Noticings
Clippings from our long distance desk.
For a few months now, we’ve committed to a weekly “study hall,” or our hour-ish FaceTime where we work on a project, pitch, or an upcoming Circle Back. This is our almost-science-backed approach to getting sh** done. Our recent study hall started much like they typically do:
…another example….
And concluded, with a 20-minute broad search (supported by the Circle Back approved Time-Timer) into our notes app, recents, saves, Pinterest feeds, and Substack notes to get a bit more of a handle on what’s been catching our eye lately. Here’s what we found:
We’ve plugged these pants in our Treasure Trove before, but now that we’re both proud owners of the wool varietal, we can confidently say: Brooke Callaghan Tie Pants will suit you from hot girl to hot mama. You heard that right, Sylvie is pregnant!! Come August 2026, Circle Back will have the youngest Substack subscriber known to man!
Our minds have always converged for Circle Back, but now we’re collaborating off the page too, and it feels 100% right. We’re delighted to be working with Argyll House (in separate capacities), a dreamy Cotswolds-inspired house in the Connecticut Countryside that we’d love to invite all our subscribers to one weekend.
Daylight savings has us both thinking a lot about lamps. Lamps handmade in Europe, specifically. Meet Baguette Studio and Marten Herma Anderson.
We’re loving the resurgence of advice columns, classifieds, and personals (is there a broad term for this type of column?) For The Drift’s second advice letter, advice-seeker Meg grapples with the big question: As a freelancer who can live anywhere, where the heck should I live?! This is something we’ve both thought about a lot recently.
“When presented with an almost endless amount of choices about where to move, I’m stuck. So, where should I go?” In her response, Drift Editor, Sophie, struck a chord. “Optionality can quickly become its own kind of prison,” she writes. And we agree. But her advice is satisfyingly simple — “move to the place where you know the most people you love.”
What do you think? Share with us, and each other, in the comments, please.
FROM THE DESK OF SYLVIE 📍Cambridge, MA
Yes! I moved! No more Hudson... for now. Penned a survey of local nightlife as my departing gift.
Even though I’m part of the wired headphone club, I can’t get this chic Italian AirPod case out of my mind.
When I return to Berlin, I want to stay at this prison-turned-hotel. The rooms are bright and delightfully un-prison-like with Copenhagen-based Frama bathing amenities. There’s an in-house bakery for Brot (a main food group when I’m in Berlin), and there are verdant grounds surrounding the old brick building. Plus a sauna and a rooftop pool. I don’t often think to stay in Charlottenburg, but there’s a first for everything! (P.S. If you’re also interested in this kind of thing, go see Ilana’s adaptive-reuse-obsessed TikTok.)
Unfortunately, I couldn’t experience New York’s first outdoor “public” sauna park (since: pregnant), but I have a lot of thoughts on the entire thing (and all the content that came of it). I appreciate this candid take.
Letter of recommendation for Imagine, the new cafe I’d like to be a regular at with Iggy’s treats and a working fireplace, it almost feels more like Santa Fe than Cambridge.
A friend of a friend’s partner in Hudson started The Studio Grand, which just launched its first collection, including these party hats that are made from antique fabrics and textiles. Perhaps I should get a bunch for a couple of gals turning 30 in June ;)
FROM THE DESK OF ILANA 📍Brooklyn, NY
Tart Vinegar, a small-batch raw vinegar company with a devoted Substack. Their recent carrot vinegar drop includes some of the most genuine product photography I’ve seen this month, down to the dirt beneath the fingernails. This one too.
After debating purchasing a bottle at Dimes Market (it looks like Tart’s online shop is closed) I instead left with an appreciation for the artist behind the branding: Rob Moss Wilson’s art is categorically weird and random and I think pretty great.
Devoted friend of Circle Back, Mary, saw A Dictionary Of Color Combinations and thought of me (she was spot on) and a few days later volumes 1 and 2 were on my door step. While I’ve delighted in flipping through the pages, the true gift is not really being able to do anything beyond absorb and take inspiration. When I see a color palette I like online, I typically bring it into Illustrator and add the colors to my library, with the intent to use it in an upcoming project. These books ask me to luxuriate in the combinations rather than putting them to work. Thanks Mary!
Sea View in Los Angeles is the kind of alternative art concept I’d like to see more of.
Sea View initially opened in a domestic concept space designed by Jorge Pardo for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles on Sea View Lane. Equal parts home, studio, and gallery, Pardo described the space as a “social sculpture,” rejecting traditional systems of categorization and exhibition.
It’s officially tulip season in New York, and there’s no better way to memorialize this fleeting time of year than with these gorgeous tulip earrings. I met the designer, Adrienne, at WilMar the other day and her energy was just as springy as the earrings themselves. The saving starts now!
Bow (Blue Curtain) by Beverly Semmes (2016) is my color of the year.
Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery. Until Soon,
Ilana + Sylvie
A Dictionary of Color is the most useful and collaborative book I own in my entire library she is so perfect
In love with the tulip earrings