Mary-Kate Olsen from Vogue Italia. I love this picture. Sitting ontop of a building in Manhattan on a beautiful day? YES!

Here’s what I’m in love with this week. I’d love to hear your personal Things I Love Thursday! Go on, indulge me!

Taking a week off writing in Austin. Best thing I’ve done in ages! I sat down last Friday & wrote so much stuff! I didn’t even realise I needed the break. I always forget that you have to refuel the tank with life & inspiration… !

Sunday: We woke up early & rode out to Brooklyn for breakfast. As we got back on the bike, I said to The Dish, “Can we go somewhere fun?” & we took off. We went further & further out, I asked him where we were going, & he wouldn’t tell me. Eventually I saw signs & realised he was taking me to Coney Island! It was a beautiful day, but the season hasn’t really started there yet so all the shopkeepers were painting, cleaning & getting ready. Coney Island in the off-season is an excellent thing to witness. We walked along the boardwalk & out to the end of the wharf before riding home again. I love Coney Island, & Le Dish. (Obviously.) If you have never been to Coney Island, it is a New York must-do. You can live vicariously here!

Street finds! On Tuesday night, Le Dish et moi were walking to see our friend’s show when we passed a black leather couch on the street. It had a metal frame & the leather was quilted with buttons — suffice to say, it was rad.

“That’s a nice couch”, I said.
“Yeah, it IS!” The Dish replied. We stopped walking & looked at one another.
“Do you want to take it home?”, he asked me.
“Yes! I could put it in my office!”
“Okay then, let’s grab it & take it home.” I looked at it again. It looked heavy.
“I don’t know. Let’s just go to the show & if we come back & it’s here, we’ll take it”, I said.
“What if it isn’t here when we come back?”
“Well, then, it wasn’t meant to be.” (Very Zen, very Gala, this is how I operate 89% of the time.)
He gave me the look of a seasoned New Yorker. “This is a really good couch. If we don’t take it, I PROMISE you someone else will. If you want it, we need to get it now.”
“OH, OKAY.”

We picked it up & started carrying it down the block. It was as heavy as I thought. We got about twenty paces down the street when two guys came up to us & started exclaiming.
“Oh, you took the couch! We love that couch. We just came back for it. Yeah, we saw it first.”
The Dish looked at one of them. “Yeah, it sure is a great couch.”
We kept walking. The guys looked annoyed. HA!

Long story short, the couch is now in my office. It makes the room a little smaller but it gives me a divine place to stretch out, read magazines, curl up with my laptop, or snuggle Hank. (He has already established it as a good place to sleep & watch me work.) It is perfect & fantastic. Thank you New Yorkers for being so wasteful!

Yummy littles? Wearing my new bunny coat on the plane home & feeling cozy the whole way lace-covered bunny ears being home with my boys again (you have no idea) extremely auspicious meetings (also, the word “auspicious”!) light fixtures made from branches hanging globes in gardens being ridiculously overdressed & the way people react (some people smile at you or compliment you, some [especially middle-aged women] just look stunned) going back to the gym (I actually missed it while I was away, CAN YOU IMAGINE?!) meeting charming new people turquoise sunglasses + white hair the fact that whenever I wear these shoes to the gym, people tell me how rad they are & also that they saw them blocks away! finally having a proper mousepad (La Sirena!) coming home to unexpected presents — a new mirrored bubble visor for my helmet! (basically, this is me, except my helmet is pink glitter & my visor is 100% mirrored, OOF so rad) the boys at the Austin Speed Shop new albums by Goldfrapp, Snoop Dogg, Bonobo, Madlib, & Autechre sore muscles birthday cupcakes with candles in them having expectations exceeded (BEST!) the Moon in Leo (means GO BIG, BE BOLD, flick your hair & don’t worry about naff people! I can totally get behind that!) stockpiling candy bright pink hyacinths & orchids opening daydreaming about new hair (got any thoughts? The Dish & at least one other person think I should dye it black, WHAT!!! Extensions? “Bangs”? Pink? Purple? Turquoise? HOLLER at a girl!) being so excited & pleased all you can do is squeeze your friend’s hands big stacks of books & magazines Swarovski crystal hip flasks bone beads & sacred hearts amazing things & universes expanding & hearts exploding.

“I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.” — Coco Chanel

This is me signing off! & sending a lot of love to YOU! Especially if you’re feeling tired, grumpy, cranky or sick. Feel better soon!