The Catch-Up | Vol 7
My baby turning one, Charleston's annual antiques show, cooking school in Ireland, and spring finds that caught my eye.
Hello friends! I’m so delighted you are here reading the seventh edition of The Catch-Up, my weekly column that arrives in your inboxes every Thursday. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed the last 7 weeks of consistently showing up and sharing everything that has caught me in my tracks - caught my eye, my heart, my interest, my imagination, and my kids. Writing this has become a really great practice I look forward to each week. This week, I’ve been non-stop thinking about family. Our little sub family and our extended family have so much going on and I’ve been consumed (in a good way) by all things loved ones. The cherry on top of this is Peter’s birthday today. My baby is ONE. How has it been a year since I met the sweetest soul on this planet? He became mine and I became his. I can’t believe a year has come and gone! More on his birthday below including the cake we baked for him. Thank you for being here! It means the world to me. P.S. If this post is ever too long for email, simply click through to read it on Substack.
If you are a fellow Charlestonian or will be finding yourself here this weekend, you’ll be happy to hear that it is the weekend of The Charleston Show. It’s our annual antiques show - a visit is a great way to spend an hour (or more!). You can buy tickets online or at the door. More, more, more! McIntosh Cottage Antiques is also popping up in Charleston with The Itinerant Gardener tomorrow (3/21) at a home on Tradd Street. I’m excited to see them!
what caught my eye
what caught my heart
Last Friday, I had the immense pleasure of hearing Amy Griffin speak here in Charleston on her book tour for her debut book, The Tell. Her book tour wasn’t massive so I was thrilled to see her coming to Charleston and I bought a ticket right away with a few girlfriends. It was truly impactful and such a wonderful way to spend a morning. I have been an admirer of Amy and her career for a few years now and, with her memoir, she has leveled up in every way all that she does for women. She was confident, joyful, proud, and so comfortable in her skin up in front of a packed house while sharing her story, how she has fought to save her life, and how she dedicated herself to get to the other side of her childhood trauma - a side filled with joy, as she herself put it. I was so struck with how she shows up in life and how she is using the power of telling her story to encourage others to do the same. I sat right behind and one seat diagonal from Amy’s husband. It was really special to have a front row seat to such a dedicated, supportive, and loving marriage. They are both so clearly each other’s biggest champions. It’s beautiful to see that type of marriage and support being celebrated.
If you didn’t get a chance to see her speak on her book tour, you can get her memoir right here. It is truly the book everyone is talking about. Oprah (it’s her book pick of the month!), Reese, and Jenna all showed up for Amy to celebrate. Can you imagine these three women championing your book? The trifecta of power and influence in books within the entertainment and book club worlds. Wow! You can also listen to Amy more here on the GOOP podcast in conversation with her dear friend Gwyneth. You really get a sense of her genuine positivity when listening. She’ll catch your heart too.
what caught my interest
Organization is luxurious. There’s nothing like living in an 1880s Charleston single house to make you appreciate the inherent nature of organization as a luxury. Throw three young boys into the mix and you have my life. I have a constant goal to be organized, like I once upon a time was, only to remember that my cleaning and organizing lasts 10 minutes and then life unfolds and I start all over again or am struck by something new that needs organizing. I am deeply entrenched in this season of life. Some days I feel cortisol pumping through my body and other days I feel completely at peace with it.
These photos showcasing beautiful organization really made the rounds on Instagram and stopped me mid-scroll. This is the type of thing I aspire to have one day - this and an actual laundry room - and the type of little big thing that dreams are made of for me. It’s the whole thing: color coordination, the categorizing of materials, and the organization of collections. I love collections but it’s always the biggest shame when things are tucked away and, thus, never used because they can’t be clearly organized in the way of these photos. I’m interested in organization that allows you to see everything and not cram everything in… expert editing, knowing your taste, and honing your eye around what you love.
It’s also the caption accompanying the photographs that does it for me and the framing of organization as inspiring, luxurious, and exciting! I love a great party but nothing says “I am a 34-year-old mother with three boys aged 4 and younger” than the reality that a Friday night at home organizing photo albums or linen drawers is JUST as exciting to me. I love the unfussy but compelling way Caroline organized her collections of baskets, table linens, pottery, and glassware. It really left me wanting more! Thank goodness her new book, Interiors for a Life in Good Taste, (the source of the beautiful organization photos) just came out giving us all just that, more.
Tell me, are you captivated by beautiful organization? I don’t need a pantry filled with labeled glass jars full of flours, nuts, and snacks. It’s this unfussy organization that really captures my interest.
what caught my imagination
Cooking school in Ireland. I know two people who have attended Ballymaloe Cookery School (separately, they don’t know each other) and they both said it was truly life changing and life giving. Cooking school anywhere in Europe - Italy, France, Ireland - sounds like a slice of living denied to many. I’d love to do it one day when my children are grown (or do a shorter school sooner than that - Ballymaloe is a 12 week program). My imagination is newly spinning with the idea after reading this focaccia recipe and learning it is part of the curriculum - my kind of learning!
Edwin and I were just chatting about how neither of us are natural born cooks but we both really enjoy it. I’m someone that usually doesn’t hit a home run the first time I try a new recipe. However, I like to make it again and again to learn from myself and make it better. It’s such a rewarding way to spend time with myself or with Edwin. We love being in the kitchen together. I’ve been cooking from so many cookbooks we have lately and just loving flipping through a book to find a recipe or two before a trip to the grocery.
what caught my kids
My sweet baby Peter is one today. I am incredulous. His birthday brings feelings of indescribable joy and disbelief for me along with a massive desire to freeze him with his easy smile, squishy little body, and contagious glee. My big boys, Rowan and Henry, have been so excited about Peter’s birthday. It’s a fun day for the whole family. I spent Peter’s birthday eve holding him in his rocking chair smothering him in kisses and snuggles while I prayed for him and a happy, healthy, second year of his life. My hope for him is a year of blossoming from a baby into a little toddler boy going from crawling and babbling to walking and talking. I can scarcely bear that he is ONE.
The birthday has caught my kids all week long. In particular, Rowan, Henry, and I had a ball baking Peter a lemon blueberry cake for his birthday. Our sweet little blue eyed blueberry boy. We used this recipe for his cake. It was easy and not too time consuming so a good one to do with your littles.
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 and we can chat if any of this strikes a chord with you. If you made it this far and feel so inclined, I’d be grateful to you if you give the post a heart just below here. It helps others find me on Substack. Thank you kindly! See you next Thursday with vol 8!
I want to go cooking school at Ballymaloe, too! I’m actually on the waitlist for an upcoming one - fingers crossed! :) I went there for lunch at the hotel/restaurant on the grounds a few years ago and it’s so dreamy. They have shorter classes (5 weeks etc!) too!
I just love reading this every week! I just listened to the goop podcast with Amy on Wednesday and I can’t imagine how moving it was to hear her in person! Everything from the organizing with three young kids, the struggle of laundry in the hallway (hello living in the mountains…), and cooking school—I think we need to move our families for the summer and go to cooking school?? One can dream… love you!!