Monday Musings: The Embroidered Book, Lucy Worsley & Olaplex

Kate Heartfield’s historical fiction, Lucy Worsley at Hampton Court, and a cosy autumn weekend

Good morning, friends.

Happy Columbus Day. I work for myself, which means technically it could be a holiday for me too. I am choosing to count it as one, at least until the gift guides pull me back in, which, knowing me, will be sometime before lunch.

The garage is clean. I want to be careful with that word. A garage is never truly clean. But it is organized, swept, and no longer something I am avoiding, and for a garage that is as good as it gets.

The weekend was everything I hoped it would be. I have been making a real effort lately to step away on Sundays. Log off, close the laptop, and just be with the people and pups I love. Read something. Eat something good. Let the week go before the next one starts. This weekend I actually managed it, and I cannot tell you how much it helped.

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In Case You Missed It

A few things from around the blog and beyond this week. My friend Kim at Northern California Style shared her fall capsule wardrobe, and if you are thinking about updating your closet for the season, it is worth a look. Juliet at Make Mine a Spritzer is just back from Maui and her photos are making me want to book a flight immediately. And as we do every October, I want to remind you: please schedule your mammogram. Breast Cancer Awareness Month matters, and early detection saves lives. Oh, and you may have noticed, I have started posting my 2026 gift guides, there is something for everyone on your lists.

On the Nightstand

I finished The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield this week, and I am still thinking about it. The novel follows two sisters, Charlotte and Antoine, daughters of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Charlotte is sent to Naples to marry a stranger and become Queen of the Two Sicilies. Her younger sister Antoine travels to France as Marie Antoinette. Before they part, the girls share a secret they have kept since childhood: a book of spells, real and working, passed between them in letters across Europe.

The spells come with a cost. Every act of magic requires a sacrifice, something small at first, then something that matters. As the sisters grow from girls into queens, the magic they once used to feel close to each other begins to pull them apart. Charlotte becomes calculating, practical, determined to survive. Marie Antoinette becomes something else entirely. The book follows them both across decades, through revolution, war, and loss, and the question running underneath every chapter is whether power and love can survive in the same hands.

If you have already read this book or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.

On the Screen

Saturday evening I settled in with a Lucy Worsley video. Lucy Worsley served as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces for twenty-one years, and has since become the Official Ambassador for Historic Royal Palaces. In this piece she reflects on what that has actually felt like: not just the history, but the sensory experience of the places themselves.

She talks about the bone-deep cold of Apartment 25 at Hampton Court, the kind that gets into you in a way no other cold does. She describes the weight of the Bunch 16 curatorial keys, the ones that open the shuttered painting stores and the rooms most visitors never see. The sounds: the fountain in Fountain Court, the choir, the creak of the Silver Stick Stairs. The smells: woodsmoke from the Great Kitchen, something particular about Princess Margaret’s old apartment at Kensington Palace, the Tower of London in summer heat. She even mentions three specific stones along the Fountain Court colonnade that she finds herself touching every time she passes.

It is a wonderful video. If you love history, and royal history in particular, give yourself the time to watch it.

Outfit of the Day

It does not feel like fall or winter here yet, but a girl can dream. This week’s outfit is all about layers, and if you are in the Midwest you know exactly what I mean: one day it is fall, the next it is winter, and then somehow it is fall again. These separates will carry you through both without missing a beat.

This week I am pairing black jeans with a cosy white t-shirt and one of my favorite sweaters of the year. Add Chelsea boots, a scarf, a quilted jacket, a good bag and you are ready for anything: leaf peeping, the farmers market, lunch with a friend, or a casual date. Easy, pulled together, and the kind of outfit you reach for without thinking because you know it works.

Outfit Seperates Below

A Beauty Find Worth Sharing

I was gifted the Olaplex Shapeset Hairspray recently, and I have been reaching for it every single day since. I have been a loyal Olaplex customer for the better part of thirteen years, so I was already a believer before I opened the box. Medium, buildable hold, frizz control, a dry brushable finish that does not feel stiff or sticky, and heat protection up to 450 degrees. What I did not expect was the bond-repair benefit. It actually strengthens hair as it styles, which is exactly what Olaplex does best. If you have been curious about the line, or you are looking for a finishing spray that works without weighing your hair down, this is the one.

That is Monday Musings for this week. I hope your weekend was restful and that the week ahead is kind.

Find me on Pinterest and Instagram for more in between posts, and I would love to know: are you a read-one-book-at-a-time person, or do you always have several going? Leave a note in the comments.

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