Hello, February

Red + Pink + Red (TV) on repeat.... ❤️🏈

Friend! It’s February. January was a tough year, but we made it. And I, for one, am thrilled. This morning I bought another gingham heart pillow for the sofa and blew up some xoxo balloons to hang in the kitchen. I put some fun napkins and paper plates in a bin on the counter (being out and accessible ensures we use them over the next few weeks). Valentines, but make it easy.

Shall with commence our Kitchen Island ChitChat? (Continuing to workshop the name, I think this one has potential…)

1. Without question, I could dedicate an entire Substack to my feelings on Travis + Taylor. Safe to say, I’m on high alert for all breaking news things over the next 10 days: the Grammy’s, the tour restart and the Super Bowl, oh my! The number of videos from last weekend’s *field situation* I’ve exchanged with myriad TS friends has to be in the hundreds. I can extrapolate a lot of life things from all of this (*ahem, man the soap box is writing itself*) but for now I will simply acknowledge that I am DELIGHTING in all the joy. The sheer magnitude of energy over what we are all “witnessing” proves just how much fun it is to delight in other people’s happy. THEY ARE HAPPY. WE ARE HAPPY. EVERYTHING IS HAPPY. Is this where I confess I was expecting the Ravens to win and I had already prepared for a Taylor and Travis red carpet moment? I texted my sister this confession on Sunday after the game and she quickly replied “there will be plenty of red carpets”. Touché, Kiwi, touché.

2. Clearly I care a LOT about Taylor. I also care a lot about my children. My friend Megan recently wrote an article about trying to ‘care less’. I read it and I’m still thinking about it. While it’s geared towards parenting, I think it’s sage advice for many situations in life. I could have used this little reminder when I married KPW and his very dark chocolate leather sofas in 2012….

3. Speaking of marriage, I just finished “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” for our February Book Club pick and Taylor Jenkins Reid just continues to serve. You can add her to my list with Katherine Center. I have read and enjoyed Carrie Soto is Back + Malibu Rising + Daisy Jones and the Six.

4. I definitely have more than six things sitting in my Amazon cart at the moment. I am who I am. The way I move things on and off my ‘save for later list’ is akin to a game of Tetris. At any given time, my cart is a wild bag of ideas: needing something (replacing my scratched navy sunglasses), being intrigued by a TikTok video (this exfoliating mit), my current organizing push (this headband stand) and my quest to cook more actual recipes (this cookbook).

5. Who needs a pep talk? Everybody needs this pep talk.

More next week. I’m off to watch the next episode of Welcome to Wrexham with KPW and crash into bed.

xo,

KNW