hello, it’s me, AnnaClaire

013 | a moodboard re-introduction

Welcome to this little corner of Substack, new year edition! I should be doing a plethora of other things right now, but right now this sounds like the most fun. Isn’t that often how we end up doing things some days? I’m glad that to you in this moment it sounded fun to open up this little letter and I hope you find some bit of inspiration in it.

I’ve seen quite a lot of you join in the past 6 months and simply wanted to say, “Welcome!” And, specifically, welcome to every single one of you who have joined since my last post in June! I quite literally mentioned you all by name in my first draft but took that out since I didn’t want to cause an unnecessary jump scare. But know that you are seen and so very welcome here! You see, I love to see this space as less of a museum artifact you stare at from behind glass and more like a dinner party that you’re invited to. So consider this the part where you go around the room and introduce yourself. I have a crew of incredible friends who’ve taught me how to host a good dinner party and this is always included, so we’re doing it here, too. And hello to everyone who already is subscribed and probably forgot you were subscribed until now and to my best friends and mom. And with that, let’s begin our dinner party presentation.

oh hi, it’s me, AnnaClaire!

Since so many of you are new here, I wanted to re-introduce myself. At my core I’m a follower of Jesus and an artist. I see beauty everywhere. I’m convinced God tosses beauty all about to give us a little taste of heaven while we’re here and teach us how to long for Him, so He’s delighted when we notice it. Around here we do a lot of noticing. And God does a lot of showing us how to notice Him in it all. Wrote a bit about that here.

With that, I’m a collector of beauty—in my brain, in my space—and I’m a big ideas girl. A lot of time these ideas don’t come to life, so that’s why moodboards are my favorite. They’re a challenge to do something with my ideas—something that’s still creative even if the ideas themselves don’t make it off the page.

creativity

Writing and photography are my two favorite mediums—they’re the two things that happen no matter whether I’m trying hard or not. Most days you can catch me with my mom’s old Lumix camera snapping a pic of light hitting that thing in a glowy way or typing away on my notes app some words that struck my mind in a new way.

In fact, if we met up I’d possibly take notes on what you say. Not in a strange, creepy way but because other people’s words are the springboard for my words. I once asked a friend how she writes. She said she looks for something in her environment and starts there. For her, writing is sparked by something visual. For me, it’s words from someone outside of me—a movie, a conversation, or, if this was in person, maybe you. I also am helplessly inapt at remembering anything I don’t write down, so taking notes is my way of collecting little bits of wisdom and (hopefully) remembering them. Do you write? Read? Gather wisdom in other ways?

My next favorite form of creativity is style. Last year I had the epiphany that we get dressed every morning (!!) and so it is a built-in creative challenge that we get to engage in every. single. day. (!!!) And you’re welcome to join!

Ok and then food. I adore food. My favorite food is the dish I have yet to try. I see a plate as a blank canvas and food as an art form. There needs to be light and dark, contrast, shape, and color variation… but that’s a post for another day. Basically, you’ll see food show up here a lot. Yesterday evening I made 2 lone chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in the oven (learned that from one of my dinner party friends), and it did my soul well. Do you like food too? Baking? Perhaps even chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? I hope you like at least one of these 3 things! If not, I’m here to convince you.

apart from creativity

I work an incredible creative job by day, and by night I meal prep, scroll on Instagram (you too?), take walks at local parks, FaceTime friends, attend dinner parties, and try to pretend I have no dishes to wash. What do you do?

Thanks for stopping by. I can’t promise when I’ll show up next, but here’s to collecting more beauty in the year ahead. What’s something you’d like to share at this dinner party? It can be a thought, your personal introduction, or—yes—the dish you’d bring along! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. Oh, and please do bake yourself a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie at some point this week.

I promise you 2 lone cookies will make your night