A Nook of One’s Own
Hello friend,
Sick of me yet?! I imagine this message wedged between a 40% off kick-off to summer deal & a last-second email from your kids’ school about field day. I promise you this is neither a product being sold at a rational price veiled as a sale, nor is there any urgency to remember something for somebody else.
My bedroom nook in Bosc Pear.
This is a breath. Inhale, exhale. Ahhh.
A color swatch in the latest issue of Country Living presented itself upon return from my recent solo trip. Magical what stepping away can do. It’s been a year of primer & blue tape in the unfinished 3’x3’ vestibule, but I let these decisions come to me, I don’t go chasing (much to the consternation of J). Bosc Pear it is.
A woman needs money and a room of her own...
— A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
No room of my own at the moment; a nook will have to do.
Painting the nook was part of my prep work for The Artist’s Circle. The first letter arrives on Sunday if you’d like to follow along for $5/mth. This first post is Prep Week, about my preparations for the self-guided summer course of The Artist’s Way, supply list links included. I sit in my sunshine velvet chair, reading the book & writing in my composition notebook with all myriad of kids shows as white noise before we begin the day.
Did you know that Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, started morning pages in response to taking care of her young daughter? She needed something in the early hours of her day to center herself before the dedication & distraction of child-caring. It helped her feel less frazzled as the day inevitably required she give her all to raising a child.
Relatable.
In The Studio, Lila Cabot Perry, c. 1895
Always keep a space for yourself no matter how many kids, husbands, or houses you acquire. You need the slice, even if in some seasons it’s so minuscule you almost can’t see it, it must always be there.
Studio Things
👶🏼 Our Aspen House, a client of mine, had their member open house this week. They’re a coworking + childcare facility in Sutton’s Bay, the first of its kind in Northern Michigan, and a model for what I long to have in our region.
🌷 Working on a fun little something for Wildflower Farm, that cute flower farm River & I went to for tulip-picking.
🌻 The walls of my nook will be filled with gold frames of art & ancestors — maximalism for my muse. A friend dropped off a box full of books, one of them an art book of Van Gogh’s sunflowers on the cover, the very painting I imagined to marry the sunshine-y nook with the minty waves of the bedroom. Have you ever read Sunflowers: A Novel of Vincent Van Gogh? You must.
What’s 1 intention you can make this weekend to create a space of your own in your home?
✌🏼 In peace & art, Emily
Originally sent to Substack subscribers in May 2025.
