THE WEEKLY EDIT:
Making: Miso Roasted Salmon
Does this not sound delicious?
Watching: The Idea of You
Based on the acclaimed, contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centers on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), at Coachella while he was headlining. I’m so in for this mind numbing entertainment!
Using: BEABA Babycook Baby Food Maker Processor
Jack started eating solids and it’s been so much fun! We started with avocado then moved onto apples and carrots which I steam and blend in the BEABA - the easiest baby food maker. I used it with both my girls and even though it’s very little work, making all their baby food makes me feel like mom of the year.
Shopping:
Rue Sophie is a new brand that’s only been around for a few months but I am loving their “foundational wardrobe for a life en route” take. The pretty ladylike dresses (this one, too), a cool cropped trench, an oversized barn jacket, a great set (you know I love a set!), a linen blazer in a soft hue and so much more at a price point that feels good.
Malene Birger’s strapless organic cotton maxi dress (wasn’t kidding last week when I said I’m v into strapless!) and Myla sunglasses are in my cart.
Warmer temperatures mean it’s time to pull out the raffia! There’s so many good new bags circulating like this market bag and her baby. And this for a more dramatic piece. Also, Mango has a bunch of cute ones.
I ordered and used this French linen tablecloth for our outdoor table and it’s perfect! It’s going to be in heavy rotation this al fresco season.
A worthwhile quote share from: I Call BS on "Aging Gracefully"
”There’s the ideal beauty of youth and health, which never really changes, and is always true. There’s the ideal beauty of movie stars and advertising models, the beauty-game ideal, which changes its rules all the time and from place to place, and is never entirely true. And there’s an ideal beauty that is harder to define or understand, because it occurs not just in the body but where the body and the spirit meet and define each other.
That must be what the great artists see and paint. That must be why the tired, aged faces in Rembrandt’s portraits give us such delight: they show us beauty not skin-deep but life-deep.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
It’s the “life-deep beauty” for me!
Combing through: Prada Archives
I recently discovered that you can comb through the Prada fashion show archives on their site and it’s inspiration gold! Hello 1990, 1991, 1992, etc.
ALRIGHT, LET’S GET INTO IT:
Building Side Hustles
I spent the summer before my junior year of college interning for Seven For All Mankind. One of the internship perks? Shopping the bins of slightly damaged denim on the lower level of the factory. The sale took place every Friday, involved some rummaging and the jeans were thirty dollars a pop. A steal given the $135 retail price - and that was if you could get your hands on them. It was the early 2000s and they were one of the hottest things in fashion along with Von Dutch hats and anything sold at Kitson on Robertson.
The damages on the jeans were hard for any discerning eye to spot - a slightly over-distressed mark here, a tiny little hole there - and if it weren’t for the small bits of blue tape stuck to the spot rendering them imperfect, you’d have a hard time deciphering the damage from the intentional. Those distressed marks, after all, were defining features which made the jeans both popular and expensive.
On my first Friday of the internship, I lined up to buy myself one damaged pair. A pair I desperately desired as a fashion girl who couldn’t afford them retail but also, as someone who was ambitious, I wanted to dress for success. I spent my entire lunch hour carefully sorting through the bins, pair by pair, wash after wash, style after style. Ultimately I decided on a bootcut pair in a blue wash - a classic! They hugged perfectly in all the right places and from that point on, they were glued to my bum.
Everywhere I went people stopped me to ask about my jeans - they were a moment! Initially, I kept the damaged secret to myself, but I soon divulged to my two best friends, who happened to be sisters. They, of course, asked me to get them some, so I asked Yvette, who managed the damaged denim, if I was allowed to buy them for other people. “You can buy them for whoever you want, sweet thing, as long as you give me $30 a pair.”
That next Friday I spent another lunch rummaging through the sea of indigo, sourcing the best washes and cuts yet again. I loved the hunt! And as more friends learned about my damaged Seven connection, the more Fridays were spent doing just that. A few weeks in of shopping for others, and leaving famished from not eating lunch, I decided I needed to up the price to account for my time. I bought them for $30 and sold for $60 - a win for everyone!
As the weeks went on, the orders piled up, and my little side hustle began earning more money than both my paid internship and weekend job combined. This extra income was crucial as I was studying abroad that school year—a significant expense not covered by my scholarship—and a student loan along with the earnings from my day job at the business school and my weekend job waiting tables was how I planned to pay for it. But what if, what iffffff I could somehow keep my side-hustle denim business going to help fund studying abroad? I did after all have the most ideal built-in market for the jeans: my sorority and sorority row.
I had a lot to think about. Buying damaged Sevens in bulk was low risk given my potential market, but emptying my bank account for inventory felt extremely high risk. As the end of summer, and with it my access to damaged Sevens, inched closer, I decided to say ‘fuck it!’ and went for it. I stockpiled hundreds of pairs, all different sizes and cuts, and shipped them back to school, where I would sell them out of my sorority room. But this time, for $90 a pair.
My gamble paid off, and the denim sold out within the first few weeks of school. And when girls came to buy jeans, many asked me to style outfits for them which I always did happily. I’d often complete their looks with some of my vintage jewelry which led to the next side hustle. I began buying lots of vintage jewelry by the pound on eBay, carefully sorted through it all, personally kept the best, and then curated the rest to sell. The jewelry business was called, ohhh it’s embarrassing to write, but it was called “Guru Fusion.” Between the denim and jewelry and regular jobs, I made enough to study abroad, travel through Europe, and cover my living expenses. My first lucrative entrepreneurial taste and I was hooked!
All this to say, I love side hustles and think they’re not only fun and rewarding but you have the opportunity to learn a ton and make a real income. And heck, you can launch a major business like Spanx which Sara Blakely came up with while selling fax machines door-to-door. Another billion-dollar side hustle? Steve Jobs was working at Atari while building the Apple I.
So, if you’re focused on a side hustle or have one on the back burner, or are contemplating starting one and need a sign or a push - consider this it! Just do it and see where it goes! There’s never been a better time for a side hustle. Here are a bunch of side-hustle ideas to help get the wheels turning:
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