I feel like I’ve been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off since the beginning of Lent. The late winter/early spring upper respiratory viruses were something else this year. Probably extra penance or something. And then my parents came to visit and then I’ve had some major writing projects going and along with the run of the mill homeschooling, co-op, blogging, podcasting, meal planning, laundry, and the hours I’ve devoted to Kurt Seyit ve Sura**, an epic Turkish miniseries set in Russia and Turkey around WWI–full of fur hats, snowy landscapes, women in beautiful coats crying at train stations over soldiers–I’ve been very, very busy.
**EVERYONE must watch this show because I’m obsessed and the only commentary I can find on it is in Turkish. So embrace the subtitles with me, friends.
But I feel like I’m getting a breather this week and it’s lovely. We had a super relaxed weekend. And Daniel and I even snuck in a date night to a local farm to table dinner.
Who knew beets were so beautiful?!
Backtracking. Here’s a good one from my parents’ visit! Tea parties were had. Ice cream was eaten.
Daniel took a little time off to join in the fun and teach Gwen about flowers and pollinators. It was a blast.
And my mom brought all of my American Girl stuff from my childhood for my girls. And they are OBSESSED.
On my bookshelf:
I snagged these at the local used bookstore. But I’m not letting myself dive in until I’ve finished a few of the books on my nightstand. Currently loving At Home in the World and Father Brown.
Podcasts:
Our most recent Fountains of Carrots podcast: Attracting with the Transcendent: Why the Beauty of Catholicism Speaks to the Heart with Brandon McGinley
And the most recent books episode of The Simple Show that I co-hosted with Tsh Oxenreider: Man’s Search for Meaning and a Year of Living Danishly
Links:
Crying Babies Have a Place in the Pew: U.S. Catholic
How to Teach Catholic Kids About the Middle Ages: This Ain’t the Lyceum
And I’m really excited about Shannon’s upcoming series on Discovering the Power of Catholic Social Teaching
The Handmaid’s Tale Shows Exploited Surrogacy as Fiction, But It’s Happening in Our World Today: Verily
How NFP Makes My Life Like a Jane Austen Novel: Susanna Spencer for NCR
Scandalized Reading: Jessica Hooten Wilson for Fathom
This post is turning into quite the mix of miscellany! To top it off I’ve got the fall spoiler for Elizabeth & Clarke‘s collection.
Every so often I share posts about a few of my favorite subscription boxes like Stitch Fix and Elizabeth & Clarke–because I cannot (like really REALLY cannot) handle spending valuable kid-free hours shopping for myself. The good folks over at Elizabeth & Clarke even started sending me spoilers for what’s coming up next and it’s fun to share them with you!
Don’t know what Elizabeth & Clarke is? It’s my favorite resource for beautiful tops that last. Basically it’s a subscription service for affordable designer-quality shirts that ships seasonally (every three months). You can choose to subscribe for 1, 2, or all 3 tops (but the price per top drops if you subscribe for 2 or 3). They mostly have basics in neutral colors, they offer full refunds on everything, and they care about ethical practices and fair wages for the production of their clothes.
And I have a discount code for you! You can use CCARROTS10 at Elizabeth & Clarke to get 10% off your first box.
But first I just want to say that I super love their tops because of how beautifully they fit and I’m not very easy to fit due to weeny little shoulders that everything slips off of paired with a bigger bust so everything pulls and gaps. But y’all, these tops fit. The only button up blouse I own, for instance, is E&C because it actually fits and doesn’t pull and gap in all the wrong places.
So here goes:
I love this color. The Davis is a thick, stretchy Ponte de Roma knit peplum top–and I’m assured that it’s forgiving because that waist made me a leeeeeetle nervous. The Davis also uses E&C’s Unstainable® fabric technology to repel all water-, oil- and alcohol-based stains, which, as you know, is my life-with-small-children-who-spills-things-on-me dream.
The Sloane:
Ok, so I am currently highly in need of a black cardigan. I have a wine colored one I love, but it doesn’t go with everything. This one is gorgeous. The Sloane is the best of a sleek black blazer combined with the soft, cozy knit of a cardigan. This slimming jersey knit cardigan uses incredibly soft viscose/nylon blended yarn. And it’s buttonless so there is no awkward pouching or pulling. I could lie to you and say I’m going to wear this one with my profesh pencil skirt and fancy top, but let’s get real, this is going with jeans at Chez Stewart.
It’s a cozy glacier grey jersey knit sweater with high-quality YKK rose gold zippers described as “a beautiful detail” but in reality will probably turn into hours of entertainment for my kids to zip and unzip me until it becomes a “date night only” top. In the 90 degree days we’re having right now it’s hard to imagine that I will ever wear a sweater again but come September I’ll be pulling this one out in hopes it will make fall arrive in Texas faster. I love that it’s slouchy but not TOO slouchy.
So there you have it folks. Fall spoiler. You saw it here first. And remember, if you want to try out Elizabeth & Clarke, you can use CCARROTS10 for a 10% discount!
Wishing each of you a beautiful week of lovely spring weather (and a devotion to my Turkish miniseries so I won’t be so alone),
Lots of love,
Haley
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P.P.S. If you ordered the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle through my link and filled out the Google doc, you should have received your copy of The Literary Medicine Cabinet. Shoot me an email (haley@carrotsformichaelmas.com) if you didn’t get yours in your inbox!
I watched the first episode of that show upon the suggestion of a friend. Unfortunately, it sounds overdramatic in Turkish, so it’s good that you watched it with subtitles. I’d be happy to read reviews for you if you have specific questions. Kurt means wolf, by the way. It is one of the “sacred” animals in Turkish mythology.
I’ve been completely fascinated by the show! I knew embarrassingly little about Turkey and I feel like I’m learning a lot about that era of history.
Can we still fill out the google doc to get the freebie if we used your link? Can you post the link again? Thanks!
No problem, Jen! I’m just going to email the pdf to you right now before I forget 🙂
Thank you! I got it!
If I buy the Sloane, I wonder if I too could achieve that mysterious I-could-be-running-out-to-meet-up-with-a-secret-agent-but-probably-am-just-getting-groceries look.
I love that show!! I was so happy to see you talk about it! Did you know that the book it is based on is about the author’s grandfather? I watched it about a month ago and also found very little commentary. Have you finished it now?