Notes of: 2024

Behind December’s Mood Board

Welcome to Notes Of! Each month I make a mood board as a little creative exercise in thematic thinking, and in Notes Of I elaborate on that theme to include links to relevant articles, videos, products, and more. This month, though, I’m using the mood board to take a look back at this last year and to reflect what I’m taking with me into 2025.

2024 was a big one for me, especially when it comes to work stuff:

• Readership to À La Carte more than *tripled* in size, which I truly cannot wrap my mind around.

• Ali LaBelle Creative booked some of its most exciting design projects yet, including the rebrand of an LA institution that I can’t wait to see roll out someday soon.

• I hosted five Pasta Girlfriend events—two in LA and three in New York—and I continue to be pleasantly shocked that people come to these things.

• And I launched a print magazine (!) that sold out in five days (!!), and during a hellish election week, no less!!!

I consider myself a pretty ambitious person, one who sees the potential in things and will put in the time and effort it takes to make those things not just happen, but happen in the most beautiful way possible. I also know that I’m someone who never feels like enough is enough; even as I’m writing this, I keep thinking about all the ways I could have been better or dreamed bigger... The perfectionist’s curse.

In 2025 I’d like to see À La Carte continue to expand and take shape, both on Substack and off. I love writing this newsletter every week and plan to invest more into it, and I want to challenge myself to find ways to grow it into something you can experience in person, whether through partnerships and events or more issues of the print magazine. I’m manifesting À La Carte pop ups, À La Carte product collabs, À La Carte dinner parties…

I really am proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished this year, though, and I’m trying to remember to sit with that feeling for a sec.

In terms of non-work goals for 2025, I’ve got a few:

• I’d like to start getting dressed again in the new year. Somewhere in between being housebound for many months in a row and discovering Donni’s pointelle pants, I sort of lost my will to put an outfit together (and maybe some confidence that I look good in what I’m wearing, too.) I think I may try that take-a-photo-of-yourself-every-day trick to see if it does anything for my wardrobe creativity, because I’ve got some great clothes hanging in my closet and I’d like to feel excited to wear them again.

• I don’t really feel any type of way about turning 35 in a few weeks, but I am suddenly very focused on being proactive about my health. I’ve scheduled doctors appointments galore for the month of January, which I’m losing sleep over (hello, medical anxiety) but I’m really excited to get it all crossed off the list. I’ve cancelled my neglected Classpass membership and I’ve joined my local gym. Doordash has been deleted off my phone. It’s happening.

• I’d really like to start taking photos again, not in the spirit of creativity but in a “it’s 2009 and I take 500 photos every time I leave the house” way. My camera roll is filled with reference screenshots and things pretty enough to share on Instagram, but I’m suddenly very concerned that I’m not making enough time to have fun, or that I’m not capturing those moments while I can, or that I will have watched every Housewives franchise but I won’t have celebrated birthdays or milestones or regular Saturdays. Do I have photos from nights out with my friends, the trips I take with my sister, or the family dinners we have in our childhood home? Not enough of them. Maybe I’ll buy a new camera.

And lastly, I wanted to hold a little awards ceremony for my favorite bits and bobs of 2024, the things that were new to me that made it into the Ali LaBelle Hall of Fame:

Restaurants: Café Cecilia in London, The Bull in the Cotswolds, Ètra in LA, the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. (Get the sandwich called “La Zucca”—trust me.)

Places to drink wine: Quarters in NYC, Sam’s Place in LA. (Sam’s doesn’t have an Instagram, it’s all very mysterious.)

Acquisitions, clothing: The LESET Margo Tee in white, the Gap Boyfriend Sweater in red (and navy, and black), the Shaina Mote Painter Coat (probably my most worn item of clothing this year), the aforementioned Donni Pointelle Pants in Espresso.

Acquisitions, accessories: An A.L. BASA tote bag (mine has silver beads), the Bode Theater Shoes, two Hannah Keefe permanent bracelets (my company holiday gift to myself).

Acquisitions, home: Fluted Ichendorf Milano glasses (a gift from my friend Victoria), a vintage basket set from Cherche (a new vintage shop owned by my friends Jackie and Katelynn), All-Clad pots and pans (thanks Mom and Dad!)

Beauty products: Merit lipstick in Vermillion, Summer Fridays lipgloss in Cherry, Necessaire Olibanum body wash.

Recipes I made: Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad, Christian Reynoso’s Pesto Beans, Michelle McKenzie’s olive oil cake from The Modern Larder.

Newsletters I read and loved: Shop Rat by Emilia Petrarca, FRANK, Ridiculous Little Things, trademarked, Hung Up.

Newsletters I wrote: “At the Table With Annie Meyers-Shyer”, “Beautiful Versions of Boring Things”, my first “Room Recipe”, the entire holiday print issue.

To wrap this up (both this year and this newsletter), I’d like to say thank you to everyone who opened up one of these emails, who shared that they connected with something I wrote, who came to an event I threw, who bought a copy of the magazine… It genuinely means a lot to know there’s a group of people out there who also want to talk about Battenburg lace tablecloths, pomodoro recipes, and unexpected color palettes as much as I do.

Enjoy what’s left of the year—I’ll see you in the next one!

x

Ali

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Sources: menu by Rare Studios for Alementari Flaneur; Rome, Steve McCury, 1984; Still Life with Oysters, Jacob Foppens van Es, c. early 1600s; Ingles de Relieve, Bellezas de la Caligrafia, 1844; Il Caffè a Palermo, Leandro Colatoni, 2024; Tods FW21, Sarah Van Rij and David Van Der Leeuw; Lady Drinking Tea, Saul Steinberg; Marguerite McBay in a striped robe, James McBey, 1932; found magazine shop bag, source unknown; Portrait of a Flower, Imdad Barbhuyan; fraternal shield, artist unidentified, 1850-1900; Green Store Front, Christo, 1964; The Fairy Flowers, Narcissus, Anna and Elena Balbusso, 2008; Jazz in the Hotel Lobby, Andie Dinkin; set design by Après Ski; Good Food Without Meat, Edward Bawden, 1927

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