Issue 01 — Ciao, Bits & Pieces Newsletter

A collection of the bits and pieces that make my world spin — recipes, city guides, food product reviews, music, kitchen and housewares, and ideas centered around living thoughtfully.

The product of my talented pal Quinn doodling for a few minutes during Sunday dinner; a wordmark was born.

The origin story. And some context. Also the first newsletter. And I hope the hardest?

I’ve been writing what might be called a manuscript for almost 10 years. While both the end point and the ultimate goal of building it are still murky, what I do know is that the process of collecting everything upstairs into one metaphorical dish has been beautiful. It’s not really a cookbook, it’s not really a novel, it’s not just writing about travels and decor. It’s not a girl, not yet a woman. The only way to describe it at this junction is a collection of the bits and pieces of me.

I built an unlikely friendship with my mom’s nail tech at the mall in my hometown, and she once burned me a CD that rewired my brain. I think I was 12. The first song on the mix was "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars, which is a depressing love ballad that starts with the lyrics when there’s nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire. She wrote on the CD in sharpie “arrange whatever pieces come your way” and the virgo within me connected deeply with all of this. I’ve spent many moons feeling bizarrely attached to the word pieces ever since.

Labeled a tchotchke hoarder, (ask someone not reading this how to spell that word, it’s fun) I publicly plead the fifth. It’s always been about collecting meaningful pieces with a story, on the path to uncovering my own unique taste. At 10, I brought a 15 pound piece of coral shaped like a sock home from the ocean because I knew it would tie my room together. I love bits found in nature with cool shapes and colors, matchbooks pocketed on the way out of a lengthy dinner, treasures from estate sales and European fleas, sweaters knit by a friend, the list goes on. To me, the most beautifully decorated spaces and well dressed humans contain some amount of collected pieces with a memory attached to them. In the era of color removal/suffocation by millennial shades of grey, soulless mass-produced art, and everyone operating as a walking carbon copy of what others are doing and wearing on Pinterest — uniqueness is what interests me most. This podcast is one of the best I’ve ever heard on the importance of finding your own sense of style and originality. It’s an act of resistance against the copy culture we live in. Your own combination of colors.

A collection of beach glass and washed up terracotta pots collected in a little cove off the Gulf of Naples.

I digress. A few years ago when a haze swept the world, we relocated to the Southwest and I found myself in antique malls hunting through trash chasing the thrill of finding treasures. Arranging whatever came my way. Pieces was born, a small Instagram-based vintage house & kitchenwares shop, and it ignited a little flame within me during a time when I felt otherwise stagnant.

The dream I’ve been working toward since my salad days is to open my own brick & mortar space. As I age, life has gently taught me that you can long for something with every fiber while also simultaneously trusting the universe to bring it to you when the time is right. I have never really been one to force it or follow the heard. So in the interim, after waterfalls of overthinking sprinkled with too much self doubt, I’ve decided to bring all the bits & pieces of my manuscript here, to a newsletter on Substack.

I’ve gingerly crafted a loose rubric because I’m excellent at overthinking. So when the voice in my head tells me that everyone seems to have a Substack these days and my thoughts aren’t anything groundbreaking, someone remind me that this is just a collection of words I’m putting on the internet. My cousin told me recently that if every artist was concerned about expressing themselves, the world would have no art. So here’s the outline:

• Thoughts du jour: my recipes, food product reviews (usually with an emphasis on nutrition), curated city maps I’ve spent years pulling together, home decor pieces, inspirations and ideas centered around living thoughtfully.

• Side of fries: my music playlists, articles I’ve loved, and other random stuff for when the spirit moves.

Check out the about page for some answers on how this works. In the same way I find it hard to post photos of myself, I have a difficult time promoting my own projects. While free subscribers will have access to some of the content, paid subscriptions are what will help me make these newsletters as juicy as possible. So if you’re happy to be here, share this with other people you adore. Your warmth and support mean everything to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I think it’s going to be a fun ride.

xx Shanna