#55. 23 "Bests" of 2023

An end-of-year list of everything from my favorite viral moment to the best book I read this year and more.

This photo accurately captures 2023 in one facial expression

We made it!??!!???? Somehow it’s the end of 2023, and this is my last newsletter of the year. I’ll be back in January with some regularly scheduled programming (I’ve been off my non-wedding essay game for a bit; it’s coming back soon to an inbox near you), but for now, please enjoy this 23 “bests” of 2023 list to wrap up the year, and I’ll see you in 2024!

Real footage of me for the next two weeks, and also 30 minutes before my wedding

Before we get to all my “bests” of 2023, in honor of one year of this newsletter (which was technically last week but who’s counting) and due to some ~changes~ on the horizon in my work life, the time has come for me to ask you for a small favor. 😇

I’ve put this off for months–mostly because I’ve been waiting and watching to see what other Substack writers did with this new feature, but also because this year has been absolutely fracking nuts ever since I (didn’t) quit my job–but I finally turned on referrals. As such, if you have a friend who you think might like this newsletter, it would be my absolute honor and pleasure if you sent them my way. But the most important part! Here’s what’s in it for you:

1 referral = 1 free month comp
3 referrals = 3 free month comp
6 referrals = I’ll send you a free copy of Fourth Wing book I think you’ll like in the mail!

To give you a little more context behind this ask, I’ve been doing a lot of deep thinking about the fate of this weird little corner of the internet lately. Growing this newsletter is happening naturally over time (hello to all 3,057 of you, ILY!!) but proactively focusing on finding new subscribers is something I just haven’t yet had the time for. (I also like you all a lot and genuinely prefer to focus on maintaining relationships with the people I already have in my orbit!) BUT, after hitting this one year milestone and deciding that writing a newsletter is something I love and want to keep doing, I know I really need to nurture it. Like I would a houseplant. (Or something a little more serious, like… a job????) You can help me SO MUCH by recommending this newsletter to a friend who might like it. Make sure to tell them I am equally as vulnerable and honest as I am strange, lol. If they subscribe (free or paid), you get free stuff! Plain and simple.

I’m also toying with the idea of re-branding this newsletter (slightly) or starting a second, totally different one in the spring. I have some work stuff to fill you in on soon, too. Lots of weird pivots possibly happening on the horizon! I promise you’ll know what I’m up to as soon as I figure it all out.

Thanks for being along for the ride 🤠

I’m sure you thought that my favorite song of the year would be something from the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) vault. You would almost be right, if “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius hadn’t wormed its way into my brain back in the spring. I played this song on repeat so many times I almost had to stop listening to it–definitely more times than my favorite 1989(TV)(FTV) track, “Say Don’t Go.”

And, just for the record (heh), my Spotify Wrapped told me my most-streamed song of the year was actually “Anti-Hero” which, funnily enough, earned my best song of 2022 award. “Not Strong Enough” came in at number four, the only non-Taylor Swift entry in my top five. I am who I am!!

Sweet painting by Dan Cristian Pădureț

As of this moment, I read 15 books in 2023, and most of them were really good (my average rating this year was a kind of astounding 8/10!). My favorite book of 2023 was Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (a perfect 10/10), not for its admittedly elementary prose, but for its ability to pull anyone out of a months or years long reading rut, and for the fact that I have an entire eight-person group text dedicated to it. I haven’t experienced a collective freakout over a book like this I’m pretty sure since Harry Potter??? Honorable mentions go out to How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (9/10) and Banyan Moon by Thao Thai (9/10), which were both better than Iron Flame (8/10) in my opinion.

There were a surprising amount of paint colors in my life this year for various projects, but I’d have to say that “Simply White” by Benjamin Moore wins this year’s award. I know you’re probably thinking, “wait… did you really choose a shade of white for paint color of the year?!!!!?” But dammit this color is good and I’ve used it so many times, including as the main color in our house and in the house I designed this year. Whites can honestly be the hardest paint color to choose of them all, because they’re all so fucking similar on their little cards, but NOT WHEN YOU GET THEM ON THE WALL. This white is, simply, the perfect white. If you ever need to choose a white without sampling it first (which is what we did in the house I designed), this is the one to choose; it will (very probably) not steer you wrong. I rest my case, your honor.

Simply white, simply a delight

Bella and Pedro!!!

Like last year’s winner, House of The Dragon, this year’s best TV show is one that I watched in real time every Sunday, cancelling other plans in order to watch it immediately when it became available. The Last of Us had everything–incredible acting, even better writing, a fantastic plot (easy to understand but still complex enough to be super interesting), a killer soundtrack, and one of the best standalone episodes of TV I have ever seen. I will absolutely be watching Season 2, although it’s sounding like it won’t be released in 2024.

Honarable mention goes to Battlestar Galactica, which is an oldie that I can’t believe I’ve never seen until now. Paul and I just started Season 2, and it’s sooooooo fracking good and weird and all the things I like. Space. Aliens. Good character development. IYKYK.

The standout moment of the year for me was running onto the dance floor at our wedding in a dress designed to make me look like a human disco ball!! The pressure of the day was over, and we got to just totally let loose, which you can see in the smiles on our faces. Instead of doing a “first dance,” Paul and I literally ran into our reception after changing into party outfits upstairs, and then pulled some of our friends immediately onto the dance floor, and it was just a totally chaotic ball of delight. Many thanks to my sister for this vid!!

I promise I won’t make this entire list about our wedding, but our best purchase of the year was our wedding photographer! 😭 I’ll give our venue my honorable mention, because it was 1000% as spec-freaking-tacular as we were hoping, but Catalina was truly truly worth every penny. Find yourself a photographer who can blend into your wedding like a fly on the wall, but still somehow get the shot. I swear I have absolutely zero memory of Catalina being in a position to take this photo, yet here it is!!!!! (And this is just ONE of the many many many we have coming!) Screaming, crying, throwing up.

I mean this movie made $1 BILLION dollars!

2023 was actually a decent year for movies. The best one I saw was, predictably, Barbie. I went in with low expectations, and thought it was absolutely brilliant, hysterically funny, and it made me laugh and cry. Honorable mentions go to Blackberry and Asteroid City, but shockingly not Oppenheimer, which was visually stunning but not as gobsmackingly good as it should/could have been.

Can I say my wedding bouquet??? It’s not an item you can buy, clearly; it’s messy and imperfect and colorful and kind of wild, but I made it myself. And I’m so proud of it!!! (Would you believe me if I told you that half the flowers in this bouquet are from Trader Joe’s?)

Myriel in St. Paul

My favorite restaurant of 2022 closed in October of this year, and I honestly haven’t quite stopped sobbing yet. It re-opened in November as a different concept (by the same chef) that might win my best restaurant award next year, but this year the winner was definitely Myriel in St. Paul; a quiet, unassuming French-ish restaurant just a few miles from my house with a black marble bar and absolutely A+ service. The menu is tiny and always changing, but consistently delicious.

Honorable mention goes to Herbst in St. Paul; another hidden neighborhood gem with super colorful decor and farm-to-table fare.

I know you’re expecting me to say that the best album of the year was 1989 (Taylor’s Version). And it was indeed great, but it shockingly wasn’t my pick!! My favorite album of the year I think was actually The Record by boygenius. A lot of that had to do with my favorite song of the year, but it was also the album that introduced me to boygenius, who I now love.

I definitely bought quite a few things this year (guilty) but the very best one was the second dress I wore to our wedding. Sparkly, one-shouldered, and on sale for under $200 when I bought it–it also didn’t need any alterations and fit me out of the box like a glove. I bought this sequined stunner in early summer and hit the jackpot on the very first try. I highly recommend perusing the sale section of Saks if you’re in need of something for a special occasion. You might strike gold. Or a disco ball.

I designed an entire house this year, and somehow that WASN’T my favorite project?! We finally finished our bathroom this fall, which took over a year to finish (#sinkonthefloor4eva), but the project that still really tickles my fancy was our office renovation. It turned out so funky and comfortable, all my books now have a real home, and I love how it’s a nice blend of Paul’s and my visions for the space. Still want to paint the ceiling green, though!

Writing about your real life online can have a cost. The most important lesson I learned this year was to never make assumptions about another person’s comfort level with being written about online, even anonymously. I am an extremely open book (often to a fault) and it’s a mistake to assume everyone else feels the same, because the truth is that most people are not comfortable sharing as much of their life online as I do. Always, always ask first. A secondary lesson is that friends will know you’re human and allow you to make mistakes. Or they won’t–be prepared for either outcome.

There are approximately one million viral moments involving Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce from this year, but this one really made me smile!!! And I mayyyyy have referenced this song in my vows. 😉

The best idea I had this year was reconsidering the “traditional” 9-5 job, and opening myself up to an alternative way of approaching work. It’s been six months since making the switch to fractional work and I’m not 100% sure how it’s going (to be perfectly honest), but I think it was massively transformational for me to get outside of my comfort zone and really push myself to do things differently. It was important for me to prove to myself that I’m not afraid to take risks and have the balls to actually act on some of my wilder ideas.

I tried a ton of new makeup this summer; more than I have in probably three or four years prior combined. It was super fun and of course I have to crown an overall winner, which is the Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat lip liner in “Pillow Talk.” I think I tried maybe 12 different lip liners this year????? I resisted this particular lip liner for so long because I tried the lipstick first and hated it, but the lip liner! Wow! I didn’t even know I liked lip liner! Consider me a convert.

Honorable mention goes to the Tarte Shape Tape Corrector in “Green” that covered up a zit I had at my wedding so well I forgot I even had it when looking through the photos. I bough this at Ulta the day before my wedding and I will never wear anything else to cover zits, I feel so fully indebted to it. Full makeup deets and acne disaster story coming soon!!

PHYLUM is a brand new boutique in Palm Springs that easily wins my best shop award for 2023. Paul and I immediately made friends with the owner, Jory, and bought a throw blanket for our house, the cologne Paul wore on our wedding day, some incense, and a vase we used on our of our wedding tables. The curation is stunning, and you can tell that Jory and his team put a lot of effort into it. The store is brand new so there’s no online version of it yet, but I’m hoping someday soon!

2023 was the year I returned to concerts. I saw Taylor Swift (twice), The Black Keys, and Bon Iver (all of which were bucket-list concerts for me), and even got to meet (and see) Slowdive. I really forgot how fucking much I love live music! Nothing beats seeing Taylor Swift live for the first time, though, which is why my night at the Eras Tour in Minneapolis wins best concert of 2023. I mean, we got “Dear John.” Need I say more????

The vibes are immaculate

The best thing I ate in 2023 was the rhubarb pie at Myriel, my favorite restaurant of the year. The pie itself was absolutely delicious, but it wins my award for best food because it made Paul cry! He said it tasted exactly like the one his Norwegian grandmother used to make, and the chef came out and talked to us about it personally. It was probably our best dining experience of the year on just a random weeknight walk-in.

We stayed two nights in an absolutely A+ desert getaway in Joshua Tree called “The Refuge” after our wedding, and it wins my award for best interior of the year. The combination of colors and warm, eclectic interior perfectly complimented the desert landscape outside. An absolute wow.

A few months ago I woke up and realized that the Twin Cities finally feels like “home,” but it took almost two years. If you’ve recently moved to a new city, give it some time, and do your best to go out and find your people. I think it can genuinely take years to feel like you are really rooted in a new city, and I finally feel at home in mine.

I made a House Party playlist this summer to play during wine tastings at our house, and let me tell you, the vibes are GOOOOOOOOOD.

Sorry to be a broken record, but our wedding was everything we hoped it would be and easily takes the top spot for best event of the year. More coming soon!

Have an absolutely fantastic new year, and I’ll see you in 2024. <3

K bye,
Kelly