My Latest Scores: Tiny New York Apartment Gear
Oh man, I’ve spent a lot of time researching storage solutions to maximize our new apartment over the last week. A couple of good, admittedly boring, finds:
+Expandable cutlery tray. Genius — it will tailor-fit basically any drawer so you’re not wasting valuable space.
+I wish we could have made this SimpleHuman under-counter trashcan work, but it’s just too damn small. Mr. Magpie complains that I generate a lot of trash and I feel like I’d fill this in about an hour flat. SimpleHuman makes great, sleek trashcans, if you can call trashcans sleek. I went with this larger, but still relatively sleek, under-the-counter style instead. (Mr. Magpie and I don’t want to use up precious floor space in our galley kitchen with a free standing one.)
+We have…a LOT of kitchen gear. Like. Too much. We shed a good portion of it before the move but still. Now that we’re here, we find ourselves asking, “Hm, maybe we DON’T need two paella pans?” and “Well, I guess I didn’t need to pack 3 loaf pans that don’t nest inside one another” and “Gosh, our two ginormous knife blocks take up a lot of counterspace…” (LOL — are we idiots? These conversations actually happened.) We will need to buy a large piece of furniture to house overflow kitchen gadgets and serving dishes and all that jazz, but in the meantime, I’m just trying to put out the little fires, like how the hell do we have so many spices?! I legit filled up an ENTIRE shelf with spices. I decided a better solution was needed, so I snagged these jars so I can move all of these free-floating baggies and bigger tins and multiples into one matching set and store them in a few of these. (Although, this also intrigues me — but I don’t think it’s the best use of space.)
+Got a few of these to make the most of our fairly high cabinet shelves!
+I’m now seeing the virtue in these food storage bins — they stack on top of one another and pop into place. Plus, easier to maneuver them into/out of cabinets and easier to find stuff. I have a feeling I’m going to eventually just have a wall of these bad boys.
+Contemplating one of these (see conversation above about the fact that we have two enormous wood knife blocks that take up about 1/6 of our kitchen counter space at the moment).
You’re Sooooo Popular: The Tartan Dress
The most popular items on Le Blog this week:
+In love with this plaid holiday dress.
+I love a good highlighter.
+Velvet and bows and flats OH MY.
+Love the sleeves on this top.
#Turbothot: Digital Life.
Why is it that I have encountered about a good dozen occasions in the past few weeks where things that should be digital are not? Am I too millennial for my own good? Why is it that I was told that medical records for minimagpie could only be mailed to our new pediatrician (#firstorderofbusiness) after a hard copy form was downloaded, printed, and faxed or scanned? (P.S. Who has a fax anymore?) Why is it that our new boarding spot for our dog required us to have vaccination records faxed and a hard copy form filled out and sent in? (Somehow more complicated than minimagpie’s pediatrician forms? BLBLBLBLBLBL) Why is it that our lease had to be FedExed at great expense over night? All of these are business opportunities but right now, I’m mainly in a cranky mood and confused as to how so many normal, everyday, quotidian processes are so manual in this day and age. Doesn’t it drive you nuts that all of us are spinning on our own hamster wheels doing the exact same thing and no one is working to improve the logistics? Or maybe people are.
Basically, I’m a millennial.
Someone PLS solve these problems with technology.
#Shopaholic: The Ruffled Sweater
+I got this ruffled cable-knit sweater for Emory and am contemplating this similar style for myself. I like the way it’s styled on the site — with a retro-leaning mini.
+A sexy take on a holiday classic. Love that green color.
+I’ve never been a fan of the Mary Jane shoe shape (too cutesy?), but these may make me change my mind. How fun for the holiday party circuit?! Also, it’s one way of nailing that Chanel glitter shoe lust I’ve been channeling.
+I just blabbed about this yesterday, but…CHECK OUT THIS BLINGED OUT VERSION.
+A fab oversized scarfski at an equally fab pricepoint.
For knives I suggest a drawer knife block. Those hanging blocks scare me with a little one in the house.
Truth! Or maybe we can hang them in a closet or something? Hm…
ordered that old navy scarf last week and it’s EXCELLENT – i got blue plaid, highly recco for this #hellonovember cool snap we’re having in NY
Love an oversized scarf!! Glad to hear this one is as cozy as it looks.
One of the reasons I love your blog so much: practical advice on household items as well as clothing/shoes/etc! I mean, I was JUST having a conversation with my boyfriend about how we need better knife storage, ideally, a magnetic strip, and those wooden ones are *exactly* what I had in mind. And that expandable cutlery tray is now in my virtual shopping cart! Looks like a great upgrade to our current situation.
Really loving that Vineyard Vines plaid dress — never would have considered myself a VV enthusiast (at least, not since early college), but I love!
I fully hear you on the technology front — I have been met, on more than one occasion, with indignant quasi-rage at the fact that I don’t have a fax number. I mean?!? Hasn’t anyone heard of GeniusScan?
I’m with you — faxes need to just die already. And, so true on the Vineyard Vines front! Who knew they had it in them!?