Unclench with me for a moment: Sunday cozies & recent bookmarks unpacked. (2025)

I’ve written before (at length, really) about the teeter totter of my ambition— great, big, sweeping, wealth generating ambition— and my conflicting desire to have a simple, beautiful life with the people I love, writing, living slowly, and cultivating a community where we all care for each other… and maybe I have some sheep in the yard.

These days, the teeter totter has been oscillating more rapidly as I consider my career options and what full time roll to dive into this year— could I possibly have both?

I don’t know. But since returning home from my UK trip, I’ve been quite comfortable embracing the latter and doing less. I have some baking projects that excite me, have scaled down to a max of 2-3 networking calls a day, I’m still committed to my daily journaling and exercise— but I’d describe the vibe as unclenched. I’m very good at assigning myself so much self improvement that it could be a full time job, and the greatest self improvement of all has been cutting that habit out!

In the spirit of unclenching and doing less, I wanted to spend Sunday together indulging in the kinds of frivolity best enjoyed with a coffee or tea in hand. I’ve been publishing far more paid issues lately, and will continue to do so— for those of you who have subscribed, I appreciate you dearly! If you haven’t, I’d love for you to consider it. And if you can’t or don’t want to… today’s issue is free! :)

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• These shoes are fabulous and the way they’re styled in the image above is exactly how I like to dress as a lazy, cozy person who doesn’t want to feel too precious or like anything I own couldn’t bear witness to a busy day of cooking, shlepping, walking, and playing with my dog. Right now I live my life in leggings and a sweater because I have been doing a lot of mid-day exercise and rarely socializing, but I aspire to do the bare minimum and put on hard pants some day soon.

• I finally made a website. I had dragged my feet and not wanted to do this for the longest time— I know myself, and it seemed highly likely I’d entrench myself in an overwrought journey to build the “perfect” site and sink a ton of time and money into something that ultimately made no difference anyway. But you know what? It was time. In the broadest sense possible, I have merchandised what I do best over on azorazoepaknad.com. I forced myself to not spend more than an hour building the site… which I hope you can’t tell!

  

• I’ve had a huge brand crush on Rue de Verneuil for quite some time, and am really coveting their tweed bags— this one first and foremost, but this one nearly as much. Scotland really rubbed off on me…

• This week has called for a big kitchen re-org and one of my 2025 goals was to use as little plastic in the kitchen (and frankly in my grocery hauls) as possible. I’ve seen creators like

  Caroline Chambers

  and others mention these— I really wish I was the kind of kitchen that had Ballerina Farm vibes and everything felt quaint and pastoral, but the reality of living with a boy is that there are a lot of meal prepping tupperwares and giant protein canisters in our kitchen. In my mind there’s some distant future where we move into a new home and none of the ugly plastic or outdated cookware comes with us and I only use wooden utensils like these!

  

• This is the cutest catch all that I’ve seen in a while…

• This letter from

  Tell the Bees

  See Also

  ''A'' - PDF Free Download

  scratched the surface of a topic/phenomenon I’m very interested in...
  Telling the BeesThe Sociology of Begging Someone to Marry YouIn 2019’s Little Women, Amy March gives an impassioned speech on the economics of marriage. She is resolute and unequivocal: for women in the 1860s, marriage was an economic proposition. There were laws around whether women could own property or retain custody of their children if their husbands deserted or divorced them. Choosing a husband was a matter…Read more2 days ago · 216 likes · 12 comments · Tell the Bees

• I mentioned I’ve been living in leggings and a sweater and I think I’m ready to bring back a legging or slim jean tucked into a tall boot, in sort of a classic and equestrian way… right now I just wear my Ganni rain boots for this vibe, but would love to upgrade to something timeless! I found this two-tone pair, this shape is flawless though too pricy for me, Gucci so never gonna happen but worth drooling over… have any favorite pairs I should know about!? I'm having a hard time toe-ing the line between quality that will last and a pricetag that doesn’t make me want to jump out a window.
  

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• This “old radio” playlist is my favorite thing to write to right now… just wish it was longer!

• I am so grateful for this incredibly transparent piece from

  carla lalli music

  on the true costs of being on YouTube as a content creator/editor in the food space. First of all, it was amazing to see some of my Food52 buddies mentioned (shout out to Tim, former videographer at F52 and husband to my dearest pal Mollie!). Secondly, I’ve always wondered how the unit economics work for creators who are not part of a media roll up and have to cover their own production costs— knowing what we spent in food media, the math just never seemed to math to me. It’s kind of a relief to know that I am not stupid, and the math actually just doesn’t math unless you’re maybe

  Meredith Hayden

  (my beloved).
  Food ProcessingThe True Costs of Being on YouTubeNew here? Hi! To unlock the many dozens of recipes, video links, product recommendations and other and newsletters from my kitchen, all you have to do is subscribe. <3…Read more4 days ago · 701 likes · 165 comments · carla lalli music

  This is not at all the same— and nowhere near Carla’s scale— but my cooking on TikTok project has imbued me with a new appreciation of just how exhausting it is to film yourself cooking. It is expensive and somehow consistently wasteful if you film regularly, and somehow it manages to make the thing you loved (cooking!!) extremely not fun. And that was without any recipe development on my part. Lately, I’m of the mind that making something you love your full time job is an awesome way to ruin it for yourself…

  

• Positively ILL over these new arrivals from Dorsey… I want to wear this bangle every day.

• I found this new soap and body wash (and candle!) refill brand, Element Brooklyn, via TikTok and was hesitant to pay shipping fees on a soap pouch. Luckily, yesterday I found their products at my local refillery, Maison Jar! I was able to fill a few beautiful amber glass jars with a pump top with the Kiso Forest Body Wash scent and the Aesop dupe for hand soap. WOW. I am incredibly pleased!! I will only be doing this for my liquids moving forward… the scents are incredible and I feel so much better about buying this stuff locally and sustainably than I do overpriced single use soaps or body was via Amazon.

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New here or looking to catch up on some good Sunday reading? Here are some First Rodeo issues you may have missed or are worth revisiting.

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