainbow (my initial gut reaction pick), Red + Natural Stripe, Royal Blue and Tigerlily Stripe, and Navy and French Blue Stripe.

I’m so taken by the shell pendant chord necklaces from Aurelia Deemark. I love the seaglass for a pop of fun and the ivory for understanded fun.

It’s just about your last chance to order peaches from The Peach Truck. Act fast!

I’m smitten with this bedding for a little boys room.

Ariel Okin’s first book is available for pre-order right here.

The Six Bells annual Barn Sale is on for up to 60% off. Brands like Sabre and Carolina Irving and Daughters are included!

My level of excitement about this is through the roof…!

what caught my heart

I love Scottie Scheffler and watching him play with, seemingly, such ease. He is a pro in every sense of the word and I was so happy to see him win The Open last weekend. It was his now-viral interview that took the cake though. Edwin informed me that there are memes all over the internet about it calling him emo etc (I don’t get served golf memes so I wouldn’t know) but that’s so missing the point. I guarantee every single wife out there who saw the interview felt a pull at her heartstrings… “If my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or my son, that’s going to be the last day that I play out here. I’d much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer. At the end of the day, that’s what’s more important to me.”

I get it, easy to say when you are incredibly financially stable and could, in theory walk away from a career and be just fine; however, it’s the way Scottie places fatherhood and marriage on the highest pedestal, above career, above sports, and above “being a man” in the way our culture celebrates manhood, that is so admirable. Work is important. Modeling hard work and resilience is important. But, being an active family man is more important.

I really see the world through a lens of being a mother to three boys so things like this stop me in my tracks and catch my heart. It’s a nice message for boys and men everywhere. A message I want to drive home for my boys to take with them as they grow up and enter their own relationships with themselves, their careers, and their future spouses. Scottie must have really wonderful parents.

what caught my interest

Let’s chat summer knits, shall we? I have somewhat of a blatant affection for summertime knits. There’s something romantic about them - a warm day with temperatures that dip enough at night to require a sweater thrown over one’s shoulders. I have a multitude of summer knits and some really are better than others. These are the ones that demand attend:

Tutto knits have been the loveliest breath of fresh air to sweep through my closet this year. I packed the Light Blue Berry Stripe Sweater on our big trip to California and Connecticut. I wore it more times than I could count. The colors are punchy and fun but also feel beautiful and classic. The cotton is soft (and study, no slouchy sweaters for me!) and the fit is great - slightly cropped with a great ribbed neckline. Each colorway in the classic collection feels like a no brainer. I’m currently pondering if I should go for a second sweater in one of these color combos or wait and see what their sure-to-be-lovely fall collection looks like (shop summer here).

Alice Walk sweaters hold a permanent spot in my closet. They are timeless with a little touch of prep. I love the whole brand because its styles are classic enough that a 30-year-old woman can wear them just as easily as a 60-year-old woman. My favorite knit is the Cashmere Getaway. It feels so fresh and youthful but, you guessed it, classic. The ‘Alice Walk Blue’ is the crispest, prettiest shade of blue imaginable. I also love the Cashmere Crewneck and the Cotton Mock Neck sweaters. Great news: I saw on Instagram that my girlfriend Mackenzie has an Alice Walk discount code for you: use code MACKENZIEACK for 15% off through July 31st. I love a discount code.

No sweater collection is complete without La Ligne sweaters. I have countless La Ligne sweaters that I have amassed over the years since the brand’s launch because they are serious go-tos for me. I love one over my shoulders in the summer! The brand has lots of styles but it’s all about the Marin Sweater and the Marina Sweater for me. Marin for cotton and Marina for cashmere. I have a La Ligne code to share too! Use code JILLIAN10 for 10% off. Here’s the breakdown (aka all you need to know!)…

Marin Sweater (cotton)

Mariana Sweater (cashmere)

what caught my imagination

A new work venture! I have a new career step I’m so excited to share in the coming weeks. Alongside my partner, Megan, I have been working hard the last few months to bring something very exciting to life that I hope you’ll love. I’ll be diving into it much much more in the coming weeks but, in the meantime, I’d be absolutely delighted and honored to have you following along. I can tell you this, it is all about bringing people together - something I strive to do every single day.

what caught my kids

If you’ve crossed paths with us on a trip this spring or summer, then you’ve seen my boys in their self-proclaimed “softies.” I’m unabashedly in love with LAKE pajamas but I decided to veer from the straight and narrow and slip a new pair of pajamas into my boys’ pj drawers. Enter the Solle Baby Sleep Set. We have them in the super cute ‘Bleu Toile’ pattern. It really doesn’t matter though because even if they were the least attractive pattern in the world, my boys would still love them because they are so so soft (hence their endearing “softies” name for them). The pajamas have been met with such excessive fanfare that we now engage in a nightly conversation around if the “softies” are clean and can be worn again or if they are actively spinning away in the washing machine, washing away the morning’s residue of eggs, sausage, and berries. If your kids love these pajamas even one tenth as much as my kids do, then they will be a massive hit in your household! P.S. Peter has them in the baby sizes too.

Thank you so very much for reading this week’s edition of The Catch-Up. I’m so grateful you are here. Feel free to drop a comment below - I love to chat! Also, if you made it this far and like what you read, would you consider heart-ing this post, just below here? It helps Substack know people like my writing, which means the world to me! See you next week with vol 19! x