Coffee Break #006: Every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time.

Sorry, this one's kind of a bummer.

Dec 13, 2025

Dear Friend,

I keep sitting down to write this and finding myself at a loss. This past couple weeks hav been pretty terrible for me, and I’m having a hard time focusing on anything. I’ll spare you the details, but two weeks ago my grandfather had a sudden stroke, and a week later passed away. It was a tense, exhausting, heartbreaking week for my whole family, between battling blizzard conditions to visit the hospital, dealing with potential legal complications with the estate, and handling my grandmother, his wife of 66 years, who has such advanced dementia that she keeps forgetting any of it happened.

It’s bad! Sorry to bring down the mood here! But I’m having a hard time writing about romance novels and twinkle lights this week!!!

In Brief

This week smells like…

Freshly fallen snow at midnight.
Dusty hymnals.
Tiny ham sandwiches in a church banquet hall.

This week sounds like…

What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie
Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers
Girls Against God by Florence + the Machine

This week feels like…

Old film photos of long-gone loved ones.
A really cathartic cry.
The end of an era.

Bookshelf

Currently Reading

My attention span is all over the place, and I keep switching between books without finishing any. I am about halfway through Set Piece by Lana Schwartz and I’m loving it so far. After that I’ll probably dive directly into Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff since it’s been staring at me from the pile, and usually when I finish a book I want to immediately read more like it.

I also added on A Home for the Holidays by Taylor Hahn to my latest Book of the Month box and I’m excited to try that one out too, it came highly recommended.

And speaking of festive reads…

Book Club

Our book club pick for December is Yours for the Season by Emily Stone! (I know I still owe you all a post about Heart the Lover – see above re: I’ve been busy).

Pinboard

Things I’ve read, saved, shared, or bought this week.

Oh my god are you watching Pluribus??? I adore Vince Gilligan and I’m so beyond hooked on this premise already. It starts off with the human race being infected by some sort of alien virus (?) that creates a hivemind. All but 13 people on the planet are connected to this hivemind – and the show follows Carol, the main character, one of the thirteen who are seemingly immune. It’s fascinating, and has a lot of dark comedy elements that remind me a lot of The Good Place. Highly recommend!
How cute is this Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired sleep mask?! I never thought I would like a sleep mask, but I used one on our red eye flight to London last year, and I kinda loved it. I haven’t tried using one at home, but this found me on Instagram, and I’ve always been obsessed with Holly’s glam sleep mask, so it seems like the perfect fit.
I adore this brass personalized matchbox from Matilda Goad.
No one bothered to tell me that Deep Cuts, one of my favorite books from this year, is being turned into a movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler?????
I got an ad for this company that custom makes all their jeans from scratch and I’m so intrigued. I’m very short, so even the petite sizes are often a tad bit longer than I’d hope for (and forget about cropped styles). They’re pricey, but not outrageously expensive for a custom pair of jeans. I really want to try it!
I’m also utterly obsessed with this keepsake box from Curio Boulevard. It’s gorgeous, it’s got a lock and key, and you can add inserts to it to make it a shadow box, jewelry box, etc. I will definitely be replacing my ancient Hobby Lobby wooden box with all my keepsakes soon.
I really want to try this Miso Salted Caramel coffee syrup. Though I have to say, I tried a Miso Brown Butter Caramel latte in New York, and I feel like it was so many flavors that they kind of cancelled each other out and it just sort of tasted like caramel, but bland.
I finally splurged on this gingham linen duvet cover and sham set from Quince, and so far I’m very pleased with the quality! They are very similar to some from Piglet in Bed (allegedly) but were a lot cheaper. I wasn’t 100% set on the gingham style and if it would work in my bedroom so I’m glad I could try it out this way first (and I definitely have my eye on some PIB wares).