Coffee Break: Amalia Jewelry Organizer
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I really like my minimal Container Store hanging jewelry organizers — but if I were looking for a new one I love the look of this floral one from Anthropologie.
Anthropologie notes that it's cast iron, and it's top rated at Anthro.
The organizer is $48, at Anthropologie.
What are your favorite necklaces these days, ladies?
Sales of note for 6/4/25:
- Nordstrom – The Half-Yearly Sale has begun! See our full roundup here. Lots of markdowns on AGL (50%!), Weitzman, Tumi, Frank & Eileen, Zella, Natori, Cole Haan, Boss, Theory, Reiss (coats), Vince, Eileen Fisher, Spanx, and Frame (denim and silk blouses)
- Nordstrom Rack – Refurbished Dyson hairdryers down to $199-$240 (instead of $400+) + Father's Day gifts up to 60% off
- Ann Taylor – 50% off dresses, jackets & shoes + extra 30% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 25% off
- Boden – 15% off new womenswear styles
- Eloquii – $19+ up select styles
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off women's dresses + up to extra 50% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50-60% off summer styles + up to 60% off everything + extra 60% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Rothy's – Up to 50% off last-chance styles
- Spanx – Free shipping on everything
- Talbots – BOGO 50% off everything, includes all markdowns
When you travel with a partner, how do you split up the planning (if you do)?
I always do 100% of the planning because no one I have close relationships with is responsible enough to buy tickets in advance or anything. I would do anything to go on a vacation that was magically planned for me.
Same for me. On the whole I enjoy the planning, but just because I enjoy it doesn’t mean I want it to be my chore for every.single.trip. On one occasion I went on a group trip as a +1 where a highly organized person had planned it all out. It was wonderful!
It really depends – usually one of us is the one pushing for the trip. I’m more of a detailed planner but expressed to my partner that, if he really wants certain things a certain way, then he needs to handle those aspects instead of letting me do it and then complaining about how it’s not what he wants, and to be fair, he has taken that to heart. So we try to do a loose division of labor whenever we discuss a trip – sometimes it’s almost all me, sometimes it’s almost all him, sometimes I’m doing hotels and he’s doing restaurants, sometimes I’m doing City 1 and he’s doing City 2.
To add – we buy the main plane tickets together. I usually handle inter-city travel because I’m somehow much better at it and like to pick my own timing for itineraries, but we loosely agree on “spend X days here, then go to Y” and then he trust me on the details.
We don’t. I do all the planning, but I ask him what he is interested in doing and run ideas by him. This works because I like travel planning, and he is very easy to please. He also never second-guesses me on cost, logistics, etc.
Same here
I used to do all of the planning for any of our household travel. In recent years, however, my husband has taken on more of it so it is a more even balance. Since my schedule is the more restrictive one, I usually choose the dates. We mutually choose the location, then he plans meals and I plan activities, and we each chime in if there is anything specific we want to catch. We are responsible for our own personal packing. For shared items we have a checklist we run down confirming who has packed each shared item.
What items would you share? Just curious!
My partner does all of the planning because he doesn’t trust my flight/hotel judgment + he has all of the points. But he’ll get my input on dinner reservations.
Husband, is that you? But yea, I do 90% of the planning, but I am also really good at it and my trips are excellent.
I’m a snob and my husband isn’t, so I do the planning.
My husband does 90% of the planning because he’s generally the one that cares about where we go and what we do. I give him input on the important decisions along the way.
I do 90% of the planning, minus car rentals. Because he’s the one often driving on trips, I have him handle that portion. But the rest — hotels, flights, meals, sites — fall into my bucket, in large part because I have more Opinions than he does.
We jointly align on a destination and cities/stops within the destination. This usually involves a high level consideration of where to go, when we can take time off, and what the weather is like in our available weeks. Then we buy a guidebook and both do some internet research and have a conversation about which cities/stops to go within the destination.
I research flight and hotel options, and travel between stops, and present my husband with a few options, and then buy them, usually using our points. I do a bit of points maximization.
My husband does most day to day itinerary planning (activities, how to get to them, booking tickets in advance as needed). He also IDs 1-2 restaurants we want to make reservations at but otherwise we dine on the fly (we have a toddler).
When traveling with my husband I do 100% of it. I enjoy it and he doesn’tso it doesn’t make sense to split any other way. With my mom I’d say we split it more like 80-20 me but it’s kind of stressful collaborating and I would much rather do 100%.
I do 100%. Even if he is traveling alone, I make his hotel reservations unless he is traveling for business, in which case he is on his own. I am very much not a procrastinator, and he is. It works fine for us, and he has never even fussed when I’ve made a couple of travel mistakes. Once, I got our check-in date wrong at the hotel, and we showed up a day early; another time, I had our flight time wrong, we missed our flight and had to stay an extra night. Both of these were with kids in tow. But over the course of decades and many, many trips, these are my only screw-ups, I’ve had many more wins than losses, and I’ve saved piles of trips and worked out all sorts of jams. He is right not to complain.
This is totally a me thing – I love planning travel and I’m great at it and my husband is appreciative of my efforts in a way that also makes me feel good. He plans all our home-related projects so it evens out!
We buy plane tickets, fly to our destination and spend the next week saying, “I dunno, what do you want to do?”
I do more planning now because I got so tired of that kind of trip.
I do all the planning but I accommodate requests if I can
I do the bulk of the logistics (plane, car, hotel, etc.) since I am the one with points. Husband typically expresses interest in a few things he would like to do on the trip, and then allows me to pretty much pick over half the time doing things that I want to do. Yes, it’s not a fair division of labor but he will happily trek along to all the museums I want to see.
We do it pretty collaboratively. Like, we enjoy going to Europe in Sept or Oct when the weather is lovely and children are in school, and so we keep an eye on Google Flights for when there’s good fares to places we have on our list. We then check out a few travel books from the library to help us decide what our must-have things to do are, and back into the best locations to stay from there. (Like for a French Riviera trip prompted by a bargain nonstop to Nice, we prioritized a view and an easy walk to the nearest train station, since we realized we’d spend most of our time town-hopping, and a 45 minute hill climb to the train was going to really put a damper on things.)
My husband is awesome at poring over hotel and apartment options and narrowing it down to 10-15 properties that we then click through together to make the final choices.
I tend to do more restaurant research, he tends to do more “intra-trip t-nsport” like figuring out which train is best. Activities we each flag our wish list and then figure out how to best allocate our time.
We have so much fun planning that it’s almost – almost, lol – as good as the actual travel.
I do anything with flights and hotels because I’m a frequent business traveler & have that stuff down.
My husband plans all road trips, which we do a lot of.
My family is going to Paris over Thanksgiving break this year. It will be 6 adults, 2 tweens, and 2 3-year-olds. We’ve already arranged accommodations, but I would love ideas for fun things to do in Paris that the younger kids might enjoy. They’re usually pretty happy as long as they’re with their older siblings/cousins, but it would be great to plan a few activities geared towards their enjoyment.
3 is still pretty young, i’d just maybe build in some playground time, i would also read the kids lots of paris related books and show them movies/videos that take place in Paris and then they will be excited each time they see something from a book.
I do this as an adult before going to a new country!
+1 parks and playgrounds and walks for the 3 yr olds. Give the tweens a break to do something with the adults vs. with the littles.
+1 let the tweens do adult things, and they are NOT childcare.
The tweens will definitley be allowed to do adult things. We’re eagerly making plans. They love their younger counsins though, and they want to be with them and do fun things with them too. Even were that not the case, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say to a couple of 13-year-olds that part of the price of admission for this awesome trip to Paris is you have to spend a few hours of time focused on the younger kids.
😬
There’s a big difference between being “used as childcare” and being made to do some things that are boring for them that interest the younger kids. The former is not ok imo (unless they volunteer), the latter is just being part of a family and is a good lesson that you take turns doing things that are interesting for each person.
It’s probably not out of bounds to make them watch the kids a night or two when the grownups go out to dinner.
Yeah a 3 I don’t think there are any specific Paris things that wpuu to of be a bigger hit than a playground.
Thanks!
Definitely some parks: Luxembourg (the playground that you have to pay for is worth it at least once, there is a great Carousel, the big swings, the ponies if they are out by then), Tuileries (the trampolines are super fun, also a cute Carousel) and lots of cute small parks with playgrounds. Agree with the book suggestion – the upstairs kids section at Smith & Sons is cute and right next to their café, which is cozy and pretty kid friendly. I also like Shakespeare and Co but there sometimes is a crazy line out the door. Nature et Découvertes is a French store with cute educational toys, Otitpi is a café with a playspace if you need an indoor break. 3 is a bit young for museums, but you can check out the soft play kids zone at Musée George Pompidou (might be closed for renovations?). It might be rainy in November, so I would plan for lots of stopping for hot chocolate and crepes and bring rain gear and layers. If the Christmas windows are up yet, those are fun (at the big department stores – Galeries Lafayette, le Printemps, le Bon Marché). I would also follow Le Petit Guide on Instagram, she does kid-friendly tours of Paris.
Thank you!
I took my 2 year old to Paris and he enjoyed a river cruise and visiting the playground right near the Eiffel tower.
Thank you!
Recommend you join “Les Frenchies” facebook group. Wealth of knowledge. It’s connected to a Youtube channel, but I’ve never watched any videos–just the FB group is great info.
Also look at TimeOut Paris for Kids.
Thank you!
It’s old now but the blog Hither and Thither had a very detailed write up on Paris with a young kid.
Thanks!
Jardin D’Acclimation
Thanks!
I am a former BigLaw associate, now in-house legal counsel. I ran into my former BigLaw mentor and he suggested we do lunch, I just got the invitation. We have remained friendly and in touch occasionally through the years. I left in good terms and would give them work if I could, but I’m not senior enough to direct work at my company yet. Maybe one day though.
Do I offer to pay for lunch? Let him pay? We each pay for our own meal?
You can offer to pay but he will insist and you can graciously say thank you UNLESS you work somewhere that has ethics or other policies that cap or prohibit vendor payments, in which case you should follow the policy.
This. I’d be shocked if he’d let you pay, but I always assume it goes to a business development budget that my contact is not directly paying for.
For me, even if I’m not in a position to send work their way, it’s always good to maintain the contact because your current counsel may have challenges or conflicts in the future that mean you’re scrambling for alternatives and can mention your contact.
Yup exactly this. I’ve been in-house for a couple years and have lunch with former firm colleagues pretty frequently – I always offer but every time they say it’s on the firm. I know there’s a pretty significant budget for these things so it’s nbd.
He will offer to pay – that goes to the client development cost center.
First world problem:
My large order of LVP flooring has been out for delivery all day. Initially they told me between 9am-10am. So of course I have not gone anywhere. Its almost 3pm EST. Am I the only one that gets stir crazy waiting for a delivery that needs a signature? I have errands to run and it’s beautiful outside..
At least it finally shipped!
Yes!!
God yes. Its 2025 and delivery drivers all have cell phones, not to mention trackers in the vans. It would be so easy to text “you’re 2nd on my delivery list- looks like we’d be there 4-5 and we’ll update as we get closer”.
FWIW they dont have that because it would subject the drivers to a lot of harassment and vitriol
They can’t manage one-way, no replies messaging?
Am I the only one who thought this meant Lisa Vanderpump flooring and was trying to figure it out?
Nope not the only one! Had never heard LVP except in that context.
Has anyone had their makeup done at Sephora? My mom and I are considering going there for my brother’s wedding since the bride recently decided not to have hair and makeup for anyone (herself included). Neither of us are good at makeup so we just want someone who knows what they’re doing and will have us look nice in the photos.
I haven’t used Sephora but for weddings where it’s just me I’ve gone to a blow dry bar place. Not every location has makeup services (Drybar doesn’t) but many other brands do. Or many local hair salon can also do your event makeup. My salon is jam packed with graduation, wedding, and prom parties every weekend in the summer.
It is really luck of the draw depending on your makeup artist. I would recommend asking for local makeup artist (MUA) recs instead.
+1, especially if you can get there for a trial run before the event. You don’t want to have your makeup done day-of, only to find that the artist’s style is not your style.
Agree; find a person who focuses on doing makeup rather than a sales floor that will apply their product (might be good, might be a mess) in hopes that you will buy from them.
I wouldn’t take the risk that I get the newest MUA or one that’s trying to hit their sales quota of orange lipstick.
Call the Bobbi Brown or Trish McEvoy counter at the nearest upscale department store. They’ll do a more natural look and also have good training in skin and what works for various complexions.
I have had my makeup done at Sephora in 5-6 different locations and almost always been pleased with the result (esp at the price point). That said, I am not overly picky, and tell them to tone it down (eg no fake eyelashes, etc)
Just went to grab an afternoon snack in our pantry and grabbed a piece of fruit. I put it on a plate to cut into pieces after rinsing it and an earwig crawled out of the stem end. I yelped loud enough to make the office cleaner and our receptionist come rushing over (both women who fully agreed that they’d be freaked out too).
I’m sitting at my desk with a packaged granola bar repeating ‘this is why we always wash fruit’ and still feeling phantom bugs on my skin. Yay Mondays!
Out of curiosity, what variety of fruit?
A nectarine, which I was really looking forward to as ‘summertime fruit!’ since it’s a cold and rainy day in Boston.
I’m giving strong side eye to the apple that overweekended on my desk.
I would not suggest looking up the legal allowances for bug pieces in packaged food.
My pest control once told me the legal amount of mouse poop permitted and I didn’t eat for weeks.
Had to look up earwig, ( English not first language) , eewww, poor you
Update time. I posted on Friday about a performance conversation with an employee that didn’t go well. They resigned over the weekend, effective immediately, over email. Had cleared out their office before I arrived this morning. Honestly, it didn’t surprise me. It was done professionally enough, I guess, but he made sure to mention that his mental health had been suffering since our conversation. Also implied that he didn’t see it coming (dude … come on). I know I did the right thing AND I feel absolutely terrible. I know zero people feel bad for the managers in these situations, but I’m here to say that some of us are softies inside and feel the weight of how our decisions affect the people we work with.
I am here to say that I often feel badly for the managers in this situation. I’ve been on teams where we’ve had one person with a performance issue and our entire team wanted him gone. Our boss had to go through the wringer to make it happen; he all but tried to burn the place down when he left. We took her out for dinner that weekend.
Why do you feel bad for managers? They’re paid extra to deal with this stuff.
doesn’t mean it’s not the worst part of the job. A lot of managers are theoretically paid to deal with this stuff and just don’t!
Idk if you knew this, but it’s possible to feel empathy for all sorts of people.
I wouldn’t say that I don’t feel bad for managers in these situations. I just feel worse for all the people who had to work with the problem employee until they finally, finally were let go.
Ah man, that’s hard. Director here, married to a VP. For both of us, the weight of managing people really, really sucks sometimes. My team is good, but I truly didn’t realize how much work and energy being a good manager was before managing people.
Good job though. And remember it might not feel nice, but it was kind. I truly believe that the strength of kindness means you are candid with people when something isn’t working or needs to change, which you did. And then you give them the opportunity to respond with all of the information available, which he did here.
Getting back into the dating app game in NYC. What are the go to apps these days?