I am terrified of showing my work before it’s finished and even more terrified to show it after it’s finished. What I am in love with is the process of creation, the notebooks I fill, the software I depend on, the rituals that get me to my desk. This is what makes creating feel possible.

For writing by hand:

- Muji .38mm black ink pens

- Moleskine A5 softcover graph paper: scarlet red for my novel, myrtle green for essays and creative writing

- Moleskine A4 classic black for learning notes that feed into my writing

- Purple Stabilo highlighter

- Sezane notebook for journaling and random thoughts

For filming and editing:

- Fujifilm XT4 with 18-55mm lens

- Adobe Premiere Pro for editing

- Blue light glasses to help with migraines from screen editing

- Marshall Major V brown leather headphones

For inspiration:

- The Sofia Coppola archive for photo inspiration when I'm feeling lost

- My home library in Versailles with a complete organization system

- Four library cards: Saint-Geneviève, American Library in Paris, Mazarine, and my hometown library in Georgia

For moving through the world:

- Vintage brown leather jacket from Copenhagen (helps me feel tougher and warmer)

- Olive green bicycle with basket and leather bags for café writing sessions and photo walks

- Lavender essential oil for anxiety-induced nausea

- Guerlain Oud perfume which wraps me in a mysterious smoke that smells a little dangerous. It’s my signature scent that makes me feel like the protagonist.

- Notes app for thoughts on the go

Essentially… my media diet. What I'm currently reading, watching, listening to. The books that are shaping how I think, the films that make me want to pick up a camera, articles I screenshot at 3am when I can't sleep… sometimes I abandon things halfway through to hopefully be picked up another time.

ARTICLES

- "Building a Life Abroad-and Finding the American Dream" from Vogue: Is the American dream dead? it sure feels like it lately. maybe that dream was more of a philosophy than a location.

- "How Libraries Stand the Test of Time" from JSTOR Daily: Reading about why libraries matter while I continue my collection of library cards

- "Why Marie Antoinette's Influence Endures" from NYT Style Magazine: I moved to Versailles after falling in love with Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”. Currently, an exhibition at the V&A musuem on London is a decadently haunting reminder of how history erases and rewrites the true stories of women.

- "Eliot Weinberger, The Art of the Essay No. 4" from The Paris Review: How to make art from research, and yet…how to disappear into your work while still being completely present.

PODCAST

- Decoder Ring: "Why Do Actors Act Like They Can Sing": A really fun and brilliant cultural analysis of one of Hollywood’s worst kept secrets.

FILMS & TV

- Peppermint Frappé: A Spanish film that feels like watching someone's fever dream about desire and obsession.

- Rewatching The Queen's Gambit: The TV show that inspired the design of my website, my personal little corner of the internet. Chess as metaphor for everything

- Fleabag: Grief and humor and breaking the fourth wall. Phoebe Waller-Bridge showing me how to be funny about pain. Fun before bed watch.

- Downton Abbeythe grand finale: The series that got me through some of the worst depressions of my life. Haven’t actually seen this yet, going to watch it tomorrow, but I know I’ll love it.

MUSIC

- Romeo and Juliet soundtrack (1969): Makes me feel every emotion possible and brings back the innocence of my youth before waking up to the trauma.

- "Mon Amie la Rose" by Françoise Hardy: French melancholy song that sounds like my brain.

- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg soundtrack: Longing and mournful, evoking nostalgia of stories that were left with loose ends.

- "Good Boy" by Paris Paloma: Modern folk that feels ancient.

- "You Can't Run from Yourself" by Aurora: Because she tells the truth that hits you when your thoughts are racing at 3am.

MUSEUM

- Danish Museum of Design: One of the highlights from my recent trip to Copenhagen. Good design should be so perfect that you don't even notice the practicality beneath the beauty. Everything here teaches me that form and function aren't opposites, they're the same thing done right.

Systems equal sanity. As a highly anxious person, I've finally learned to stop following what everyone else is doing and do what works for me. My personal rhythms shift with the seasons, and the place that serves as the ultimate ecosytem for everything I do is my Notion studio. I've built such an intricate system that it now runs smoothly for me. Each morning, based on how I wake up (my anxiety level, what I need to accomplish, how well I slept) I already have a schedule designed for that type of day. 

My studio contains everything: a moodboard that shifts with my current obsessions, a digital garden where ideas grow into essays, submission trackers for publications, a complete library system for the books i own. I have sections for my YouTube content, my Substack planning, my French vocabulary practice, my personal curriculum. There's a weekly rhythm template that adapts to how I'm feeling, a finances tracker that keeps me updated about my goals, and a portfolio section where I can see my work accumulating into something tangible.

The beauty is in how it all connects. My library system feeds into my writing ideas, which become submissions, which turn into published pieces that build my portfolio. My daily tasks are sorted by energy level and anxiety state, so I never waste time wondering what I should be doing when I'm barely holding it together. I'm nearly never stressed anymore about forgetting something or feeling stuck because I'm not sure what to focus on or where to start. Nobody else could use this system because nobody else has my specific chaos. This is the personal architecture that holds me when my mind can't hold itself.