Issue #08: June recommendations
It's a big one. Plus a note on where this newsletter is heading!
There’s a video at the end; if it doesn’t play in email, check it out on Substack proper
Hi from San Juan Island. I’ve spent every summer here for the last three years, and it’s the place, and the season, where I feel the most creative.
I believe that place has a lot of power to shape our moods, routines, habits, ideas.* I move differently in New York than I do in Salt Lake than I do on San Juan. (All of which have been home. Plus DC. Plus Tennessee. Plus Rhode Island 🙃)
Take this sweet pea trellis. My boyfriend and I saw one last summer, and this March, on a whim, decided to try to recreate it.
We hacked down part of a willow bush in the side yard, and then spent the afternoon figuring out how to weave it into a trellis. It tapped into a playful part of my creativity that I ne-ver would have found in a city, and I can’t wait for the explosion of smell we’re about to get from this corner of the garden.
That’s all to say: get ready for some truly unhinged emails this summer. We’re two months and eight issues in and, as a textbook multi-hyphenate, it feels like the right time to experiment with what I like to write about.
I’ll still write about transitions, wellbeing, and intentional living. But I also want to play with writing more directly about solopreneurship and how to fill your off hours with joy: roadtrips, creativity, San Juan, slow food/design and gardens.
For the first experiment, I have for you a mega-list of recommendations from things in June that either made me reflect, or brought me joy. I love sharing things I love, but the formula that I follow each week means that some stuff gets left out. So I’m putting it all here, including:
A neat look through the reality of one creative career
How to build a brand as a multi-hyphenate
A fresh summer salad on repeat
The tip that helps us navigate energy in a partnership
A playlist I made for dining al fresco
Four good summer watches
And more!
*I’m toying with writing a bigger, research-packed post on how place influences us. Does that sound interesting? Any questions you want me to dig into? Reply or comment to let me know.
🧠 What to read
This piece on how to build a personal brand as a portfolio careerist gave me a framework for this summer’s newsletter experiments
The realities of creative career paths are endlessly interesting to me.
How Zohran Mamdani won the NYC democratic mayoral primary is also endlessly interesting to me. Here is a good analysis, and a reminder that change can happen
Brene Brown’s tip for navigating energy and relationships eased my transition out to the island this time.
With deep regret, none of the six books I read this month were good enough to recommend. Three I didn’t even finish. Please send help/suggestions.
🌱Level up your outdoor dining
Alison Roman’s citrus and fennel salad will be on repeat this year. It’s from an old cookbook, but I rediscovered it when I hosted book club this month. It was a crowd favorite. Long live fennel.
While I’m 75 years late to the iced matcha latte trend, I’m fully in it. (For SLC locals: I like Tea Zaanti’s.) I got a bag from Costco and am figuring out how to make them at home; send recs.
British florist Willow Crossley posts cheery flower-arranging tutorials every Sunday, all of which will enhance your table. The videos are oddly calming, and I’m excited to try to recreate this one with our nasturtium.
I love making playlists to match moods. This one is for an al fresco dinner, under trees, when it’s late enough that the light glows. It starts peppy, as guest arrive and gets slower as the night winds down and the sky turns purple. It needs to be twice as long, so I’ll be adding to this all summer.
📺 Four good summer watches
For when it’s too hot to go outside
Sirens on Netflix: Nantucket. Class-hopping. Estranged sisters. Disappearances. Cult-ish cliques. Need I say more.
The Better Sister on Amazon Prime: also about estranged sisters being sort of shady, in a wealthy environment, where only one belongs. My boyfriend and I bet on who did it, and it made it 10X more fun.
Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV. Not about sisters, but is about a man doing shady things in what appears to be the Hamptons. Take from that what you will about me.
The Materialists We saw this charming movie last night, and there are some really nice insights on love.
🗺️ Bopping around
Expansive alignment: This is a bullshit term that ChatGPT made up to describe an activity I highly recommend: absconding responsibility to treat your inner child. This month, grieving my friend, I rescheduled an eye doctor appointment to go antiquing. I wandered around without buying anything, found a very good vegetarian cafe attached to an herbal apothecary, which I didn’t expect in semi-rural Utah, and ate lunch alone. It felt a little rebellious and very freeing. Julia Cameron calls these artist’s dates. Is there a little date you could take yourself on next week?
Two things to make bopping around more comfortable:
I am fully team barrel pants. They don’t touch your body and are somehow wildly flattering. These are shockingly well made, and I wear them multiple times a week. Size down.
I’ve been wearing a version of these sandals since 2014. They work with sweatpants or dresses, in the mud or in meetings. And this year, I found a version with a cushioned soul!!
✨A moment of awe
Mt. Baker from the ferry