Things I've loved lately
Birthday edition!
I turned 33 earlier this month, and I had such a delightful time. The day was cool and sunny and the perfect amount of breezy. I had a couple loose plans but nothing overwhelming. The people that I love and that love me reached out with calls and texts and birthday cards in the mail. It made me feel so special (if you forgot, no worries! Remembering others’ birthdays is a skill, for real). Here are a few of the many things that filled my weekend with joy and love.
Dinner out with my friend. We went to Hai Hai in Northeast Minneapolis and had Hanoi sticky rice and chicken laab that was way too spicy for us and banana bread pudding and hours of conversation about making art. I am lucky to have many very creative people in my life and I particularly love talking about art with those who work in different media than I do. My friend designs and creates truly stunning bespoke jewelry that has recently been featured in Vogue, People Magazine, and other very cool publications. (And!! There is even a pair of earrings named after yours truly––how cool is that?!) Asking her questions about her process and getting a glimpse into the way her brain plays with ideas and physical materials seriously inspired me. A perfect start to a birthday weekend. Plus, Hai Hai’s chef was named a James Beard winner the very next week! Glad we got in before it’s swamped with bookings!
A quick pic I took of Hai Hai. Getting to hold another one of my friend’s newborn baby. Holding this beautiful baby born by one of my oldest, dearest friends was a joy so pure and sweet.
Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash On my birthday eve, Charli XCX released her album Brat. Happy birthday to meeeee. (I have begun a draft alll about Charli and my obsession with her, so I’ll hold off on gushing here too much.)
Charli xcx singing at one of her recent Brat concerts. Wow, do I want to go! Having a backyard pizza party with my brother and his girlfriend. The evening was glorious. We got Hello Pizza (a restaurant by another James Beard award winner, Ann Kim—how amazing is the food in MSP?!) and kicked balls around the yard with Bodie. They brought me the perfect gift: copy cat Taher cookies (iykyk) (jk I actually hate it when people say iykyk because I’m often like: uh…no…idk plz tell me! So iyDk, Taher was the name of the food service at our high school and they baked these delicious chocolate chip cookies every day. We’d buy them before school, at lunch, during our free period, and always squish them in their bags to make sure we were choosing gooey ones.)
My loves. I re-read Neil Gaiman’s delightfully creepy Coraline around my birthday. I hadn’t read it in about twenty years, but as a young person, I read that book at least twenty times over. The basement scene! The buttons! The eerie-weird minor characters and the circus mice in the attic! Yes, yes, yes, and yes! As I read, I heard each line like an echo clanging around in this young writer’s head and heart. I hadn’t realized how formative Coraline had been in my bookish and writerly interests until this reading.
Look at this book cover! So creepy! I love it. This chocolate cake recipe. I love chocolate cake. I tried this recipe for my birthday, but instead of the chocolate buttercream frosting, I made my mom’s frosting. It comes from one of those community church spiral-bound recipe books and is titled “easy chocolate chip frosting,” but it is one of the trickier recipes I’ve made. It’s right up there with the chicken cordon bleu I made for an AP French project in high school. It’s totally worth it, though.
Photo by Cristina Matos-Albers on Unsplash Chappell Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Bop after bop after bop after bop. I am so late to the Chappell Roan party, but, hey, I’m just happy I made it.
Iconic. Love the love for the Midwest. Sandal tans. They’re there, promise. Here are his stompers. 🩵🩵🩵
What have you been loving lately? Tell me all the sweet and sweaty wonderful summer things!
With love from my kitchen table,
Kaia
33 yipeee
Here for the Charli xcx love!