I’m at a reclaimed wooden kitchen table with rain pummeling down the gutters outside the nearby window when I pull a card from artist Leonora Carrington’s recently discovered Major Arcana tarot deck. I close my eyes, ask God, my angels, and my spirit guides to show me the card I most need to see in this moment. I pull “The Emperor,” a card that, according to the attached guide, tells me that I’m not “allowing myself to relax and enjoy [my] surroundings.”

Fair enough.

I’m on a bucolic vacation with my husband and our senior dog, designed specifically to get away from work and recharge our overfried city-living batteries—but the pull I feel to learn more about Carrington and her life, her work, how she viewed the world, feels less like an assignment and more like a current, pulling me into her surreal world.

Leonora Carrington was born into a nouveau riche family in 1917, and they led the kind of life you might expect. Her father owned a successful textile mill; she was sent to a Catholic boarding school in her formative years, and later even had a formal coming-out as a debutante. Par for the course, right? Not so much. Carrington, ever peculiar, was kicked out of boarding school for her inability to excel academically or socially, leaving her mother to gift her rebellious daughter a set of paints and a book on Surrealism, thereby persuading her down an avenue she thought young Leonora had shown potential.

The rest, as they say, is history.

From this gateway, I could give a biographical account of Carrington. I could detail how she met and became lovers with surrealist painter Max Ernst, 16 years her senior, at 20 years old. Her time spent living in France and then an unjust stay in a sanatorium after she fell into depression when Ernst was captured amid WWII. I could divulge how she bravely fled to Mexico, creating a life where, though content, actively painting with a lively artistic social circle, two children, and a husband she built a happy life with; she never felt at home, and the million other aspects that make her such a force.

However, that would be touching the tip of the Leonora Carrington iceberg—recounting what’s so easily visible, when there’s so much that lies beneath the surface would be a disservice to such a masterful mind.

You see, Carrington abided by the maxim “as above, so below” in her work, incorporating elements from a plethora of mystical schools of thought. You’re just as likely to come across Celtic imagery (The Pomps of the Subsoil, 1947) as you are alchemy (The Horses of Lord Candlestick, 1938), as you are Jewish mysticism (Janan, 1974) in her work—you can’t put Carrington in a box, which is why I think so many people are resonating with and finally catapulting her into her rightful place in the surrealist canon today.

Don’t we all contain multitudes? Don’t we all yearn to make sense of our mosaic of beliefs, questions, and backgrounds? We’re allowed to be more nuanced than ever, a privilege that pushed Carrington and many of her female contemporaries into the “muse of” category at best, or “insane” at worst, out of their rightful place in the Surrealist oeuvre in their respective times.

Today, they’re finally allowed to shine.

I recently went to L’Space Gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City to see a collection of Leonora’s bronzed sculptures at a show entitled Shape of Dreams and was immediately arrested by a sculpture titled Woman with Fox (2010), a creation rooted in Carrington’s lithograph Nine, Nine Nine (2011). I allowed myself to stand eye to eye with this starburst-crowned woman, scanning every detail until I found myself crouched down on the floor gazing at her pointed shoes. From below, I see a nearby sculpture, La Cantante Muda (2010), a fantastical creature with an infinity symbol on its forehead.

I know from my research that I can’t attempt to interpret this; her son Gabriel says it’s “fruitless” to search for meaning in her work, but I can’t help but ponder: Did she see into a world we didn’t? Is this a creature we’ll one day greet in the great beyond? Is there an all-knowing something who holds the secret of eternity?

In Carrington’s last words, she divulged that she saw a wall full of blackbirds—animals associated with transformation, intuition, and hope.

It’s true, we can’t begin to find meaning in the worlds she created, but surely, that’s a sign.

Ideologies and Themes Leonora Incorporated Into Her Art—Can You Spot Them in the Paintings Shown?:

• Jewish Mysticism • Mexican Culture • Celtic Folklore • Power • Archetypes • Alchemy • Sexual Identity • The Occult • Tarot • Animism • Feminism • Catholicism • Sigils • Hermetic Tradition • Talismans

Go Further Down the Rabbit Hole:

🎬 Watch:

Read more

Musing

Over…

💭 The Simone Rocha Spring 2027 runway show. I want to wear every single look!

💭 How I’m craving an appletini (classic) from Cecchi’s.

💭 This French hair pin is dreamy…I want to be someone who can put my hair up in a chic bun + pop it in.

💭 compiled 50 journal prompts inspired by Persephone, and they are so juicy.

💭 Farm to People has been a delight for weeks I can’t get to the farmers market but still want fresh foods. They even have premade meals + fun additions like chai concentrate + lava cakes! (a code for $25 off your first box: KAYLIM-1a2)

💭 The curio cabinet of medieval mental health.

💭 I always love getting a peek into what folks I admire are reading, and this roundup from Patti Smith is quite the curated list!

Unearthing

If you desire being swept away into the world of opera and ballet, look no further than Princess Turandot’s account on Instagram. She does gorgeous deep dives into the history and background of the under-appreciated performance art world, and I just devour each + every one.

Savoring

My tea collection. I love having teas for every mood + season. I had a cuppa red rose + hibiscus last night while reading a book to ease menstrual cramps, enjoy a mug of steamy Earl Grey with a biscuit as an afternoon treat, and sip blue lotus for when I go into meditation.

I get my teas from all over, but especially enjoy:

☕ Flower Power

☕ Anima Mundi

☕ Pique Life

☕ Harney & Sons

☕ McNulty’s Tea & Coffee Co.

Enchanted By

The choral arrangements of 12th-century mystic and abbess Hildegard von Bingen. On a rainy Sunday afternoon, I entered St. Bartholomew’s Church to listen to her work performed live, and it was absolutely mesmerizing, healing, and divine. You can listen to a snippet here.

Inspired By

The bravery of Jane Doe.

May she know how many of us walk alongside her in solidarity.

Nightstand

On the Erotic—Marina Abramović.

Grateful For

My husband, who I can text “I’m craving a bloody steak and whipped potatoes,” comes home from a day in the office with a butcher bag ready to roll.

I am blessed!

Sitting With

These General Wolf Rules for Life from Women Who Run with the Wolves.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Share MUSE MAISON

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Velvet Underground. 🌹🖤🕯️

No, Muse Maison isn’t suddenly becoming a rock and roll Substack, the other Velvet Underground. The one conjured up in the recesses of my mind, of course.

Think: Dripping ivory candles, lips that appear freshly bitten by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, writing in the corner of a coffee shop with a secretive smile on your face—people think it must be about a love affair, and maybe it is, but it’s more likely to be about your plot to take over the world. You while away hours flipping through art history books, penning essays that get to the heart of Mary Magdalene, and reading your tattered copy of Rebecca.

You walk down a spiral staircase lined with Leonora Carrington paintings and see a dim light at the bottom: You’re entering the salon of the Muse Maison, and your coven is waiting…

🌹—September: The NYC Art + Club Scene of the 60s-80s

Read more

I wait patiently all year to crack open witchy tomes, novels teeming with back-to-school energy, and memoirs where chefs luxuriate in their descriptions of stewed apples or childhood memories of their mother’s pot roast.

As I was compiling my own autumn TBR (to-be-read, for those not chronically on BookTok), I kept being reminded of all of the great seasonal reads I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying over the years, wishing I could go back and read them for the first time all over again.

So, I’ve read most of these, but I haven’t read a few, and they look promising. Maybe we can travel through them together?

1. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier at The Met Cloisters

By now, you’ve probably heard of Daphne Du Maurier’s bestselling book, Rebecca. It’s a thrilling tale with a familiar trope: A heroine meets a wealthy man and learns she’s in for much more than she bargained for. However, it’s anything but ordinary. I read this book in a few lush sittings last autumn, curled up on a fainting couch (necessary, dramatic) at Highwood Retreat, and am still thinking about it a year later.

Read it at: The Met Cloisters. The Cloisters is where The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses much of their medieval works, with a focus on sumptuous Gothic architecture.

If that isn’t an option this fall, think of gothic Manderley vibes (what becomes our heroine’s married home). A bench on the grounds of an estate, near the fireplace in the lobby of a historic (possibly haunted?) hotel, or in your great-grandmother’s armchair as a faint chill runs up your spine.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

2. Slewfoot by Brom at Tompkins Square Park

Slewfoot is a feminist take on the witch hunt that happened in 1600’s New England. It all begins when Abitha, a recently widowed woman, realizes she has no one she can trust in her ultra-puritanical village—except the being that could both save her life, or deliver her to her ultimate demise.

Read it at: Tompkins Square Park. Visit Enchantments on Avenue B, where the witches of New York City flock for spell candles, protective salts, and more + then meander to Ninth Street Espresso for a cappuccino. Take it to Tompkins to watch the leaves change—it’s not so difficult to imagine the park as a desolate field where witches gathered all of those years ago—and where many still do today.

If that isn’t an option this fall, read it in any park with adequate foliage in your area, or if you’re in a spot where autumn feels more like summer, under blankets with the blinds closed and this moody playlist going on your television.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

3. The Fountain by at The Spruceton Inn

One of my rare 5-star reads this year, The Fountain is about a woman who has lived for the past 180 years and has no idea why. She also has never been home—until now, when she becomes determined to find a path back to mortality. Instead of finding the town she remembers, she discovers that a mysterious company is attempting to buy up much of the Upstate New York town that made her, and a whole lot more.

Read it at: The Spruceton Inn. Scieszka and her husband own a Bed & Bar a couple of hours north of New York City in a town called West Kill. No cell service, a brewery at the end of the dead-end road, and plenty of views in a valley that juts up against a mountain where the leaves go crazy in the fall. You might just pick up on some of the Upstate gems as you read too…

If that isn’t an option this fall, escape to a rustic inn near you (how beautiful is this one in Wisconsin?) or take a day trip to a hiking spot, reading it as you picnic afterward near a rambling creek.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

4. Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement at The Odeon

A specific subgenre I devour is New York City in the ‘70s and ‘80s. I often find myself yearning for the Manhattan I read about in books—before line culture, when artists could actually afford to live here. Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti artist turned neo-classical artworld legend, was gone far too soon, and this book explores his unique (and often turbulent) relationship with Suzanne Mallouk in the lost downtown scene of the 1980s.

Read it at: The Odeon while sipping a martini. How I wish I could order us all to have a wild night dancing at The Mudd Club or Max’s Kansas City (RIP) and read this while eating a BEC in bed the afternoon after, alas, Basquiat surely went to this TriBeCa classic and you should too. A lively late-night bistro founded by Lynn Wagenknecht and the McNally brothers (lore) in October of 1980, I just know that if these walls could talk, we’d all have our jaws on the floor.

If that isn’t an option this fall, find a lively restaurant in your area where artists would have hung out in the 80s. Maybe smartbar in Chicago or Mr. Chow in LA.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

5. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay at Tea & Sympathy

Four Keywords: Coven. Gilded Age. Confessions. If those don’t intrigue you, you won’t want to read The Witches of New York. If they do, you’ll want to grab it up the next chance you get.

Read it at: Tea & Sympathy. This historical fiction novel has two of our protagonist witches working at a little shop called Tea & Sympathy…so obviously, the iconic shop-cum-restaurant is where we’re headed. Settle in for a cuppa Earl Grey, a scone with clotted cream, and allow yourself to be whisked away to New York, 1880.

If that isn’t an option this fall, choose a teashop near you on a rainy day. Maybe invite your coven to enjoy flipping through copies of the book at afternoon tea.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

6. Body Language by Meg Howrey in Bed with a Kleenex Box

I found Howrey’s last book, They’re Going to Love You, so incredibly tender and beautiful. When I saw Body Language on my release radar, I knew it would float to the top of my TBR. About a former actress working as a therapist and her two sisters navigating their rocky inner lives amidst their mother’s dementia diagnosis, I’m sure this will hit me square in my feels.

Read it in: Bed with a Kleenex box. Maybe even dress it up with this cutie little number?

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

7. Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet at The King Cole Bar

Browsing the shelves at RJ Julia Booksellers, I came across Perspective(s), a murder mystery set in 1500’s Florence. The novel opens with Jacopo da Pontormo (a real Renaissance painter) found on New Year’s Day, stabbed through the heart, the frescoes he toiled over for over a decade floating above him. When the guards go to his rooms to hunt for clues, they find something shocking: A painting of Venus and Cupid—with the face of Venus replaced by that of Maria de’ Medici. Who committed these crimes, and perhaps more importantly, why?

Read it at: The King Cole Bar. The legendary bar in Manhattan’s St. Regis hotel is known for being the birthplace of the Bloody Mary, its notoriously pesky line (get there at opening), and the iconic Old King Cole mural. Commissioned by John Jacob Astor IV for his Knickerbocker Hotel, the Maxfield Parrish work has tons of lore (look it up before you go), much like that of Italy, then and now.

If that isn’t an option this fall, read Perspective(s) in a space near you with a little art history (and a background of trouble). Maybe Pied Piper in San Francisco, with a mural by Maxfield Parrish, or La Colombe d’Or in Provence.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

8. With Friends Like You by Amy Chozick at cha &

I have heard so much buzz around Chozick’s With Friends Like You that I already have the ebook locked and loaded. The book is centered on Emily, a new mother, who becomes obsessed with figuring out where her long-vanished friend Daisy has gone. When Daisy reappears, there’s joy. They found a new mothers’ group together with plenty of matcha, pleasure, and fun, but soon Emily notices cracks in their relationship. Where was Daisy really all of these years?

Read it at: cha &. A sun-flooded spot for matcha or other high-quality teas, I think Daisy or Emily would love it here. Bonus Points if you bring your own bestie and split a curated tea flight.

If that isn’t an option this fall, head to your own favorite modern-learning coffee shop and get to reading. I love Futuro in Phoenix and Malou in Brentwood.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

9. Having a Wonderful Time by J.G. Ballard, Ali Smith, Mark Haddon, Nicci French, and William Boyd at Cronin & Phelan’s

Sucker for epistolary stories I am. This book is a collection of mini stories written as if they’re on the backs of postcards. A couple is traveling when they realize they can’t return to their home in London for mysterious reasons; a woman confesses her love to a partnered man, leading to a spiderweb of emotions; a man waits for his friend to arrive in Brussels as WWI begins to unleash. This is touted as a book that lets you see multiple lives unfold and tug at your heartstrings, which is my favorite type of book.

Read it at: Cronin & Phelan’s. Listen, I’m not a huge fan of sports bars (unless you’re Champs in Lake Geneva, WI, then I love you), but it sounds like an absolute delight to cozy on up at a bar table, order a steaming hot plate of fish and chips or mac and cheese, and read this with a Guinness in one sitting.

If that isn’t an option this fall, head to your nearest comfort food spot. We all have one.

(Bookshop, ThiftBooks)

10. Score by Kennedy Ryan at Musette Wine Bar

Jess at Literary Intersections turned me onto Score by Kennedy Ryan, and I’ve been specifically saving it for fall! A second-chance romance novel, Verity is set to work with her ex, Monk, on the set of a Harlem Renaissance biopic. They left things a disaster, and the pain from the sting of first love is still fresh all of these years later—can they put it behind them to find the success they’ve been chasing? Could love find its way back?

Read it at: Musette Wine Bar. This wine bar looks like everything I look for in a spot to bring a book + spend a leisurely evening: An approachable wine list, a pick-a-few-things-and-enjoy menu, and candlelight after dark. Bonus Points if you head to Bill’s Place—the famous haunt where Billie Holiday was discovered and spend the night being immersed in the magic of jazz.

If that isn’t an option this fall, find a spot that has been around for ages and hosts jazz shows after hours. I still dream of Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio in San Francisco and enjoy The Nash in Phoenix.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

11. Just Kids by Patti Smith at Omen Azen

One of my all-time favorite books, I recommend Just Kids in any season, but something about it feels especially poignant in the autumn as the leaves change in New York, new young people flood the city, and the train cars are once again packed to the brim. A memoir of Patti Smith’s time with best friend and fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe, this book will have you crying with pleasure, pain, and the tinges of youth it evokes in your own story.

Read it at: Omen Azen, Smith’s long-time Thompson Street favorite. Other options include: Hotel Chelsea, a cafe table on St. Mark’s Place, Elizabeth Street Garden, or anywhere you feel your own willful rebel arise.

If that isn’t an option this fall, see note above re: willful rebel arising.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

12. The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan at St. John the Divine

recommended this one over the summer when my TBR pile was already to the moon. It sounds completely up my alley, and I’m excited to finally dig in. I’ve been fascinated with the mysteries surrounding Mary Magdalene for years, and this historical fiction explores the hidden scrolls she’s reputed to have hidden in the South of France and who might finally bring them to light.

Read it at: St. John the Divine. I’d love to sit in the pews at St. John the Divine when they’re not having mass and read this among the grandeur and stained glass. The largest cathedral in North America, it’s hard not to feel tiny in a world that often feels so small.

If that isn’t an option this fall, read at a spot in your area where you feel holy—the bathtub, under a tree, in your Church.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

13. Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl at King

It’s simply a fact that , the former longtime food critic for The New York Times and Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet Magazine, could write a Doritos label and I would happily (gleefully!) read it. Save Me the Plums is a must for anyone who lusts after farmers market vegetables, yearns for the golden age of print, or feels like they’re behind where they feel they should be.

Read it at: King. King was founded by three women, has an ever-changing menu boasting only the freshest ingredients, and is quaint to boot. I feel Reichl would approve. Hint: If you’re trying to save your money, they just opened Cafe King, complete with delectable pastries and great coffee Tuesday-Saturday from 8-12pm.

If that isn’t an option this fall, find a restaurant in your area that specializes in farm-to-table meals. I recently had the complete pleasure of dining at Chez Panisse in Berkeley (a city that is a part of Reichl’s beginnings) and would highly recommend.

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

14. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray at The Morgan Library

This novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, floored me when I first read it. Greene, a Black woman forced to hide her identity, is the reason The Morgan Library has the powerful legacy it has today, and we should all be grateful. Using her formal library training and razor-sharp expertise, she managed to acquire precious Gutenberg Bibles, medieval manuscripts, and rare William Caxton imprints. If you want a bookish historical fiction novel, this is it.

Read it at: The Morgan Library, of course.

If that isn’t an option this fall, head to your local library and enjoy their bounty. Librarians rule!

(Bookshop, ThriftBooks)

15. She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovatcheva at The Campbell

This witchy novel is inspired by Slavic folklore, and as a spiritual woman with Slavic ancestry, you knew I had to get it when I saw it on the shelf at The Twisted Spine. I love that it seems to be exploring the themes of folklore, feminism, and chosen family, so I’m looking forward to reading this once we cross into the October threshold.

Read it at: The Campbell. Located in Grand Central Terminal, could this gothic, swanky office-turned-bar be a better spot to bring along a book, your sexiest autumn boots, and sip an Old Fashioned? I’m not so sure.

If that isn’t an option this fall, try a gothic-inspired cocktail bar or coffee shop in your area. How about Black Angel’s Bar in Prague or The Flying Fox in Ridgewood?

(Bookshop, Thrift Books)

P.S. I plan on adding novels not added here to the Autumn MY OWN MUSE curriculum headed to paid community members next week if that interests you! And if not, I hope you still adore these. :)

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Share MUSE MAISON

Subscribe now

You might also enjoy:

What necklace sparks the most joy?

What meal feels the most like something “special” on a night in?

How can I make the living room feel like an oasis I can’t wait to return home to?

That’s how I found myself wondering how I could make the transition between seasons even more lush, excitable, and full of joie de vivre than it already is.

Over the years, here are the answers I came up with…

1. First and foremost, I transition our bedding with the seasons. It’s a fun way to switch up our space and signal to my brain, "Change is happening here.”

My husband and I are both hot sleepers, which is how I found Brooklinen when I first started these seasonal bedding swaps in 2019 (!) Their percale sheets and pillowcases are like sleeping on crisp, cooling clouds, and the eclectic color options feel very me. Minimalist, I will never be!

This season, they gifted us these striped ones in avocado, and in the past I’ve bought many colors—a simple ivory and a yellow daisy, being among my hall of famers.

In the fall and winter, I also add in this heavyweight comforter along with our lightweight one. It makes getting into bed feel like we’re curling up under the covers at a 5-star resort, thanks to its plushness and weight.

↓

Brooklinen is also having a 25% off sale (50% off bundles) through 9/9. If you’re interested, you can shop my personal faves here, or just have a browse here.

2. I wait patiently all year to crack open witchy tomes, novels teeming with back-to-school energy, and memoirs where chefs luxuriate in their descriptions of stewed apples or childhood memories of their mother’s pot roast. Fall is my mood-reading Super Bowl!

I look forward to making my fall reading list every year. I’m working on a list for you all (stay tuned) of autumn reads I’ve loved in the past and ones on my personal TBR, but in the meantime, here are a few favorites I wish I could go back and read for the first time all over again…

3. I’m a “find her in the kitchen” gal in the ‘ber months. Soups, cookies, cozy jazz music playing, and a tapered candle lit on the countertop. It’s one of my happy places!

This is the perfect time of year for a cookbook switch-out. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City—space is not on my side. Some cookbooks are stored in our storage unit, some are in a more accessible cupboard, and 10-12 are lined up next to my espresso machine for easy inspiration seeking.

One that never moves? This New York Times Recipes of Record cookbook. It’s on the pricier side, but it is huge and has any recipe you could ever need.

4. In the same arena, I swap out our table linens. Usually just a table runner or a cloth, along with changed-out colored candles in whichever candleholder is out and about!

5. Closet swap! I’ll be so for real and say, I don’t necessarily look forward to this one. It involves taking my bulky storage bags out from their early-summer slumber and cramming my lightweight goodies into their hibernation bins. But it’s a NYC way of life, and I do love seeing my fall and winter goodies again. I prefer my wardrobe in the chillier months exponentially more!

If you have a closet large enough to house all of your clothes (I love that for you!) I would simply move your fall/winter items to the forefront, keeping clothes you reach for most often easily accessible.

If you don’t, I’ve begun to use these vacuum-sealed bags (now 30% off) and these bins. They get the job done!

6. I’m naturally indoors more during these months, so I assess what feels off about my space (if anything!) and make the necessary changes.

For example, this season was a big one because my husband and I agreed we needed a new sofa for our winter movie nights. Ours is so uncomfortable, and we’ve been “making it work” the last few years. This changes this year!!

Last year, we also upgraded our bulbs to dimmable ones for mood lighting, got better shoe storage for our eyesore of an entryway, and did a deep clean of our baseboards.

7. Make a movie list of films that scream “fall!” Like being a mood reader, I am most definitely a mood watcher. This list gets me excited for cozy movie nights to come and is perfect to have on-hand when I can’t seem to conjure up any ideas.

On my list this year: A Few Good Men, Practical Magic (+ seeing the second one!), Mystic Pizza.

8. Lastly, I love to make mood boards for each season and set them as backgrounds on my phone screen. Whenever I’m feeling down, unsure what direction to take, or what to focus on, I glance at it and ask myself what this version of my life would look like if I began it right that moment!

Because of that practice, I’ve hosted gatherings I might otherwise put off, made pumpkin muffins, wandered through museums in the afternoon, and started a book of essays.

What would yours have you doing this season?

Leave a comment

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

* Some items have been gifted by Brooklinen. As always, all opinions are honest, and (many) products were vetted by moi before mentioning them here. I will never promote a brand I don’t love myself.

1. Stretching my creative muscles and creating beeswax candles. A + I were recently served the most gorgeous oysters, and I kept the shells, knowing they’d make divine small talismans. I got this wax to work with. Wish me luck!

2. Is there anything more expansive than having a wide-open weekday morning? I want to start my days this month eating fruit and sipping coffee and walking to the park to feel the sun beating down on my bare shoulders.

3. I’m a millennial who has been writing for as long as she can remember and lives in New York City. Of course I’ve imagined click-clacking away at my keyboard a la Carrie Bradshaw. This month, I’ll write more alongside candlelight, in a silky negligee, with my hair atop my head in a playfully undone clip. You know the vibes.

   

4. A thing I’ve picked up this year is manicures as self-expression. I think this month I want something a little moodier yet playful.

5. I feel the need to remind you that Fall doesn’t start until September 22nd!! I’m not one to yuck anyone’s yum, but if you’re a little stomach-churny about summer ending, it hasn’t! We have 22 more days to devour ice cream, plunge into lakes, and enjoy a filthy martini on a patio with the warm air caressing your skin—and I bet you could stretch it even further… Anyway, find me at the Mister Softee truck getting a Red Merlin or tracking down my elusive (!) Coco Helado cart.

6. and I are co-hosting this witchy collage workshop in Brooklyn. The concept is “self as muse,” and it should be a connective night full of heart-centered chitchat and fun sips.

   

7. More movies at independent theaters! My husband and I especially love seeing movies at The Angelika and Film Forum. Maybe I’ll even sneak a midday showing in?

8. Treating myself to literary outings like this cocktail omakase “in translation” themed salon with Lit Society.

9. Catching up with a friend while taking a bath. I’m not so great with the phone, but surely laughing + crying + “why don’t we do this more”-ing whilst in a bath full of rose oil can’t hurt!

10. Lighting tapered candles at nightfall.

11. Celebrating the Autumn Equinox with my coven. The Intentional Muse’s resident bruja and I are co-hosting a magic-filled evening together.

    

12. Still enjoying fresh fruit from my farmers market. I’ll savor the plums until the bounty runs dry!

13. Read essays I have printed while tucked into bed or on a bench in the park. I have a folder full, and these two are at the top of the pile: The Uses of the Erotic by Audre Lorde | Martha Graham’s Radical Reception of the Women of Greek Tragedy by Nina Papathanasopoulou

14. Writing more snail mail on stationery I’ve saved from my travels.

    

15. Bake a dessert from a cookbook and share it with neighbors. I’m thinking of pulling from Dorie’s Anytime Cakes or the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook.

16. (Aaron, skip this!) Surprise my husband with something that will make him smile…he has had a few tricks up his sleeve for me lately (and honestly, always) and I want to do something unexpected in return!

17. Make an October reading list to get excited about!! My favorite month of the year!

18. Hopefully book a dance class, but if not, at least dance more in my living room. has virtual classes if you aren’t in NYC or just wanna boogie down in private btw.

    

19. Do my seasonal bedding swap!! Oh, doggie dog, do I look foooooorward to this time of the year. I’ve got some new Brooklinen additions ready to roll and might even do a whole breakdown of my ✨process.✨

20. Listen to vinyls while making dinner or cleaning up around the house. I love Olivia Dean’s and Billie Holiday’s.

21. Plugging in my phone past 7pm! I’ve fallen out of my groove with this + want to return to my unplugged evenings.

How are you romanticizing your September?

Leave a comment

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

Musing

Over…

💭 This beautiful article published in by about her experience sharing about her abortion with Gloria Steinem.

💭 I’ve been going down a rabbit hole (like documentaries, novels, memoirs, academic article vibes) for an upcoming article on surrealist painters and learned about the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross, the first formal occult society in France. I spy my next deep dive…

💭 How divine a dirty martini at Lucien will be after this week.

💭 You know that trending TikTok about how just when things go quiet you hear “start a business, learn Japanese” etc. etc.? That’s how I felt reading ’s new creative jobs section in her Substack, The Mood Board.

💭 This new movie with Willem Dafoe looks up my alley. I think I’ll try to catch it at Film Forum later this week!

💭 Anne Hathaway was one of us all along…

💭 I’ve been dreaming of these spiral adornments from ’s brand, Safta, since I saw them posted to her Instagram last week.

Unearthing

Some time ago I came across this Instagram page highlighting choreographer Martha Graham’s interpretations of Greek myths. I’ve been sincerely enjoying learning more about her, particularly how she reimagined the Goddesses! Any Martha Graham devotees have any further reading/viewing recs?

Savoring

I’ll be sad…so sad…when juicy stone fruit season is behind us, but for now, it reigns on! I’ve been a frequent flier at the Union Square green market this summer, and it has been such a sensuous, divine pleasure. I also have a newfound extraordinary love for plums! Bonus points if I cut it up midday and eat it while standing over my sink, daydreaming.

I also wrote up a farmers market meal guide for the end of summer here if you’d like to use it to plan your own upcoming meals.

Enchanted By

The story Wysteria Root recently wrote for The Intentional Muse’s October MYSTIC issue on her pilgrimage to the Temple of Isis. I know, I know. I hate to promo the paper toooo much here since you can’t read it right away, but it’s fresh in my mind since I just read through it for edits.

Absolutely mesmerizing.

Inspired By

mothers. artists who do the unpopular thing because they feel they’re a conduit. candles lit as soon as the sun begins to set. jazz vinyls played while chopping the evening’s vegetables. long kisses when my husband comes home from work. the writing of kiran millwood hargrave. the yellow to royal purple gradient that exists within the nucleus of a plum. handwritten letters. water in all her forms. the reflections of anaïs nin.

Nightstand

I put dried roses I procured on a recent trip to Cambria, California, in a vintage coupe glass etched with starbursts on my nightstand, and I love how the scent wafts through the air. Gorgeous!

Grateful For

Loved ones who share my work. It costs $0 to share a post, leave a comment on a Substack, send a friend a link, name-drop your bestie’s business into a chat with the person on the mat next to you in yoga, and it means so much. I love my people!

Sitting With

This gem from Octavia Butler’s notebook. A mantra!!!

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, follow me on Instagram here, and subscribe using the link below.

Share MUSE MAISON

Subscribe now

Enjoy!

1. Time and time again I make declarations that I’m going to get better at “flexing my creative writing muscle.” Then I get back into editing the paper, making never-ending Notes App lists, and… you get the point.

I’ve found that the only way I’m going to write in any heart-filling way is if I’m (gently) forced. AKA: I paid for it, and my seat’s at the table, so I better go.

Lately, that means attending monthly writing workshops with Lit Society in NYC.

, Kirk’s Spilled Writing Club, and (free!) events at the NYPL are also great options for other NYC-based folks.

2. I know A + I are getting closer to trying for a babe, so I’ve been particularly mindful of what I’m putting in and on my body. You won’t find me preaching “do this, do that”—I swear—but I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about wtf the slinky undies I’ve been wearing have been doing for my reproductive organs…
   
   Luckily, I had a date set with Sam Abshire, Head of Community at the ethical clothing brand Pact, after they (generously!!) sent me some leisurewear and undies to try, so I could ask my burning q’s.

🌟 Here’s the inside scoop 🌟

Some other tidbits Sam gave me to help me on my organic fabric journey:

𓇼 Don’t let perfect be the enemy of better. We don’t have to overhaul our wardrobes or lives overnight!

𓇼 As items of clothing exit your closet, see if you can replace them with a more sustainable option.

𓇼 Read fabric labels like you do an ingredient label! This way, it becomes second nature.

✨ One last win? Pact is giving away a set of undies + a giftcard to shop their latest to one of you, too! Enter here by 8/25. ✨

3. Putting down books sooner. I used to have a 50-page rule. If I didn’t like a book by the 50th page, I could DNF (did not finish, in book-speak) it. Nowadays, I can tell pretty quickly whether I’ll like a book, and my list is too long to keep reading something that just isn’t hitting for me. Onto the next is my new motto!

Some books I very much did NOT have trouble finishing lately:

Slanting Towards the Sea | Almost Life | Tata

4. Dressing up my inner child. Just because I’m 32 and thinking about having a child doesn’t mean I can’t dress to please my own inner girl!! No, that doesn’t mean I’m reaching for old Limited Too gear (I miss her), but I’m less timid these days about oddball additions, enjoy statement pieces at every hour, and couldn’t care less if something is “occasion appropriate.”

Yawn! Life is the occasion!

5. Going down rabbit holes. I love that the older I get, the more curious I’ve become. Some recent deep dives…

What siren song is reeling you in lately??

Leave a comment

6. Years ago, my husband and I got incredibly morose after we had planned to do something while traveling and then discovered the attraction was closed on the (last) day we were planning on attending. We had walked right past it earlier that week! We had plenty of time! Why were we waiting???

Now, “Let’s just do it now” has become a kind of mantra of ours.

Right across the street from an art exhibit but feeling a tad tired? Let’s just do it now!

Already had a baked treat but I’m walking past that chocolate chip cookie I wanted to try, and I could certainly go for it? What’s the harm? Let’s just do it now!

Have some extra time to finally watch that video, call that friend, pen the poem? Let’s just do it now! What am I waiting for?

Doing this has—I’m not sensationalizing—changed my life.

7. At the beginning of 2026, I proclaimed to you all before God(dess) that I was going to become an eBay diva.

I’m proud to proclaim: I am her, she is me, eBay and I are kind of a thing.

I love using eBay to buy vintage clothing pieces, used books with covers that tantalize me, and quirky items like Barbie Valentine's Day cards and eclectic sticker sheets.

When browsing eBay, one must ask: “How can I use this tool to bestow the most pleasure and magic onto thyself?”

8. A person who’s committed to becoming their own muse will do well to speak kinder to themselves. I used to be so harsh! All of my Capricorn placements and the eldest daughter lurking within me made sure of that.

However, I’ve found that the older I get, the more I love myself. I’m kinder to myself. Comfier in my skin and wise up to the fact that none of us get out of here without some type of complete “wtf did I just do” moments.

When you know better, do better; laugh often, and be kind whenever given the chance.

9. I’ve been trying lots of new things + enjoying them immensely!

Some recent highlights: Adult Dance Classes with and a Tea Omakase sitting. Acting class with friends upcoming!

10. My inner muse gets a high off of being a repeat customer at her local USPS. I used to write letters to my great-grandmother, and it’s a practice I’ve never given up. I’ve even been increasing my snail-mailing as of late.

11. Doing less. As I’ve gotten older, I truly see the beauty in doing less. You won’t find me with a 12-step skincare routine, adding another supplement to my rotation on a whim, or saying yes to a dinner I then dread for the next 4-12 business days. Those things just don’t bring me joy!

Life is short; fill it with the good stuff: great food, hearty laughs, and barely- there undies.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can enter the Pact giveaway here.

View my Pact faves here.

Order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

My favorite activity this time of year is buying up whatever shouts out, “Pick me! Choose me! Love me!” and seeing what meals I can conjure up using our bounty.

No list, just vibes.

This week, my friends, I feel we’ve won the grocery lottery. The produce has been sublime (truly needed as we’ve mourned the CA fruits + veggies we had access to at the top of the month) and I’ve had just-the-ticket ideas for meals.

Without further ado, I’d like to share them with you, so you can enjoy this glorious time of the harvest too.*

*Poem not intended but appreciated.

1. Chez Panisse Café’s Pluot & Plum Galette

Recipe: I used the one from Chez Panisse Café’s Cookbook, but this recipe from Saveur is extremely similar, as it was adapted from the one I used.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• All-Purpose Flour

• Ground Almonds

• Sugar

• ✷ 1¼ lb. of plums (and if they’re available, pluots)

• Unsalted Butter

• Plum Jam (Optional)

Kayli’s Notes: I chatted with Troy, the wonderful owner of Wild Sorrel Cookbooks, prior to our California trip, who advised me to pop into San Francisco culinary heavyweight Bi-Rite. I did and experienced the absolute pleasure of trying my first pluot as a result, a plum-and-apricot hybrid that proceeded to blow my mind in all the best ways.

If pluots are available to you, I recommend going 50/50 for this galette with plums. I smuggled some home from our travels and love the zing it gave to the dessert—and so does Alice Waters, who recommends them in her OG recipe.

I didn't use plum jam to glaze, and I still think it's the best galette I’ve made.

You’ll also notice I didn’t include the ingredients for dough, as I had Wholly Wholesome dough thawing and recommend it if you’d like to save a bit of time.

Lastly, Chez Panisse purposefully doesn’t fold their galettes in much, as they let the fruits become the stars of the show. My husband and I are crust aficionados, so I used more. Live and let live, I say!

2. ’s Squash Blossom Tart

Recipe: I used Justine’s tart recipe here, with minimal adjustments.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• Whole Milk Riccota

• ✷ Garlic

• Salt

• Black Pepper

• ✷ Lemon

• ✷ Parsley

• ✷ Tarragon

• Olive Oil

• Ice Water

• ✷ Squash Blossoms

• ✷ Egg

Kayli’s Notes: Again, you may notice I didn’t include the ingredients for the dough because I had some Wholly Wholesome dough thawing. I also switched out her mint for tarragon as it’s my favorite herb that I never can seem to get enough of!

You may notice that I made more of a galette than the flaky tart shown in Justine’s images. I had fewer squash blossoms, and this adjustment worked for me! It did require a few extra minutes to achieve those lovely browned edges.

3. Cucumber Avocado Chilled Soup

Recipe: The one below, from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, It’s All Good.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Two Cucumbers | Middle Eastern, if available

• ✷ Two Ripe Avocados

• ✷ Three Limes

• Sea Salt

Kayli’s Notes: I can’t even count how often I’ve made this recipe over the years. It’s easy, tastes good, and is cooling on a hot day to boot. This go-around, I subbed out the two cucumbers for three smaller Middle Eastern cucumbers I found at the Norwich Meadows farmstand. There was a small sign saying they had a zesty, lime flavor, and they really added some extra fun to this dish.

10/10 would sub again!

4. Steamed Artichoke

Recipe: Just steam ‘em! If you never have, this is an easy explainer.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Two Artichokes | Or one for each person at your table.

Kayli’s Notes: My eyes are glazing over, and I’m sliding my fourth glass of wine to Aaron so he can sip it down across the bar top. We’re wine tasting at the Blue Fox Cellars tasting room in Monterey, and the jovial gentleman serving us is gifting some heavy pours.

As we sip and marvel over a Vermentino, the man says a sentence that makes my heart foxtrot, “When on the 1 right before you hit the 156, there’s a farm store with the best artichokes you’ll taste in your life. Make sure to stop.”

Say less, kind wine guru.

At the stop (Pezzini Farms for inquiring minds), I get three. Two for us and one for Troy at Wild Sorrel because he deserves a thank you for his laundry list of recommendations.

We set off for Muir Beach, and I pray to God that these green marvels make it to JFK in a few days’ time without harm. They do, and Aaron steams them using a handy steamer we acquired at Pezzini and serves them to us alongside a simple garlic aioli.

The Church bells ring in the distance.

5. A Shredded Cabbage Salad

Recipe: This one from Recipe Tin Eats.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Green Cabbage

• ✷ Red Cabbage

• ✷ Carrots

• Cider Vinegar

• Vegetable Oil

• Sugar

• Dijon Mustard

• Salt

Kayli’s Notes: It’s worth noting that I was too lazy to find the shredding attachment for my larger food processor (that is also on a very high shelf I didn’t want to climb up to…), so I used my go-to mini, and while it chopped into smaller pieces, it still tasted wonderful.

We had this alongside the monkfish and corn on the cob, and it complemented them perfectly. It’s also been nice to have leftovers on hand to eat alongside other meals!

6. Monkfish with Tarragon Buerre Blanc

Recipe: Pan-fried Monkfish with an adapted version of Once Upon a Chef’s Buerre Blanc.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Monkfish

• Dry White Wine

• ✷ Tarragon

• Unsalted Butter

• ✷ Garlic

• ✷ Lemon

• Salt

• Pepper

• Heavy Cream

Kayli’s Notes: For the sauce, my husband used garlic in place of chives. We didn’t need them for any other meals, and we had bountiful garlic, so it was an easy sub.

Also, if you don’t want to pop open a whole bottle, consider wine cans from your local liquor store. I recently started doing this for sauces and wish I had thought of that years ago!

7. Tomato Plum Salad

Recipe: I didn’t have a plan for lunch, so decided to use up some goodies we had on hand. It didn’t disappoint!

1. Cut a handful of cherry tomatoes in half and place in a bowl.

2. Slice a handful of golden plums and place in the same bowl.

3. Scoop a few dollops of ricotta cheese on top.

4. Drizzle olive oil.

5. Drizzle balsamic glaze.

6. Top with flaky salt.

7. Eat and enjoy.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Cherry Tomatoes

• ✷ Golden Plums

• Ricotta Cheese

• Olive Oil

• Balsamic Glaze

• Flaky Salt | I used this salt with dried flowers.

Kayli’s Notes: You can use just about any cheese for this—feta or goat cheese would taste amazing. Likewise, you could also sub plums for peaches, balsamic for a citrus vinegar! This is all about using up what you have on hand.

To make it more hearty, you can also scoop onto crackers.

8. Gazpacho

Recipe: This one from Gimme Some Oven that we’ve used approximately one billion times.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ 2 lbs. Roma Tomatoes

• ✷ Cucumber

• ✷ Green Bell Pepper

• ✷ Red Onion

• ✷ Garlic

• Olive Oil

• Sherry Vinegar

• Sea Salt

• Black Pepper

• Ground Cumin

• ✷ Slice of White Bread, Crusts Removed

Kayli’s Notes: This is a summertime Mylius staple. We make and remake this over and over, thanking the Universe that chilled, liquefied tomatoes taste this holy.

9. Watermelon & Feta Salad

Recipe: Chop up some watermelon, crumble some feta over it, chop up some mint, and mix it in. Drizzle balsamic glaze until you feel it has met your desires.

Dig in.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• ✷ Watermelon | I found something I’ve never tried before, Japanese watermelon, at the market this week, but any kind’ll do!

• Feta

• ✷ Mint

• Balsamic Glaze

Kayli’s Notes: Refreshing, can make a monster-size batch for a cookout if you desire, and pairs nicely with BBQ chicken. Blissful.

10. Fried Caper Panzanella

Recipe: A proper caper hound, this is the only panzanella I’ll eat thanks to Timothy Pakron.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• Olive Oil

• Capers

• ✷ Focaccia Bread | I use whatever’s on-hand. Sourdough hunks, baguette slices, etc.

• Butter

• ✷ Shallot

• ✷ Garlic

• ✷ Oregano

• ✷ Thyme

• Red Wine Vinegar

• Black Pepper

• ✷ 2 lbs. of Heirloom Tomatoes | Again, use whatever you have on hand.

Kayli’s Notes: As I keep saying, use up what you have on hand and adjust recipes to best fit your liking and needs! This isn’t a test you have to ace, my friend. Enjoy the lush bounty Mother Gaia has gifted us.

Also, we don’t use the red pepper flakes because I’m a wimp and swapped Timothy’s suggestion for vegan butter for the real stuff.

Kerrygold or bust!

11. Tomato Pasta

Recipe: The one. The only. ’s Secret Ingredient Pasta.

Ingredients | ✷ signify farmers market buys:

• Pasta

• Black Pepper

• Olive Oil

• ✷ Garlic

• ✷ 1 lb. of any type of tomato | Alison prefers the ones on-the-vine. I do too and usually use a mix of what I have/that speaks to me at the market!

• Sun-Dried Tomatoes

• Red Wine Vinegar

• ✷ Red Onion

• Grated Parmesan

Kayli’s Notes: I’ve saved the one that says “summer” the most for last. Not for a particular reason: It is one that the stove requires, after all. But it’s one that we make a point to eat every tomato season alongside a chilled red and a screening of La Piscine that leaves you feeling fulfilled and desiring and sensuous and like you simply must—muuuuuust—rent a villa in the South of France with your lover for a month or you’ll die.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This recipe also calls for crushed pepper flakes, and I do add them to Aaron’s helping. My Midwestern taste buds have finally begun to appreciate siracha, but I fear I’m not at the point where I crave it in my pastas.

Alright, my friends. That’s all she cooked.

What are you most excited to eat? What recipes do you recommend to pals come August?

Don’t be a stranger, and enjoy chatting it up with your local farmers—an activity almost as fun as partaking in their harvests.

Leave a comment

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

For many of us, that means travel is also upon us. Travel has always been a passion of mine. I find trying new foods exhilarating, meeting people from other cultures a gift, and seeing sights I dream about an immense privilege. When I was fresh out of high school, I’d often take road trips—hiking a trail in Tucson, camping in Joshua Tree, or maybe an overnight trip to San Diego to jump into the saltwater.

When I was 19, I went to another country for the first time, immersed in the suffocating Yucatán June heat as I gazed up at Chichén Itzá. At 20, I took out an extra $5,000 in student loans and saved every sacred penny to backpack Europe for a month.

I’ve been lucky enough to do a handstand (kind of) in front of the Eiffel Tower, jump off a boat in turquoise Sardinian waters, and climb a rope ladder up the side of an Arizona mountain.

For years, I’ve fielded questions about how I knew about this hidden restaurant or that unique experience, so today, I’ve broken down how I plan just about every trip we go on. My handy formula, if you will, and it’s worked (mostly) without fail.

I hope they help inspire you to feel the same sense of fulfillment I feel so often when I travel, even if you’re going no further than your backyard oasis.

Okay, so numbers one and two can be interchangeable. It really depends on what’s more important: Who you’re traveling with or if you’d rather prioritize a destination. I’ve done both! For the sake of this guide, we’ll start with choosing your travel crew.

First, decide who you’d like to travel with. A group of old friends? Your partner? A solo trip? This will influence where you go, your budget, and the overall vibe of the trip which is so important.

Some Things to Consider

• Temperament. Have you traveled with this person/people before? Do you know their travel style? I speak from experience when I say not everyone travels well together. And that’s okay! But keep that in mind when picturing an adventurous trip to Costa Rica with your pal who prefers lounging on the beach.

• Budget. I get it; it can feel weird to talk with loved ones about money. But you know what can feel more sticky? One of the parties going on a trip they can’t afford, and heading home feeling the effects of a strained friendship or an empty bank account.

• Schedules. How much time can you both take away from work? Can one of you work from anywhere? If so, what will their time to explore look like? Do you each want to go for the full length of the stay?

Your destination will often set the vibe of the trip. Are you imagining plopping down poolside for five days without a care in the world? An all-inclusive could fit the bill! Want to zipline through gorgeous rainforests in the morning and swim under a waterfall by afternoon? Costa Rica could be your spot.

I Recommend…

• Creating a vision board using magazines or Pinterest to tap into how you’d like the trip to feel and experiences that invigorate you + get you excited.

• Determining “the vibe” you’d like for your getaway. The vision board is a great tool for this! Once you have those guidelines down, make a list of 3-5 destinations that delight you.

• Keep in mind how much time you have! For example, if you have 3 nights, I’d recommend staying closer to home than spending 5 hours of precious travel time in transit.

The budget is often set in tandem with choosing a destination, but I put it at number three because I truly believe you can do most spots at many budget points, it just will mean a different kind of trip.

For example, I went to Positano on my backpacking trip at 20 and survived off of Caprese salads and cafe sandwiches while swimming at the public beach. On my honeymoon, my husband and I splurged on a hotel that has been on our bucket list for years + imbibed on gourmet experiences aplenty. Each was an incredibly special experience but at very different price points!

• Transit. Transit is often the aspect that will eat into your budget the most. Determine how you’re getting to your experience: Car, Airplane, Bus? Will you need a rental car upon arrival? Does the location you’re visiting have passable public transit? Are you going on an experience that will require a driver (ex: winery hopping)? All of these should be looked at when setting the budget.

• Accommodations. We’ll get more into choosing accommodations in number four, but this is a good time to determine your maximum accommodation spend. I put this in the budget section because it is a major letdown to fall in love with a hotel only to discover it’s totally not in your price point. I’ve been there, but I can also say that there are so many gems at just about every price point! I’ve stayed at a bed and breakfast with gorgeous countryside views for around $100/night and in luxury hotel suites that cost far more, and both can be equally memorable.

• Experiences. Like accommodations, you can dive into the meat and potatoes later, but this is a good point to start pondering what it is you’ll want to do. Will you want most of your money to go toward French brocante finds, hostel be damned? Flush this out a bit!

Okay, it’s time to book transit. I know it’s not sexy or glamorous—unless you’re flying Delta One or Emirates Business, in which case, can I snag an invite?

I recommend Kayak for comparing flight costs, Avis for car rentals (however, please look into booking via a travel credit card for best deals/insurance purposes!), and Ryanair + Trainline for easy location-hopping in Europe.

Alright, partner. We made it this far! It’s time to decide where you want to stay during your adventures. Do you desire a unique stay? Could you care less, knowing you plan on being out and about anyway? I’ve been in both camps, and the only one who can truly decide this is you.

I’d say, regardless, it’s important to consider:

• Neighborhood. Is the neighborhood you’re staying in walkable? If you’re in a more remote area, is it close to the experiences you hope to have?

• Safety. Like anywhere, there are safe parts of places and not-so-safe spots for tourists. I like to stay up to date with the news in the area I’m traveling in, do some Google searches, and speak with locals if I have access to determine whether I stay in a particular area.

• Make a Pros & Cons List. If you’re between accommodations, the famous pros/cons method exists for a reason! I make these, and when I do, it always helps me decide—if not least because it’s like flipping a coin—sometimes you realize your one pro outweighs 5 cons. :)

Okay, onto the fun stuff!

The Fun Bits™️ — the part of travel planning that is the reward for jumping through the hurdles of logistics! You’ve booked your flights, gotten your hotel lined up, and all participating parties are celebrating.

Now, where to begin?

Firstly, I go absolutely feral on my IG and TikTok Saves as well as my Notes App (where I sometimes jot down bits I learn about a place when I’m in a rush). I highly recommend saving things that look interesting/beautiful/fun as they come up on your feeds. I sort by country, or if it’s a larger metropolitan city, by city.

As I go through these, I add them to a Google Map to visualize priorities. As an example, we went to Provence last summer, and as much as I would have loved to paddle boat down the Gorges du Verdon, it’s too far from our other “musts” to justify this trip.

When traveling, I also like to have most of my meals booked—especially during high seasons! It used to be that you could walk into most places at a reasonable hour and snag a table or, at the very least, be put on a waitlist while you enjoyed a cocktail. At many locations now, not so much!

I love finding email newsletters, social media accounts, and blogs of people who live in the spots I’m visiting + perusing to see what the locals think is worth it! David Lebovitz is a classic for Paris, is always sharing her adventures from around the globe, and there is no YouTube channel I love more than Aselya Fortin’s, where she shares her life along the Côte d’Azur.

My favorite trips have all had a similar three-part cocktail:

1. Leisure Time

2. Great Food in Lovely Places

3. Unique Experiences

For cultivating unique experiences, I have found two things to be incredibly helpful.

One, doing research about the specialties of the area you’re traveling to. For example, when in Arizona, don’t skip a Prickly Pear margarita, and if the weather permits, choose a gorgeous hiking trail like Pinnacle Peak.

Second, Airbnb Experiences. Airbnb Experiences allows locals to host experiences, and I have booked some of my best memories using the search engine. Aaron and I snowshoed Mount Rainer in the moonlight, friends and I have made sangria in an ancient garden in Barcelona, and I’ve truffle hunted in a Roman forest.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated so many incredible traveling resources. Here are a few I highly recommend looking into to see if they fit into your trip-planning style!

1. Kayak. As mentioned above, I absolutely love Kayak for setting flight price alerts and finding the best deals between the various airlines.

2. Chase Sapphire Reserve. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and can’t say enough good things about it. It’s Chase’s top-tier travel card, and while it boasts a high annual fee ($550 for the Reserve, and there’s also a more entry-level Preferred card), I travel enough that it gets paid off times over. The Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you access to Priority Pass lounges, TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, a complimentary $300 travel credit annually, 3x points on travel (the big draw for me), and much more. You can compare cards, using this tool too!

3. Send My Bag. I have used Send My Bag upwards of five times, and its efficiency is unmatched for long travel stays or times you’ll need more luggage than usual! I wrote a whole blog post on it here, and they were kind enough to give readers a 5% discount to try it out.

4. A Small Notebook. I’m always traveling with a small notebook to jot down memories I don’t want to forget or quips in cafes when inspiration strikes. I’ve picked up notebooks in local shops in cities I’m visiting, or I love a good pocket notebook.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON. It means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words!

You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here.

Upgrade to a paid membership here.

And subscribe using the link below. ♡

Share MUSE MAISON

Subscribe now

The month where our Leo radiance beams out of our body like sunbeams, and passion, joy, and creative expression take the reins.

The Lioness within asks:

Where can I drop the ego and scoop up my most fully expressed self?

In what ways am I playing small when my soul yearns for something greater?

How can I love deeper, dance more, incorporate fun into my days?

These questions are the ones that the August MY OWN MUSE guide works to answer with a daily prompt designed to help reunite yourself with the muse within.

She’s waiting.

Some Ideas:

꩜ Volunteering to read my work aloud at the poetry reading.

꩜ Gathering the courage to ask the person next to me in Pilates for coffee.

꩜ Publishing my first Substack!

꩜ Wearing that dress I love but feels outside of my comfort zone.

꩜ Painting my nails fire engine red!

How can we infuse this nectar into our lives today to remind us of the lasting sweetness within ourselves?

🐝 In hibiscus + rose tea for a mindful elixir.

🐝 As a face mask for 15-20 minutes to hydrate and soothe the skin.

🐝 Atop a crisp red apple and cinnamon, signifying the abundance always available to you.

Remember: Energy flows where your intention goes.

Some favorites:

𖤓 Stealing Beauty (1996)

𖤓 La Piscine (1969)

𖤓 Purple Noon (1960)

The rest of this missive is for paid Muse Maison community members. Muse Maison community members also have access to monthly workshops downloadable PDFs, our salon Discord, live events, and more.

Learn more + join.

Read more

Musing

Over…

💭 This early aughts-inspired hand-sewn tank top.

💭 Meeting my ancestral Goddess.

💭 This fun Week in the Inspired Life of from ’s pub, The Mood Board.

💭 How I have to sink my teeth into some Eve Babitz before my trip to LA.

💭 Ways I can get my local baristas to make my coffee the perfect shade of russety brown.

💭 The outstanding musical adaptation of The Lost Boys on Broadway. If you’re in NYC, go see it. Trust.

💭 The perfect way to pin my bandana so it stays as a headband. Tips?

Leave a comment

Unearthing

This video opened my eyes to the Beguines and now I want to dive deeper! The Beguines were women who, while claiming no specific religion, were able to live independently in cloisters called beguinages without taking a specific oath or feeling pressured into religious vows. They often supported themselves, were spiritually devoted, and committed to the sisterhood.

Love that for them!

Savoring

It’s a Sensual Scent Summer, babes!! My two big beauty categories are lip products and perfumes. I love a pop of color on my lips (my mum and my grandma are both lipstick-always gals with my grandmother a life long aficionado of Mac’s Candy Yum Yum) and I adore the way that scents have the ability to mark a period in your life.

When I think of Summer 2026, I’ll always think of these three perfumes:

AERIN Tuberose Gardenia: God, what a gift to the world this perfume is.

Let me set the scene: You’ve been waltzing with one person all night in the gilded Bridgerton ballroom, but you’ve been making eyes with the—much more debonair— individual across the floor constantly. Their hand collided with yours as you were pulling out your dance card at the top of the evening, locking eyes just as another was whisking them away…

You’re so hot and bothered that you sneak away to the gardens to get some fresh air. You’re standing with your eyes closed intoxicated by the scent of gardenia with hints of orangey vanilla and tuberose when you feel a tap on your shoulder. Your heart thumps in your chest. You know what’s going to happen next.

This is AERIN Tuberose Gardenia.

For Fans Of: Historical Romance Novels • The ‘Sconset Bluff Walk • Cocktails by the Sea • A Home with Heritage Pieces Alongside Fresh Pressed Flowers • Nostalgia

Skylar Clean Beauty Salt Air: A friend gifted this to me over the holiday season and I tucked it away for the summer months, confident that it’d be just the ticket.

Let’s Imagine: You’re coming off of a tough go at work. Chips are down and so is your mood. Luckily, you have a getaway to Orcas Island planned off the coast of Washington. You grab your paisley Vera Bradley duffel and stuff in only the essentials—a foldable straw hat, a few oversized button downs, a couple of white t-shirts, and your beloved athletic shorts that can do no wrong, and your tattered copy of The Shell Seekers.

You show your ticket and board the noon ferry. As the boat leaves the dock it’s like you can see your stressors, your fears, the responsibilities that plague your everyday existence being left behind.

The horn blows just as the sea air envelopes you—salt, a hint of seaweed, the driftwood you know so well—and you take a deep sigh out.

All is well.

That’s Skylar’s Salt Air.

For Fans Of: Summers in the Pacific Northwest • Kayaking by Moonlight • Journaling While Sitting on a Log of Driftwood • Second Chances • Having a Relationship with Mother Earth

Heretic Voodoo Lily: I flew through a sample size of this early in the season, and a full bottle is just yearning to be placed on my cosmetic shelf…

Conjure In Your Mind: A storm is brewing. You spot the black clouds in the distance, but can’t seem to head back home on your walk through the forest. The cedar, the juniper, your favored lily is tantalizing you, seemingly urging you forward.

As the first large drops of rainwater plop onto your face, you notice a cottage covered with roses in the distance. The hearth is lit and the smoke bellowing out rings of patchouli? Oud? Maybe pepper? You approach the door and a woman about your age answers. A black cat is rubbing against her leg gazing up, as if to greet you too, and she welcomes you in for a cup of tea. As you cross her home’s threshold, she anoints you with frankincense, and in your mind’s eye you see a lifelong relationship brewing, a coven ready to be awakened…

Are you ready?

That’s Heretic’s Voodoo Lily.

For Fans Of: Women who Run with the Wolves • The Occult • Living in Their Embodied Sensuality • Meditating with One’s Feet in the Mud • The Peace That Comes with a Deep Conversation • Circles on the Full Moon

Share

Enchanted By

I’ve been doing with Benshen on and off for the last couple of years, and it has been a pillar to my divine deepening. I joined back in this season for their current theme SACRED FLESH, HOLY GROUND and the Mary Magdalene meditation has been such a luxurious pause in my day.

Inspired By

Leonora Carrington was a British-Mexican painter and novelist that I have absolutely been fixated on lately. Her surrealist art leaves you trying to uncover each detail and her story is just as fascinating. Highly recommend this documentary BBC did on her life!

Nightstand

I’m back to using the My Own Muse flower essence I launched in collaboration with the brilliant The Spiral Path. It’s incredibly gentle yet grounding. A favorite addition to my day.

Grateful For

My dog, Stabler. He loves meditating with mama!

Sitting With

This piece I wrote on getting turned on by life. It’s a priority of mine to taste life in all of its glorious, complicated glory, and I’m grateful I’ve been more intentional in doing that these days.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, upgrade to a paid membership here, and subscribe using the link below.

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

Last year, a friend and I left a sushi lunch and meandered to a tea place Uptown to warm up, an icy breeze cutting at the skin exposed where our down jackets ended. As we passed Lincoln Center, she regaled me with her findings from Pussy: A Reclamation.

To many, this book is a feminist Bible. Regena Thomashauer, lovingly called “Mama Gena” by Pussy devotees, uses the 250-odd pages to urge women to tap into their feminine power and perhaps do the most radical thing we can—actually love our bodies, embody confidence, and bravely uncover our deepest truths.

If that sounds up your alley, I highly encourage you to read it, but you’re not here for a book review, and that brief interlude is just a gateway to chat about Thomashauer’s pièce de résistance, the urging that simmers beneath the surface of everything she preaches: That we must get turned on.

To Mama Gena, getting turned on extends far beyond what we do behind closed doors. On the contrary, she wants us all to be turned on out in the open, as often as possible.

By her definition, being turned on isn’t just about achieving sexual arousal; it’s about sucking the marrow of life dry—living in tune with our natural rhythms + most authentic selves, utilizing our senses to their full capacity—so much so that we can’t help but marvel at the miracle of our humanity.

I’m a Leo with her Venus in Libra, so I haven’t had trouble living by Mama G’s sentiment that we should find pleasure wherever possible, but I have found in the last year or so since reading that I’m much less ashamed of it.

I describe dimly lit bars I’ve been to as sexy. I buy a Mister Softee ice-cream cone and eat it while walking home, letting the vanilla sticky my fingers. I don’t stop dancing when my husband enters the room; I allow him to witness my feral unfurling. Every flower that calls out with its aroma is given a moment to smell. Shoes are flopped off, and bare feet burrow into the mud of the park near the river. I witness pleasure, and allow pleasure to witness me.

In doing so, life has become so much more appetizing, and I’m proud that I’m brave enough to taste it.

Tonight, we’ll be meeting in the Muse Maison salon for our monthly writing circle with the theme NECTAR.

We'll be reading erotic poetry, penning our own epics, and imagining life as honey. It's sure to be a good time.

Join us:

Claim Your Free Trial

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, upgrade to a paid membership here, and subscribe using the link below.

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

If you liked Getting Turned on by Life 🌹🍯🍒✨, you’re sure to enjoy THE ART OF SENSUALITY:

Aaron and I had several plans for this weekend—taking the ferry to Rockaway, reading in the park, a dinner reservation we’ve had for over a month canceled because, though it was scheduled for 7pm, it’s predicted to be a sweltering 96 degrees outside…

Anywho, at least we have working a/c’s this year, and my TBR is bountiful thanks to recent McNally Jackson + NYPL visits.

That being said, I’ll be working on making my way through some books + exclusively enjoying bites that don’t require me to turn on my oven or stovetop.

You too? Here’s my heatwave menu…

Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez: I have this queued up as my next audio listen and am excited to begin because I absolutely loved Gonzalez’s last book, Anita de Monte Laughs Last. LNIB is about Alicia, a 20-something who feels admittedly smothered by her as-to-be-expected life in Brooklyn, when she becomes intoxicated by La Garza, her neighbor who embodies everything she desires: glamour, intrigue, and success.

As her life becomes more intertwined with La Garza’s, though, she realizes that not everything is as it seems…

paired with

My Go-To Gazpacho Recipe c/o Food Blogger OG, Gimme Some Oven.

Great Black Hope by : I recently listened to Rob Franklin do a reading with Fashion Fiction and immediately went to buy his debut, Great Black Hope. The premise sounds captivating: On the final day of a sweltering hot summer, Smith is arrested for cocaine possession. An examination of class and race, family blood and chosen, and addiction, I expect this to be a book I don’t soon forget after reading.

paired with

A Tomato Martini | This recipe c/o The Kitchn.

Side Note: If you’re on the UES, I cannot recommend Sandros’ Tomato Martini enough. Best in the biz. Trust.

Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein: Set in the 90s alongside the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Jean is whisked away to a small village in France for a 6-week historical seminar. While there, she falls hopelessly in lust with the older professor leading the charge. What happens (and unjustly does not) influences her decades to come until she finds herself praying to Saint Monica Lewinsky as an unfulfilled 40-something.

If you want to learn more about this book (that I found unputdownable), you can read my interview with the author:

paired with

The chilled cucumber-avocado soup that has been a staple in our house since recommended the cookbook, It’s All Good, to me years ago.

Found Time by Caroline Goldstein: I feel like Found Time is the perfect heat wave book. Within the first pages, Lili meets Reid at a Jeff Buckley concert. What follows is a whirlwind romance cut short by life circumstances. But will it be their last chance at love, or just the beginning of something so much deeper than what they bargained for?

Steamy in a not-Fabio way, nostalgic, and clocking in at 240 pages, short enough to read in an afternoon, I found myself wishing I could dive even further into the world of Lili and Reid—and the East Village of the 90s.

paired with

This chicken salad. Buy the chicken premade and shredded, obviously!

Highly recommend watching It’s Never Over on HBOMax before reading Found Time for extra nostalgia + insight!

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston: You know those books that you look back fondly on as loving as you read? First Lie Wins is one of those for me. I read it last summer on an outdoor daybed upstate and remember being so captivated I could hardly move. Our leading lady is Evie Porter, and she has everything you’re supposed to want: A home with a white picket fence, the perfect boyfriend, a close circle of friends. The only problem? None of it is real.

paired with

A Caprese Salad. I whipped this one up last summer, but here’s a similar recipe. Enjoy!

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann: Valley of the Dolls follows three women who throw tradition to the wayside and instead choose to follow their dreams in 1960s New York City. They chase their dreams, and maybe even achieve them, but at what cost? This cult classic is the perfect tome if you’re looking for a delicious novel to binge on a long weekend.

paired with

Chocolate Mousse c/o Bake with Zoha.

What book or no-bake treat are you digging into this weekend? Let me know so I can add it to my list! Stay cool. xx

Leave a comment

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, upgrade to a paid membership here, and subscribe using the link below.

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

When I imagine where I hope to be at the pinnacle of summer, it’s always immersed in water, repeatedly diving into the waves of the ocean or swimming out to the icy-cold spot that magically appears in a lake, reminding me of the waters of my childhood. Each year, we go to the where I sit in a babbling river and lie on a rock in the sun, wondering if this is, in fact, the meaning of life.

The water has a lot to teach us, and if you listen closely, so does the magic of the siren.

How can we lure our desires using our innate gifts?

In what ways can we court ourselves, living in tune with our inner magic?

Can we protect others without sacrificing the most precious parts of ourselves?

These are a few of the questions sirens ask, and that I hope we dive deeper into in our July MY OWN MUSE guide.

My wish for this month is that you dance to the beat of your inner drum and allow your senses to lead the way.

In my experience, they tend to know best.

Some ideas:

꩜ Leisurely afternoons spent napping near a babbling brook.

꩜ A weekday diner breakfast with a friend, sipping coffee as the sun beams onto your skin through the window.

꩜ Erotic poems being read with a cup of rose tea under crisp cotton sheets.

꩜ Sunset swims where you return feeling baptized by the salt.

Start by going to your favorite market and only purchasing provisions that look enticing. Upon arriving home, slip into your favorite slip nightdress or silky pajama bottoms and flip on an album that gets your hips swaying in the kitchen— may I recommend starting with this song by Sade?

As your meal cooks, set the table like you would for a lover. Bring out the cloth napkins and light the tapered candles…

Once dinner is on the table, eat without scrolling your phone or watching t.v. Instead, give yourself the luxury of a wandering mind, and see where it takes you.

The night is your oyster.

Bonus: Send your loved one the list you made upon completion!

Some ideas:

꩜ Spend an hour picking up litter at your local beach or park.

꩜ Make a meal for your community fridge.

꩜ Help a neighbor unload groceries.

꩜ Donate to a local cause you care about. | I love Girls Inc.

꩜ Make breakfast for your partner, paying special attention to the care of the plate.

My Siren Summer Beauty Must-Haves:

𓇼 NARS Bronzer for a light dusting over my cheekbones before meeting friends for cocktails or a picnic on land.

𓇼 Merit Cream Blush in Beverly Hills

𓇼 Violette_FR Lip Nectar in Bêtise makes my lips look sumptuously kissed.

𓇼 Salt & Stone Lilu & Yuzu Deodorant smells like if you brought flowers into a cedar sauna.

𓇼 A Wetbrush for detangling post-swim locks.

The rest of this missive is for paid Muse Maison community members. Muse Maison community members also have access to monthly workshops downloadable PDFs, our salon Discord, live events, and more.

Learn more + join.

Call a friend to join, or don’t. Walk to your local ice-cream truck, or not. Throw on your favorite always-worn sundress and pop into your favorite restaurant for the perfect crème brûlée, or don’t.

Choose the path that sounds the most delectable.

This month’s theme is NECTAR, designed to place you in your heart’s drippy, sensual center.

Get the Link

No books, no phones, no distractions.

Simply see where your thoughts take you.

Remember: Energy flows where your intention goes.

Holding Things Together for the Greater Good → Writing an angry letter to the person who wronged you + burning it in a bonfire while howling at the moon.

Being the “Good Girl” → Doing only what feels good to you and fucking the rest.

Never Following Through with Commitments → Completing everything on your calendar for a full 24-hours.

Leave a comment

Join us at 4ET or view the recording in the library afterward.

Some favorites:

𓇼 Stealing Beauty (1996)

𓇼 La Piscine (1969)

𓇼 Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Leave a comment

Share MUSE MAISON

You might just be (very) glad you did.

Share MUSE MAISON

Here is a favorite I made for you all, and still listen to often.

Keep one on your nightstand and gift one to a passerby.

Leave a comment

See yourself rising out of bed and enjoying your cup of cacao. Envision yourself completing the task on your afternoon “get to do” list. Imagine the people you’ll smile at in line at the grocery store.

Fun Fact: Just imagining to move particular parts of our body trains the muscles almost as much as actual movement! The power of visualization.

Share MUSE MAISON

In the morning, journal on what’s coming up for you and make movement on one of the tasks that move you closer to what you’re luring in this month.

Read it here taking in its truths and intricacies.

Today, go and celebrate life. You deserve it.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, follow me on Instagram here, and subscribe using the link below.

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

Leave a comment

Musing

On…

💭 How we were truly robbed of living in Noguchi’s New York. Play Mountain would have been a landmark!

💭 When my farmers market will have the fresh tomatoes I yearn all year for.

💭 If I’d be able to incorporate some type of live jasmine into my city apartment…

💭 This socialite, who rode in a carriage pulled by zebras + left her fortune to a man she met at a horse race.

💭 When I should reread Kitchen Confidential before the Tony movie comes out in August. Think I’ll listen this go-around as recommends.

💭 My interview with for the August issue of The Intentional Muse. Y’all KNOW how I adored her dance class. Excited to dive more into her world!

Leave a comment

Unearthing

The V&A posted this history of gemstone amulets to their YouTube channel, and it left me wanting to learn more about the talismans women before me treasured.

Savoring

Last summer I tried my best, but I found myself with multiple summer colds, an a/c that went out before temps reached 70°, and a husband with a broken foot. This year, I’m determined to have a Venusian summer that oozes sensuality, fun, and ease.

I’ve been working my way through some of the prompts here, and living by the guideline: Just do the next thing that feels good.

So far, this has led me to:

🌞 A bench by the East River at 3pm on a Friday where I read And Their Children After Them.

🌞 Giving into a midday nap.

🌞 Meeting my friend for a white-wine-soaked dinner even though I had had a day.

🌞 Walking home with a Red Merlin cone from a Mister Softee truck.

🌞 Wearing a bright pink halter top with red flowered shoes instead of all neutrals.

🌞 Ordering oysters at happy hour.

I’d say things are going right as rain!

Enchanted By

Salt & Stone graciously sent me a few products to try and now I’ve traded in my Black Rose & Oud deoderant (which I have bought + rebought multiple times on my own!) for Lily & Yuzu during the summer months.

It smells like jasmine and lily with a cedar-y base note? Imagine you brought some fresh flowers into the sauna with you…

Leave a comment

Inspired By

I was recently lucky enough to see Danielle Mckinney’s paintings at the Boesky Gallery, and the way that the subject jumped off the canvas left me blown away.

There is something magical about seeing a woman relaxed, unbothered and unabashedly herself, and this is exactly the person Mckinney so expertly brings to life.

Nightstand

I just—as in, mere minutes ago—finished The Berry Pickers, on recommendation from my Bookstagram Mum! I can already tell, this one will stick with me.

In the 1960’s Ruthie, a little Indigenous girl, goes missing from the farm where her family tend the berry fields. What follows is the trauma, heartbreak, and forgiveness that connects two families forever.

Leave a comment

Grateful For

That Knicks win and living in electric New York, baby!!!

Sitting With

This lunch that has gone triple platinum in our house lately!!

We’ve been using Force of Nature meats for a while now and love the added oomph of organ meat in our dishes too. And no, you can’t taste it.

Thanks so much for reading MUSE MAISON, it means more than you know that you’re here + enjoying my words! You can order the monthly print edition of the newspaper I founded here, upgrade to a paid membership here, and subscribe using the link below.

Subscribe now

Share MUSE MAISON

I walked through the side entrance and opened my bag, filled with seven lipsticks and countless dollar bills, to show the gentleman working security. We both laughed as I commented on the scattered situation and he wished me on my merry way.

Almost as soon as I entered, I was mesmerized. You famously can only take photos in the atrium garden—content of the galleries is expressly forboden—but I’ll try to paint a picture:

The Frick Collection is housed in a mansion along the storied 5th Avenue. If you tune in to the Gilded Age, you need only to imagine the Vanderbilts’ estate to conjure up images of the elegant staircases, ornate chandeliers, and lush gardens that comprise such a home. And that would make sense, considering Henry Clay Frick, the industrialist behind both the home and the art collection, was a neighbor to the Vanderbilts.

If you’ve been lucky enough to visit the grand summer homes that line well-to-do Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, think a touch more modest. You won’t find a Chinese Tea House on the lawn or a ballroom the length of a football field. However, the Frick Mansion is deceptively spacious. Just as I thought my eyes had beheld the allotted beauty for the day (of which there’s much, between admiring the home and its permanent collection of over 1,800 pieces of fine + decorative art!) I’d turn down a corridor and enter a room fit for a museum of a much larger size. I was astounded!

Likewise, just as I thought I was done filling up my Notes app with speed-written notes, desperate pleas to “remember this!”, I experienced the crème de la crème, the pièce de résistance:

A larger-than-life portrait of a woman named Valerie Susan, later to be known as Lady Meux.

I sat down on a velvet settee, listened to the story whispered in my ear by the dutiful audio guide, and allowed myself to be whisked away to London, 1878.

Before she was known as the misunderstood Lady Meux, she was Valerie Susan Langdon. A daughter in a family of modest means, she didn’t have wealth, but what she did have was what some might call shameless audacity.

When she was simply Valerie Langdon, she strummed her banjo, tended bar to a rowdy group of patrons, and may or may not have been a sex worker. All she’d say to that matter is, “I can very honestly say that my sins were committed before marriage and not after.” And that’s that on that, queen.

Claiming herself an actress (she was indeed—she worked for one season at Surrey Music Hall in a pantomime), she met 3rd Baronet and successful brewing tycoon, Sir Henry Bruce Meux, at a dance hall. His family didn’t accept her; she wasn’t of their familiar upper-crust society after all, but Sir Henry didn’t seem to mind—men love women who have a flair for the dramatics, I tend to think—and they were wed in secret ceremony when she was 26...we assume. It’s debated that she could have been 31…a lady must keep some things secret to keep us all on our toes, yes?

Not being readily accepted into her husband’s social circles didn’t keep her down, though!

She did what we all might dream of upon being married into supreme wealth: Had a pool put in and a roller rink installed indoors, purchased a grandiose arch she had admired in London and transported it to act as an entrance to her country home, and (+ this one is especially Muse Maison community coded) collected scarabs and amulets.

Side Note: I now have a vendetta against the British Museum after learning that they declined the gift of her extensive collection, as she didn’t fit their mold of a respected collector. They were sold privately, never to be seen by prying eyes like mine.

Because of these eccentric lifestyle decisions, among others—being driven in a carriage pulled by zebras, dressing up in disguises to attend prize fights (allegedly), hosting glamorous Gatsby-like soirées before Gatsby was in society’s lexicon—most decided she was nothing more than a spoiled (and frankly kooky) socialite.

But, au contraire!

She enthusiastically collected Ethiopian manuscripts and, after learning how cherished they were by the Ethiopian peoples, left them to Emperor Menelik, much revered as the forefather of the modern Ethiopian state.

In addition, she sent six naval cannons to the British forces after growing concerned about the Second Boer War, and left her vast fortune to a military hero who had once been kind to her at a horse race.

Even the painting that so endeared me to Lady M is a testament to her unique style and often-giving nature. Produced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, she commissioned a portrait done in his signature style, ‘tonalism,’ which, to say the least, wasn’t exactly the rage back then. In the late 1800s, people valued how realistic an artist could make a portrait, think Thomas Eakins or Gustave Courbet. Whistler, on the other hand, preferred dreamy, often ethereal works painted in more muted shades.

Alas, there she is, hung in her pink and grey glory today, and for all of us needing an extra dose of nerve in our lives, we need not look further than the Oval Room at The Frick.

The rest of this missive is for paid Muse Maison community members. Muse Maison community members also have access to our salon Discord, live events, monthly workshops, and more.

Learn more + join.

Read more

The planet of love and beauty, the Roman Goddess of desire and fertility, her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite, emerging gracefully from the sea foam.

When I think about the approaching summer months and what I want for my life in this season, my mind wanders to languid days spent lounging by water gently kissing the shore, reading tomes of books I devour with peach juice dripping down my arms, and bite-sized novellas that I sip in with a corner bar’s sweaty glass of orange wine.

I’m taken with images of my love and me, holding hands with the windows down, driving to our favorite breakfast spot upstate, eating in the company of flowers. Of belly laughs so hard tears stream down cheeks, jasmine oil anointed collarbones, and rainy afternoons watching films that stir the emotions we all long for—comfort, eroticism, yearning.

As I write this, it’s June 9th, and Venus is in conjunction with Jupiter—the planet of love and creativity, colliding with the planet of luck and expansion. Venus energy isn’t telling us to go, go, go or do, do, do, it’s telling us–sit, back, attract and be, be, be.

This summer, let us allow ourselves that pleasure.

1. Grab a few friends and enjoy a laughter-filled lunch at a BYOB seafood spot. | For those in New York: Astoria Seafood • Hamido Seafood • AbuQuir

2. Pack up a picnic blanket and a jar of your favorite something (loving these NA Amalfi Spritzes right now) and watch the sunset from a beloved part of your area. | New Yorkers, catch me at the Brooklyn Promenade.

3. In the spirit of the Goddesses, choose an “oil of the summer” and anoint your erogenous zones with it every sunrise.

4. Take your work outside as often as the weather allows.

5. Seek out an outdoor performance and allow yourself to be moved. Laugh, cry, and clap with wild abandon at the conclusion, applauding the artists who pour their life’s blood out on the stage.

6. Choose a subject you’re insatiable for and plan an excursion around it. | Fascinated by the occult? Visit Leonora Carrington’s art at L’Space Gallery. Dream of residing in an English garden? Discover a heritage site in your state with a garden to meander through.

7. Sit outside with no agenda other than to gaze up.

8. Stroll to your local farmers market and let your intuition guide you to fruits, veggies, and accouterments. Make snack plates and meals that feed your mind, body, and soul. Pleasure in practice.

9. Enjoy a device-free day, baby.

10. Collect wild flowers and press them onto a page that you frame at the end of the summer, reminding you of the Venusian.

11. Create an altar dedicated to divine feminine influences in your life. Include photographs or artwork, stones, fresh flowers, oils, poetry, or whatever else speaks to you. | Examples: Your grandmother, Brigid, an artist whose work has positively influenced you, etc.

12. Go on the hunt for a swimming spot you can visit weekly (daily?) for a dip.

13. Compose a letter to Aphrodite thanking her for the love and beauty in your life, and asking gently for what you desire to enter your ether.

14. Dance every time you hear a song you love come on.

15. Visit your local library and attend a class or reading you find fascinating. At the very least, check out a book that piques your interest!

16. Accept compliments with a kind smile and a “thank you.”

17. Wash fresh berries, drizzle them with honey, and eat criss-cross-applesauce in a pocket of sunlight.

18. Adorn your hair with a flower.

19. Awaken at sunrise, sip cacao—a heart opener—, and write whatever arises.

20. Watch a movie that stirs emotions of longing.

21. On Venus Day (Friday), wear red or pink and make a point to savor a go-to dessert.

22. Hold “office hours” at a local park or garden (or your backyard!) once a week, where friends can stop by to catch up without planning ahead.

23. Smile at babies waving in strollers, passing wayward puppies, and especially the person on the train without one.

    

24. Run a warm bath and add potions to enhance your experience. | I adore this coconut milk bath soak, a vagus nerve bath oil, and petals of organically-grown flowers.

25. Call long-distance loved ones as you make dinner.

26. Soak your feet in water infused with mugwort and ginger. | I use these pre-made bags with this easy-to-store tub.

27. Plan a potluck gathering with your coven. Each bring a dish or libation to share.

28. Make Sunday evening gratitude lists.

29. Spend a day doing only the next best feel-good thing with no urgency. Get a foot massage, read in the park, come home and nap, back out for a mezze platter, call your sister, come home to read, early to bed…

30. Surprise a neighbor with a rose.

Read more

Ever since my conversation with Dr. Carla Ionescu, I’ve made a point to connect with Goddesses in my lineage and have found the practice incredibly expansive and, dare I say, romantic?

Large communities had deep affection for these figures. Not simply for their beauty but for their potency, and as I fall deeper into my research rabbit holes, I can’t help but consider: How can we embrace the ferocity, the sensuality, and the deep appreciation for life that these Goddesses so freely gave?

For June, we’ll be taking our daily creative MY OWN MUSE prompts from Saulė, the sun Goddess in Baltic mythology.

I hope that as you complete any or all of these small sensual missions, thoughtfully designed to help you step into being your own muse, that you feel tapped into Saulė’s radiant energy: Abound with fertile energy while remaining lusciously languid and confident.

And if you ever need a boost, just tilt your head to the sky, and make a wish to the golden-haired Goddess self-assuredly coasting in Her copper chariot. She has your back. x

The rest of this missive is for paid Muse Maison community members. Muse Maison community members also have access to the downloadable PDF version, our salon Discord, live events, monthly workshops, and more.

Learn more + join.

Read more

Before The Intentional Muse was born, way back in 2021 (half a decade ago !!!) I had scribbled “Muse Maison” into a journal.

If The Intentional Muse was the newspaper on your nightstand, I wanted Muse Maison to be the salon in your living room. I dreamt of women diving deeper. Where you didn’t just read about living intentionally—it’s where you could practice it, together, with other women walking the sacred path of their becoming.

And today, in divine and perfect timing, she’s out into the world. 🥹

Inside Muse Maison, you’ll find:

✴︎ My Own Muse Guides—a monthly guide with prompts and practices to step into the woman you’re becoming.

✴︎ Monthly Gatherings—moon circles, themed workshops, guest salons, and conversations that feel like the salons of yesteryear (Pinot Noir or piping hot tea encouraged).

✴︎ The Maison—a private community Discord with rooms designed for us: The Salon for conversation, The Library for recommendations, The Garden for weekly intentions, The Gallery for visual inspiration, The Apothecary for rituals and wellness…

✴︎ Members-Only Dispatches from Kayli—Essays, MUSE.ing videos, and more.

✴︎ Monthly Office + Co-Artful Hours—Live Times to Create, Chat, and Ask Kayli Any Questions that Arise.

✴︎ First Dibs—(+ steep discounts) on all Intentional Muse workshops and live events.

You can learn more here + when you’re ready, you can join here.

Inspired by the Parisian literary salons of Gertrude Stein, the Muse Maison is a home for any person looking to gather when they can, where they can. Join me at a live workshop and learn how to embrace your inner Persephone; pop into our Discord channels to share your intentions for the week or the latest article you read; and join an upcoming Women Who Run with Wolves book club.

The museverse is your oyster.

Hope to see you in the salon soon,

Kayli

Learn More

Join the Muse Maison