5 Friday Favorites: May 25, 2018

Happy Friday, Friends. 

It's time for my Friday link up with A Little Bit of Everything, Grace and Love, and Momfessionals. 

Here are some of my favorite things from this week.

1. The Royal We: A Novel

I promise I'm going to stop thinking about the Royal Wedding soon. Like maybe tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month. I know I had heard about the book, The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan a long while ago, but then I heard it mentioned on two different podcasts last week. Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

American Bex Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister Lacey was always the romantic, the one who daydreamed of being a princess. But it's adventure-seeking Bex who goes to Oxford and meets dreamy Nick across the hall - and Bex who finds herself accidentally in love with the heir to the British throne. 

WHAAAT? I'm utterly confused as to why I haven't read a book such as this that was made for a time such as last week. Let's just call that a Major Life Fail. As soon as this arrives in my mailbox, I will put aside all other reading material.

2. Can't Stop, Won't Stop: Royal Wedding Aftermath

If you know me at all, you would have guessed that when Bishop Curry started talking, it took all my willpower not to jump out of my chair, wave my hankie around and shout "Hallelujah". Then I saw the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop interviewed after the wedding together and I've decided there has been no better duo in all the world since Bo and Luke Duke. I absolutely cannot get enough of these two and I want them to start a podcast together. These several minutes are well worth your time.



Also, one more thing about the Royal Wedding. Have you seen this? People on the internet with lots of time on their hands can at times be clear evidence that Satan is real, but other times are straight up DELIGHTFUL.

Wait. Actually, one more thing. I'm serious this time. This is the last thing I'll post about the wedding. Scout's Honor. My friend, Sandy, sent me this.

You're welcome. 

3. Summer Sun Essentials

I don't know if you've heard, but apparently the sun isn't great for you. I can't imagine why my 1980s summers spent monitoring my position on my pool towel every 15 minutes as if I was training to be some sort of Olympic Tanning Champion turned out so poorly, but here we are. Now, I spend an enormous amount of time searching for the Fountain of Youth which has got to be on the shelves at Sephora somewhere. This Mixed Weave Sun Hat from Sole Society might have saved me from this never-ending quest. This would be so cute this summer and should meet all your SPF needs at the baseball park, the lake, or the beach. I'm not sure it can hold as many snacks as Camilla's hat, but it's worth a shot and also it's on sale.

While I was on the Sole Society site I also spotted this beach tote on sale. It's adorable. I generally buy my beach totes at Old Navy because I don't want anything that I spent more than $20 on near sand or water, but this would be cute all summer long. It comes in three patterns and I love them all.

I also saw these cute espadrille flip flops on Sole Society's website on sale and they come in a ton of different colors and patterns.

In full disclosure, I haven't ever purchased anything from Sole Society. I just saw that all of these cute items were on sale and felt it important that you know about them. These are things - along with a photo of a duchess wearing a Subway platter on her head - that I feel compelled to share with you, dear reader. No one knows why and it's best not to overthink it.

4.  Tequila Sunrise Mimosa Recipe

We made these Tequila Sunrise Mimosas (recipe from delish.come) for our Royal Wedding celebration. 

I know. I even said Scout's Honor when I promised not to mention it again. Here's the thing. I never was a Girl Scout. What do you want from me?

These were really good.

Orange wedges, for rim

Sugar, for rimming glass

Tequila

Orange Juice

Champagne
Grenadine

We poured each one individually in order: 1/2 oz. of tequila (recipe called for 1 oz. per drink, but calm down, people. We are not lushes.), then champagne, then orange juice, then a splash of grenadine. We didn't measure out the champagne, oj or grenadine. We just poured until the glass was full. Also, we skipped rimming the glasses with orange wedges and sugar because it was 6:00 AM and I'm just a commoner and didn't have any servants to cut up an orange.

5. A Brief for the Defense
by Jack Gilbert

I wrote about our ridiculously frivolous and yet purely joyful and necessary Royal Wedding party here this week. In the midst of reading tweets and commentaries on the spectacle that was Meghan and Harry's Big Day, I came across this poem. I think it's just beautiful and perfectly resonates with what I was getting at in that post. 

A Brief For The Defense
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.
 Have a lovely Memorial Day Weekend, Friends!

Disclosure: The View From Behind Home Plate is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn small fees by linking to amazon.com.