monday musings 1.13 // the expert hotline, grounding meditations, the perfect earl grey tea and more
little pick-me-ups to lift the mood
I have been devastated watching the news in LA this past week. Hearing stories of homes being burnt to the ground, whether it’s personal friends of mine who have had to pick up their whole lives and move their kids to an entirely new town and new school with no clothes, toys or place to live in the span of a week, or stories of their friends, or people I’ve been reading about in the news, not to mention the animals (I can’t stop thinking about the animals), I am just gutted. Home is so much more than just “stuff” – it’s the backdrop we make our memories in, the “movie sets” we live our lives in, the substance of childhood experiences, a permanent sense of safety, and sense of place. As an interior designer, we have a heightened sensitivity to the meaning of home. The last week has felt particularly somber, and truly incomprehensible.
I feel grateful to be a part of The Expert, an amazing digital resource that connects people looking for design advice with incredibly talented designers from all over the world (and friends and colleagues I admire so much) for 1 hour consultations.
To help the communities that have been affected by the recent fires in Los Angeles, The Expert launched a Rebuild Hotline today, offering free one-hour video calls to those who have lost their homes. Experts (including myself) have come together to volunteer over 800+ hours of our time combined. As designers, we understand every stage of home construction, and can offer guidance and connect you with some of our trusted partners to help you rebuild.
We understand that you may not be ready to think about rebuilding yet, so you can schedule this session whenever it feels right for you—whether that’s now (for a rental), in a few weeks, or after your plans are in place. We’ll be here when you’re ready.
If you've lost your home, please fill out the form linked here, and please share this with anyone you know who might benefit from this free service.
I am in awe of the greater design community that immediately sprang into action when something so big and scary happened so quickly. A huge thank you to everyone at The Expert for getting this together: Jake Arnold, Leo Siegel, Jess Romm and the rest of their team for putting together a very thoughtful effort in very little time.
In the vein of feeling inundated with the news, I’ve been gravitating toward little pick-me-ups this week that can help lift the mood, since it appears (based on any conversation I’ve had with literally anyone since last week), that we all could use it.
Below, a list of 10-ish things that brought me joy and/or peace in the last week – perhaps you’ll find some positive use out of them, too:
Meditating. Learning how to meditate has been the single most transformative thing I have learned how to do in my adult life. Particularly in times of stress, but also (and arguably more importantly) on a daily level, it is the ultimate tool to have in your stress reduction toolkit. It also tremendously opens up creative pathways in the brain, helps with neuroplasticity, reduces blood pressure, I can go on. I started with Headspace about twelve years ago and taught myself through a lot of their courses, and two years ago, I learned how to do Transcendental Meditation, which I wish every school taught every kid in this country. Whether you try Headspace, Open (a new app I’ve recently discovered that has excellent guided meditations and breathwork, they’re currently offering a 21 day nervous system reset which I’ve tried and the meditations are quite nice) or you pop into your local TM Center to learn, I promise if there’s only one thing on this list you do, this is the most beneficial. (I even finally got my husband to try Headspace after 10+ years of evangelising the benefits of meditation!) My 2025 goal is to do TM 2x a day. (We’ll see about that.)
Pique tea. This may seem trivial, but I genuinely look forward to my first cup of tea in the morning (Earl Grey, with creamer.) I recently made the switch to Pique after hearing about it from a friend (and reading about how teabags are essentially drenching us in microplastics, how lovely.) The quality is delicious, it’s plastic-free, and it’s organic and “triple toxin tested”, which… sounds great to me? Especially in times that feel uncertain, something as small as enjoying an excellent cup of tea, distraction free, is an opportunity to take a moment to be mindful. (Not to be a meme from this account, but, it’s true.)
I may be fully on the wellness train that is January, but I signed up for SkyTing TV and have been looking forward to doing it. I loved SkyTing when I lived in the city, and their streaming service is so beautiful and easy to use. I added a cork mat and blocks recently, too. The backdrop of the studio in the videos also makes me want to buy one hundred plants for my house.
I have a Five Minute Journal, and recently discovered that they have an app, which makes journaling even more accessible. I’ve been trying to do it morning and night and it is really nice to look back through and find your days’ highlights over the course of a few weeks.
Bunny Williams’ Create Academy Course. This has been like visual magnesium lately – this and Butter Wakefield’s gardening course. Anything on Create Academy is just utterly transportive and so beautifully produced.
The most recent issue of Neptune with none other than Bunny Williams. Great interview, amazing photography. A keeper to save in the library. (Best enjoyed with a cup of tea.)
Matilda Goad’s Dispatch. I love Matilda and her irreverent, sophisticated, kitschy English sensibility. Her weekly newsletter called The Dispatch is worth getting lost in for a few minutes.
The Kindle App. This has been a game changer for me in terms of not scrolling through social media as often. I’ve been reading constantly – vacillating between science and health/wellness books (Good Energy, which is fascinating but also I have to admit, a little overwhelming to read!), creativity (The Artist’s Way – I am nothing if not a cliché –, The Creative Act), romance (Big Fan), historical (Anne Glenconner’s memoir – fantastic, btw, almost finished – and a biography of Pamela Harriman), and a novel called The Philadelphia Heiress (a rec from my grandma!) I weirdly love toggling through these books depending on what suits my mood. I also have been using Opal to block social media/email from my phone during times when I want to be fully present with my family and it’s extremely helpful.
Magnesium in two forms: Moon Juice’s cult fav Magnesi-Om (which also has L-Theanine and I finally was convinced to buy from reading Feed Me) and Sweet Bee Organics Magnesium Butter (which I found via Alex Eagle.) Both significantly help me get into my “wind down and Kindle with the sconces dimmed” portion of the evening before bedtime, and help calm down your nervous system. I also just bought a pack of these magnesium bath soaks which I keep hearing about, stay tuned. (They have clinical data to back them up which the nerd in me loves.)
A good interior design book. Nothing can transport more than evocative imagery. A current favorite is John Stefanidis’s eponymous tome.
*This is technically more than 10 things, but I just bought a Happy Light. I am going full goop this Jan. Oh also – this playlist. I listened to it while I cleaned the house last weekend when I was trying to not read the news and it is beautiful.
Well friends, that’s it. I’m not sure what cadence I’ll be posting on here, but I’m aiming for weekly-ish. It is kind of cathartic to make organization out of the random thoughts and story ideas that sit in my notes app. Wishing everyone a peaceful week, and sending a lot of love, strength and courage to those in LA.
Xxx AO