Best of 2024

The Best Moments of 2024

A year of bucket list concerts, a new favorite beach destination and our European honey, 2024 has been a pretty great year. A comprehensive list of all the best things of 2024!

Best Song: Oil and Water

Best Album: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

I’ve been a fan of PVRIS since 2015. I’ve listened to every album I don’t even know how many times, Lynn Gunn is one of my favorite singers and I love how their music has evolved over the last ten years. And then there’s Chappell’s Roan album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess - I LOVE this album! Not a 2024 release but an album I have listened to over and over.

The Best Makeup & Skincare of 2024

2024 was the year where I tried many new skincare/makeup brands. Here’s a list of some of my favorite products One instore recommendation and two new brands I tried this year that I absolutely love include:

Lipgloss - Saie

Green Tea Face Cream - Innisfree

Eyeshadow Palette - Charlotte Tilbury

The Best Project of 2024

Slowly finding furniture pieces, artwork, and vintage/thrift finds that fit my Nancy Meyers meets Ralph Lauren with New England/California Coastal vibes, and also revamping our bar area!

The Best TV Shows of 2024

Early to Mid-2000s television shows. As a 00s teen and mid 00s young adult, I’m currently watching a handful of shows I started but never finished from the mid 2000s. Shows like Desperate Housewives, Royal Pains, Revenge, Alias, Samantha Who and a few rewatchables, like Gilmore Girls (obviously) and Grey’s Anatomy (but only seasons 1-3). Let me tell you, it’s been an excellent Fall TV line-up this year. After dinner and post shower/skincare routine, getting tucked into bed with a few magazines and playing with my cats, it’s my favorite part of the day.

The Best Shops of 2023

In an effort to reduce my online shopping and supporting bigger retail stores, I am trying to be more mindful and buy from locally owned business, visit the Sunday farmer’s market more often, check out the hundreds of thrift stores in the Palm Springs area and follow smaller online shops. A few of my favorite local shops for gifting (and treating myself to) these are my favorite places to shop in the desert.

Sunny Dunes Antique Mall in Palm Springs, CA

Blonde in Palm Desert, CA

Plants 4 U - Rancho Mirage

Joshua Tree Trading Post - Joshua Tree, CA

Rocks and Records - Indio, CA

The Best Fashion Choices of 2024

As a librarian/archivist being a minimalist is kind of hard. I love collecting things - everything from books, records, things from my travels, fashion, 80s and 90s nostalgic knick knacks like Polly Pockets and stickers, it can be overwhelming and just hard to maintain. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more of a minimalist. One its better for the environment and two, you don’t need all the things. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten rid of a lot of crap. Many of my ‘collections’ have become quite a bit smaller and instead I focus on buying more quality made furniture, clothing, etc. And now, it feels so good to not have all the stuff. I’ve spent the last two - three years getting rid of old and cheap clothes and have instead spent more time looking for more quality made clothing. Here are a few my favorite fashion items in my closet right now.

Best Tees: Mock Turtle Neck Shirts

The Best Shoe Ever: The Day Boot

The Best Purse/Workbag: Vera Bradley Twill Small Backpack

The Best Books of 2024

A dedicated audiophile I read sixty books last year. Narrowing down my top five was really hard, I read a lot of really interesting books this past year. Nonetheless, here are my top eight.

Disappearing Earth - Julia Philips

A haunting but beautifully told story about missing sisters in Kamchatka, an isolated peninsula in Siberia. Each chapter in this book follows a different person whose life intersects with that of the missing girls. The book is less about the girls and more about the individuals and community in and around Kamchatka. The ending killed me, it’s infuriating. It is also one of the best books I have ever read. Highly, highly recommend.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

I’m not a runner but I loved this memoir. Meditative, relaxing, inspiring and a book I’ll read every year now. .

The End of Everything - Megan Abbott

I had such a book hangover after reading this. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read but it is so disturbing. A book that leaves you wondering and with lots of questions. It is a slow read, So I see why people don’t like it but it’s done intentionally so you can feel every emotion between the two main girls. Set in the 80s, this is a story about a teen girl who has gone missing and how the friend of the missing girl is dealing with the trauma of it all. Just read it tell me all your thoughts.

Flying Solo - Linda Holmes

A fun summery, mystery romance. I love all the characters in this book, the charm and small town setting and the second chance at love. I was so invested in the mystery of the decoy duck so I started actually online shopping for one.

Briefly Perfectly Human - Alua Arthur

This book is so beautiful, the amount of notes I jotted down, the countless morning I’ve cried listening to this on my way to work, just please go read it!

The Ex Talk - Rachel Lynn Solomon

The Ex Talk is such a fun, steamy and cute romance that has had me in a book hangover for weeks. Now we need a book to screen adaptation and I vote Charles Melton as Dominic Yun.

Beauty Queens - Libba Bray

A plane full of teen beauty pageant contestants crash on a deserted jungle island and must work together to survive. Each teen has a hidden talent that comes in handy when they discover that they are not alone. This book is hilarious (and also discusses current teen issues) and is filled with satire and pop culture references. I especially love the product placement and sponsors in the footnotes. If you like Drop Dead Gorgeous, you’ll love this. A must summer read.

Final Girls - Daphne Gottlieb

As a horror movie fan I love the premise of this poetry collection. The poems are brutal - you’ll read about final girls in slasher movies and those not lucky enough to be final girls. The last poem is just a list of names of women, famous and not, whose lives were touched by violence and it gave me all the chills. Note to self, but all of Gotlieb’s poetry.

The Best Place to Eat and Drink of 2024

Shorebird - Palm Desert, CA

Traditional seafood and steakhouse.

Koffi - Rancho Mirage, CA

The best green teas, matcha lattes, bagel sandwiches and berry muffins.

Townie Bagels - La Quinta, CA

The best bagels and breakfast sandwiches in the desert

Bakery Cat City - Cathedral City

Mexican cafe/bakeshop that offers breakfast combo plates and traditional pastries.

La Paloma- Indio, CA

A new workday lunch spot that is quickly becoming a favorite.

The Best Movies of 2024

The Substance

A body horror movie starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. The story follows a fading celebrity, Elizabeth Sparkle who after being fired by her disgusting producer due to her age, uses a black market drug that creates a much younger version of herself with unexpected side effects. A film about the societal pressures on women’s bodies and aging , this movie is twisted, beyond weird but such an excellent move. Demi Moore better win an Oscar for her performance in this movie.

The Best Events of 2024

Madonna in Concert

The Celebration Tour - That’s all that needs to be said, I was able to see Madonna in concert and her set was incredible. Bucket List performance - check!

Janet Jackson in Concert

Together Again Tour - Checked off another bucket list concert!

Sara Bareilles in Concert

For my birthday David surprised me with tickets to Sara Bareilles performing with the LA Philharmonic live at the Hollywood Bowl. Like what! Sara has been my favorite singer since 2007. Have never been to the Hollywood Bowl, but I loved every second of this concert!

Memorable Beach Trip

I love exploring new beaches and this year we ended the summer taking a trip to Orange County and set up for the day at Corona Del Mar State beach. Maybe my favorite Southern California beach. .

Ireland & Scotland

Two years later but we finally went on our honeymoon! Ireland and Scotland were absolutely amazing and I will be posting several posts about our trip in 2025.

Everything I've Been Watching Lately

What tv shows have you been watching lately? I’m simultaneously watching five shows right now, Dark Winds, The Perfect Couple, Servant, I Love That For You and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. I binged I Love That For You on my lunch break a few weeks ago and watched The Perfect Couple in a weekend but am really anticipating the third season of Dark Winds.

Based on the Leaphorn and Chee novels by Tony Hillerman, Dark Winds is a psychological thriller television series currently on AMC and Netflix. The show follows three Navajo Tribal Police officers in the 1970s four corners area (Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) of the American Southwest The first season is based on the novel Listening Women (1978) and the most current season is adapted from People of Darkness (1980). It’s so good, watch this show immediately.

Have you watched The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives yet? A docuseries that follows the Mormon Wives that blew up Momtok on social media a few years ago. This show is wild! Because I’m old and wasn’t even aware of what Momtok was, here’s a quick recap. In 2022, Taylor Paul went viral for revealing that she and her husband had been swinging with other Mormon couples, The show picks up months later and follows the women of Momtok, and the fallout after the swinging scandal. It’s pretty cringe and I hate Whitney, but I am living for my husbands reactions during each episode!

Based on the widely popular book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, I have been waiting for this coastal thriller since this past February when I got to meet and sit in at an Elin Hilderbrand book chat with Julia Whelan. I haven’t read the book, so I didn’t know the plot but I loved every second of this show. Everyone in the show is pretty annoying but Dakota Fanning’s character was the absolute worst!

I Love That for You was such a good show and I am so bummed it was canceled. I’ve been a fan of Vanessa Bayer for years, so I love that she finally created her own story and was the star of a show. The show is about Vanessa’s character who is an aspiring host for a shopping channel and lies to her boss that her childhood cancer has returned in order to keep her job. The story is inspired by Bayer’s own experience with childhood leukemia. Highly recommend!

A psychological horror television series produced by M. Night Shyamalan that you need to watch immediately. It’s weird and creepy, but is excellent. The show is about a couple who hires a young live-in nanny to care for their son. However, the baby is dead and has been replaced by a reborn doll. With the arrival of Leanne, the nanny, stranger things begin to happen in the house, unearthing dark secrets of the couple and the nanny, herself. .