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HAPPY WEEKEND!

Happy weekending to you and yours! It's loooooove month. And it's effing cold outside. Are you cold right now? I am freezing as I type this. This week was bonkers in all the best possible ways. I got to hold the first real life copy of my book in my hot little hands. (Have you entered the giveaway yet?) I had the most delicious roasted carrot salad of my life at ABC Kitchen. I sent easily twenty-five billion emails on Tuesday alone. Brandon is mostly on death's door thanks to the Great Cold of 2015, and Huck, well, Huck is Huck. The Holbrooks have a date with some penguins this weekend to clear out our brains. Penguins are good for that. I am consistently impressed with Huck's commitment to those penguins. He took to safari animals for a little bit (just a slight dalliance with giraffes) but he's back to the penguins now with such a vengeance, and it's just about the greatest thing. The other day when I asked him to pick up his socks he honked at me, and let me tell you, you've never truly lived until you've run a penguin race with a four-year-old from your bathroom to the kitchen.

A few things I've enjoyed this week!

Via @Kottke, Nine Inch Nails + Taylor Swift = pretty good. But. Nine Inch Nails + Carly Rae Jepsen!? PERFECTION. Hoooooolyyyyy. High school me is really freaking out over this. I've listened to it a bajillion times. At the 0:28 mark you guys.

Björk!

This, from *Wit&Delight

Artlexa Chung. Heee!

Need, Want, Like, and one I come back to a lot on Debt, from The Minimalists

Where to get the best oatmeal in the city. I am so into this.

THIS TEE! You probably need five. And then yes, go ahead and wear it with these.

Ack!! (This is why I almost never eat chicken willingly.)

Cats caught stealing. The best.

Erin's ALT advice, via Liz

How to find out who you really are, by Anne Lamott

And in case you needed some controversy to go with your weekend links, Roald Dahl says "It really is almost a crime to let your child go unimmunised."

This made me happy.

This is goooood dry shampoo.

This quote, from an episode of Homeland: "Men secretly think their wives are crazy, and women secretly think their husbands are losers." Tell me your thoughts. I asked Brandon and he said . . . yes. Haha.

This clip from Jon Stewart on Sarah Palin's recent, oddly-incoherent speech, had me laughing harder than anything else has in a long time.

Okay, so I admitted to my raging Mandy Patinkin crush on Twitter the other day, and in response a reader shared this link, "Highlights from a night with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" She said, "It's like watching your grandparents sing at a family function!" I say, I had to watch it through my fingers, aaaaaall the cringe-y, weird, i-love-this-i-think? ack! feelings. :)

The spring maxi dress of my dreams (yours too, I bet).

And House of Cards is back this month! Feb 27th! Can you not wait or what!? And I've thought this over quite a bit and I really think that House of Cards is probably a more emotionally-detached version of Homeland. Yes? Same show? I'm talking about sex here. In 500 words or less, please compare and contrast the relationships of Carrie Mathison / Nicholas Brody and Zoe Barnes / Frank Underwood in relation to career advancement and basically murdering each other, and have it on my desk by Tuesday.

(That wasn't a link, just an unsolicited opinion. :)
(Also, I can never walk past a subway column without cringing anymore!)

(Have a great weekend!)

HEYYYYYYYYY NATALIE JEAN!

It's a book it's a book! Heyyyyy, I wrote a book! I've held it in my giddy, shaky hands! And guess what, you can buy it!!!! Oh my goodness I want you to buy it. 

It officially comes out on March 17th, but it's available for preorder now, and we want to get as many preorders as we possibly can!! So to celebrate + to drum up some fun, I figured I'd give away a signed copy, plus my very favorite outfit, "The Uniform," the whole thing head to toe, to one lucky reader. It's the entire Hey Natalie Jean package! A book, plus clogs and a sweater . . . and jewelry . . . I mean, hold your mouth right + maybe there'll be a bag of Twix for yo freezer, too.

Here's what our winner is going to get:

1 / a sweater of your choice from my favorite sweater girl in all of the planet

2 / a pair of Madewell jeans, theeee very best source for wear-every-day denim

3 / a pair of the sexiest damn boots from Brooklyn's most sexiest clog clogger

4 / a pair of the daintiest, prettiest gold earrings from one of my very favorite jewelers

5 / this dude watch--it'll look killer on your slender lady wrist

6 / the tote bag of the century

7 / a signed copy of my book, 'cause, right

Probably a bag of mini marshmallows, too. What can I say? There it is.

To enter, leave a comment below! That's it!

[POST EDIT NOTE FROM ME: we had originally set preordering the book as requirement for entry. I had been assured it was kosher and the usual technique for preorder campaigns by the "powers that be," but I just got a call that it turns out it wasn't kosher, as I had sort of suspected. I am so sorry!!! My publishers are contacting everyone who preordered to rectify the situation, and those entries are officially here + counted, so don't worry about re-entering. I feel really terrible about this, and I'm so sorry for the mess!]

(I'm also giving away something special on Instagram today if you want to get over + get in on that!)

While we're here, I figured I'd share a few of my the photos from a shoot we did in the summer (Emma took them for the Gap Dress Normal campaign and then we used one or two for the book), featuring yet another version of The Uniform. :)

This is a very exciting week for me, a very exciting year for me! And I'm so grateful for all of you and for your support over the 10 (ten!!!!) years I've been blogging. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing in the excitement with me! And thank you for being such pals. I might be the luckiest. xo

On me: Gap sweater + jeans / watch / boots
On Huck: Gap chambray, tee + jeans / shoes / tatts

NAT NESTS | CARROT + SQUASH FUSILLI

I clearly have a thing with putting gourds in my pasta. I don't know what to tell you.

This one came about because it'd snowed, I'd gotten a cold, Brandon had gotten a cold (lemme tell you, we have a classic mancold situation right there), and meal planning got chucked out so fast. But I'd made a goal! Meals! Table! However many times a week it was, was it three? So I put on my Old Mother Hubbard and this is what got. It's actually really good. Damn good. So good that I woke up thinking about the leftovers this morning, and I will so cut a bish if Brandon gets to those leftovers before me, that is how serious I am about those leftovers. How am I pulling this off!? I think it's funny that it turns out I'm a pretty decent cook, because not cooking has been such a part of my identity the last few years that I feel a little lost all of the sudden, like, existentially.

But Brandon and I did both agree that the dish was missing something, some kind of pizazz, so hold your ribbons for now. I figured something in the chili family would do it some good, Brandon thought it should be something more greenish--rosemary maybe? If you happen on something fantastic, will you let me know? I mean, sriracha, obvs. 

This dish is best when the carrots + squash have enough of a bite to them so that it contrasts with that excellent carb-y fusilli texture. You guys, fusilli bucati are A REVELATION. I don't think our lives will ever be the same anymore.

INGREDIENTS /

1 butternut squash, cut in half, seeded, peeled, and diced into large bite sizes

1 package fusilli bucati

1/2 cup shredded carrots (I used my potato peeler to slice off long peels)

1/2 cup havarti cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup reserved pasta water

2-3 T butter 

olive oil, salt + pepper

METHOD /

1. Prepare butternut squash, then roast for 30 minutes at 425 degrees until fork tender, or place in microwave safe dish, covered in water, and microwave for 15 minutes. if you choose to roast, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt + pepper to taste first.

2. Boil pasta according to directions, reserve one cup pasta water + set aside before draining.

3. When squash reaches fork-tenderness, remove from heat and set aside. If microwaved, drain the squash and season with 2T butter and salt + pepper to taste, until fully coated.

4. Add the carrots, both cheeses, a few glugs of olive oil (three or four?), and some of the reserved pasta water to the pasta, stirring until evenly distributed. You'll have to eyeball this. Add cheese to thicken, pasta water to thin.

5. Add cut up squash to the pasta and mix gently to combine. 

Get ready to label your fridge leftovers college roommate style, and enjoy!

HOW TO FEND OFF A COLD, WITH BILL MURRAY

watch from HERE, ring from etsy

Well. In case you hadn't heard: we got six more weeks, kids.

Thanks a lot, Punxsutawney! 

It seems like I've been fighting off the same almost-a-cold-but-not-quite for over a month now, like a fugitive on the run. I was doing pretty great too, but then on Friday it finally caught up to me, and I went down for the count. I felt pretty grouchy about it, too.

You know that feeling you get just behind your eyes when you're coming down with something, that feeling like you could seriously murder someone for a nap?

I'm feeling better now. I now only sound like I have emphysema. And I feel proud, too, you know? I gave that cold a run for its money. I kept it at bay for a good long while. (I swear by extra vitamin c + elderberry.) And then I even learned a few new tricks for outrunning a cold + being a gracious loser once caught, thanks to all my Instagram people. I love you, Instagram people. I will now happily pass these tips on to all of you. 

And so, here it is, the shared wisdom of my Instagram feed on the best seasonal tips for avoiding + surviving the dreaded winter sniffles, with help from Mr. Bill Murray.