Stuff We're Into May 2026

Why does May always feel like it disappears the fastest?

Between unexpected heat waves and days where the heat was still cranking, spring felt more like a rumor than a reality this year. But what the weather lacked in cooperation, the month more than made up for in the ways that actually matter. My father visited for a week, which meant house projects tackled, dogs walked by extra hands, and the particular comfort of having family fill up a space. We also celebrated my husband's birthday, four years of building a life together, and I feel more grateful for that every time around the sun.

This month was quieter on the camera roll than usual, and I think that's actually a good sign. A lot of May was about being present. About the people in front of me, the house we're slowly making ours, and leaning into the life we're building here in Pennsylvania. More on all of that below.

Slide One: Things That Stopped Me

We wrote back in January about the excitement surrounding JW Anderson taking the creative reins at Dior, and May delivered on every bit of that anticipation. The Cruise 2026 show at LACMA was breathtaking. The coats alone. I am genuinely trying to construct a scenario in which I need one. My husband remains unconvinced. The conversation continues.

Wes Anderson partnering with Astier de Villatte on a letter-writing stationery set inspired by his films is the collaboration none of us knew we needed and somehow all of us deserved. The notebooks reference his films and the Astier de Villatte aesthetic is exactly the kind of beautiful, slightly eccentric object that makes correspondence feel like an event. I will be purchasing. I will want to use it. I will also want to keep it untouched forever. This is a genuine dilemma I have not resolved.

This month I also finally began properly reading my great aunt Ardell's diaries. She left behind twelve small leather volumes spanning 1935 to 1958, from the year she turned sixteen in Iowa through the decade before she married my great uncle Clair. I've started transcribing the 1935 diary and there is something completely transporting about reading her tiny handwriting, following her to the movies multiple times a week, watching her navigate being a teenager in the Depression era. I know more about how this story ends than she did writing those entries. That gap is where all the feeling lives. I'll be sharing more of her story here over the coming months. This photo of her, leaning against a brush pile outside a white clapboard house, has always reminded me of Andrew Wyeth's world. I love it more every time I look at it.

And finally, this watercolor by Space Tiger Studio on Instagram stopped me completely. A dog portrait paired with a Virginia Woolf quote. I've been thinking about commissioning portraits of our own dogs for a while now, and this felt like a sign. The love you have for an animal is genuinely hard to put into words, and this captured it.

Slide Two: My Pennsylvania Era Continues

I will not apologize for fully leaning into what I can only describe as my pseudo-rural, nineties rom-com, Nancy Meyers character arc. Living here has genuinely changed what I'm drawn to and I'm embracing it.

The Timex x J.Crew collaboration watch with the fish print is everything. Chef's kiss, as the young people say.

I have also become a bird person. I know. My friend's enthusiasm for birds was contagious and now I have feeders, birdbaths, and the Merlin Bird app running on my phone while I sit on the screened-in porch. One evening this month my dad, AJ, and I sat outside and the app picked up ten species in our backyard including a Baltimore Oriole and a Northern Parula. I was unreasonably excited. I regret nothing.

We wrote a longer post this month about our visit to Fonthill Castle and Henry Chapman Mercer. If you haven't read it, please do, he is a fascinating human. But this photo is from the Peter Wentz Farmstead, the other unexpected stop that day. A Pennsylvania German farm continuously operated since 1744. The stone exterior, the kitchen garden, the whole atmosphere. We didn't get inside this time but it is absolutely on the list for a return visit.

Fitting the general energy of this era: these Buck Mason shorts with their heritage-forward design feel exactly right. As does this retro windbreaker from Hikerkind, a brand I've been circling and will inevitably buy from. And obviously, always, more vintage collegiate crests J.Press under Jack Carlson continues to be exactly what this category needed.

Slide Three: Home, Pam, and Small Treasures

I know I've mentioned Pamela Anderson before and I will continue to mention Pamela Anderson. The recent Jacquemus campaign shot at her actual home with her sons is genuinely beautiful. She is living the most authentic version of herself, gardening, making art, raising her boys, stepping back into the spotlight entirely on her own terms. I find this genuinely inspiring. We should all be so lucky to arrive at ourselves so fully.

The living room project is officially underway. We finished the herringbone floor in our library den earlier this year, a decision I am very happy with every single day, and have now turned our attention to the living room. I have personally torn out the faded grasscloth wallpaper and the 1980s curtains myself rather than pay someone else to do it, which I can report was equal parts dusty, emotional, and deeply satisfying. The room is already brighter. We've purchased the shell sconces. Wallpaper and paneling decisions are still in progress. I'm genuinely curious whether people would want to follow along on the design process. It's not trend-driven, it's more about building something that feels like us. Warm, curated, full of things worth discovering.

The three Moravian tiles I brought home from Henry Mercer's pottery shop this month are also now a small obsession. The Mayflower, Veritas, the Pennsylvania State Capitol. I want to hang each one individually near a doorway the way Mercer himself used tiles throughout Fonthill, as small objects of beauty you discover rather than display. I like the idea of someone noticing them and asking about the story.

And one more for the antique lovers: a small shop discovery down in the Lititz area that I am already planning to return to. I came out with something I need to properly photograph and share. Some places you walk into and immediately know you'll be back. This was one of those.

Here's to June, sunny days finally arriving, and the ongoing project of making a life that feels completely like yours.

XX, Brynn