The DM | Issue Twenty Six
Or the one where we drink the last of the eggnog
I’m going to say something potentially controversial. 2021 was actually a pretty great year.
I know, I know. We’re supposed to be lamenting about end of times 24/7 so we can feel better about our Amazon and Netflix addictions, but once you get past the climate change and the never-ending pandemic, things are really looking up (and I’m not just talking about inflation! Haha?)
Travel is coming back. Juneteenth became a national holiday. The world opened its first 3-D printed school. The world is different, and in many ways, it is indeed better.
So allow yourself that extra Christmas cookie. Pour yourself the last of the eggnog. Eat some schnitzel in a pair of festive fleece socks. Enjoying yourself this time of year comes with so much unnecessary elfin ritalin energy and we’d like you to take a moment to stop decking the halls and le chill.
In the spirit of… good spirits, we will be taking the rest of the year off, so take our advice seriously until our great return in January 2022. Until then…
From Meg
Praise bonnet!
Fashion, like moral judgement, is cyclical. So when I say that bonnets are long overdue for their stylish reckoning, what I really mean is why just cancel someone when you can cancel them while wearing the fashion to match?
I’ve been saying for years that it’s time to bring back ye’ old crucible couture. And my prayers to the fashion gods have finally been answered as the bonnet has made a full resurrection in the year 2021 AD (How many more religious-adjacent metaphors can one make in a single paragraph you might be asking? The answer may bring you to your knees.)
Don’t believe me? Vogue declared it one of fall’s items to wear. Rosamund Pike wore one to The Wheel of Time premiere (Side note: Can you come up with a more puritanically posh name? I’ll wait). Leandra Medine added it to her everyday wear. And while it may carry many names (See: Knit helmet. See: Snood), let’s call this moralist must-have what it is, shall we? It’s a bonnet. And it’s back, baby. Can I get an amen?
Cappin’ off with some aesthetic pyromancy
America, the land of great conundrums. A place where one side be like shall we burn down JK Rowling’s home and the other be like check out my wicky-wicky-wicked pyrotechnic gender reveal display! It’s a fire hazard AND a girl, y’all!
In a bipartisan effort to find common ground in our mutual expensive love of fire in a concentrated, over-priced, well-contained setting, I am going to present my predictions around the most popular candles of the coming year. Please don’t get heated, this isn’t supposed to be controversial.
First, please salivate at these so kitsch, they’re cool Italian fruit candles (which are sold out temporarily because the first rule of cool is that you can’t have them). Next, ease the sting of the loss by signing up for a restocking email notification and burning 2021 to the MF ground (literally). Finally, because that candle costs $16.40 to ship and I’d hate to see your hard earned money go up in flames, settle on something realistic, Nette (which I predict to be the high-end status candles of next year) and Otherland for the rest of us. PS, if you really do have a pyro problem, do I have the candle for you.
Some other things that are both potentially controversial but also definitively festive
Fireplaces that aren’t truly fire (but are perhaps, dare I say, FIRE otherwise?)
From Devon
Cookie monster status
If you thought I’d let a DM drop in December without some cookie recipes, you be playin’.
Yes, friends, it’s “busy” season for home bakers like myself, and even though you didn’t ask, here is my personal take on which cookies to whip up for Santa/your friends/yourself within the next week:
This year’s line-up: chewy ginger molasses cookies (add the candied ginger), peanut butter thumbprints, and ‘the best sugar cookies’ (add the almond extract)
Tried and true faves of Christmas past: chocolate peppermint crunch cookies and blood orange olive oil sugar beauties
Didn’t make but will soon: espresso martini cookies
And, if sweets from scratch just aren’t in the cards, this storebought mix is actually pretty good, and don’t sleep on TJ’s dark chocolate shortbread stars.
Butter me up
Amidst all the glitz and glamour of the moment, consider this your basic and boring palate cleanser: I’m always on the hunt for an affordable lotion that doesn't feel *too lotion-y* if you know what I mean. My current solve? Flamingo body lotion, which I grabbed on a (classic impulsive) whim at Target, and well - I’m in love (or as much love as you can be with an affordable lotion lol) as evidenced by the multiple travel sizes I now have in my purse, work bag, car, etc.
For the homies
While in San Diego this weekend, I popped into a little yet super fab home + kitchen shop and found two things I didn’t buy (patting myself on the back): an enamelware DIP CHILLER (!) and cool match holders, plus one practical thing I did buy and have already found indispensable.
And you can tell everybody this is your song
Like many of us, I have an incredibly strong memory association tied to music, and oftentimes, the moment certain songs start to play, I immediately think of a very specific time/place/person. As such, I recenlty enjoyed this lovely essay/newsletter ‘on listening to music with someone you love’ - perhaps you should read it, too, and then go send someone a song, k?
‘Moment of delight. When someone shows you a song they think you’d like. Yes, a small window into what makes their soul leap/dance/cry/shimmer. Also, an offering of careful attention. “I heard you in these notes.”’
A friendly reminder
And, before you go, here’s what I’m currently:
Listening to: this holiday party playlist I made when I couldn’t find one that was just *holly jolly without being totally annoying* enough
Making: coquitos!
Applauding: Miller Lite’s marketing team for a dive bar gingerbread house that had a waitlist
Regretting: that I didn’t get this sparkly, Megan-Draper-from-Mad-Men-esque getup (but there’s always next year)
Hoping someone ships me: Maine oysters for Christmas
Dreaming of: a stay in this A-frame house