What inspired me in June
An updated color palette, ice cream cake, time travel stories and creative interiors
June is always special for me. It’s my birthday month, but it's also one I get to share with several family members — most notably, my husband’s birthday is the day before mine, and my dad’s is on the same day! With all the celebrations and the start of summer (my favorite season), this month feels like a second Christmas.
Before I share what inspired me in June, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating two creative milestones that happened this month:
📚 Inspiration Everywhere’s new book club launched with the theme: Stories We Loved as Kids
Click here to explore, share your reading adventures, and see the announcement of July’s theme.
🍿 Film to Table, the podcast I co-host with my sister Laura, just kicked off our sixth season, Girl Dinner.
This series explores female-centric movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s. You can catch the first two episodes, It Takes Two (1995) and The Princess Diaries (2001), on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube. Enjoy clips on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
Thanks for being here and supporting my creative work!
What Inspired Me in June
🎨 A New Color Palette
In What Inspired Me In April’s post, I discussed the concept of “vacation costumes”—dressing to match the vibe of your travel destinations. This idea led me to order a few new outfits for my summer trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I ended up choosing clothes in reds, oranges, and golds and realized how much I loved these colors.
This inspired me to create mood boards, update the colors of this newsletter and incorporating more warm tones into my life.
🎂 Ice Cream Cake
For our birthdays, my mother-in-law surprised us with the most delicious homemade ice cream cake. I've decided we need more of these in our lives. Luckily, her birthday is next month. 😉 Here are a few recipes I’d love to try:
Ice Cream Cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction
Salty Pretzel Banana Pudding Ice Cream Cake from Half Baked Harvest
Easy Strawberry Ice Cream Cake from Half Baked Harvest
Oreo Ice Cream Cake from Lil Luna
🏨 Inspiring Interiors
I rediscovered a series I love called The Beach Cottage Chronicles (I watch it on MAX) and binged most of the third season in one day. The episodes are short, under 15 minutes each, making them a perfect alternative to scrolling on social media.
I also discovered a similar series called Bespoke Inns. I've been sending links to my family, friends, and husband because I want to visit all of these places, especially:
Camp Wandawega (featured in S1, Ep 2) | The Maker (featured in S2, Ep 6)
🕰️ Time Travel Stories
While time-travel is a favorite genre of mine, I don’t often read time-travel books because they tend to get a little too science-fiction-y for my taste. However, this month, I read two excellent ones!
The first was The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It's about a woman who becomes a host/integrator for a man plucked from 1847 right before his death. It's a great slow-burn romance, but mostly a compelling and inventive story with some subtle hilarity.
The second was The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard. This book was more somber but equally captivating. It tells the story of a high school student living in a valley between two towns—one twenty years in the past and the other twenty years in the future. Similar to The Ministry of Time, the protagonist is involved with an organization controlling passage between time zones, and there's a love story. However, it’s darker and a bit more dystopian.
As someone who typically reaches for Emily Henry-style romances, it was refreshing to shake up my book stack and remind myself to stay open to other genres.
📷 My New Favorite Instagram
While searching for window seat design inspiration, I stumbled upon @reserve_home, created by Mallory Fletchall, and absolutely fell in love with her stunning Brooklyn apartment.
✍️ Creative Exercises/Journal Prompts
Find a new recipe and treat your family or friends to a surprise dinner or dessert.
Create a color-palette inspired Pinterest boards and discover which styles are speaking to you in this season.
Choose a book, movie or show on the outskirts of your typical go-to genre.
☀️ Five good things
When we can recognize the things that bring us the most joy, we invite more of them into our lives. Here are five things that made me happy this week. Share yours below!
Five good things that happened this week:
Hi from Las Vegas! 👋 We’re here this week with friends so I’ll condense this five good things into one:
In a few short days there have been many great moments, delicious meals, and time spent unplugged. Some of my favorites include lunch at Sadelle’s, escaping the 100+ degree heat and lounging in the pool for hours, and sharing happy hour drinks at a Ski Lodge-themed speakeasy.
Honorable mention to our dinner at LPM where they leave fresh tomatoes and a lemon on the table for you to cut up enjoy with bread and olive oil. That could have been my entire meal!
💬 Share your intention
Whether it’s a giant leap, a tiny to-do list item, a habit change, or something else, there is power in accountability, and this is a safe space to share your aim. Some weeks, we’ll fail, others we’ll soar, but with support, we’ll always keep going together.
Until next week, get out there and make something beautiful.
Michelle
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What a simple pleasure...fresh tomatoes at your table. Both my sister and best friend have had an abundance of tomatoes from their gardens. Many different varieties and I have been enjoying them. When I was younger, I would help my Grandma plant her field with tomato seeds. Watching the plants grow and bloom was the easy part. When they became ripe, we would pick buckets of them and then stand at the kitchen sink preparing the ripe tomatoes for canning. Eating a fresh tomato takes me back to a lovely, special time with my Grandma.
You should definitely try that Oreo ice cream cake—my mom used to make it and it is pretty fantastic. (And I'm not really a fan of ice cream cakes. 😆 )