The August List

What I’m reading, cooking, wearing and generally loving right now.

If I’m being honest, I’m heartbroken that summer is basically over. September is just round the corner and then it’s back to school and back to real life and a long stretch until it’s summertime again. I get them every year, these end-of-summer-blues and even though I know that once we’re in the swing of things, it’s all good (crisp autumn days! All things pumpkin! Christmas! Ooooh, Christmas: I do really love Christmas), I can’t help but always feel slightly mixed feelings, something quite bittersweet about these last few days of August.

Still! It’s been a magical summer and here are some of the things I’ve especially loved this month…

Pistachio butter, generally, is a very good thing: on toast, drizzled over yogurt, sandwiched between two ends of a croissant, in baked goods (used much in the same way as you might use peanut butter or a chocolate spread), eaten by the spoonful… My most recent happy to discovery is to add a dollop to coffee (I like it in a short, black espresso style coffee though don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work well with all kinds of coffee). Just a hint of sweetness, a little but nutty: it’s unbelievably good.

I can’t help but feel that a strand of pearls is a recipe for instant, grown-up elegance. Somehow pearls say Grace-Kelly-elegance even when you’re wearing them with blue jeans and a t-shirt. At the very top of my wishlist (a girl can dream) is this Jessica McCormack pearl necklace which is all the glamour of a more traditional design, but also feels modern and a little bit playful and I very much can imagine myself wearing it ALL THE TIME, dressed up or dressed down. Incidentally, I’ve never been an anklet person, but this one has my heart.