Cool Things this Month: June 2025
What I'm currently into this month
Hi friends—well, it’s definitely summer here in Mid-Michigan. This heat wave has had some major implications on my day-to-day living. I’ve been getting up super early and getting outside in the garden, otherwise it’s just been way too hot to be out there.
Heat if one of those things that really messes with my headaches, so staying in the air conditioning is pretty essential for me—especially during the really hot days. My studio/our family room isn’t connected to the rest of the house’s central air. It’s also got a huge east facing wall, which soaks up the sun all day and really heats up the whole room.
And now, because of the heat wave and the studio having no a/c—I’ve been doing a terrible job of keeping up with my Daily Pages emails. Usually, I get those out around 7ish in the evenings, but that’s just not realistic right now. It’s actually been too hot to turn the camera on to even record on some days—crazy.
Luckily, even though the heat has been wild, there has been a lot of fun things going on this month—I thought I’d recap June through one of my favorite lenses—The Currently List.
Watching
This was a movie month for me. I’m not usually a movie person (I’ve got my favorites, mostly older, but new movies are not made for me) but for whatever reason (definitely the heat) I got into a bunch of different movie series. I watched the entire Twilight saga (leaving Netflix on Sunday) while organizing my stickers and gel prints. Jeff and I watched the Ocean’s movies—I’m a sucker for anything heist and about 90% of Soderburgh projects.
The fourth season of The Bear came out this week, and I finished it up as fast as possible to avoid all spoilers. I love this show. It makes me think about things in such interesting ways. I very casually mindmapped each of the episodes as I was watching. It helps me remember the little things, especially during a binge watch.
Don’t look too closely if you don’t want spoilers!
Other things on the screen this month: The Buccaneers (Apple), Abbott Elementary, League of Legends, Cooking YouTube.
Reading
Summer reading is the best. I’ve been sneaking in a lot of extra reading time this month during the extra hot hours of the afternoon. I’ll sneak into bed and spend a half hour just chilling out reading something fun. I’m in the middle of The Great Library series right now. It’s YA and is set in an alternate history where the Library of Alexandria was never destroyed.
On Substack, I’ve been reading about food and gardening, zines and art. Here are a few of my favorite links this month:
Listening
In an incredible victory, I have convinced Jeff to listen to the Fourth Wing graphic audiobooks with me. In an even better twist, he’s absolutely loving them (he’s already read the books, but isn’t a huge audiobook person). We just started Onyx Storm last night, my favorite of the three, and I love that we’re doing it together.
As I’ve mentioned for the last few months, I’ve also been listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobooks to fall asleep. They’re pretty much the ideal adult bedtime story (except when they’re doing pages of ent singing). Right now I’m in the middle of the second book—and I’m excited to watch the movie again when I finish up.
Also, super pumped for the Vulfpeck Red Rocks Livestream. I’ll be making a picnic and we’ll sit in the living room and enjoy.
Making
Lots of food. Summer produce is exceptional here, and since I can’t be in the studio during the afternoons, I’ve been making slightly more elaborate dinners for us.
This week I made us some tacos al pastor, loosely based on this Kenji Lopez-Alt recipe. Last week, I made us some tri tip in the sous vide and finished up on the grill. And, as you saw up top, we’ve been drowning in fresh strawberries. It’s been fun figuring out ways to make good food without using things that generate a ton of heat in the kitchen.
Feeling
Headaches have been very on and off this month. Almost entirely weather related (which is great, because then I have a little bit of an idea of which days match up best with the things I want to get done during the week. Waking up early a few days each week and then sleeping in another couple of days has been a great trick to keeping the pain at a minimum through the worst days, while still managing to feel pretty accomplished.
Talking to
Here are a couple of great chats I had on Substack live this month—the first one was with my friend
, who you absolutely need to know about. She’s such a delight and breath of fresh air in the creative world.
I also sat down with
to chat about memberships, leadership, and why I don’t put all of my eggs into one internet basket.
Planning
Find Your Voice Summer Camp! Details below—I added all the digital downloads this week, so you can grab all the cool things I designed for this class, and make an epic trail journal just like mine.
Also—planning an mini NYC pop-up adventure for mid-September. I’ll have more details on that in the next week or two. If you’re in the area, I hope you can join!
Sponsored by: Find Your Voice Summer Camp
If this post resonates with you, I’d love to invite you to Find Your Voice Summer Camp—a cozy, six-week creative journaling course I’m hosting this July and August.
You can participate for free, or upgrade for a deeper experience and more interaction. It’s designed to help you tell your story, even if you’re busy, stuck, or brand new to creative journaling.
This version is special. It’s the first time I’ve built the course (and I’ve been teaching this one since 2012) specifically around creative journaling—with audio lessons, hands-on projects, and flexible vibes that work even if you’ve only got 10 minutes a week.
More info here: ⛺ Summer Camp Signup
Hit reply and let me know Something you learned or found interesting this month!
Talk to you next week!
xoxo,
Kristin
P.S. If you’re enjoying these newsletters, please consider sharing this edition with a friend who might need a little creative boost today.
Those show mind maps are the best!
What an amazing read! Have reposted it