Feeling! Magazine

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Whimsy Dispatch: Banana Bread Syrup, Tulips, and Lemon Pasta
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Whimsy Dispatch: Banana Bread Syrup, Tulips, and Lemon Pasta

Your weekly guide to becoming the Creative Director of your house, including: a weekly menu, recipes, and other whimsical takes on the mundane.

Jenna O'Brien's avatar
Jenna O'Brien
May 09, 2025
∙ Paid
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Feeling! Magazine
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Whimsy Dispatch: Banana Bread Syrup, Tulips, and Lemon Pasta
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✦ NEW category alert! Welcome to the “Whimsy Dispatch!”

Why You Might Want This in Your Inbox Every Friday:

What if your home felt less like a to-do list... and more like a creative project?

Every week, I will send out a paid subscriber-only post that functions like a Creative Director’s Briefing for your space and your heart! It's a curated mix of both organized structure and unexpected delight (my sweet spot).

I am crafting this weekly dispatch to help you redeem the mindset of mundanity and chore into creative joy fuel. You can read more about the heart of that idea here.

There are no long essays or perfectionism here, but bulleted inspiration, recipes you’ll actually make, and tiny boosts of whimsy that reframe the everyday.

It includes weekly inspiration for:

  • Fruits, florals, colors, flavors

  • A completle weekly menu for 5 meals, café items, and grab & go food (with recipes)

  • A list of ideas for “domestic spark” to make home a little more fun

  • A list of creative ideas for play, journaling, making things with your hands

(Sidebar: I also think if you have children, everything on the list could be very fun to include them in! I’ve kept kids in mind!)

I think pursuing joy and whimsy is an act of hope. And I really hope I can help you in that pursuit!

If you’ve ever wanted an art director/ internet friend to whisper, "Here’s how to make next week a little more beautiful," this is it!! (It’s me! I’m your internet friend!)

Join the paid crew and start making home and life a little more colorful with me!


Here is a preview of what you will get every week if you subscribe:
(Enjoy!)

⋆⭒˚.⋆ THIS WEEK:

For May 11- 17th, the theme is: Banana & Bloom.
Yellow accents, citrus pasta, and tulip-inspired table settings.

✶ WEEKLY FRUITS:

Add spring fruits to your fridge! Put some fresh fruit on your grocery list, and munch seasonally throughout the week. Try:

  • Bananas

  • Strawberries

  • Cherries

  • Rhubarb

  • Apricots

  • Citrus (esp. Meyer lemons, blood oranges)

  • Pineapple

  • Kiwi

  • Mango

✶ WEEKLY FLORALS

Harvest spring florals! Whether from foraging on a walk, visiting your local florist, or grabbing some at the grocery store, find these blooms for maximum seasonal impact:

  • Tulips

  • Daffodils

  • Peonies

  • Hyacinth

  • Ranunculus

  • Cherry blossoms

  • Lilac

  • Dogwood

  • Freesia

  • Anemone

✶ WEEKLY FLAVORS

  • Banana (keep scrolling for my banana bread latte recipe!)

  • Lemon & honey

  • Rhubarb & strawberry

  • Mint

  • Lavender

  • Matcha

  • Pea shoots & asparagus

  • Artichoke

  • Fennel

  • Fresh herbs (chive, dill, basil)

  • Goat cheese or whipped ricotta

✶ WEEKLY COLORS

  • Butter yellow

  • Soft lilac

  • Grass green

  • Blush pink

  • Sky blue

  • Tomato red (early summer crossover)

  • Lavender gray

  • Pistachio

  • Creamy white

  • Coral


THE WEEKLY MENU:

✶ Highlight of the week: Banana Bread Syrup!

I design my menu every week on the Notability app! I included a printable one for you below.

CAFÉ RECIPES:

✦ Banana Bread Syrup

  • Can be used in lattes, match lattes, to drizzle over cinnamon rolls or granola. Or honestly, just to make your entire house smell DIVINE.

  • Ingredients:

    • 2 extra ripe banana

    • Cane sugar (1 + 1/3 cup)

    • Water (2/3 cup)

    • 2 Cinnamon sticks (or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)

    • 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

    • 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract (optional, but my secret ingredient)

  • Instructions:

  1. Mash your two extra ripe bananas into small chunks/paste like texture (the smoother, the easier it will be to strain later) (think texture like baby food)

  2. Add water, sugar, banana, spices, and almond extract into a small pot over medium high heat

  3. Stir constantly. Let it bubble. Keep stirring!

  4. After about 5-7 minutes of stirring (make sure the sugar has dissolved) take the pot off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer into your vessel of choice. It will take some pushing and waiting — but it will be worth it!

  6. Store in your fridge for up to one month!

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