SUMMER IS OVER! Extremely pumped to say goodbye to August. So many things are changing right now and I kind of can’t wait for what’s ahead. But before that, here were the highlights of the month.

Finished my Summer Saturdays series.
The best tweets of the month can be found over here.
Why don’t all cheese boards have corresponding cheeses labels?? SOMEBODY PUT ME IN CHARGE OF SOMETHING.

In love with these blue sky bran muffins. Who have I become? I like her?
The Freshly Brewed Coffee candle at Bath & Body Works smells like heaven on earth.

I found Walla Walla onions at my farmer’s market and they remain the greatest onion on the scene today.
My friend Richard made the best tomato pie I’ve ever tasted.

I got the new Alex Trebek Jeopardy stamps and they’re a bit disappointing. I was hoping for more than just one design.
Marla came for a visit and we did so many fun things. We saw Suffs on Broadway, ate at Thyme & Tonic (incredible), tried on a million gorgeous things at both locations of Beacon’s Closet, we rode the Staten Island Ferry, ate at the always-great Rubirosa, went to Little Island for the first time, went to some of the Chelsea Thursday galleries and we perused Chelsea Market so we obviously had to get some Seed + Mill.

A rat scared us out of Central Park approx. five seconds after this photo was taken

Manhattan skyline from the (free) Staten Island Ferry

Seed + Mill now has a chocolate drizzle option

I read Jennette McCurdy’s book and it was too real and too good.
My favourite pesto recipe is the How Sweet Eats one, but with walnuts instead of pine nuts.
Summer is the time to make peach daiquiris and this peach rose slushy.

Fell in love with the restaurant Hillstone. On a mission now to visit all the locations eventually. The best parts about this place are the chilled salad plates, the chilled martini glasses that are replaced midway through your drink, an insane French dip sandwich (David Chang says that this sandwich “haunts him” and he’s right), a wildly good chicken caesar salad, servers only have three tables at a time so they can really focus on each customer, they don’t have food runners or bussers, the tables are drilled into the ground so there aren’t any wobbly ones, there’s freshly squeezed orange juice AND each table is designed to feel like it’s in its very own little VIP section. So impressed by the level of thoughtfulness at this place, I love it so much.

And speaking of hospitality, I read something recently that explains why I think I love restaurants so much. I’m the one who cooks at home (which I enjoy), but it’s nice to escape that sometimes and have someone take care of me in that way. It’s such a simple thought, but it blew my mind for a minute.
I finally deep cleaned my beauty blender by putting Dawn in some boiled water and then I let the sponge sit in that mixture for five minutes before rinsing in water. Reddit has all the answers.
I found a Sabon body scrub on sale at Marshall’s, which reminded me how much I love any Sabon products.
I’ve been living in the Essie colour Seas The Day.

Annoyance of the day: I absolutely hate that all brow pencils now come in that little mechanical tube (that always breaks). Remember when the Anastasia brow pencil was actually a real pencil that you could sharpen?? We’ve strayed too far from the light of god. It’s impossible to find a real, high quality pencil anymore.
Nathan and I spent our anniversary in Cooperstown, New York to go to the incredible Baseball Hall of Fame, so I’ll do a post about that later this week.
Denny’s has a Beetlejuice-themed menu right now that is a full party, even if it does sound somewhat gross.
Loved reading Pete Wells’ final NY Times piece.
Some things I watched:
- Patriot Games - wow. Love 90s movies like this.
- Six Days, Seven Nights - even Harrison Ford can’t save this movie.
- Trap - I liked the first two thirds of it, but everything went downhill as soon as they left the stadium. This review sums up my feelings almost precisely.
- Falling Down - great movie.
- Wall Street - weird that I’d never seen it before, Martin Sheen was a smokeshow.
- Consenting Adults - great idea for a movie.
- Longlegs - love an original horror script.

I would normally list the things I’m looking forward to this month, but things are changing so fast right now that I have no idea what the end of the month will look like. I’m hopeful and excited, but I’m also terrified and I sort of just want to let this month happen.

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in July over here.

This is the Anastasia Perfect Brow Pencil that I use daily. Now listen to me, I do not use it to draw on some eyebrows. I use it to fill in the eyebrow area (not the entire area, but more of a dusting over the areas that are sparse) and to create the look of a normal human being who has effortless eyebrows. (Though it could be a myth, that anyone on earth has effortless eyebrows... usually everyone could use a bit of darkening in that area.) If I had to use one makeup item for the rest of my life, it would definitely be this one. They come in different colours and the best one to choose is, obviously, the one closest to your own hair colour.

Some people use it to give themselves more of an arch in their brow, but I primarily use it because when I was 13 I shaved off half my brows (also known as the eyebrow incident of '98) and they never grew back as full as they once, beautifully, were. To this day, my main piece of advice to my 14 year old niece is constantly, "Whatever you do, don't touch your eyebrows yet. You'll regret it later. Just wait a bit." (Well, that and incessantly telling her to lotion her elbows every day so they'll be soft for life.)

Just to prove my point further, here are before and after shots of me not using and then using this brow pencil. (Please excuse the ridiculous eyelashes. I love them. Bury me in them, please.)

They're a little pricey for a pencil ($23 at Sephora), but considering that it'll last you for at least about seven months or so? Definitely worth it.

Also, this is kind of an embarrassing post. You know? To admit you use this product? But I realized that's a dumb thing to be embarrassed about. (Anytime I use fake eyelashes or fill in my eyebrows I think of that scene on Fresh Prince where Will gets locked in a room with that girl (Gina!) who has the fake hair and fake nails. Love that scene so much.)

August Actions 2024

Full Eyebrows