Inspiration Diaries With Skylar Allen of Room to Grow

Sometimes, I love the internet. I’ve met so many inspiring and incredible people through online spaces like Instagram and Substack, and Skylar Allen 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:

1. My new summer goal was to make delicious snack plates.

2. 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: Room to Grow

Instagram: @skylar_allen

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 #044

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Jun 17

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.