Vibe Check: September 2024

Your Monthly Moodboard 🧚

Sep 01, 2024

At the start of each month, I share my own vibe check: a kitchen sink selection of recommendations, inspirations, and hyperfixations to set the tone—or the ~ViBe, if you will—for the month.

Welcome to my favorite month of the year! I LOVE September! This is personal and subjective, but everything good happens in September. It’s my birthday and my anniversary. It’s after the summer slump but before the holiday craziness. I almost always take a trip this month (we’re headed on a road trip through the Northern California coast if you have any recs!), and it’s always a good month for me to realign with my goals and priorities for the last quarter of the year.

This month we’re letting ourselves shift with the season. We’re going on long evening walks, cherishing the later sunsets before the dark fall comes. We’re setting the table with taper candles and making peppermint tea before bed. We’re listening to disco music while doing K-Beauty skin masks and reading memoirs.

Because it’s virgo season (more on that soon,) we’re paying attention to detail. We’re getting our to-do lists in order, signing up for yoga and hanging new art on the walls. We’re dusting, not rusting. We’re baking banana bread. We’re embellishing our baseball caps and wearing loafers.

Below, find some fun things to engage and inspire you, and set your September off on a fabulous foot.

The Disciples photography project by James Mollison is a collection of photo montages showcasing music fans outside concerts from everyone Lady Gaga to Merle Haggard. 🤘
I just finished Anna Marie Tenlder’s new memoir Men Have Called Her Crazy, and I can’t stop thinking about it. If you were looking for the tea on her split from John Mulaney, move on - he is barely a whisper of a mention in this book. However, if you remove that component, it’s a well-written glimpse into a complicated woman and her struggles within our patriarchal society. 📚
Salads are one of my favorite foods, and they’re one of the few things I’m willing to prepare in the kitchen. So imagine my delight when I found a substack dedicated to salad recipes: The Department of Salad! The first few I’m going to try? Green Goddess with Fava & Peas or the Plum & Whipped Feta. 🥗
The only reason I’m interested in ever owning a home is so I can cover every room in wallpaper. Until then, I am bookmarking Belarte Studio wallpaper to drool over. 🏠
I’m currently window shopping for some pretty candlestick holders. A few current faves are: these rainbow enamel holders, fruit ones, this handmade cactus flower holder, these cute lil strawberries, or a classic milk glass style. 🕯

To quote one of my all-time favorite movies, You’ve Got Mail, this time of year is for “bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils.” Here’s what I’d be buying if I were to do a back-to-school shopping trip…

Mokuyobi Laptop Bag (I actually have this and love it. Mine’s in the Vintage Palm color combo.) 💻
These fictional hotel notepads are iconic. I want the Rosebud Motel or Grand Budapest Hotel. 🏩
For a new lunch bag there are so many cute options out there right now! I’m eying this Calpack green checked insulated bag, the Baggu Lunchbox in apples and bananas print, this 80’s throwback soft igloo cooler bag, the Lunch Satchel by the somewhere co in either Versailles, Blossom or El Capitan. 🎒
This classic pink notebook or these mini highlighters from Papier
Pencil pouches: Confetti Art Pouch, this beautiful leather pouch, this pencil pouch looks like 70’s wallpaper, love Imogene and Willie - this is a nice utility pen bag ✒️
These colorful, uniquely shaped sticky notes
From the tried and true Poketo: Everything Desk Pad, Desk Organizer Set, and their cult favorite Project Planner 📖
Plus a fun new bathrobe, why not 🛀
And, of course, the GOAT. The Paper Mate Flair felt tip. 🖊

Bowan Yang on Chappell Roan for Interview is the pairing I didn’t know I needed. They have a lovely, candid conversation about queerness and fame. 👑
This Elle profile of Catherine O’Hara, one of my all time favorites, discusses her “sense of joy and infectious humour” 🤩
100 Pieces of Pop Culture That Defined Obamacore by Vulture. I’ve been making everyone I know read this and discuss it with me. The article breaks down the “earnest, optimistic, occasionally genius, and often cringeworthy pop culture of the period from 2008 to 2016.” Millennials, this is required reading. 🇺🇸
I love the work of Spanish illustrator África Pitarch and recently stumbled across this interview from 2020.
I love Heather Day’s work and this W Magazine profile is a great read and peek into her sunlit Joshua Tree studio. 🌵

OB. SESSED. With the idea of embellishing baseball caps lately. 🧢🎀

I think this is such a fun, simple and creative way to spruce up a simple outfit. I like how it adds some femininity to a dad cap. I need to try immediately.

What are you obsessing over lately? What should I check out? What are you up to this September? Anything I should add to my list?