Dear Reader,
I recently shared my newest project: Chamomile Tea Aesthetic Universe (read about it here) where I document my latest creative projects, inspirations, movies, music and recipes in physical zine form that I send you in the mail. This past week, I sent 30 zines out to you across the US and to a few folks in Canada. It’s been fun hearing from the first several people who have received their zines in the mail! I am committing to a year of this project where I send out a zine each month to my paid Substack subscribers. The cost is $5.55/month or $77.77/year and I would love it if you became a paid member. I have 4 paid subscribers currently, but even if I have none I’m still going to do this project because it’s a fun way to document a year of projects and how things unfold and inspire my creative practice. After each zine is sent, I’ll create a digital version of the zine so you can click through to read my recipes and check out the music links. In this edition, I’ll include a scan of the zine for those of you who didn’t get a zine in the mail so you can enjoy digitally :)
Jeans sewn using the Adams Pants pattern by Daughter Judy using deadstock 14oz denim I bought on Etsy. Annoyingly the rise is way too high for me and the length is too short, so I want to make some changes and sew them again. I have still been wearing them but the fit is definitely weird.
I have been really into making hand built ceramic paint palettes and using them with my homemade natural dye paints! I made a zine about this process last month which you can find in my shop. I am obsessed with making lake pigments and dye paints these days and it’s so fun when you have pretty tools to use them with.
Dress sewn using secondhand rayon floral from Arts & Scraps using the Layla pattern by Lizzie Design Studio. It was really quick and simple to make and the only changes I made were to bring in the top of the sleeveless side, lowered the waist ties by 2” and lengthened it by 2”. I wore this to my brother’s wedding and I hope to get some more wear out of it. The fabric was a bit static-y so I had to thrift a slip skirt to wear underneath so it didn’t stick to my legs.
I discovered the Instagram account @marge.mp3 recently via her interview with cellist Kelsey Lu, and have fallen into bingeing her videos. Margeaux aka @marge.mp3 shares fantastic music recommendations on IG and also has a show on NTS radio called Self Soothe. I transferred her public playlists from Spotify to Qobuz (I quit Spotify last year due to their investment into weapons, poor payments to artists, and running of ICE recruitment ads) so I can listen to them and have been loving her album recs. Last week, I went to see Waxahatchee , MJ Lenderman & Brennan Wedl (never heard her music before but loved her performance as the opener) at the Masonic Temple. It’s so nice to go to a show where people are in the moment and not filming every moment on their phones. Justin & I have been resuming practice for the Meg and Justin Family Band recently after we were put on the spot to perform a song at a party and were woefully unprepared. Never again! Playing music with people you love is so fun and I’m excited to have this shared project.
I’ve been reading Anna Karenina since February with long breaks in between. I love reading the classics and this is my first foray into reading The Russians. I’m enjoying it but also allowing myself for the first time to dabble between books here and there instead of trying to power through for the sake of checking a book off the list. I’m trying to get back into my nightly reading practice now and finish the second half. I don’t typically listen to audio books but I recently enjoyed The Other Bennett Sister. It’s a Jane Austen fan fiction novel based on Mary Bennett from Pride & Prejudice, on audio book. I tried to watch the new tv show but it was so corny and so altered from the book it was hard to want to watch. I recently went a little crazy with secondhand book buying so I really need to actually buckle down and read!
Badlands on Criterion
Lair of the White Worm free on Tubi
Last week, I watched the movie Badlands by Terence Malick for the first time. I was struck by the beautiful cinematography and the setting of the American west. Sissy Spacek’s shiny hair and the fantastic costume designs made this eery movie so captivating to watch. The casual listlessness leading the characters to carelessly murder was very odd and dark. Justin and I watched Lair of the White Worm recently and it was so silly but also amazing. It’s a horror (?) film from the ‘80s starring a young Hugh Grant, filled with phallic and religious imagery and true absurdity.
My go to recipe lately has been a salmon + jasmine rice bowl. I cook the salmon in a cast iron pan with garlic and soy sauce, and then I serve it with sriracha mayo, sliced avocado, chopped cilantro, scallions, and a cucumber salad. So good! I made up a lovely tea recipe for my voice teacher’s backyard birthday party last week and I’m feeling inspired to invent more magical tea concoctions.
For my tea, I juiced 2 oranges, and mixed the juice with rose, hibiscus and peppermint tea that I made in my french press (handful of each). I sliced ½ an orange, a lemon and a lime and muddled some strawberries. Then I mixed it with ½ a cup of simple syrup and poured it all together over ice in a big serving vessel. It’s a gorgeous pinky red color and tastes divine. Magic birthday tea!
Thanks for taking the time to read the digital version of my monthly zine project. I have a few copies left of this first edition (which is free) and going forward I will be sending them out to my paid Substack subscribers. I hope you like this new project and the format of receiving physical mail. What have you been working on lately? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
xoxo
Meghan
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