I once spent four hours piping royal icing onto sugar cookies that looked gorgeous, sat on a plate for two days, and then got quietly thrown out because nobody wantedā¦
Read MoreEvery year my street turns into the same five layouts, repeated house after house ā icicle lights on the gutter, one string wrapped around a bush, maybe a spotlight onā¦
Read MoreMy coffee table is where I actually live during December ā it’s where my coffee goes, where my laptop goes when I’m “just checking one email” on a Saturday, andā¦
Read MoreI used to think “vintage Christmas” just meant throwing a few plaid ribbons on my tree and calling it a day. Then two years ago I helped my friend Noraā¦
Read MoreI used to buy a new centerpiece every December, use it twice, and then store a bulky foam-and-faux-berry arrangement in the attic for eleven months. Two years ago I finallyā¦
Read MoreMy sister-in-law hosts Christmas Eve every year, and for about five years running the bar cart was the same three things: eggnog, mulled wine, and whatever red wine was onā¦
Read MoreI picked crochet back up two Octobers ago specifically because I wanted a tiny stuffed pumpkin for my coffee table and refused to pay $22 for one on Etsy. Thatā¦
Read MoreI used to treat summer manicures like a personality test ā every June I’d sit in the salon chair, flip through my saved folder, and panic-order something that looked nothingā¦
Read MoreIāve been getting the same message in my DMs since Memorial Day: āI want fun summer nails, but Iām not trying to sit in a salon for two hours orā¦
Read MoreI have hosted Galentineās Day in a 480-square-foot apartment with one closet, a coffee table that doubles as a dining table, and a neighbor who once knocked to ask ifā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I used to be a year-round dark-red-nail person. Same shade, same short squoval shape, every three weeks, for roughly four years. It was fine. It wasā¦
Read MoreI used to think blue nail polish was for people with better hand-writing than me. You know the typeāthe ones who can pull off a graphic cobalt French tip withoutā¦
Read MoreI have a note in my phone that just says ādaisy, milky, short almondā ā thatās what I text my nail tech when I have no ideas. She knows whatā¦
Read MoreThe first graduation party I ever helped decorate was my cousin Danaās, and we spent $180 on paper lanterns that a sprinkler took out before the first guest arrived. Thatā¦
Read MoreI still have the receipt from my sister Mayaās graduation party two years ago. Sixty-three guests, a backyard that holds maybe forty comfortably, and a menu I planned in aā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation manicure I got as an adult. I booked a āquickā gel set two days before the ceremony, picked a chrome polish because it lookedā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first night in my freshman dorm. The mattress felt like a camping pad wrapped in sandpaper. The overhead light was a fluorescent rectangle that made everyoneā¦
Read MoreI moved in with three throw pillows too many and learned the rest the hard way. Hereās what Iād buy again, what Iād skip, and what nobody tells you aboutā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I resisted Barbie nails for longer than I should have. My brain kept filing them under “fun for a party, impractical for a Tuesday.” Then myā¦
Read MoreI moved into a 10Ć12 dorm with cinderblock walls the color of skim milk and a floor that could only be described as āinstitutional oatmeal.ā My first mistake was buyingā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation party I ever “hosted” ā my cousin Dana’s, in her parents’ split-level outside Albany. I had spent the entire Friday night before trying toā¦
Read MoreIāve been to more graduation parties than I can count on two hands. My family is big, my friend group is scattered across three time zones, and Iāve been theā¦
Read MoreI used to treat New Yearās nails like a costume: silver glitter, a little rhinestone situation, something that looked great in a 11:58 p.m. photo and terrible by January 2nd.ā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation dress I bought for myself. It was white, it was on sale for $34, and it was completely see-through in direct sunlight. I foundā¦
Read MoreI still have a stack of my own graduation announcements in a box under my bed. I ordered 75, mailed maybe 40, and the rest have moved with me threeā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation party I helped plan. It was for my friend Marisol‘s daughter, and we spent a full Saturday stringing lights and arranging a charcuterie boardā¦
Read MoreI have a distinct memory of sitting in a salon chair in 2008, watching a nail tech paint a thick white stripe across my nails and thinking, this is theā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation party I ever helped decorate. I was 24, broke, and volunteered to make the table centerpieces for my cousin’s high school graduation. I spentā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I avoided aura nails for almost a year because I thought theyād look like a bruise. This was after a disastrous attempt in 2023 where Iā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I spent $65 on a salon pop art manicure last spring, walked out feeling like a walking Roy Lichtenstein painting, and then watched two of theā¦
Read MoreI have a very distinct memory of sitting in a nail salon in 2019, looking at a swatch of “neon pink” that looked less like a fun pop of colorā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I spent $180 on a graduation dress I wore for exactly forty-five minutes. It was a structured white midi with a corset back that looked incredibleā¦
Read MoreI still remember the sheer panic of my first grocery trip after moving into my first apartment. I had a cart, a vague sense of adulthood, and absolutely no clueā¦
Read MoreI still remember the first graduation party I ever hosted. It was for my roommate Kayla, who’d just walked across the stage with a B.A. in psychology and a minorā¦
Read MoreI have what my nail tech gently calls āstubby nail beds.ā Itās not a compliment. I spent years watching long almond nails on Instagram and thinking short summer nails justā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: I spent the better part of 2022 trying to find a pink nail polish that didn’t make my hands look like Iād just handled raw chicken.ā¦
Read MoreI still have my grad cap from 2019. Itās in a box under my bed, and the gold glitter letters I hot-glued onto it are now mostly fused to theā¦
Read MoreI have a confession: the first time I hosted Thanksgiving, I tried to make a full turkey, three sides, and a pie in a 410-square-foot studio apartment with an ovenā¦
Read MoreThe first Thanksgiving I ever hosted, I made eleven dishes in a kitchen the size of a hall closet and cried somewhere between the gravy and the pie. Not becauseā¦
Read MoreTested in my 410-square-foot apartment, my mom’s suburban kitchen, and one memorable Friendsgiving where the oven died. I’ve hosted Thanksgiving in a kitchen with exactly one usable counter. I’ve alsoā¦
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