Sunday Sundries 044: New Hobby Loading & Lena Dunham's New Show

Plus, links. Lots of them.

Welcome to Sunday Sundries, the antidote to—or at least a distraction from—your Sunday Scaries.

Hi friends,

I was all ready to jump into a new draft of my book last week, but my feedback date got pushed back. (Understandable; editors are very busy.) Instead of taking this as a permission slip to relax and do some afternoon reading in bed, I found myself with loads of productive energy and no satisfying outlet for it.

Maybe I could write 4 weeks’ worth of newsletters to get ahead? (Nope.) Or talk my friends with flexible schedules into mid-afternoon adventures? (Again, no.) I did make solid headway on planning a collective 40th birthday trip with my college friends for next year, though. (Sorry for the increasingly dramatic triple emails! It’s going to be great!)

All that to say, I spent last week running headfirst into frustration of my own creation. I’m hoping this weekend serves as a reset. Thankfully, I have a fuller calendar next week with a few podcast interviews to channel this wayward work energy into and plans to really crush our July book club outline (we’re reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid; it was our listeners’ pick this month).

But enough about me, let’s sundry!

🎨 An Artistic New Hobby?

Last weekend, I was texting with

Grace Atwood

while she was on a creative retreat in the South of France (dreamy!). She sent some photos of paintings she’d done, and I proceeded to accidentally insult her by telling her I liked the top one, which was actually the reference image by Vincent van Gogh—oops!

She took it in stride and said something about how good it felt to create art she knew wasn’t worthy of hanging on her fridge. It reminded me of a similar conversation we had on the podcast with Emily Henry last summer, where she told us how much fun she was having being a beginner at tennis.

Being a beginner sounds kind of nice, right? No expectations. Just play. Exploration. So, I spent an hour on Sunday evening scanning Reddit forums for advice on beginner watercolor materials and the hour after that browsing Pinterest for reference images. I’m happy to report that I’m the proud new owner of a $20 watercolor set¹, a guided workbook, a cheap brush set, and some heavy-duty paper. I’ve only dipped in (sorry, had to) three times, but I’m excited to explore more.

📺 Are You Watching Lena Dunham’s New Show?

As a card-carrying millennial woman, I dutifully tuned into Too Much, the new Lena Dunham created/written/directed Netflix series starring Meg Stalter, on launch day. I’m 7 episodes in, and finding it hit and miss. On the hit side: the Notting Hill dinner party, the episode where Felix visits his family, Andrew Scott’s cameo as a self-obsessed director, “I can be the curtains”. But there are just as many misses: the trite cutaway jokes to British TV stereotypes in episode 1, the entire backstory with Jessica’s (Stalter’s) moody ex², Felix’s quick acceptance of her dinner party overconsumption.

While I’m lukewarm on the show so far (it has its moments, though), I’m loving the press tour—Meg Stalter’s Glamour profile, Lena Dunham giving updates on where the GIRLS characters would be now. Are you watching? What do you think?

🍽️ A Fantasy Book Dinner Party Made Real

Two weeks ago, we talked about fictional dinner parties we want to self-insert into, and one of the most-liked comments mentioned the Redwall books, a popular children’s series I missed out on.

So, imagine my delight when I opened Instagram on Saturday morning and saw that Table of Contents, a Brooklyn-based reading series combining author readings with culinary tastings inspired by their books, hosted a Redwall dinner last week. It’s worth opening the post to click through all the photos!

tables.of.contents

A post shared by @tables.of.contents

• Yesterday, I rounded up all my Nordstrom sale picks here.

• I loved this interview with Haim about their new album.

• My lip color of the summer is definitely this gloss/lipstick hybrid in the watermelon-y hue “Reveal.”

• Erin Carlson
  is keeping us up to date on all the new rom-com TV and movies to look out for.

• DÔEN is having their online warehouse sale and there’s still good stock left. I love this gingham dress in one of my favorite cuts of theirs (size down).

• Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
  have a fascinating rundown of popular summer reads of the 1940’s.

• My fave necklace now comes as a bracelet.

• Look at this novelty bathroom tile! Saving for future dream home inspo.

• Love this pretty lace tunic and shorts for a swim coverup.

More soon,

Becca

1. I ignored the Reddit advice, all of which recommended tubes instead of a pre-made pan set. This felt cheaper and easier, and I can upgrade if the hobby sticks and I feel limited.

2. I’m sorry, but him telling her to get rid of the dog feels like a cheap way to get us to root against him.