The Mood Board

Upcoming Writing Workshop: Queerness & Creativity

Brianna Schubert — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 16:43:46 GMT

I am so excited to be hosting another Queerness & Creativity Writing Workshop this October!

In this four-week workshop, we will come together as queer writers to ask the questions: What can our queerness teach us about creativity and writing? How can we explore our creativity through a queer lens? What can we learn from queer writers and their perspectives that will inspire our own creative practices and writing?

Each week, we will:

Read and discuss the writing and work of a queer writer/creative (potential writers include: Audre Lorde, Casey McQuiston, Ocean Vuong, Mary Oliver)
Write around prompts inspired by them and their work
Share our writing with the group (optional, but encouraged!)
Be in community with other queer folks to discuss our own creative practices

Wednesdays: Oct. 7, 14, 21, and 28 at 6 p.m. Central
(Note: All sessions will be recorded and sent to attendees in case you have to miss a week!)

Learn more & sign up!

Discount code for paid subscribers below! ⬇️

Inspiration Diaries With Author Meg Howrey

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:06:10 GMT

There are very few books that I think about almost weekly, and They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey is genuinely one of them. You know when you read a piece of writing that says exactly how you feel but never had the words for? That’s how I felt when I read this quote about friendships from that book:

“What is the thing that happens in a friendship that isn’t the absence of sex? The thing added, that’s maybe only between women. Not a matter of our organs or whether we were born with them or what we do with them. It’s this: a particular kind of glory that happens when we share our suffering and are seen. There’s a rising — a cry, a rush, a beating of wings together. An exaltation.”

I felt deeply understood. I breathed. I cried. I also wrote an entire essay about platonic soulmates because I couldn’t stop thinking about the question at the beginning of this quote.

Meg’s writing inspires me so deeply, makes me think, makes me feel. And I feel incredibly lucky that when I was emailing with her publicist about her new book Body Language (out Sept. 1! Pre-order it now! Buy it at an indie bookstore day-of! Get your hands on it!) and asked if she’d be interested in writing for Inspiration Diaries, Meg so graciously said yes.

I’m almost done reading Body Language, and it’s equally as powerful, beautiful, and moving as They’re Going to Love You, and will absolutely find itself at the top of my list of favorite books. Again, pre-order it here.

I am so honored and excited to share the Inspiration Diaries Meg Howrey – truly one of my favorite authors – below, and I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did.

xx Brianna

I work at my non-writing job on Sundays, and occasionally I’m able to sit down at my desk in the evenings, but today I’m too drained. I decide to go through all the papers in the little filing cabinet I use as a bedside table. As it happens, there is a file directly relating to the subject of inspiration—a cache of newspaper clippings and magazine articles I’ve saved for story ideas. A funny mixture of things. An article about FBI informants, one titled “Can Psychosis Be Prevented?” An essay about sixteenth century composer (and murderer) Carlo Gesualdo. Most of what I saved is either out-of-date or no longer something I need. (Although I do still want to write about Gesualdo!) I don’t need inspiration, I need TIME, which of course really means I need to manage my time. Oh also probably be gentler with myself about time. I make a list of things I need to accomplish during the week, but it’s an attainable list. Then I misplace it because I haven’t been sleeping and also: Menopause.

Werner Herzog made a movie about Gesualdo, because of course.

Spent the morning working on two personal memoir-type essays. It’s not a natural form of writing for me, but publicists like you to do this sort of thing in advance of a book coming out, and my new novel is being published Sept. 1. Struggling to write in an uncomfortable form is, of course, good practice, and one is always lucky to have anything published. My problem with the personal essay is how to land the ending. Endings always seem sort of false? I prefer a non-ending ending, but that can be a challenge for readers, especially in this form, where I think you’re meant to deliver a kind of message.

After writing I cleaned my apartment and drove to Ventura, where my partner lives. His dad is visiting, and they’re working on their sailboat and having men time. We go to dinner and I get Dad talking about the writers he loved in his youth. (Hemingway, Fitzgerald.) I ask my partner, a composer, about non-ending endings in music. He sits down at the piano and plays Chopin’s Mazurka Opus 17, No 4. (Guy playing in that video is not my partner.) If you haven’t heard it, I recommend. Chopin is really going through something.

Everything on the boat seems to be fixed and we head out for a day sail. We’ve got wind and the boat goes FAST. In six years of sailing I’ve never gotten seasick but it happens today and for the last hour I am still having fun but very much trying not to barf. I’m told it’s better to just go ahead and barf, but I’m holding on to my dignity. My partner grew up on a sailboat and has been sailing the Channel Islands all his life. Sometimes we stay out for a few days, anchoring around the islands, but today is for making sure everything is in working order.

Over the years, I’ve learned to trust the not-writing part of writing, where the ideas are still rattling around in your head, but you get a little space from them and unexpected solutions often emerge. Back on dry land, I spend an hour with one of the essays I’m working on. Drive back to the city in silence—no music, no audiobook—and let sentences roam around in my head.

Receive a report from my partner and his dad, who had set off for a couple days’ sail. A cooling hose blew and they’ve returned to the dock for repairs. Everyone is safe, they’ve cleaned up the mess, and installed a new hose.

Everything breaking is part of sailing. It’s also a part of writing. During my lunch half-hour at work, I read Andrea Barrett’s DUST AND LIGHT. My next big project (I think) is a work of historical fiction and Barrett is excellent—and quite comforting—on craft, and research, and not being afraid of wasting time by going down rabbit holes. “The oddest details can be the ones that set us off; a discontinuity that catches the eye, snags at the heart.”

Discontinuity is such a good word.

Methods break, systems fail us. That’s part of writing. Sometimes I sit down to my desk with a timer, because I need the focus. JUST GET ONE HOUR. Sometimes I start writing at nine pm. I love a beautiful journal, but prefer a stack of loose scrap paper or legal pads for note-taking because loose paper frees me up in a way a bound journal doesn’t. For my last novel, I listened to music while writing, always. (There’s lots of music referenced in that book, here is a list.) For my new one, that was impossible, I needed silence.

My favorite paperweights

Blooddrive at work so I donate in the morning and then return home to my desk. Finish the edits on an essay and make the deadline! Work for another hour on a different essay, which isn’t due until next month but I feel the need to have it squared away so I can turn my full attention—my writing brain, at least—back to my work-in-progress.

Pub date for my novel BODY LANGUAGE is less than two weeks away and I’m feeling the pressure of engaging on social media and generally promoting. My friend Nova Jacobs, an excellent writer and extremely good company comes over and shoots my “unboxing” video. You can overthink these things so I don’t, we laugh and make a totally silly thing and then have dinner. We talk about spy novels, and the appeal of Russian literature in your twenties, and skincare.

Me, minus one pint of blood.

A full writing day, hooray! Diving back into my work-in-progress feels fantastic. For several hours I am VERY happy. I love the characters, the world. A tone is emerging, which feels right. All of this can change dramatically so it is important to celebrate when you’re feeling good.

I think about writing spaces today, and what I need from them. The key thing for me is being near a window. What I would love—especially for this book—is a giant work table where I could spread out all my reference books and papers. Am reminded I wrote a very complicated book with tons of space science research in a TINY kitchen nook, with books and folders (and stacks of loose paper and notecards) piled around my feet. Like this book, that novel was inspired by a newspaper article. I read something and thought, “Wait. What?” and also immediately had, not a plot or set of characters, but a kind of feeling. As if the idea had a particular pheromone. Like falling in love!

Loose paper! Window! Also Micron pens are the best.

Up early (insomnia, migraine) but after my headache fades I decide to make the best of the extra hours before work. Read Anne Carson. Glass, Irony, & God. I don’t think poetry (or any kind of art) needs to be useful, but I’m feeling the usefulness of poetry today. Just a few lines will alter the chemistry of your brain. Also, the winnowing of large experience into lines of verse shows us how things are built. Word by word. I still sometimes forget this, and become overwhelmed. Think: I have too many decisions to make. Poetry makes its decisions line by line.

Speaking of lines, I decide to make a little drawing of the three sisters of my novel BODY LANGUAGE. I have no idea what I’m going to draw until my hand starts moving. When the book comes out, I’ll try to find a copy at a bookstore and tuck this inside, for someone to find later. Is that creepy? Should I include a note of explanation? Or is it a nice mystery?

***

Connect with Meg here:

Buy Body Language!

Instagram: @meghowrey

Website: meghowrey.com

Thank you for reading The Mood Board! It means so much to me that you are here, and I hope you found bits of inspiration here today. Say hi on Instagram here, shop my faves here, and read my other writing here. And if you want to buy me a coffee, you can do that here. :)

The Mood Board #046

Brianna Schubert — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:28:38 GMT

Virgo season is here, and while I did spend the entire day yesterday lying in bed napping and reading Body Language by Meg Howrey, today I’m feeling a burst of productivity and energy. This is a good reminder (to myself as well) that sometimes taking an entire day to rest is exactly what you need.

If you’re like me, you might feel inspired to be productive, get organized, and learn something new this time of year. The virgo energy mixed with back-to-school nostalgia and the promise of autumn on the horizon makes me want to redecorate my apartment, sign up for a class, and read a bunch of nonfiction books. It also makes me want to reinstate a real routine after a relaxed summer and fall into a rhythm.

A few goals of mine for the coming months that might inspire you to create your own list as well:

Use my skincare routine to bookmark the beginning and ends of my day.
Put my phone away and read before bed every night.
Get back into a regular flow of watching ’s lectures on Intimate Relationships.
Reorganize and tidy up my insanely chaotic desk area.
Rearrange the decor on my bookshelves and fireplace mantel to give a fresh feel to my living room.
Clean and organize my linen/cleaning closet that is, at the moment, a heaping pile of mess.
Work on my novel every day until my writing retreat mid-September.

Often, I try to avoid setting too many goals for myself at once, knowing that I rarely am able to stick to them all. I give myself two exceptions to this rule: the new year and the beginning of the “school year.” I love a reset, and these are the two points in the year that truly feel like one for me.

What are you hoping to tackle this virgo/back-to-school season? Share in the comments!

xx Brianna

The Mood Board Office Hours Link to Join!

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:14:35 GMT

Dropping the link for Office Hours, every Thursday at 1 p.m. CT, here for easy access!

(NOTE: I am OOO Thursday, Aug. 13 and Sept. 24 so there will be no office hours these days)

xx Brianna

Join Office Hours!

The Mood Board Creative Community: August

Brianna Schubert — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:34:52 GMT

Can you believe it’s already August? I honestly can’t, but I’m glad we’re one month closer to fall – my favorite season. However, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, as it’s important to be present in the current season and live in the moment. So here we are, in August. And on my mind this month is the way that my creativity has absolutely blossomed once I realized the importance – no, the necessity – of working together with my creative community. That’s why this month’s theme is “Together.”

Last year, I joined a 13-week Artists’ Way workshop hosted in Milwaukee by the incredibly . In this space, which felt like a creative support group in the best way, I was able to talk about my goals, projects, and dreams for myself out loud and get the support and ideation from the other people in the group. I saw firsthand the importance of saying our dreams out loud and how far that kind of support and community can help you move toward them. From that workshop, I found the courage and opportunity to quit my 9-5 and go freelance full-time. I’ve also met some creative friends that I go to all the time for ideas, support, and inspiration – and I think it’s safe to say they come to me for the same, as well.

Then last summer I participated in ’s Writing With Confidence workshop, where I met a group of writers that genuinely inspire me daily. We always say that writing is a team sport, and I couldn’t agree more. Being able to read each other’s work, bounce ideas off each other, and talk through our projects has been invaluable. And our friendships and support for one another have grown beyond writing in ways that have made my life incredibly bright and inspiring.

I say all of this because without these creative communities, my work as an artist and writer would still exist in some form, but I imagine it wouldn’t feel as good and successful and empowering as it does. Creating together is one of the greatest joys of my life, and this month, I encourage you all to consider where you can find community to create with. Perhaps it’s even here in The Mood Board community – in the chat, office hours, or even just the comment section. If you’re looking for your people, don’t be afraid to comment! Let’s connect and build group chats, IRL meet ups, and spaces to create together.

I’ll be right there with you. <3

xx Brianna

Introducing The Mood Board Office Hours

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:22:58 GMT

One of my greatest passions in life is working with creatives to help make their dreams and projects come to life. I fully believe that creativity and writing is a team sport and a group practice, but I know that sometimes it’s hard to find that community.

Many folks who offer creative consulting charge $100+/hour to pick their brain, get feedback, bounce ideas off of them. I think this is a great idea and I completely support it (and if you want to pay me $100 to chat about creativity, sign me tf up). But I also understand that for many of us who are just starting out in our creative careers, it’s not possible to pay that much for a sounding board or advice.

That’s why I am offering Office Hours to paid subscribers of The Mood Board. As part of your paid subscription (only $5/month!), you can come to Office Hours every Thursday for an hour to chat, cowork, and create with me and any other creatives who show up. If you want to talk through a project, talk about starting a Substack of your own, get feedback on your resume (I weirdly love doing this), bounce ideas off me for pitches or short stories or Instagram posts or literally anything, or just chat about creativity, I’ll be there for an hour for just that.

I’m excited to bring my expertise as a writer, editor, Substacker, social media girly, and multi-passionate creative to this space, and I genuinely want to be someone who you can go to when you feel stuck in your creative journey.

Get 20% off for 1 year

Paid subscribers, join office hours through the link at the bottom of this post!

And if you do want to work with me in a more in-depth way, let’s chat! I’m currently open for freelance clients in the following areas:

Writing, editing, and copyediting
Substack consulting (anything from starting from scratch to brand outreach)
Newsletter curation and management
Social media management
Influencer curation and outreach
Creative direction

Email me at hello@briannaschubert.com if you’d like to work together! xx

Inspiration Diaries With Artist and Writer Christina Persika

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:56:57 GMT

I met when I took a workshop she hosted where we painted Dala Horse Christmas ornaments ahead of the holidays. I remember stepping into her g o r g e o u s studio and feeling immediately at home. A few months later, I signed up for a 13-week workshop she taught on The Artists’ Way. Through this, I was able to get to know her more deeply, and when I say that this workshop changed my life, I mean it. It was during a pivotal point in my career where I was considering freelancing, what it means to be a writer and artist, and what I want out of my life. Talking with Christina and the other amazing people in the group gave me the courage to finally quit my 9-5 and make the shift to freelance. Since, Christina has been a friend I can always talk to about freelancing/art/writing, and she inspires me endlessly, both through our conversations and her art. I hope you enjoy her Inspiration Diaries as much as I did.

xx Brianna

I will admit, I’ve never been very good at keeping a weekend routine. I usually don’t make it to the farmer’s market (I rarely am in the mood to plan meals for the week ahead, first thing Saturday morning), but I do occasionally make it to yoga. My longest-held weekend tradition is sleeping in, and I’m lucky enough to have a partner who makes a mean brunch. Today he made banana pancakes and scrambled eggs with peppers, cheese, and fresh chives from our friends’ garden.

This particular Sunday, my parents are visiting from Minnesota. They’re retired, so I’m thankful they have the time and energy to come back to Wisconsin every month or so. Sadly, I forgot to snap a picture with them. We went for a walk by Lake Michigan with our dog, Dusty, and stopped into a coffee shop to take cover from the rain.

The rest of the day is pretty low-key. Dusty and I have some cuddle time before bed, while I catch up on my current book. I’m reading ‘The Cloisters’ by Katy Hays, a dark academia mystery novel about Tarot set in New York City’s Met Cloisters. I found it at one of our local used bookshops, Broadway Books. A favorite spot to explore.

During my visit with my parents on Sunday, they mentioned there might be an impromptu (and, quite frankly, random) opportunity for a Monday-afternoon boat ride at a family friend’s lake home up in Crystal Lake. I can’t pass up the chance. This is what Wisconsin summers are all about.

So I take the day-off from work (benefits of being self-employed), promising to get a little bit of productivity in the mix with stops at thrift stores to pick-out frames to sell with my art prints at my upcoming summer markets. Coincidentally, I’ve recently discovered a new podcast all about the business of being an artist. Hosted by British-Australian painter Kate Florence, ‘Nitty Gritty’ interviews artists about the “work” of making art for a living. I have found it to be incredibly helpful and educational, but even more than that, it’s helped me to feel seen in a career that can often feel very isolating. Listening to an episode on my drive helps me feel like I’m working, even just a little bit, this Monday.

The boat ride is scratched in favor of some cooler weather by the lakefront. My sister-in-law is 8-months pregnant, and this summer’s heat has been getting quite dangerous. Best to find a bit of a breeze by the beach, instead.

Between thrift stores, we have lunch at the beautiful Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, play mini golf at South Pier in Sheboygan, eat ice cream cones at an old-timey parlor, and then my niece and nephew and I spend a magical afternoon building sand castles at the South Side Beach.

I drive an hour south on I-43 to make it home for the night, with just enough time to watch an episode of Apple TV’s “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” with Ted before bed.

I have been feeling pretty restless lately. I have had so many work projects up in-the-air at once, barely finding time to finish one before I have to start on a new thing. I am hopeful that this is just a season, though. This year I am celebrating 10-years since I started my business, Persika Design Co. I am so proud of this accomplishment. In many ways, it hasn’t been easy, but it’s also been one of the most rewarding and meaningful experiences of my life.

When Gathering Place Brewery reached out to me about partnering with them for their inaugural artist residency, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to collaborate on some ideas I’ve been stewing over for a while and also to create a retrospective of some recent works to celebrate my anniversary.

Together, we’re creating a special beer to commemorate the project. I will also co-teach a couple of workshops on Procreate this summer at the breweries with my friends, Hanna Milos and Yen Nguyen. The biggest event of all will be on August 15th, when we’ll throw a 10-year anniversary party at The Gathering Place’s Tosa brewery. Everyone’s invited!!! (pssstt.. I’m working on getting an instructor to lead line dancing! It’s going to be a blast.)

Today, we’re taking one step at a time and finally getting some art up on the walls! This was a bit of a fiasco at first. We realized the walls are as hard as cement, and even using a drill bit made for brick wasn’t strong enough. Command Strips didn’t do the job either. I actually had to return them to the hardware store I got them from because whatever new formula 3M is working with is garbage. They were less sticky than one of my Hodag stickers! But eventually, with a new drill, we got the job done.

I’m taking a slow start to the day this morning because I’m teaching this evening, and anytime I’ve tried to keep up my energy and productivity morning through night, I crash out so hard.

It’s July 1st, so that means I have to put together my monthly phone wallpaper, using the artwork from my annual wall calendar. This month’s artwork is of snails, and there is a really special reason behind it!

Besides the theme of 2026’s calendar being about creatures and critters that live in and around rivers, July is my partner’s birthday month. Last year, Ted got really into aquascaping freshwater fish tanks. Snails play a very important role in a freshwater tank, as they help clean the water and the algae off the glass. I have learned so much about fish tanks from Ted, and I wanted to surprise him with artwork that honors one of his special interests.

Tonight’s workshop is at Joy Ice Cream, a part of their ‘Crafter Dark’ series. I spent the afternoon running some last-minute errands in preparation before heading west to Wauwatosa.

As I said, July has been really fucking hot. So hot, I almost questioned whether we should be doing a workshop outside at all. But if Summerfest is still happening, we can make it through to paint outside. Luckily, the heat broke a bit as the sun went down, and we had ice cream to cool us off.

I am teaching my ‘Quilts and Symbols’ painting workshop. This one in particular is inspired by the idea of ‘Home,’ as I’ve just finished a body of work affectionately called, “Imagining Home.”

I found some mini wooden house cut-outs, in addition to square wooden panels, so participants are able to choose which surface they would like to paint on.

The mural I painted in the interior of Joy Ice Cream in 2024 is quilt-inspired. The owner, Liz Joy, is a quilter and we worked together to incorporate quilt-patterns and symbols that are personally significant to her, her family, and the community.

I love teaching workshops so much. I especially love the joy of getting to share my passion with others and nerd out over the little things, like how to mix the perfect shade of minty-blue-green.

Despite taking it pretty easy in the morning, I’m still a bit wiped out from working the night before. I stopped at a little neighborhood market, Groppi’s, to grab an Italian wrap because I don’t feel like making lunch today.

I’m not super productive in the studio today, but I do have some wholesale orders I need to get out. Packing orders and packaging products is a task I actually really enjoy (in moderation), since it’s really easy, relatively mindless, and I can multi-task while I do it, orrrr I can binge-watch episodes of Vanderpump Rules. Which one do you think I chose?

In all seriousness, this is my first time ever watching Vanderpump Rules, and I am in a constant state of shock. I was finally convinced to start watching because one of my favorite YouTubers, Maddie Dragsbaek, started a watch-along podcast called “PumpCast” with one of her hilarious besties, Meg Ruocco. I am obsessed with them, and I don’t think I could manage watching this

show without them. It is too ridiculous, and I need parasocial friends to talk to about it with, even if they can’t hear how I’m agreeing with everything they say on the other side of the screen.

For dinner, we’re cooking up something light. I bake some marinated salmon and throw together a berry and goat cheese salad on the side.

After dinner, I am bursting with excitement to open the packages that came in the mail. I ordered a thousand dollars worth of notepads (four designs total - three of them are brand new, one is a restock.) This is a big investment for my business and a financial strain for me personally, as well, but I’ve been wanting to branch into more stationery-type products I can wholesale, and I am in love with the designs I came up with. Unfortunately, when I opened up the first box, I was disappointed to find that the majority of the “Strawberry Letter Pads” were misaligned in their printing. I reached out to the manufacturer (U-Printing), and I’m hoping they will replace them. They’ve been making me jump through hoops, going back and forth with customer service for days to file a job claim. I had this problem with my last notepad printer (PrintPPS), so if anyone has any recommendations for quality notepad printing services at a reasonable cost to price for wholesale, I am all ears.

I am feeling the business-owner blues tonight, after that let-down. But I’m happy to share that the other notepads are beautiful! I put the quilted “Cherry Market Pad” on my fridge right away, before tuning in for an episode of “Cape Fear.” Ted and I have been loving this show so much.

We watched the 1991 film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, in preparation. I have been so impressed with how this new adaptation is keeping true to the original premise of the film, but with an entirely fresh story and perspective. Apple TV has really been killing the game, in my opinion, with their original series.

Today is Independence Day-observed, aka a holiday from work. I don’t always take holidays (or even weekends) off from work. In fact, I’ve been a bit of a workaholic the past few years. I get into this cycle of not working a full 8-hour day every weekday, and then punishing myself for not completing all of my work by working on weekends and holidays. I need to remind myself, though, that sometimes I work more than an 8-hour day. Some days, I even work 10 or 12 hours. And even still, it doesn’t all have to balance out, anyway. The 40-hour work week is completely arbitrary, and one of the only benefits I get from being self-employed is the ability to work when and however much I want. I may not get health insurance, a 401-K, paid leave, or vacation, but I do have my freedom, and on a holiday when I can’t be proud of my country, I can at least celebrate my own independence.

In that spirit, Ted and I pop over to Allie Boys for breakfast sandwiches - mine is on their bagel of the week, “Spinach and Artichoke,” per my friend Meg’s recommendation. After breakfast, we browse around Urban Outfitters. Ted, like the elder millennial he is, is always making fun of the youth’s fashion choices. I thought it’d be funny to make him try on an outfit that was completely out of his style. He wasn’t up for it, but he did find an adorable Snoopy glass to-go mug for iced coffees, and I replaced my recently broken sunglasses.

We finished a couple of chores at home and then ran to the Bubblr bike station to rent electric bikes for the first time with the goal of making it to Summerfest, “The World’s Largest Music Festival,” before 3 PM - the cut-off for free admission. We cut it soooo close and made it through the gate at 3 o’clock on the dot. Whew!!!

Once inside, we jumped on a sky glider and took in a lay of the land. We bought beers, and I purchased my first-ever Summerfest merch - an adorable Polo-bear-inspired crewneck sweatshirt.

I specifically wanted to go to Summerfest today so that we could see Ken Pomeroy perform, and they didn’t disappoint. I was in a puddle of tears listening to Ken sing about their adopted dog, Wrango. All I could think about was Dusty. :,)

By the time we got in for the night, we were tempted to stay home. But there were no excuses. In lieu of fireworks, Milwaukee County Parks and 88Nine Radio Milwaukee were hosting a drone show at McKinley Beach, just steps away from our apartment. We wouldn’t even need to find parking. We strapped our beach-chairs to our backs and walked down to the lake to enjoy the show.

Okay, here’s where things get a little hazy, literally and metaphorically. It’s the 4th of July today, and my plan is to just spend it hanging out with friends. A snag, though. After a week of sweat-inducing temps, it’s suddenly not so hot and sunny. It is actually quite foggy, and the forecast keeps predicting rain, but changing the times of when we can expect it.

Not to worry, we are a go-with-the-flow type of crew today. We all meet at South Shore Beach in Bay View with an array of picnic-appropriate goodies and beverages, sun be damned.

It might have been the aforementioned beverages, but somehow I forgot to take any photos today other than the one of this bottle of “Farigoule,” an herbal thyme liqueur that my friend Catalina swears she hasn’t been able to find anywhere closer than Minnesota. I took a pic so that I could look out for it when I’m out and about, hoping to find a source that will be a little more accessible.

And that was my week! It always boggles my mind how I can simultaneously always feel like I’m doing so much and so little. Thanks for following along! Reach out if you have any leads on good notepad manufacturers or places to buy Farigoule in Wisconsin. Also, keep an eye out. I recorded some videos during the week, as well, and I’m hoping to put together a little vlog for my temporarily dormant YouTube channel.

With love,

Christina Persika

***

Connect with Christina here:

Instagram: @persikadesignco

Substack:

Website: persikadesignco.com

The Mood Board #045

Brianna Schubert — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 21:46:05 GMT

My creativity this summer has been all about giving myself grace and allowing myself to show up as I am. My executive functioning has been struggling this summer, but I’ve also found pockets of wonderful creativity. I’m reminding myself that intense productivity and creativity are not the same thing. I can be creative and also take long naps or zone out here and there. I can work hard and play hard; write spontaneous poems in my journal; stay up until midnight finishing a work project; dance around my apartment alone on a Saturday night. I’m letting myself live without a lot of rules this summer, and while at times it feels chaotic, it also feels free.

I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on how your creativity feels this summer. Not with judgement, not with any intention other than to notice. What does it look like? What does it feel like? Take a moment to notice. Give yourself grace.

I hope you find pockets of wonderful creativity and joy, whatever that looks like for you.

xx Brianna

The Mood Board Midsummer Sale Happening Now!

Brianna Schubert — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:12:47 GMT

Hi friends! A little update: I am switching the monthly edition of The Mood Board (next issue out this Sunday!) to be a semi-paid post. This means that you will still be able to see some of the content, but a significant portion of it will be behind a paywall.

I have considered doing this for a while now, and as I continue to grow and spend more of my working hours on The Mood Board, it feels like the right time.

Free subscribers will get access to all Inspiration Diaries, a few sections of the monthly roundup, and any random extra posts I write.

Paid subscribers get:

✨ Access to the entire monthly edition of The Mood Board

✨ Creative prompts for every day of the month

✨ Weekly office hours with me

✨ Discounts on any workshops or events that I host

✨ More coming soon! 👀

I sincerely hope you will consider becoming a paid subscriber! I believe it’s worth it. Through the end of the month, I am offering 20% off paid subscriptions. Please drop any questions in the comments.

I am so grateful for you all. <3

xx Brianna

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Inspiration Diaries With Michelle Dufflocq of Handle With Care

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:18:36 GMT

This week, I’m so excited to share the Inspiration Diaries of my friend ! She has inspired me for longer than I’ve known her personally; I watched her YouTube for a couple years before she happened to follow me on Instagram. I slid into her DMs… and I guess you could say the rest is history. 🥹

It was a truly surreal moment for me: that someone I felt so inspired by was inspired by me, too. And now, I’m so grateful for our friendship and for the constant inspiration I still get from her – most recently being her new snail mail club. It’s adorable! You have to check it out here.

I hope you enjoy a week in her life through everything inspiring her!

xx Brianna

Twice a week, I work at a stationery store in Brooklyn. It’s been such a delightful way to take some of the pressure off of my creative work to pay the bills and to shake up the monotony of working from home. I also help create content for the shop, so I spend my shift working on a video about the new stickers we have in the store that week.

As much as it’s sometimes difficult to work on the weekends, I still pinch myself when I take my break by the water, sip on a free iced oat lavender latte, and marvel over the fact that I get to work with stationery all day and get paid for it.

When I work over the weekend, I try to take things slow on Monday mornings. My Breville Bambino is my very favorite way to start the day, especially since I’ve cracked my perfect iced oat flat white recipe — ¼ teaspoon of honey, ¼ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste, and a pinch of sea salt. I enjoy cheesy eggs on toast and catch up with my sister and her partner before getting started on the work day.

One of my favorite social media clients is Garmentory, a curated marketplace featuring independent designers and boutiques. I love making content for them because, as a lover of slow fashion and small businesses myself, it doesn’t feel like I am crafting posts for a hypothetical persona but rather for kindred spirits.

I’m not naturally a morning person, so instead of taking a walk first thing, I typically aim for right after breakfast but before lunch. I’m the luckiest girl in the world and live equidistant between both Central Park and Riverside Park, so I try to take advantage of this as much as I can.

After my walk, I make some lunch. I love a Mediterranean bowl, especially during the warmer months, so I throw a can of chickpeas in the oven to crisp up, heat some leftover rice, and make a sauce with Greek yogurt, tahini, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. I assemble my bowl with arugula, tomato, cucumber, and red onion, and return to my desk to finish the work day.

On Monday evenings, I love booking a workout class through ClassPass. My go-to is usually SoulCycle with Alex Frost — it’s the perfect combination of challenging but still achievable, even on a low-energy Monday. My sister (who is also my roommate) and I typically pick up Sweetgreen for dinner on Mondays to start off the week with a nice, nutrient-dense meal that we don’t have to cook ourselves.

Not every day can be a slay, and Tuesday is proof of that. I had planned on packing orders for my snail mail club, but it turns out I have the wrong paper for my new label printer. I spend hours troubleshooting, Googling, watching YouTube videos, and eventually texting my illustrator friend Laura, who has been my north star throughout this launch.

I make my way to my local Staples, where I buy more paper, which will also turn out to be The Wrong Kind, only to eventually order The Right Kind online and scrap my packing plan for the day. Something that starting a snail mail club has taught me is the importance of practicing patience and learning how to pivot.

I spend the rest of the day working on my Creative Curriculum for July, my partner comes over for dinner, and we catch up on Love Island. Before bed, we read our corresponding books side by side (I’m currently toggling between Sex & Rage by Eve Babitz and my dear friend, Sally Blakely’s newest release, Summer People.) Tomorrow is a new day, and we can always try again.

I commute to Brooklyn for another day working at the shop, and I am running very early. I end up popping into Sephora on my walk from the train and pick up my new favorite product, the Huda Beauty Easy Bake Setting Powder. It’s so perfect for long, sweaty summer days, especially if you find your makeup sliding off your face throughout the day.

On weekdays at the shop, there’s typically a lot of new products delivered, so my co-worker and I catch up and process inventory between customers. After a bit of a crash out over thermal paper the day before, it’s a welcome break to get off my laptop, leave my apartment, and work with my hands while around other people.

I get back home around 7:30 pm, and my sister has made cold sesame noodles for dinner. In case you didn’t know, my sister is an incredible cook. My very favorite thing in life is trying the food she’s cheffed up while watching a show together, and I’m so lucky to get to do just that so often. Recently, we’ve been obsessed with The Other Bennett Sister, Season 2 of Rivals, and are trying to get into this season of Love Island UK. If you couldn’t already tell, we were raised on period dramas and have a weakness for British media.

Before bed, I try setting up my label printer with the proper paper that has arrived by that evening, and it’s a success! Seeing all of my labels in one long strip makes everything start to feel real. I still can’t get over the support I’ve received this first month of this project!

Something I tend to do quite a bit as a freelancer that perhaps would put the Wellness Community into a coma is getting back into bed with my laptop and diving right into work after making my morning coffee. I find that sometimes I get the most focused work done this way, before my attention span becomes fried by endless scrolling.

After finishing up some freelance work, it’s time to get ready to film. I recently started my own YouTube channel after closing the collaborative channel I’ve run with my sister for over a decade, and I have been having so much fun filming videos again. I film a little segment packing my snail mail, and then finish packing the rest of the orders that need to be mailed out.

After work, I drop my envelopes off at my nearest USPS and head to the West Village to meet my friend, Lauren, and catch the new Mary Oliver documentary, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, at the IFC Center, followed by a Q&A with the director, Sasha Waters. The film is absolutely breathtaking — I find it so inspiring to hear stories about female artists who were successful later in life. Afterwards, we grab gelato, chat about the film, and I head home to take a cold shower.

It’s a holiday weekend, and I have plans with some friends to go to brunch and do some window shopping downtown. The city is so quiet, which almost makes not having access to a vacation home worth it. We meet up at The Commerce Inn with no reservation and are seated within 15 minutes — unheard of!

We go around the table sharing our latest updates, and I order the farmer’s breakfast and the blueberry pancakes to split. After brunch, we make our way over to Hightide to oggle at stationery and then the Camper store to browse their summer sandal selection (I have my eye on the Dana!)

Our final stop is La Cabra for a pick-me-up, and I order an iced cardamom latte that brings me back to life. Once the temperature hits its peak, we part ways, and I head back uptown. I make a quick stop by the grocery store for some essentials before parking myself in front of the AC for the rest of the day to officially finish out work for the week.

The heatwave is beginning to break, which is perfect timing because I’m meeting some friends at Rockaway for a beach day. I spend the morning packing my beach bag (which you can watch in my latest vlog) and making caprese sandwiches for my sister and me.

I stop by the coffee shop where my sister works to pick her up after her shift, and she gives me an iced pistachio cardamom rose latte to sample. I’ve somehow hacked the system and have built a life that includes complimentary coffee wherever I go, and that’s on living the dream!

Besides the lifeguards being on Shark Watch, we have a quintessentially perfect New York beach day. The water is cold, but it’s been so hot out lately that it feels like coming up for air. We eat our sandwiches with toes in the sand and snack on fresh mango from the bodega. It’s sticky and sweet, and it feels like summer can now officially begin.

***

Connect with Michelle here:

Instagram: @michelledufflocq

YouTube:

Snail Mail Club: patreon.com/cw/MichelleDufflocq

Substack:

Inspiration Diaries With Artist, Illustrator, and Writer Carolyn Yoo

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:09:07 GMT

I first stumbled across ’s beautiful, thoughtful writing and art when I saw her Winter Practice zine earlier this year on Substack Notes (see and shop her other seasonal zines here!). The bright colors, mindful and creative prompts, and positive energy created a bright spot in a dark Wisconsin winter, and I was grateful for it. We had virtual coffee a few months after that, and I left our conversation so inspired and thrilled to have met her. Her radiant energy shines through this Inspiration Diaries, and I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

xx Brianna

The Pieces of Media That Inspire Me Most

Brianna Schubert — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:30:35 GMT

I was journaling last night, and I started making a list of the pieces of media that inspire me the most in my creative writing. I sat down with the goal of brainstorming for a new project I’m planning to work on, and when I was struggling to think about what I wanted to write, I wrote down a list of all of these stories that resonated with me in some way – whether it’s the stories themselves, the way they were told, or something else that lives rent free in my head.

If I could write something even remotely as beautiful as any of these, I’d feel incredibly accomplished and proud. I wanted to share the list with you! Here it is.

xx Brianna

They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Girl’s Girl by

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Female Fantasy by

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Sweet Spot by

Red, White, and Royal Blue by

John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower

What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck

The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe

Hypotheticals by

Lady Bird written and directed by Greta Gerwig

Princess Diaries, story by Meg Cabot, screenplay by Gina Wendkos, and directed by Garry Marshall

We Live in Time, written by Nick Payne and directed by John Crowley

Portrait of a Lady on Fire written and directed by Céline Sciamma

Booksmart, written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman, and directed by Olivia Wilde

The Devil Wears Prada, story by Lauren Weisberger, screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, and directed by David Frankel

The Bold Type (team of writers)

Hacks (team of writers)

New Girl (team of writers)

What are the media that inspire you the most? Share in the comments! I’d love to hear. <3

Inspiration Diaries With Sandy Sanchez of Small Pleasures

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:31:08 GMT

Another week, another fabulous internet friend gracing the Inspiration Diaries. I’ve followed ’s beautiful Substack, , for at least a year before I officially met her (at the most adorable Galentine’s party a mutual friend hosted!), and I remember being so excited to finally meet the woman who’s inspired me on Substack for so long in person (exposing myself as a fangirl here lol). I just love the way Sandy sees the world: the colors, angles, patterns, and overall design of the photos she takes, even the simplest of pictures, are stunning. And her attention to the little details — ohhhh, the small pleasures! — make me want to look at all the details too. You’ll see what I mean when you read, and I think you’ll be inspired too. :)

xx Brianna

I got back from a week-long trip to Costa Rica a couple of days ago and have been seriously feeling the post-vacation blues. Work and life had been so busy for months and months now, so I desperately needed some time off. I was away from my phone 99% of the time and all I did was read and journal and explore and spend time with family and just be. Coming back to Brooklyn felt extra difficult this time but I’m slowly getting back into my routine. I’m feeling sluggish, though. I’m currently reading East of Eden, so I read in bed for a bit before officially starting my day.

It’s not a Sunday without a visit to the farmer’s market, so I walk my dog and we head over. Today’s haul: green vitamin juice, arugula, honey, salsa verde, French radishes, baby onions, basil, and sun gold tomatoes. This is my comfort ritual and I feel it bringing a sense of normalcy back into my day.

I spend the rest of the afternoon doing some last minute updates to my newsletter that’s going out later in the evening. I ask Aaron (my now-husband as of a month ago!) to draw a few illustrations for it and I publish. We have the World Cup games playing pretty much all day. For lunch, we eat jambon beurres, and enchiladas rojas for dinner.

In between games, we finish the last episode of Widow’s Bay. I love how it combines horror and comedy and amazing storytelling in such a beautiful way that we don’t get to see often on television!

For dessert, we have the last of our key lime pie from Mishie’s Pies. Her pies are incredible. I’m mentally preparing myself for work tomorrow. I’m excited to get back into it, but also wish I had more time to just lounge. I make plans to watch a movie with friends later this week and go to bed.

Back to work! I work from home today. I have a dermatology appointment that I made months ago and don’t feel like going. But it’s important to do your annual skin screening!

Breakfast is iced coffee and oatmeal. I head to the West Village for my appointment and then quickly come back home. The day is a bit of a rush with work and catching up on things. Before I know it, it’s 5:30 pm. I need to be away from my computer, so I go to the Italian market to get fresh pasta for today’s dinner.

I’m currently obsessing over Essex Honey, Blood Orange’s most recent album. I remember listening to his music when I was in high school. Years later, he’s still part of my life. Got the record on vinyl and it’s finally here!

Also: I had an exciting call today about attending a writers retreat in August and I’m so so excited. I’ve never been on one before! It’s on a farm…

I brought back a ton of coffee from Costa Rica and I enjoy a cup of it in the morning. I decide to work from home today because I need quiet focus time. The day goes by and I watch the World Cup games on and off.

I’m doing a reading on Friday for my friend’s chapbook launch party—my first reading ever! I have an idea I’ve been playing around with for weeks now. I’ve kinda been writing parts of it in my head, but I haven’t sat down to actually write it. I tell myself I’m going to write it this evening, but I’m tired, so I just jot down some bullet points and hope that I have more energy tomorrow after work. Only a few days left. Why am I like this!

I read more of East of Eden before going to bed.

It’s a beautiful day. After work, I meet up with Aaron at The Long Island Bar. We split our usual meal: deviled eggs, little gem salad, and crispy chicken sandwich.

The piece I need to write…it’s not fully written yet, but on my walk to the train earlier, I recorded some notes in my voice memos. I think it’s getting closer!

I end the evening by tidying up and watching Mexico vs Czech. Mexico wins! It makes me deeply miss Mexico City. I was there for half a year a few years ago and it’s such a special place. Making a mental note that I need to go again soon. These games always inspire me and make me so emotional.

The day is a blur, once again. I wrap up work and meet my friends at Leo, a sourdough pizza spot in Williamsburg. We share a salad, beans, and pizzas before walking over to the theater to watch Disclosure Day. I thought it was an okay movie! I went into it not knowing anything—my favorite way to go into movies. Loved Emily Blunt’s performance. And love Josh O’Connor. He’ll never not remind me of Linguini from Rataouille (the best movie ever, IMO).

Update on my piece for tomorrow’s reading: we are almost there…

Thank goodness it’s Friday. WE MADE IT. I wake up early to put finishing touches on my piece before starting work. The reading is at 7 pm and I need to leave the house by 6:15. Of course, it’s 6:00 and I’m making a few last minute tweaks and trying to figure out what to wear.

I’ve never done a reading before so I’m nervous!!! But excited!! My friend Grace Ann Leadbeater (incredible photographer and writer) released a chapbook called Spools of Thread with Choo Choo Press. It’s about objects and so she invited a few people to do a reading for the launch party at Dear Friends Books in Bed-Stuy. I read a piece called Not On Display about the special boxes that we hold our special things in. It covers everything from love letters to baby teeth. The night goes beautifully and a few people come up to me and say the sweetest things to me. Feeling so grateful that I got the opportunity to do this reading and also proud of myself for doing something that scared me. I go home, feeling fulfilled, and order Tacombi for dinner (burritos and esquites forever <3).

All I want to do today is have a chill Saturday. We make chilaquiles for breakfast and then I decide to clean out the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I have Pilates at 1 pm, which is something I look forward to every week. I always feel so good after. I’ve been casually doing reformer pilates since 2017 and it’s my favorite way to move.

The rest of the day is perfect: showering, making smoothies, watching World Cup games, cooking, tidying up, and writing a letter to my friend who lives in Canada. We primarily communicate via postcards and it’s so fun.

I also finally got my World of Interiors magazine in the mail. Love print media so much. Current subscriptions in our household: World of Interiors, The Paris Review, Interview Magazine, The Fly Fish Journal, Apartamento, and Never Too Small. The best! I spend the day thinking about how I really want to paint my kitchen pink. We will see!

***

Connect with Sandy here:

Substack:

Instagram: @sndy_snchz

The Mood Board Creative Community: July

Brianna Schubert — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 22:49:24 GMT

It’s hot hot hot here in Milwaukee! We’re pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and for me, that’s simply to hot to be productive. Instead, I’m taking time to dream, to imagine, to plan all of the things I want to do. I’m brainstorming new ideas, making mood boards, phoning friends (… and sitting in front of my air conditioner in a tank top and shorts while sipping an ice cold Olipop).

The theme this month, is DREAM. Because, frankly, it’s just too hot to do too much. So we’re going to let ourselves luxuriate in the grass (if you’re like me, on a blanket in the shade), grab a pen and a notebook, and let ourselves daydream our most beautiful lives.

I hope you’re staying cool, eating plenty of ice cream, and daydreaming about the wonderful, magical, creative life you deserve to live.

xx Brianna

P.S. Please check out the exciting upcoming events and workshops coming up, including the all-new Office Hours for paid subscribers of The Mood Board. What better place to discuss your dreams? Ask any of my friends, I’m the best hype woman out there. :)

✨NEW✨
Office Hours: Thursdays in July from 1-2 p.m. CT on Zoom
Paid subscribers can stop in for office hours on Thursdays to chat, cowork, create with me! If you want to talk through a project, get feedback on your resume (I weirdly love doing this lol), bounce ideas off me for pitches or short stories or Instagram posts or literally anything, or just chat about creativity, I’ll be there for an hour for just that. :)
ZOOM LINK BELOW ⬇️

Pitching Workshops: Wednesday, July 15 or Monday, July 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m. CT on Zoom
I’m hosting my introductory pitching workshop again! Do you have an idea for an article or essay but don’t know where — or how — to even begin pitching it to publications? Have you long dreamed of being the next Carrie Bradshaw? Did you watch The Bold Type and want to be Jane? This workshop is for you!

This workshop will explore the pitching process, from coming up with ideas to hitting the send button (and following up, of course!). Whether you’re pitching essays, reported pieces, or guides, this workshop will help you take your idea from a topic to a specific, pitchable story. We’ll cover crafting the pitch, best practices for formatting, where to find pitch calls and editor contacts, and more. And we’ll even take some time to write a pitch that you can send off to an editor yourself.

And I’m offering TWO dates for this workshop so hopefully more folks can make it. :) Discount for paid subscribers below! ⬇️

July 15 Workshop

July 20 Workshop

Intuitive Writing Workshop: Saturdays, Aug. 1, 8, 22, and 29 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET on Zoom

Do you have lots of ideas for things you want to write about but don’t know where to begin? Do you feel like there’s something you can write about but you’re not sure exactly what? Do you want to write more but aren’t sure how to carve out the time?

Melissa Delizia and I are hosting an Intuitive Writing Workshop, and if you answered yes to any of those questions, it might be the perfect space for you to explore your intuitive writing journey.

We believe that writing is an intuitive practice. We need to follow the threads of ideas that inspire us, write when it feels right, and allow ourselves the grace to set projects aside to pick up other ones. We need to listen to our bodies and minds. We need to be in community.

This four-week intuitive writing workshop brings all of that into practice. It will build upon itself to help us connect with the intuitive nature of writing, using Reiki energy work, meditation, tarot, mood boarding, and writing prompts to inspire and develop our ideas. We will also take lots of time to write, share and be in creative community.

Whether you’re just beginning your writing journey or have been writing for years, all are welcome! Discount for paid subscribers below! ⬇️

Inspiration Diaries With Brittany Esposito of getting existential

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:01:42 GMT

It’s not an exaggeration when I say that is one of my favorite people. We met in a writing class only last summer, and yet it feels like I’ve know her a lifetime. I think we did know each other in past lifetimes, honestly, because we understand each other in a way that’s special and rare – true platonic soulmates. I can tell her anything and she just Gets It™️, and I love the creative energy that flows between us. She is a wonderful human who just radiates so much positive energy and care, and loves her people so so hard.

I am so excited to share a week in her life with you all. I hope you feel as inspired as I did reading it. <3

xx Brianna

p.s. Perhaps you’ve noticed throughout the Inspiration Diaries that I allow for certain liberties with the writers. I like inviting everyone to show up as they are, and sometimes that means no capitalization. To editor Bri, a bit of a nightmare; to friend Bri, endearing and just right. (ily and for your uncapitalized chaos 🫶🏻)

a lot of the time i feel like i get stuck in the cycle of thinking rather than doing. it took me ages to start my substack after getting the idea to start writing more regularly and putting those pieces somewhere. it took my years to commit time to myself and take a writing class, to admit that i was a writer, that i was writing a book. i met bri in that writing class 1 year ago. my life changed instantly. the group was filled with talented writers from all over, all of us in different phases of life, writing different genres, different stories but all connected through one part of our soul. the universe aligned for all of us to be in that class together, i truly believe it. specifically, meeting bri reignited something in me that felt lost for a while. bri’s zest for life, creative thinking, and magnetism is enough to change a person’s life.

there is no better feeling than when someone you admire both as a creative and as a person asks you to collaborate on something. that’s how good it felt when bri asked me to participate in the Inspiration Diaries. watching her work, reading what she writes, having her in my corner, it’s been enough to help me find my writing voice, to be kind to myself when i don’t stick to the strict schedule i’m convinced i need to have, to experience the world with more whimsy and light. i could gush about bri and the mood board and her impact on the world around her for hours, as i’m sure anyone who has come across bri and the mood board could.

(Editor’s note from Bri: Wowowow. See what I mean! Britt is amazing; I’m literally tearing up with gratitude reading this. Such a gift to know her.)

i have been thinking about connection a lot lately. for many reasons lately, i have always felt a little bit isolated from the world. maybe in a way to protect myself from hurt, the fear of putting myself out there and not being received the way i want to. but i don’t want a lonely existence. I want to be the person that shouts my feelings from rooftops and lets other people see they aren’t alone. this week, i made the goal of approaching each day as a different way to feel connected. to the people around me, to the world, to the city i grew up in, to the communities i’m a part of. We are our best when we are with each other and i am learning that more and more these days.

the sunday reset

every few weeks, i get the sudden urge to change my life. to be the person that wakes up early and goes for a run, that puts their clothes away immediately after doing the laundry, to get out of the house on a nice day instead of sitting on the couch all day. i went to bed last night with this grandiose plan in mind. i wake up early, exercise, clean my entire apartment, and go to the park to read.

right at the start, i woke up later than i planned and didn’t go for a run or a walk like i wanted to, but instead of my usual self pity and abandonment of the whole day, i pivoted. i gave myself grace, because honestly, i have been tired as hell and sleeping in on a sunday just felt right, so i rolled out of bed around 11 and got to work getting my bedroom together. fresh sheets for the week, clothes put away (mostly - i have too much stuff to fit in my dressers, it’s a work in progress). i took a short walk to grab coffee and a bagel and came home to finish cleaning up and to write.

the sun outside was shining and the air was hot and thick, but i spent most of the day on the couch until my friend christine called me. she was in the neighborhood and wanted to go thrifting to look for outfit inspo for a trip we’re taking at the end of the month. we spent the late afternoon driving around bushwick popping into a few stores with the anticipation of our parisian escape hanging in the air.

i met christine 3 years ago at her birthday party that i was a +1 at, and from then we became fast friends. i don’t know many people like christine. she is so singular, a creative independent soul whose quiet openness feels like a cup of tea on a cold day. i usually don’t enjoy a last minute thrift day as much as i should. I hate not going in with a plan — i had no mood boards made, no specific items in mind, so it always feels overwhelming. But there was something about today. perusing through racks of clothes, picturing what we’d wear them for in paris, and popping over to close by bookstores, because a bookstore always feels like home.

the sun, the heat, the blue skies, it was the kind of day to wander.

newly opened bookstore cafe by my apartment

trying new things

the morning goes as it usually does but today will be different than any day i’ve ever had. today i’m moderating a panel at work to interview two incredible people in the queer author and publishing space: and . i’m involved in the pride employee resource group at my job and for pride this month i suggested we host an event talking about queer books (even though we are a television company lol) and it got approved! this is the first time i’ve ever really put myself in the position to speak in front of people about the things i enjoy and my identity and community. luckily the two people i’m interviewing are people i know, love, and admire deeply. the morning goes as usual, but once 12 hits i have anxious blood running through me. i can’t sit still and i’m jittery and jumpy but so excited. the talk is at 1 and people slowly start to gather. it ends up being a much more intimate group than i wanted, with a larger group joining the online portion, but i allowed myself to let it go and just focus on having a good conversation .

me, kim narby (author of Saturn Returning) and nina haines (founder of sapph-lit) at my pride panel

i like to think it went well, the people who came told me it did, and i left feeling pretty good about the conversation we had. regardless, i view it as a success. i put myself out there and asked for something i wanted to do, i got to highlight a small queer publishing imprint and a debut queer author, and got to talk about the queer experience loudly and honestly at my Big Corporate Job! i’m allowing myself to say that i’m very proud of me.

as if the day couldn’t end on a higher note - THE HAMMOCK I ORDERED CAME. i’ve lived in my apartment for 2 summers and have always wanted the backyard to feel more cozy and welcoming, so when the weather was gorgeous on monday, it was the spark i needed to finally order one. i cannot believe i didn’t think about getting a hammock before now, but i will not allow regret to ruin the excitement. i built her all by myself and finished my current read swaying in the summer wind. i haven’t felt that at peace in i don’t know how long.

having the time of my life in my hammock

being the villager

after the high of monday, it was a harsh 180 to wake up on tuesday and already feel frustrated by the day. this day started not so great, maybe it was the crash from the excitement of Monday that made everything feel so much heavier. work has been a lot lately. there are a lot of things weighing on me and the imposter syndrome has been getting LOUD. if i’m being honest, the day was kind of a blur. i was tired all day and also extremely busy prepping for a work conference, but the packed schedule did kind of help getting my out of my own head.

one thing that did perk me right back up was that the incredible Laverne Cox was doing a talk at my building to promote her new memoir Transcendent, and we got to leave with a copy! i love when my next read just announces itself without me having to think about it <3

laverne cox being interviewed on her new book at my job

i had dinner plans that night that inched further and further away as i stayed 30 minutes late at work… then an hour…. then 2. cue the devil and the angel on my shoulder arguing about whether i should cancel and go home to sleep or not. but the universe makes the rules and my friend that i was supposed to meet with also ended up leaving work about 2 hours late. i thought about something that my friends and i talked about on a recent trip to austin, and something nina mentioned during the conversation i moderated monday. being a villager is the most important part of having a village. i can’t complain about feeling isolated or lonely if im not showing up for people even if it’s a little inconvenient or i don’t have all the energy for it in the world.this was the second time we rescheduled these dinner plans, and i haven’t seen my friend in months, and i did miss her! so i went and saw my friend. and i had a great time, of course. yes rest is important and self care is necessary, but knowing when you’re shutting yourself in vs actually needing a break is an important distinction that im trying to be better at recognizing.

slow moving

i’m struggling with what to say about this day. i almost want to tell you that this day was uneventful, but no day is truly uneventful right? i mean, i’m planning a conference at work and that has been taking up most of my brain space but i don’t want to bore anyone with the details. i may love the nitty gritty of event prep, but i wont subject anyone to hearing about the trials and tribulations of shipping packages that sometimes get returned for seemingly no reason. i got away from my desk for lunch and spent it with the other girls on the floor.

after work, i headed to queens to see my family for dinner. since i moved out of queens, i try to get back at least twice a month for dinner to see my parents and my siblings, and within the last three months, my niece!!! yes the rumors are true, i have joined the hot aunt club.

the night ends as all nights do when i go for dinner at my sisters. an uber back to brooklyn, with a borrowed item in hand, and the promise to text when i get home. And as mundane and routine as this might seem, my cup is full because i got to see my family. And now my cuppeth overflow once again and this night will once again end on a high note due to mail i received (see hammock mail on monday) — this months ‘a little something’ shining bright in my mailbox! ’s monthly snail mail club makes me giddy every time i get an envelope. snail mail forever!

a little something by meg seyler!

i also started watching the knicks game (i’m a native new yorker baby) around half time (because i’m not actually a huge basketball person, but i love new york and love island doesn’t play on wednesdays sooo...) and they started scoring like crazy. i did a bunch of menial tasks i needed to do while the game played in the background but at a certain point i was locked tf in. gasping at the tv with every shot or pass or foul. and before i knew it they made the comeback of the century and i stayed up until 12:30 after telling myself id go to bed early. it’s hard to not show up for new york because in so many ways she has showed up for me, and who doesn’t want to say they witnessed history you know?

connecting & community

listen, i never said i was the smartest when it came to time management of my personal life. as exhausted as i have been, i didn’t go straight home after work. it is pride month after all, i can hardly ever say no to a fun post work event. one of the employee resource groups threw a Drag Loteria night at a gay bar close to work – and I’m not gonna go?? so i did! i spent time with a colleague turned friend that i rarely get to see (we work on different floors and teams) but who is one of the coolest people i know, and i ran into a new friend that i haven’t seen in a bit.

i will always take a picture of a disco ball

the show was incredible, miss Freeda Kulo, a gemini & native new yorker (my soul sister actually), killed it as usual. my friend hannah, the new friend i hadn’t seen in a bit, introduced me to her coworkers who were all so kind and so cool. hannah does a small friday newsletter wrapping up the pop culture tea of the week, and i got added to it. as a substacker, you know i love a newsletter. on the way home, i saw daisies sprouting up in a neighbors yard in the dark on my walk home. i went to bed that night physically exhausted but with a refreshed soul.

late night daisies!

romantic walks through midtown

friday was filled with nervous energy. i’ve got a work trip coming up and haven’t had as much time to do my house duties and outfit planning as i wanted. fridays in the office are quiet and silly. it’s nice to not be distracted by people, but it feels silly to sit in a silent office that’s usually packed with a handful of people. what’s nice about it too is that sometimes, because there are so little people there, the office buys us lunch as a friday treat. like a middle school pizza party, we made our plates and sat in a conference room. generations of people, all different tenure, different backgrounds, interests, all sitting in a conference room used for big important business meetings, eating pizza and gabbing about whatever there is to gab about.

the view from my office pizza party

i’m sure you’re recognizing a pattern at this point, after work, i did not go home even though i should have had a night in. i had plans with someone to go see the movie to watch to wong foo, thanks for everything, julie newmar, that was showing at rooftop cinema club in midtown. it almost didn’t happen because it started down pouring right around the time i was getting off the train (homophobic) - but the person i was meeting that evening, my knight in shining umbrella, met me at the midtown train exit, shielded me from the rain, and we sauntered over to the theater. eventually the rain stopped, and we got to sit in the less sticky humidity post rain and watch the movie.

rooftop cinema club outdoor theater

afterwards, the weather stayed cooler - well less hot - and it seemed like a waste of a summer night to immediately get on the train, so we decided to walk 20 blocks downtown before we ended the night. It was a great night.

love and love and love

this will go down in history as one of the best days of my life. i cannot explain the joy i felt saturday in a way that does it justice.

the morning - afternoon: i woke up with a quiet buzz in anticipation of the day. a mix of anxiety and stress and excitement flowing through my veins. i finished packing for my work trip as best as i could before i started to get ready for my days festivities. i put on my gayest outfit (includes renee rapp tour merch) and got ready for brooklyn pride. it’s the first time i’ve gone to brooklyn pride and while i couldn’t stay the entire day to march, i was so happy to be a part of it for the morning. i got brunch with 3 friends and went to a backyard pride pregame where there was a stack of stickers and tattoos readily available. it was a morning of meeting other queer people, being in my own queerness loudly with my whole being, and celebrating my friendships, my community, and new york. i felt so at home and at peace in my body. i got to be silly and dance and sing with people i love in the city i love. later after walking up and down the streets of brooklyn looking at vendors and listening to live music, i had to bid goodbye for the days second set of plans.

the evening: i took the train from brooklyn to midtown, my car filled with people dressed in gay pride and ny pride - happy pride, knicks in 5! i had dinner plans and was seeing 5 seconds of summer in concert. i met my friends for dinner at a restaurant in midtown that was packed and ready for the world cup game happening. the girl my friend is dating was a genius and made a reservation, so we got seated while there was a line piling out the door. it was so nice to spend some time in the ac sitting down, eating, and chatting. i had the realization that i’ve known my friends from college for 10 years now. 10 years of growing together, learning who we are, getting jobs and finding love and always loving each other. the kind of love i have with my friends is unconditional and electric. there are never awkward silences, there is always laughter through the tears, and tears from the laughter. i need to remind myself of this feeling more when i’m feeling alone.

we finish with dinner and head to madison square garden. the city is a mess in the best way. There was a lot happening in new york this day. world cup games, the knicks game watch parties, and the concert at msg. there are barricades up every block, police presence everywhere and people zipping through the streets. we finally find the street that’s open for the concert goers, i’ve never seen the outside of msg look so open before a concert. there were groups of people corralled in barricades for the knicks watch parties and slews of people making their way into the garden. the mix of grungy pop punk outfits and knicks gear felt hilariously right in this moment. my best friend, kelly, and me, walking arm in arm dressed in our last minute homemade knicks in 5sos shirts (i banged them out the night before with some paint markers i have for my craft nights) ready to scream our heads off and dance our asses off.

5sos concert at msg before the show started

writing about concerts is something i’ve always found a little difficult. i LOVE a concert. it’s where most of my spending money goes. if theres a show in new york, odds are i’m there. but i’ve never been able to properly write about my experience. i used to want to start a music blog, write about all of the concerts i go to, about the energy in the rooms, what music means to me, but it’s something that sits so deeply within me that i don’t have the words. i’ll try my best to articulate it now but just know, its bigger than i could ever describe.

kelly and i met 10 years ago sophomore year of college. she grew up with another one of my best friends, who i played on the soccer team with, and we would plan to live together sophomore year in an apartment. before i met kelly in person, i followed her on instagram and saw she posted something about the 1975. i dmed her immediately, and that was that. from then on we became connected through the soul, there is not a life i want to live without her in it. our music taste is shockingly similar and we have been in the same place multiple times before meeting. our invisible string is the music we loved as teen girls <3 and here we were, 10 years later at our billionth 5sos show, livestreaming the knicks game on a phone while we watch our favorite band play. throughout the concert i just kept getting hit with waves of gratitude and joy. listening to a band that i have loved since i was 15 play new songs and old songs, being there with my best friend, watching her grow up, and myself grow up, and learning to be in the moment. I felt all of my life pass through me, feeling so grateful to live in new york, to have friends who live here, and friends who don’t, and have people that know me so deeply and truly that they see past all of the things i want to change about myself and celebrate me as i am. and suddenly i am crying to a song that i cried to in 2014 and kelly’s arm is around my shoulders and we are swaying while a sea of phone flashlights illuminates the garden. I will be a fangirl forever.

me and kelly in our last minute custom tanks

if the night ended there, it would have still been one of the best nights of my life. but the universe had more in store for this girl from new york. I get to the train land turn the knicks game on to watch my phone. we had been periodically checking during the concert, refreshing the score every couple of songs, and there was minutes left in the last quarter. while i’m waiting on the platform, a father pushing a baby in a carriage props up behind me to watch on my phone and i extend my arm out so he can see, no words were spoken. a girl walks by with headphones in an nods to my phone, i gesture for her to come over and watch. 3 strangers on a subway platform watching their local team move toward making history. the train arrives and we all go our separate ways, during a time out with 8 seconds left on the clock. and then something even more magical happens. the knicks win it and a guy on the train jumps up from his seat and cheers. “they did it!” “knicks in 5!” cheers erupt on the train and the conductor gets on to announce that the knicks have won the championship for the first time in 53 years. every time the doors open at a stop you hear fireworks and horns and cheers floating through the city air. i’d be lying if i said i ever cared about basketball before this moment. but i care about new york and i will root for new york every damn time.

there have been so many moments in the last few years, and especially the last few months, where i have felt so lost and unsure of who i am, and in the moments where i am watching confetti rain down on the crowd, and music beaming through the speakers, and the smile on my best friends face, watching someone jump up and cheer for their team, listening to the sounds of the city in celebration, i am happy that i made it through those times, to be here now and feel how i feel.

***

Connect with Brittany here:

Substack:

Instagram: @shutuppbritttt

Upcoming Workshop: Intuitive Writing

Brianna Schubert — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 22:16:05 GMT

and I are hosting an Intuitive Writing Workshop, and if you answered yes to any of those questions, it might be the perfect space for you to explore your intuitive writing journey.

Whether you’re just beginning your writing journey or have been writing for years, all are welcome!

Saturdays: Aug. 1, 8, 22, 29 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET (Virtual, on Zoom)

*Discount code for paid subscribers to The Mood Board at the bottom of this post!

Inspiration Diaries With Skylar Allen of Room to Grow

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:02:59 GMT

Sometimes, I love the internet. I’ve met so many inspiring and incredible people through online spaces like Instagram and Substack, and is one of them. I came across her S T U N N I N G snack plates on Substack notes a few months ago, and knew two things immediately:

My new summer goal was to make delicious snack plates.
She needed to be a part of inspiration diaries, so she could inspire you all as much as she’s been inspiring me.

I am so excited to share with you a week in Skylar’s life through the things that are inspiring her. And I’m also excited that so many of the bits of inspiration she shared are through the lens of food. It was such a joy to read, and I hope you leave feeling as inspired – and hungry! – as I did. <3

xx Brianna

I slept in this morning and had a cup of coffee, hot with whole milk, while I worked on the latest issue of The Monthly Recap. Normally, I’m the one making an elaborate breakfast on the weekend, but today my husband made challah french toast for us.

Wanting to take advantage of a delightfully warm day and an empty calendar, I packed up some snacks and we headed to Duboce Park to read and sit in the sun for a few hours. San Francisco has over 200 parks, but this one has a special place in my heart. My first apartment in SF, which I moved into nearly ten years ago, was a block away, so it has always felt a bit like sitting in my own backyard. On our walk home, we stopped to pick up groceries and a few special items for dinner, before spending a few more hours writing and working on creative projects.

For dinner, my husband made a ribeye with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus, a meal that’s on heavy rotation in our house. And because it’s Sunday, dinner doubles as what my husband and I refer to as a “business meeting.” We’re both self-employed, so our schedules vary quite a bit each week. This time is a chance to review calendars and talk through what the week ahead looks like, along with any goals we want to accomplish or areas where help is needed. It’s one of my favorite weekly routines.

I realized I had a pint of heavy cream in the fridge that was about to expire, so naturally I made a batch of homemade whipped cream so that it didn’t go to waste. Which also meant that I needed to make a dessert that could be topped with the whipped cream. I’ve been craving fruit-forward desserts lately and made this Strawberry Spoon Cake, which we ate while watching a couple episodes of ER. We started watching it for the first time back in January, and are currently at the end of Season 10. It’s an incredible show, and I’m endlessly inspired by the interiors. I am constantly pausing episodes to take photos of the furniture, color palettes, and tiled rooms.

Mondays are often my busiest days of the week, and today is an extra busy one because it’s the first of the month. As a marketer, I heavily rely on data to inform strategy, and at the top of my to-do list for each of my clients today was a detailed performance report for the month prior. I opened my laptop right at 9 a.m. to get started and barely moved until 4 p.m., which honestly is an extremely rare occurrence since I went freelance two years ago.

Desperately in need of some fresh air, my husband and I hopped on Muni to go downtown and walk The Embarcadero on San Francisco’s eastern waterfront. The views are beautiful and it’s one of those walks that makes me feel so lucky to live here. It’s less than a 10-minute ride on public transit, and something that I definitely need to do more often.

Back at home, my husband and I made dinner together. He made chicken cutlets and Texas Toast and I made a very green salad with sautéed vegetables, butter lettuce, and romaine hearts to go with it. We watched an episode of ER, then I caught up on my Substack inbox while my husband worked on music before calling it a night.

Another rarity this week, I actually set an alarm for this morning. Not doing so and waking up naturally on a regular basis has been one of the greatest gifts of freelancing. But this morning I had a workout at 10 a.m. and needed to give my body enough time to wake up. I started working out with a trainer about a year and a half ago and it is easily the best investment I have ever made in myself. The twice-a-week sessions primarily focus on strength training, and when I started, despite being a fairly active and athletic person, I couldn’t even do a push up. Now, I’m doing them regularly and in today’s session I hit three new personal records: a 245 lb deadlift, 105 lb bench press, and a 65” broad jump. I feel stronger than I ever have and being able to lift heavy things is the only goal I have.

On my walk home, I stopped into San Francisco City Hall to vote in the California primaries. City Hall is easily the coolest place to vote in the city, and also happens to be where I got married last year. Whenever I’m there I always walk by the Grand Staircase because no matter what time of day, you’re guaranteed to see at least a handful of couples taking their own wedding photos. It’s absolutely stunning.

At this point it was nearly noon and I needed to quickly shower and eat breakfast before a call with a prospective client. After a couple hours of work it was time for lunch and I made what I make most days: a snack plate. The peaches I included on today’s snack plate were a great reminder that just because something is a little bit bruised and maybe doesn’t look the best, it doesn’t mean it’s any less sweet or delicious.

Post-lunch I spent a couple more hours working while hyping myself up to do something I was really close to chickening out of. I had been invited to a happy hour in the city hosted by someone I’d never met in person before, and where I knew I would know absolutely no one else. I am also really bad at networking and usually avoid events like this. But I’m really trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and am really proud of myself for not only going, but for walking up to a group of people I didn’t know and introducing myself. While there, I also surpassed 500 subscribers here on Substack so I was doubly riding high.

I made dinner at home, a variation of last night’s meal (can you tell I’m a creature of habit?), and ate it while watching the latest episode of Top Chef. For no real reason other than I wanted to and had several limes in the fruit basket, I made a batch of Lime Squiggle Cookies from Claire Saffitz’s second cookbook, What’s for Dessert? I found a half-priced copy of the book recently and am slowly baking my way through it. I gravitated toward this recipe and it doubled as a bit more of an art project than baking already is because the cookies are piped freehand. I ended up having to make the icing for these cookies the next morning, but they were so, so good and kind of taste like a key lime pie version of the butter cookies I included in my holiday cookie boxes last year. I’ll definitely be making them again!

I once again woke up to an alarm this morning, though I can’t really complain because that alarm went off at 9 a.m. In all fairness, it was nearly 2 a.m. by the time I went to bed. I needed to get right to work this morning because I had a few calls and also needed to send a new contract to the prospective-turned-actual client I spoke to yesterday.

A little after noon I headed to my friend Claire’s house for our standing bi-weekly coworking date. Sometimes we’ll meet at a coffee shop, but no matter where we are, these coworking dates are always a highlight of my week. Claire made me a fantastic iced latte and we did a total of maybe 20 minutes of work because we were so busy chatting. Rather than waste the perfect weather, we moved our hangout to Duboce Park and spent a few hours talking about anything and everything while people watching and enjoying the sun. Yet another really wonderful perk of freelancing and being able to make my own schedule. I had to run a few errands on my way home and then actually did do a few hours of work and crossed a few items off of my to do list.

My husband and I have a tradition that right before either one of us leaves for a trip (in this case I was leaving for a long weekend), we go to dinner at Pasta Supply Co. It’s one of my favorite and most frequently-visited restaurants, and also happens to be where we held our wedding reception. If you want to go out for dinner but don’t want to spend a lot or make a reservation, and want a comforting meal, go to Pasta Supply. The menu changes often based on what’s in season, but my favorite dish is one that’s always available: Mafaldine “Butter + Parm.” It’s somewhere between homemade buttered noodles and cacio e pepe and I literally order it every single time. I also highly, highly recommend the Sour Cream & Onion Burrata.

We took the long way home from dinner, stopping at a Japanese market for HI-CHEW and Hello Panda cookies, walking to the further-away bus stop to head back to our neighborhood, and then making another stop at Trader Joe’s for a few essentials before calling it a night.

I didn’t sleep super well last night so I drank my coffee in bed to slowly ease into the day. In preparation for a weekend trip, there was a lot to do today. I did several loads of laundry, cleaned my apartment, packed, and made a trip to Loquat, one of my favorite bakeries in the neighborhood, for a loaf of chocolate babka to take as a hostess gift. I also did a few hours of work, made yet another snack plate for lunch, and drafted the latest issue of Younger Selves before my 4 p.m. workout.

My best friend came over around 7 for a sleepover since she was joining me on this trip and our flight was extremely early the next morning. We ordered Quik Dog (kale salad, nuggets, mini corn dogs, fries and extra honey mustard for dipping) for dinner and despite the fact that we text practically non-stop every day, we still spent hours talking and went to bed far later than we intended.

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. and 30 minutes later we were on our way to the airport, which thankfully is only about 15 minutes away. Lately, I’ve spent the majority of my flights working since most airlines offer free wifi now, but since this one didn’t I took full advantage of the uninterrupted time to dive into some relaxing media consumption. I love reading on planes and spent the first few hours of our flight to Boston making my way through Yesteryear before watching the first two episodes of Off Campus.

Once we landed in Boston, we picked up our rental car and made the two hour drive to Connecticut, where our other friend lives, and where we’d be staying for the weekend. The three of us don’t get to see each other anywhere near as often as I’d like, but her daughter turned one this weekend and we flew in to celebrate. It may sound silly to fly all the way across the country for a first birthday party, but I’m so glad I was there. I will cherish those memories forever. Knowing what the next day entailed and given how early we’d woken up, we headed to bed early so we could all get plenty of rest.

We all woke up around 7 and almost immediately made a trip to Dunkin for Brown Sugar Shaken Espressos to fuel the next several hours of party prep. I blew up countless balloons, made fruit skewers, helped hang banners and streamers, and assisted with anything and everything else that needed to be done before guests arrived. I love to host, and genuinely really love setting up for parties. Getting to do it for the cutest one-year-old, surrounded by my best friends was an absolute treat.

After the party and after naps for just about everyone, we went out for lobster rolls and crossed off the first item on my Summer 2026 bucket list. There are few better meals in the summer than a hot and buttery lobster roll, which turns out can actually be improved by washing it down with grape soda. A dinner that delicious had to be followed by ice cream. The place we went had a lemon meringue pie flavor that was so good I’m already planning to recreate it at home. I also had to get a scoop of their chocolate peanut butter flavor because if there’s a peanut butter ice cream available, I’m ordering it.

***
Connect with Skylar here:

Substack:

Instagram: @skylar_allen

The Mood Board #044

Brianna Schubert — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:37:40 GMT

June so far has been so sexy and queer and fun, and I’m feeling so incredibly grateful. I’ve had fun celebrating Pride Month by going to my local pride parade, sending stupid memes to my queer friends, talking about being bisexual, and drinking an inhuman amount of iced lavender lattes with oatmilk.

This week I’ve been feeling a lot more tired and slow (thanks, PMS), but I am also taking this time to reflect on the vibrance and joy of the first couple weeks of the month.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to work and create intuitively with my mind and body’s rhythms – my cycle, my energy, my mood – and it feels really good to listen to what I need and allow myself space to rest when I need it. Some weeks, I feel productive every single day and am capable of working long hours and doing a ton. Others, I retreat into myself, feel distracted, and wander. Both are valid and important. I’m still working out how to build my life around these ebbs and flows, but it’s something I’m thinking about a lot.

Do you notice yourself having weeks like this too? What’s one way you can work with your mind and body’s rhythms to give yourself more grace, to go easier on yourself, to feel attuned to your natural shifts?

I don’t have the answers, but maybe we can all figure it out together. I’d love to hear in the comments if you have any insight.

Thank you for being here and learning and growing alongside me! <3

xx Brianna

Note: Some of my links to books, products, etc. are affiliate links, and this helps me sustain The Mood Board and build my career as a writer. I only recommend things that I genuinely use and love. Thank you for supporting me and my writing in this way! xx

Inspiration Diaries With Writer Aditha Reddy

Brianna Schubert — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:37:38 GMT

You might notice a pattern in a lot of these initial Inspiration Diaries: I met many of them in a writing class I took last summer. Little did I know at the time, these women would become some of my closest creative companions, my good friends, people I talk to every week, if not every day. Aditha and I met in this writing class, and every day I’m grateful for it. We connected immediately over our shared favorite book, They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey. Aditha is a brilliant writer; her view of the world and ability to articulate it in essays inspires me so much. I’m so grateful to know her and write alongside her. She just re-launched her Substack, . I promise that after reading just a bit of her writing here, you’ll want to subscribe to read more and more of her work. <3

xx Brianna

In the spring of 2025, I went to an author talk at a local bookstore with poet Maggie Smith.1 Maggie was promoting her book Dear Writer, a book about creativity and the craft of writing, and I had been thinking about writing a lot. A couple months prior, I read the book They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey and was blown away by how Meg wrote about ballet in the book. After finishing the book, I vaguely thought about how I want to write a book where I write about yoga the way Meg wrote about ballet but I had no idea how I’d make a whole novel out of that concept. During Maggie’s Q&A, I asked, “What advice do you have for someone who wants to write but doesn’t know what to write about?” She responded, “about-ness is a myth” and went on to say that if you want to write, you sit down and write about the things you notice about the world around you, and you’d find something to say.

A couple months later, I went to an author talk with Fredrik Backman where he had similar advice—to keep at writing. I still couldn’t fully comprehend how you wrote when you didn’t have something to say, but I did decide to sign up for a writing class—the first creative writing class I would take since my sophomore year of high school!

I met Brianna last summer through that class. It was my first experience with a writing workshop and the first time I made writer friends. I learned that writing is a team sport and having this team is what has encouraged me to write more in the last year than I have since high school.

Since that author talk with Maggie Smith, I have proven to myself over and over that it is true—if I sit down to write, I will find something to write about.2

I’ve learned that the best way to fight this fear is to notice things in my day-to-day, no matter how mundane the day itself may be… birds bathing in a shallow puddle, the swell in my chest when someone shows me how they love me, what song is playing when I’m at brunch with my friends—all moments I file away in my mental “I can write about this” folder.

For my version of the Inspiration Diaries, I wanted to show myself (and you!) how if I stay present, there is a writing prompt in every day.

SUNDAY: What’s something you love about the place you call home?

It is one of the biggest days in Cincinnati! The Flying Pig Marathon and Half Marathon. I had the date in my calendar for months to cheer on my friend who had been training for the half-marathon for months, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the actual race the morning of because of some family who unexpectedly came into town for a very brief trip. But that didn’t stop me from setting an early alarm and sending voice memos to my friend and another friend who decided to run the half-marathon last minute.3

I felt immense pride in my chest when each of them crossed the finish lines. I couldn’t believe they had both finished running marathons while I was still sipping on my breakfast smoothie.

That afternoon, my parents, cousin, and I ended up making our way to Downtown Cincinnati to show my visiting cousin around. There were heavy grey clouds in the sky and the city was littered with remnants of the marathon in the morning—High Noons from the spectators, porta-potties at every turn.

While waiting at a crosswalk, there was a man behind us wearing a medal. “Congrats!” I exclaimed, my parents joining in with me. “Hey thanks, I really appreciate it!” he responded, beaming. On the opposite side of the crosswalk, there was a cluster of women, also all wearing their medals.

We walked on the Roebling Bridge and stopped halfway. I looked out at the Great American Ball Park stadium in front of me the little city skyline beside it. The bridge overlooked a small park and there were people smattered around. To my left was Kentucky and at the end of the bridge was a short walk to a bookstore. Behind me would be Paycor stadium.

Before we walked back to our car, I turned around and looked once more at the Roebling Bridge. The metal barricades were still up from the race this morning. I felt a surge of pride for my wonderful city—the beautiful bridge that was a blueprint for the Brooklyn Bridge, the city that came together to cheer on marathoners that morning, the view of the skyline, all the things I haven’t even done yet here!

Sure, London and New York City were very special places, but so was Cincinnati.

MONDAY: What’s something you notice when you go on a walk?

The heavy clouds from the day before lingered into Monday. It’s looking like April showers are turning into May showers. However, when it seemed safe enough to say that it wasn’t actually going to rain, I decided to accompany my parents on a walk.

We drove to a nearby metro park and walked along a loop with a manmade lake in the center. The air was cool enough to warrant a sweatshirt and humidity wasn’t in quite full swing yet. After making one lap with my parents, I decided to sit on a bench while they did one more round. I swatted mosquitos away with my palm while taking a seat on a bench that directly faced a small dock.

On the dock were three little boys fishing. There were two taller boys and one shorter one and only two of them had fishing poles. Only seconds after the shorter boy threw his fishing line into the lake, there was a tug and he reeled in the line. A small fish was on the end. “Wow,” I said to myself, kind of surprised that at the success, despite seeing people constantly fish at this lake. The boy struggled to get the fish off the hook and I grew anxious, thinking about how the fish was probably very uncomfortable. The other boys stepped into help and all shrieked when the fish flew off the hook and landed on the dock and began to flop around. Finally, the shorter of the taller boys picked it up and tossed it back into the water.

After the whole episode resolved, I looked to the left to see my parents waving in the direction of the parking lot. I made my way to them, turning back one last time to see the boys giggling and shoving each other.

TUESDAY: What’s one way you could’ve practiced Brahmacharya today?

I also voted today! It doesn’t really have to do with today’s prompt (unfortunately I have no photos from my harrowing Ticketmaster experience) but it reaffirmed the feeling of loving my city from a few days ago!

There are few things I find more thrilling than a Ticketmaster queue. The Ticketmaster stars were aligning in my favor this afternoon because the particular sale I was trying to get into started at noon—that meant I would be on my lunch break and would long be done with patient care for the morning and wouldn’t have to worry about balancing work with this effort.

I set up camp with my laptop and phone in the break room. The wifi signal in my exam room where I spent most of the day was abysmal and I was not risking a poor wifi connection keeping me from getting these tickets I wanted. There would be two local dates for the show I wanted to see and I had a strategy—I would log into my Ticketmaster account for the Thursday show on one tab and the Friday show on another tab, and I would log into my boyfriend’s Ticketmaster account for each show on two tabs on my laptop. My friends and I decided the Thursday show would probably be the show we had better odds for so that’s what our focus was on.

As always, when the queues open, it’s chaos. But this time, it was chaos in my favor! I realized I had a great queue number for the Thursday show on my phone and was in and out of the sale in fifteen minutes with tickets for me and my friends. My heart rate was about two hundred beats per minutes and I was ecstatic. I had much better luck than my friends trying to get tickets too but thankfully we’d all make it to the show now.

After soaking it in for a few minutes, I began to make my way back to my exam room for my afternoon patients, but not before closing the open tabs on my phone. Then I stopped dead in my tracks, I noticed the Friday tab had let me through the queue and my heart sank. I frantically refreshed, only to see that the tickets were now sold out.

I felt awash with regret. I totally forgot about the tab for Friday opened on my phone and I realized I must’ve gotten a good queue number for Friday, too, by some miracle. If I was paying attention, my friends and I could’ve attended both shows!

And just like that, the excitement from minutes before was dampened.

Later, I thought about the yogic principle of Brahmacharya—the idea of nonexcess. Essentially, this is the idea of practicing moderation and avoiding overindulgence. Brahmacharya reminds us to balance our desires—and manage how much we desire. The thing about desire is that it’s kind of like children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you give a mouse a cookie, then it asks for a glass of milk, etc. etc. If you satiate one desire, it’s only natural to desire even more.

If you get tickets to one concert, it’s easy to want tickets to one more concert. Desiring more kept me from appreciating what I did have. Where do you draw the line on how much more to desire?

I spent the rest of the evening reminding myself I am lucky to be going to one at all and that going to a second one would not necessarily improve my quality of life. And sometimes, the universe decides for us that we don’t need something because otherwise we might not be able to draw the line for ourselves.

WEDNESDAY: What’s something you can give yourself permission to do?

In therapy, something I’ve been working on is living with discomfort—not just my own but also others’. In this process, I’ve noticed that it would be easier for me to do this if someone told me it was okay that I was making other people uncomfortable with my choices.

When talking about this, my therapist referenced the movie Ella Enchanted. The story is about a girl named Ella who has a curse put on her where she is forced to do anything that anyone tells her to do. Spoiler alert: she ends up breaking the curse by looking in the mirror and tells herself to stop listening to everyone. My therapist suggested, “Maybe you need to give yourself the permission in the same way.”

I was speechless. It was truly the perfect metaphor for everything in my life.

Then, she gave me an assignment. “Every morning, look in the mirror and tell yourself, ‘I give you the permission to live with your discomfort and the discomfort of others.’”

I admitted that it felt hokey to me—affirmations always felt cheesy and futile to me but I was willing to try it at least.

And so that night, before bed, I decided to try it for the first time. I repeated the statement she suggested while looking in the mirror. A small part of me was hoping I would be miraculously transformed after just saying it once, but I felt exactly how I did seconds prior. Bummer.4

But I did think about Ella Enchanted and how unlike Ella for a majority of the movie, I had free will, and I could actually do whatever I wanted and not just what other people wanted. And even at the end of the movie, the person who restored her free will was actually herself. So maybe that permission to myself would extend largely beyond living with discomfort. I will no longer be obedient!

THURSDAY: What’s a way you are thinking too much about yourself?

Apparently I have no pictures of the beautiful view on my lunch walk! Sometimes I live in the moment so hard I forget to take a picture, oops. Here’s a really relevant meme instead.

At lunch time, my friends and I typically go on a walk at a park by our office. Around noon, the sun is hot and bright and I always forget to bring my prescription sunglasses and a hat and sunscreen in preparation for the walk. This day was no exception. We made our way across the parking lot on the slight incline up towards the lake we loop around. There were others from our office on their lunchtime walks and many strangers. Ducks floated in the lake and the wind carried a mist over us from the fountain in the center.

One of my friends told us about how she was going to start volunteering at the animal shelter and had training for it in the upcoming weekend. She told us that her mom would always say, “If you are worrying too much about yourself, you aren’t thinking about other people enough.”

It felt very profound especially in light of how much I feel like I’ve been worrying about myself recently. I’ve been very wrapped up in friends’ bachelorettes and weddings and my eventual bachelorette and wedding and difficult conversations with my family and friendship woes. It was also a reminder how one of my actual goals for 2026 was to volunteer somewhere.

Maybe a welcome break from my own problems would come in the form of giving my time back to my community. I realized that I want to volunteer my time in a way that involved books and would have to get creative with what that would look like.

FRIDAY: How are you inspired by someone who raised you?

On Friday evening, I went to dinner with my parents to celebrate a big achievement in my dad’s career. A few days prior, I suggested we go to dinner as my treat somewhere different from our typical spots and suggested maybe even venturing to downtown Cincinnati to go to a more upscale restaurant. My parents kind of dismissed the idea—it didn’t come as a surprise because they are practical creatures of habit.5

I decided to take a page out of my brother’s book and simply make a reservation somewhere and tell them the plan was made and that’s where we would go. I ended up deciding on E+O Kitchen in Hyde Park—not quite as upscale as I initially thought, but more upscale than they’re used to, and not quite in downtown Cincinnati, but further south than they typically venture.

We shared an appetizer of steamed edamame—lightly coated with just the perfect amount of sea salt. My dad ordered salmon, my mom ordered vegetable fried rice, and I ordered fried gyoza and sushi. My parents (begrudgingly) admitted the food was good.

Earlier in the week when my cousin visited, my dad told us stories about growing up with her parents. He lived with her family during his high school education because the village his parents lived in didn’t have a high school. During dinner, he talked about every job he had in every city he had ever lived in.

I don’t acknowledge it as often as I should but my dad’s life is truly amazing. He was raised in a home without a television and now lives in a home with three televisions and a home theater system. His parents did not go to college and he has a PhD. He came to this country alone and now has so many friends that I get stressed at however will my parents not invite 300 people (or more!!) to my wedding. My dad set his own standard—a standard that so many in the generation after him live by.

And it’s a reminder that I can set my own standard for the next generation, even when that looks different than the standards set for me.

SATURDAY: What’s a moment from this week you are grateful for?

My boyfriend asked me if I wanted to join him while he played golf with his dad. His mom would also be going, but not playing. I asked if I could bring a book and he said, “Of course.”

I had only read about 150 pages of my 645 page book for book club—The Bee Sting by Paul Murray—and had quite some progress to make.

I like the idea of reading outside but often get too distracted by the wind or the bugs. But it turns out that reading under the shelter of a golf cart is actually the perfect setting for me. The golf course was green and lush, trimmed so short that I asked if it was really grass and not artificial turf, and the sky was so blue that it looked like a Windows wallpaper. While I read, Kacey Musgraves’ new album played softly from the cart speakers and there was an occasional pop of a golf club hitting the ball. After each hole, we whirred to the next in the cart, gently navigating the hills and turns of the course. The breeze ruffled my hair and the pages of my book, but not in an unpleasant way for the first time.

“I would do this again,” I told my boyfriend as we got to the end of the course. I didn’t make a huge dent on my book (I only read about 44 pages) but it was pleasant to spend time with him outside while reading a book.

I almost couldn’t think of a better end to the week—until we ended the night with dinner at my favorite restaurant with my favorite vodka pasta.

***

Connect with Aditha here:

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Maggie is also from Ohio (!!!)

I say prove because every time I finish, there is a part of me that fears I will not have anything to say

I know, it’s also crazy to me that someone would sign up last minute for a marathon when it would probably take me a year to train for a 5k

I will update that a few weeks later, this seems to be working?

Their go-to is usually an Indian restaurant of any variety. Their second preference is frequently Taco Bell.

The Mood Board Creative Community: June

Brianna Schubert — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 01:53:20 GMT

Before I jump into this month’s creative community, I wanted to say happy Pride Month my friends!

Pride is a protest, and queer and trans joy is a protest. And especially in the times we are living in, it’s so important to take this time to lift up and celebrate the queer people in our communities.

As such, I am going to donate 100% of the money I make from paid subscriptions this month to Courage+, a Milwaukee-based organization that provides safe and inclusive housing, trauma-informed care catered to the LGBTQ+ community, education, and reliable data-supported thought leadership. If you prefer to donate directly, here’s the link to do that.

Thank you! 🌈

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For me, the spring slump is finally over and I’m ready to emerge into a much brighter and energized summer. I feel ready to sit by the pool and read, snack on sticky ice cream sandwiches, blow bubbles with my niece, dance in the grass, and pack a picnic to eat at the lake. So naturally, I felt inspired to lean into the playfulness of summertime with the prompts this month.

I also encourage you to think about how you can both lean into and, perhaps, reclaim the joy of playfulness in your life. How can you give yourself permission to play without limits? Where can you say “yes” to your inner child? How can you be the person you always wanted to be around when you were a kid? Play is resistance because joy is resistance.

xx Brianna

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Mondays: June 8, 15, 22, 29 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. CT
Note: All sessions will be recorded and sent to attendees in case you have to miss a week!

What can our queerness teach us about creativity and writing? How can we explore our creativity through a queer lens? What can we learn from queer writers and their perspectives that will inspire our own creative practices?

This four-week workshop will explore the work and worldviews of queer creatives past and present to inspire our writing practices.

Each week, we will:

Read and discuss the writing and work of a queer writer/creative (Potential writers include Frida Kahlo, Audre Lorde, Ocean Vuong, Torrey Peters, Casey McQuiston)
Write around prompts inspired by them and their work
Share our writing with the group (optional, but encouraged!)
Be in community with other queer folks to discuss our own creative practices

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