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Plus: The easiest ice cream cake, vintage summer bedding, a sanity-saving podcast and other small pleasures.
Well, would you look at that. Summer’s half over.
It always goes like this, doesn’t it? June comes buzzing in, full of promise—Beach Days! Picnics! Fireflies! And then BLINK—August.
Intellectually, I understand I’m a grownup now (cue poop emoji) and the languid days of my daydreams are near-impossible to achieve while editing a weekly newspaper section, tending a home, and shuttling a child back and forth through 7 states to baseball tournaments and music camp. But that doesn’t mean I’m not grumpy about it!
Also, not to be too woo, but mercury retrograde has been doing a number on me. In my last letter I mentioned that our car had been in the shop. Well, after that it broke again. On the side of the road. In South Carolina. Many thousands of dollars later, we made it home to New York….to a once-again broken air conditioner. Barely a week later, our dishwasher also called it quits.
Which is to say: Pals, it’s been a time. Something had to give….and apparently that thing was this newsletter! Sorry about that. Thanks for waiting. I’m really glad to be back.
I’d originally planned to detail the progress I’ve been making on “slow-decorating” my bedroom…but guess what? The mishegoss of the past month also threw a wrench in that. So, I’m gonna save the topic for another day, when I don’t have hillocks of laundry all over the place.
In the meantime, let’s just have some fun. I’m writing this while curled up on a couch in the den at my parents house. My hair’s still damp from the pool. (I like to see how long I can tread water—yesterday I made it an hour before getting called in to dinner. But if I had one of these loaded with a good audiobook, pretty sure I could double that!)
Yesterday afternoon, my son and I snuck down the road to the little lakeside amusement park that was a mainstay of my childhood summers. (Open since 1908, it’s one of the oldest “trolley parks” in the U.S—how cool, right?!) Skeeball, carousel rides, rollercoasters, fried dough, bumper cars, pedal boats, photo booths—we managed to cram a whole lot of joy into a three-hour stretch.
Afterwards, we spotted the craziest caterpillar on the porch—as fat as a thumb and as green as a Granny Smith. (Seriously: the spitting image of this guy.) I named him Moodus. After consulting a field guide, I’m 99% sure he’s going to grow up to be a giant Luna Moth. Is this the universe telling me to stop griping about deadlines and busted appliances and just BE HERE NOW in this charmed life? Hard to say. But point taken! Good things. They’re out there. Like these…
1 // As alluded to earlier, in the name of Travel Baseball™, during the first two weeks of July my husband, son and I drove approximately one-bazillionty miles up and down the east coast in a 15-year-old Toyota that was determined to commit harakiri. The fact that any of us are still on speaking terms with each other is owed in no small part to this funny film podcast. The cohosts are super likeable and there isn’t a ton of filler—just hour after hour of fascinating, ridiculous tales about the blood, sweat and serendipity that goes into getting movies made.
Among our favorite eps: The Sixth Sense, The Godfather (a two-parter!), Mommie Dearest, Die Hard (big Bruce Willy fans), Jurassic Park, Point Break, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton, national treasure), The Princess Bride, Ghostbusters…Honestly, there are so few duds. In celebration of the movie’s 50th anniversary, a few days ago we listened to the Jaws episode and then followed it up with a family rewatch. Peak summer entertainment!
2 // At the end of a particularly wearying stretch of workdays recently, I met up with my bestie, Biba, for a stiff drink and some commiseration at Koloman’s “martini hour”. For starters—this is the best cocktail deal in the city: swoony Jugendstil decor, icy $10 martinis, and warm gougères that will make you weep.
But also: while Biba always looks lovely, on this occasion I couldn’t help noticing that her tomato-red lip color was particularly chic. Never one to gatekeep, she gave me the deets: The magic potion in question was cookbook-author/gal-about-the-globe Rebekah Peppler’s recent collab with LA-based organic skincare brand, NOTO Botanics.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who loved it—when I first attempted to add-to-cart, it was sold out. But Rebekah told me in a DM that the stain would be back in stock soon, and as of this morning it is. Grab a pot before it’s gone again!
3 // One silver lining of having barely functional air conditioning for most of the summer has been rediscovering the low-tech pleasures of lightweight bedding and a good fan. My mother has collected old cotton camp (aka “Beacon”) blankets for decades and now has stacks piled in every corner of the house. On one of my last visits, I “borrowed” a pretty blue-and-white one.
Sandwiched between crisp white cotton sheets and a thin quilt, it’s been the perfect summer layer—cozy but never stifling. In good condition, collectible Beacon blankets can easily fetch $300 and up. But if you don’t have a parent to pilfer from, there are still plenty of solid bargains on eBay. Love this cherry red number ($79); this one ($58.29) and this one ($35) have more muted hues, and this navy-and-tan option ($39.99) feels almost neutral.
One more tip: Last summer, I bought this inexpensive fan ($35) for my son to take to camp, but I’ve now claimed it as my own. It earns four stars for its retro good looks and solid build—holy crap does this thing blow!
4 // In my freelance days, recipe development and cookbook ghostwriting was one of my main income streams. Which means for the first decade of my son’s life, it was routine for him to come home from school and find our kitchen stocked with, say, dozens of homemade jelly doughnuts, black forest cupcakes or ramekins of crème brûlée. Yet—of all the goodies I’ve ever made, this stupid-easy, no-bake ice cream cake from 2019 (which honestly is less a recipe than a method) is still the one he requests the most.
The magazine it originally ran in no longer exists (pour one out for the Property Bros.) but the recipe is still kicking around online if you want to give it a try. I will admit: That swirl situation is v. pretty. If you’re having friends ’round for supper, it would make a perfect low-lift finale. But also, it’s truly SO EASY you really don’t need an occasion.
Plus, as mentioned, if this flavor profile isn’t for you, feel free to swap in just about any trio of ice creams and/or sorbets. Just make sure to choose contrasting colors/tones for that punchy graphic look.
5 // Remember when I said “not to be too woo…” earlier? Well, I didn’t mean it one bit! Give me all the woo-woo! I bought my first tarot deck when I was 12, (from Mystik Moon in Provincetown). I’ve been dabbling in herbalism and folk medicine for decades. I eyeball my horoscope every damn day!
But seriously. If you are vibing with me, you need to zoom on over to YouTube and subscribe to Unseen Hands Tarot immediately. On the channel, Andy Holston, an amazingly perceptive intuitive reader, shares in-depth tarot-scopes for every sign four times a year, in alignment with the shifting seasons.
I don’t remember how I initially stumbled on Andy’s work, but I’ve been following her faithfully since the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Without fail, her shift readings give me lots to meditate on—and when I look back on them at the end of a season, there’s always something that uncannily resonates.
If you’re interested in more in-depth readings, she does those too (and I can personally attest that they are amazing). You might just have to wait a bit. When I reached out recently, Andy told me she’s paused bookings for Summer ‘25 so that she and her partner can focus on their other jobs, one of which is running Vermont’s only queer-owned garlic farm. I told you she was awesome!!
6 // Another silver lining of my summer on the road has been chancing upon an occasional tag sale or new-to-me thrift store. Indeed, while killing time between little league games in North Myrtle Beach, I scored big in the men’s section of an otherwise unimpressive Goodwill, snagging two super-soft 100% cotton 80’s era Madras button ups—one short-sleeved and one long—for $6 each.
Maybe it’s my CT prep-school roots, but my love for madras unironically knows no bounds. It’s one of the things I’m always scanning for, especially when the temperature begins creeping up. Admittedly, the style is not without some problematic history—see: cultural appropriation, colonialism—but for me at least, its appeal has always been less about “old money” cachet and more about beautiful colors and featherweight breathability. Really, the stuff screams summer.
And happily it hasn’t all been snatched up—in local thrifts and at estate sales, good deals from the 70s-90s are still hanging around. While my husband and son immediately stole the shirts I snagged in S.C., I recently scored a striped 70s-era Polo popover (above) online for $29, and plan to press it into service as a beach coverup when we return to Wellfleet in a couple weeks.
In my experience, the key to wearing madras well is—as with so many things—moderation and contrast. Layer it under a neutral, like a linen bomber, leather jacket or chunky wool knit, or pair it with pieces that have a decidedly non-preppy edge—distressed denim, plain white tees and tank undershirts, really just about any sort of workwear.
Ol’ reliable eBay abounds with solid places to start. Here are a few: A classic Brooks Brothers popover ($26.50) / Sherbert ($39) and short-sleeved ($15) OCBDs from Polo / The ideal baggy shorts ($49.99) / And a skirt that’s preppy perfection ($35.20)
ANNND…that’s it for now, folks.
Thanks again for bearing with me as Magpie’s “short break” stretched into into a multi-week hiatus. If you want to keep up with what I’m thrifting/eating/dreaming about on a real-time basis, I’ve been posting often on Substack Notes these days. And let me know if any of these tips make your summer sweeter—I really do think of this as a conversation, and love hearing from you, always.
Talk soon xxoo SK
We jus bought a “camp” on a NH lake my husband’s family has been going to for generations—I’d never heard of Beacon blankets but now can’t wait to hunt for them to add to the lake cottage
Skeeball. Such a crucial part of a complete summer!