This Slimy Sweatshirt Was My March Security Blanket
March repeats!
A miracle occurred on the last day of March. I went to a 4:45 p.m. movie with a purse full of Cheez-It Snack Mix, and when I rejoined the outside world two hours later, the sun was still shining. It was even kind of warm. I broke half a sweat circling the block and dissecting the plot.
I felt reborn — and I know it wasn’t the movie, the movie was just ok. It took only one tepid sunlit evening for months of gloom to be scrubbed clean from memory.
What I had on repeat this month: treats for your shoulders, your eyebrows, and your mouth. Plus a humble request from me to you about a hair accessory I haven’t had to deal with in years…
Ina Garten (in all forms)
March was unofficial Ina Garten month at my house. I read her memoir on a whim, plucked absentmindedly off a friend’s bookshelf, and within 10 minutes of finishing it I had ordered a used copy of her first Barefoot Contessa cookbook.
My mind was fixated on coconut cupcakes: a cult favorite from her Hamptons stores and a recipe she brings up quite a few times in the memoir. So with the cookbook and a bag of shredded coconut in tow, I got to work on what turned out to be perhaps the most labor intensive baked good I’ve ever made.
Sans stand mixer, my arm muscles were quivering in between each of the five (5!) individual egg beatings and bowl-scrapings. The sheer volume of butter in this recipe renders it less of a silky batter and more of a play-dough-like substance. I’m not gonna lie — it was worth it.
After an hour of baking (I converted it to a cake), and another workout mixing together a vat of cream cheese frosting, my expectations were sky-high. The first bite was moan-worthy. It’s a really fucking good cake. And the recipe yields so much that we’ve eaten multiple slices a day for more than a week and still have had plenty to share.
The messenger bag that took 5 years to find
It was also the month of a major bag revelation — the perfect slouchy carry-all I’d been hunting down for years appeared to me on Depop like a mirage. Could it be? Only $33? I didn’t believe my luck until it was in my hands a week later and I could smell the vintage leather myself.
I already detailed the messy breakup with my former paramour in a much longer letter here:
And though I linked a bunch of matching messengers in that letter, it seems we have already emptied the virtual stock of this bag from the internet. I’d love to see a pic when it arrives if you managed to snag one.
Seeking: gentle claw clip
I’ve unlocked a hair accessory I haven’t been able to use in years — a full-sized claw clip. My hair has been cropped into a chin-length bob for most of my adulthood, but now that it’s just grown past my shoulders, I don’t really remember what to do with it. I’ve been out of the game too long!
It’s not quite long enough to braid but definitely long enough to get annoying, so I upgraded the size of my claw clip to toss it up and out of my face. But the one I grabbed from my local drugstore keeps ripping out my hair. Do you have a claw clip that leaves your precious strands in tact? Please share because I can’t take this anymore.
Zip-up spring slime
Sickly chartreuse shades are a year-round delight, of course, but a piercing green is especially well suited to the early days of spring. It’s the color of a young garden: new stems poking out of fertile soil, dense fruit that hasn’t yet matured, tender bamboo before it hardens and yellows. It’s refreshing. It’s rejuvenating. It’s a promise.
This zip-up from LA Apparel in the shade Celery Green has hardly left my body this past month, serving both as color therapy and as the most practical outerwear choice in mood-swinging March weather. Summer sweating in the sun: unzipped. Arctic chill in the shade: zipped. It’s a little cropped, just enough so your t-shirt peeps through the hem, and it’s really good stiff thick cotton.
A brow gel to end all brow gels
I have had this for over a year and I’m finally hitting pan (hitting tube?). I’m devastated. I’m super picky about what I’ll put in my brows, and this Skin by Ella Rose gel nails the fluffy natural look. Not too pigmented, not too light on hold, and — harder to find than you’d think — not the texture of superglue.
How long is too long to keep your pajamas on in the morning…
I slept almost every night this month in an icy blue Negative Underwear t-shirt (don’t ask me how many times it’s been washed, I don’t want you to think less of me). They were kind enough to send me a few new pieces recently — after years of me broadcasting my all-consuming love for their bralettes and whipped fabric unsponsored — and I’ve been pushing the limits (to say the least) on the length of time appropriate to keep your PJs on in the morning.
Negative’s stuff is just the best. This fabric feels like silk woven from cloud tendrils or a paper thin vintage tee that air dried in a sea breeze. I’ll be switching to the cami version when summer’s suffocating humidity rolls in.
Last month I hoped “that false spring will just be real spring” and wanted “to eat a hot dog soon.” I ate the dog! Spring weather whiplash is in full force though, unfortunately.
In April, I need to dip myself in a body of water. Stat. And I’m sooooooo looking forward to warm weather produce and recipes that aren’t various forms of hot mush. Cold and crispy, here I come!
I’d love to hear about your latest reads, listens, wears, obsessions, etc. Please indulge me in the comments <3 Get in touch with me at mackinley@yeehawt.com if you’d like to work together, browse my shelves here, or follow me for more vintage and fashion chatter on IG and TT. Happy April!
Earlier this week:
A home decor deep dive inspired by Emma Chamberlain’s LA abode + her new West Elm collection. (I may have bought something from this haul myself…sorry not sorry…)
