Hello hello! Came to Substack as a writer who has been on a multitude of platforms but never found just the right match. Delighted to find so many fellow hearted creatives, writers, artists and visionaries here. And if I were to bring a drink it would have to be coffee, strong but not bitter, black, or maybe sweetened with a little maple syrup. <3
I'm joining the circle with Chai tea in hand. Came to Substack for the astrology, staying because I'm a writer and I wanted to start up a personal blog again. Greetings!
Thank you for this invitation to share a warm cosy fire with you.
My name is Sam. I'm a homeschooling creative spiritual Mumma of twins who loves slow living and mindfulness, earth-based spirituality, nature and the ocean.
I am also a shamanic practitioner/spiritual mentor, who passionately believes that when we heal our inner landscape we heal the Earth, and then we tread more lightly upon Her.
Creativity. Community. Slow living. Mindfulness. Self Care. Meditations/Journeying. Poetry. These are things I love to read,
and write,
and share about,
and learn more about.
My aim in joining substack is to be able to meet with other creative spiritual slow living folk who share in the same passions as I do so that we can create a new more empowering footprint for our future generations.
I first knew about substack from Hippy Highland Living.
Thank you for the opportunity to bring some fresh marjoram and mint to brew in a pot, to share what I call "Happy Tea" with you. I also have homemade date and coconut biscuits to share.
Hi Claire and all other writers here 👋 I'm Ayleigh and I am a colour & sparkle loving creative who loves to write. I am quite new to Substack and still figuring out my place here, but I started a Substack newsletter called @colourfullayleigh to write about my interests. I am very passionate about colour, creativity, mental-health and encouraging adults to stand out from the crowd 🦩I used to blog many years ago and was craving a space to keep up my writing practice. Plus, my burnout recovering brain can no longer handle social media demands 🥴 so right now, I am just treating my newsletter as my own personal magazine column with Jonathan Van Ness as my imaginary, cheerleader editor 😁 my drink for the camp fire would be a mocktail Raspberry Mojito, with edible glitter of course! 🍹
Lovely to meet you Ayleigh! I hear you on social media stuff I’m barely on there now. Much prefer it over here. Thanks for sharing your work petal ✨💌✨ I need to google Jonathon!
I think you will love Jonathan 😁 I already feel a sense of calm being here and I just want ease around creating. Instagram was just becoming this nagging thing in the background waiting for me to do more but it's all performative pressure I can't deal with anymore. My aesthetic / colourfull style makes it very tempting to post on Insta all the time, but I have learned that some things are just for my own happiness, rather than sharing for the sake of gaining other people's likes and follows.
Oh I love that Ayleigh - yea it’s a complete minset shift I have beautiful photos from this past week in my camera roll - thumb stopping images I think but they are not on insta as I’m not there I’m here... I’m going to print some today!
May 8, 2023·edited May 8, 2023Liked by Claire Venus (she/her) ✨
Hello Claire and fellow readers, writers and humans..
I can't remember how I came to find Substack but it was exactly what I didn't know I was looking for in a blog. I don't know what about email entrances me. I enjoy how it's just as instant as a text or phone call but feels like a somewhat slower, virtual form of putting a letter in the mail. A text gives the expectation of a rather urgent reply under the assumption that there is a phone in hand. However, an email offers the ambiguity that the recipient may not be at the computer at that very moment and may take some time to get back to you. It offers some breathing room. I like being able to communicate with my readers that way, allowing them to enjoy at their leisure, ready and waiting in their inbox.
Anyways, I've started rambling and ultimately that's what led me here. Instagram was a medium for sharing my life, almost a photo journal if you will; the photos being my muse and means for sharing whatever blurbs had been floating around in my head lately. It became a very draining and enigma of a space that took far greater from me than it gave back in inspiration so I decided to part ways a couple weeks ago. This space has been a solace to share my writing on a whim and not give a care in whose hands it ends up. People here expect ramblings and prose and all the messiness that comes with a creative life. It's a place to let it all hang out and speak in our own, not-so-language. Happy to be here and write without caring about who's reading and how many likes it gets and if it even makes sense and should it be deleted immediately.
Happy to be here! I'd bring Coors Banquet to the fire and plenty to share.
Ahh Haley! This is a beautiful intro to your essence and your reasons for being here and what Substack offers you. I definitely agree in that we can throw away the rule book here and just create... it’s really special! Welcome! ⭕️✨☕️🎟️
I'm here, chasing a lifelong pipe dream of being a writer. Working for the Chicago Cubs pays the bills, but I'm at a point in life with the time and resources to chase this dream.
I have wanted to be a writer since probably high school. Various circumstances and life in general and the choices I've made in my life have had this dream be just that. A dream. But life has a way of throwing you a bone and now I have the time and resources to finally chase this dream. I have to grab the bone and run with it. I've written some short stories and I'm working on a couple of books, two that started out as NaNoWriMo books but I never finished during that month. I'm trying to get into the habit of writing at least 100 words a day, even if it's just drivel that will never see the light of day. I'm looking into taking an online writing course later this year.
Hi everyone, this is a lovely space you’ve created, Claire, thank you! I’m Rebecca, and I’m not good at introductions either. I’m an artist/illustrator who runs Wildflower Illustration Co, our aim is to ‘spread joy through paper connections. I have a particular passion for writing letters and preserving the art of letter writing. I run the company with my husband and it’s an exciting time for us right now as we are in the process of hopefully opening a physical shop, that will be an extension of our online offering, as well as also offering creative and art workshops. I want to have a big old writing desk in the corner where people can write their card or letter in the shop with a cup of tea, and give people the opportunity to write to the future (we’ll post it on a particular date. I say hopefully because we are currently crowdfunding for it - we’re about half way in now and I’m exhausted 😴 , but hopefully it will all be worth it. Really starting to enjoy substack and still finding my way around, but this looks like a lovely place to start finding community!
If I was to come to your camp fire, I would bring lots and lots of hot, builders tea!
I'm a late 50s, creative, extroverted-introvert who lives on the Isle of Wight in England. I am / have been really active on Instagram for the last 5 years, but it doesn't feel all that comfortable anymore.
So here I am on Substack, sharing bits and pieces of my art and photography practice and inviting folk to Take a Moodle with Me: as a way to slooooow down a bit and take time to breathe, to find a small pocket of time to connect / reconnect with yourself or if like me you’re struggling with the frenetic pace of life and could do with some reminders to take a step back and replenish your energies.
Hi Debs - lovely to meet you!! Wow I really like the sound of your space here - here's to replenishing our energies and staying slowed down enough to connect. I hear you on insta - I delete it 5 days a week and just show up in a measured way for two days - it's not the place it was...
I loved the Isle of Wight - I visited for a music festival years ago... looking forward to staying connected and thanks for the tea - I'll have mine with extra milk in a pink mug! Cx
Oh I’ll have a read thanks Debs. Yea it really affects my mood, my ability to be present with the kids and also my confidence actually - I’m not searching for anything other than more dandelion clocks for my two year old 😂✨✨
I hear you about growing slowly and sustainably - there’s time we have so much time. 🐢
This is awesome. It's a digital version of hygge! I'm Claire, I have a Substack that documents my journey to authorship, although I have no idea when I'll actually publish my memoir... it's kind of taking a lot longer than I imagined. 🫣 I also have another Substack where I write about my younger brother. He is serving a 19-year prison sentence.
I recently moved to Denver, got a dog, and enjoying the mountain life. I am having so much fun connecting with all of you on Substack and learning about your creative endeavors.
Ahh the mountains - tell me more about those? Wow how brilliant to have two different foucses - I often think I'll write memoir but I don't know when I'll start or if I'm brave enough... so nice to be connected here Claire... sorry for the delay - I've been running to catch up and wanted to make space to connect in properly. Cx
This is amazing! I’m going to set aside time to read through it properly later, but in the meantime...
I’m a writer and embodiment coach from Belfast, N. Ireland. I use Substack to record my reflections about embodiment and reconnecting to ourselves, the Earth and each other. I also share practices and inspiration!
I used to work as a campaigner for the national students union until I set off on my own path this year. I’ve also been involved in lots of other activist spaces, including in feminism, environmentalism and homelessness. So my embodiment work very much takes on a systems level lens, and I like to look at how internal transformation connects to external transformation.
I also love hiking, sea dipping, yoga, reading and gardening.
I would bring a large mug of hot chocolate to sit around the fire 🔥
Hi Claire and everyone. I'm Janelle and I recently moved to one of the most beautiful spots in the UK, Ribble Valley. We adopted our amazing cat Victor last year. I am a writer, working on my first novel. I love books and all associated bookish things (libraries and bookshops are my heaven). I came to Substack a couple of months ago - I think similarly from Emma, Farrah et al. I find it a much more generous, interesting, slow and warm place than social media. (So a lil nervous about notes). I've been enjoying finding my feet on here and embracing putting my imperfect (cos there's no such thing!) writing out into the community. I'm married to my childhood sweetheart and we are child free by choice. I also work for a charity part-time and do some freelance copywriting and comms work. Lovely to be here with you all!
Hi Janelle - how lovely to hear from you! I’ve not heard of the Ribble Valley I’ll have a look on google maps now. Ah we have such an incredible second hand book shop here near us - the second biggest in the UK - it’s in a converted train station and has so much character. You’d love it there. Good luck with your novel writing. 📕 ✨
Barter Books! It's been years since I've been but YES I do love it. I must get back there asap.
I live near Clitheroe if that helps :) Tbh I knew hardly anything about the area until we moved here. I just keep being stunned at how beautiful the place is
So it’s Lancashire? Ahh 😌 🗺️ you learn something new everyday! Yes Barter Books - it’s so magic 🪄 I’ve spent many a rainy morning writing on my laptop there. 📚
Hello! I think it's so funny how as writers our least favorite thing to do is self-promotion. It's just so uncomfortable! I have many hobbies that change with the seasons, including birding, crochet, oil painting, gardening. But my favorite things in the world are spending time with partner and our menagerie of pets! I'm working on a memoir about this time period. My difficult (narcissistic, addicted) mother has been on hospice since July 2022. We live in different states and I write about her a lot. It's good to laugh!
I joined Substack because I want to create a newsletter community of seekers, thinkers and artists. My newsletter is called Spirit Seeds. I invite you to check it out!
Oh this sounds a beautiful read Kelley. It’s great to have space for our authentic voice isn’t it. We have been chatting about what drink we might like to bring to the fire circle - do you have a fave?
Hello creative wanderers! *inviting us to receive a breath together* Sitting here sipping my decaf cinnamon and coconut sugar coffee and taking in all of your wonderful intros...
..guess it's my turn!
I'm Silvia, an emerging intuitive artist with plenty of passions to fill multiple lifetimes. A lifelong student with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. A bit of a late bloomer in terms of really knowing what I want to do with this life, in a true 3/5 way in Human Design, I've been trialling and erroring my way to this point. Weirdly, or not so, it is the breath that has provided clarity and direction. And I am sensing that it is becoming a mission of sorts - to one day hold space for others to connect with that sense of clarity and direction. (Astrologically, Pluto is ready to spend the next 20 years in my 6th House - the house known for our work, our service, our wellbeing.) So yeah, getting ready for some deep deep shifts and deep deep work.
Grateful for this community and for these connections!
Hi, Silvia! What a lovely intro. For what it’s worth , you’re not at all alone -- I have no idea what I’ll be when I grow up, and though that used to terrify me, I kind of love the uncertainty of it now. It’s all wide open and possible.
So nice to “meet” you and looking forward to many chats!
Hello hello! Came to Substack as a writer who has been on a multitude of platforms but never found just the right match. Delighted to find so many fellow hearted creatives, writers, artists and visionaries here. And if I were to bring a drink it would have to be coffee, strong but not bitter, black, or maybe sweetened with a little maple syrup. <3
Yum! Welcome Sarah - delighted you are here.
Hi all! I'm a trans anarchist writer (https://debatemebruh.substack.com/) and I'm glad to be here <3
I'm joining the circle with Chai tea in hand. Came to Substack for the astrology, staying because I'm a writer and I wanted to start up a personal blog again. Greetings!
Hi Claire,
Thank you for this invitation to share a warm cosy fire with you.
My name is Sam. I'm a homeschooling creative spiritual Mumma of twins who loves slow living and mindfulness, earth-based spirituality, nature and the ocean.
I am also a shamanic practitioner/spiritual mentor, who passionately believes that when we heal our inner landscape we heal the Earth, and then we tread more lightly upon Her.
Creativity. Community. Slow living. Mindfulness. Self Care. Meditations/Journeying. Poetry. These are things I love to read,
and write,
and share about,
and learn more about.
My aim in joining substack is to be able to meet with other creative spiritual slow living folk who share in the same passions as I do so that we can create a new more empowering footprint for our future generations.
I first knew about substack from Hippy Highland Living.
Thank you for the opportunity to bring some fresh marjoram and mint to brew in a pot, to share what I call "Happy Tea" with you. I also have homemade date and coconut biscuits to share.
Thank you for the invitation.
Sam
Hey Claire! Wow, I really love your Substack and how your writing just flows. I am working on that and feel like my writing is super clunky. :p
I love that you are all about living intentionally and improving yourself because that is what I want to do more than ever before.
Please keep writing! ♥️
Hi Claire and all other writers here 👋 I'm Ayleigh and I am a colour & sparkle loving creative who loves to write. I am quite new to Substack and still figuring out my place here, but I started a Substack newsletter called @colourfullayleigh to write about my interests. I am very passionate about colour, creativity, mental-health and encouraging adults to stand out from the crowd 🦩I used to blog many years ago and was craving a space to keep up my writing practice. Plus, my burnout recovering brain can no longer handle social media demands 🥴 so right now, I am just treating my newsletter as my own personal magazine column with Jonathan Van Ness as my imaginary, cheerleader editor 😁 my drink for the camp fire would be a mocktail Raspberry Mojito, with edible glitter of course! 🍹
Lovely to meet you Ayleigh! I hear you on social media stuff I’m barely on there now. Much prefer it over here. Thanks for sharing your work petal ✨💌✨ I need to google Jonathon!
I think you will love Jonathan 😁 I already feel a sense of calm being here and I just want ease around creating. Instagram was just becoming this nagging thing in the background waiting for me to do more but it's all performative pressure I can't deal with anymore. My aesthetic / colourfull style makes it very tempting to post on Insta all the time, but I have learned that some things are just for my own happiness, rather than sharing for the sake of gaining other people's likes and follows.
Oh I love that Ayleigh - yea it’s a complete minset shift I have beautiful photos from this past week in my camera roll - thumb stopping images I think but they are not on insta as I’m not there I’m here... I’m going to print some today!
Hello Claire and fellow readers, writers and humans..
I can't remember how I came to find Substack but it was exactly what I didn't know I was looking for in a blog. I don't know what about email entrances me. I enjoy how it's just as instant as a text or phone call but feels like a somewhat slower, virtual form of putting a letter in the mail. A text gives the expectation of a rather urgent reply under the assumption that there is a phone in hand. However, an email offers the ambiguity that the recipient may not be at the computer at that very moment and may take some time to get back to you. It offers some breathing room. I like being able to communicate with my readers that way, allowing them to enjoy at their leisure, ready and waiting in their inbox.
Anyways, I've started rambling and ultimately that's what led me here. Instagram was a medium for sharing my life, almost a photo journal if you will; the photos being my muse and means for sharing whatever blurbs had been floating around in my head lately. It became a very draining and enigma of a space that took far greater from me than it gave back in inspiration so I decided to part ways a couple weeks ago. This space has been a solace to share my writing on a whim and not give a care in whose hands it ends up. People here expect ramblings and prose and all the messiness that comes with a creative life. It's a place to let it all hang out and speak in our own, not-so-language. Happy to be here and write without caring about who's reading and how many likes it gets and if it even makes sense and should it be deleted immediately.
Happy to be here! I'd bring Coors Banquet to the fire and plenty to share.
Ahh Haley! This is a beautiful intro to your essence and your reasons for being here and what Substack offers you. I definitely agree in that we can throw away the rule book here and just create... it’s really special! Welcome! ⭕️✨☕️🎟️
I'm here, chasing a lifelong pipe dream of being a writer. Working for the Chicago Cubs pays the bills, but I'm at a point in life with the time and resources to chase this dream.
Ahh I love a pipe dream/ big dream - tell me more Kim?
I have wanted to be a writer since probably high school. Various circumstances and life in general and the choices I've made in my life have had this dream be just that. A dream. But life has a way of throwing you a bone and now I have the time and resources to finally chase this dream. I have to grab the bone and run with it. I've written some short stories and I'm working on a couple of books, two that started out as NaNoWriMo books but I never finished during that month. I'm trying to get into the habit of writing at least 100 words a day, even if it's just drivel that will never see the light of day. I'm looking into taking an online writing course later this year.
Hi everyone, this is a lovely space you’ve created, Claire, thank you! I’m Rebecca, and I’m not good at introductions either. I’m an artist/illustrator who runs Wildflower Illustration Co, our aim is to ‘spread joy through paper connections. I have a particular passion for writing letters and preserving the art of letter writing. I run the company with my husband and it’s an exciting time for us right now as we are in the process of hopefully opening a physical shop, that will be an extension of our online offering, as well as also offering creative and art workshops. I want to have a big old writing desk in the corner where people can write their card or letter in the shop with a cup of tea, and give people the opportunity to write to the future (we’ll post it on a particular date. I say hopefully because we are currently crowdfunding for it - we’re about half way in now and I’m exhausted 😴 , but hopefully it will all be worth it. Really starting to enjoy substack and still finding my way around, but this looks like a lovely place to start finding community!
Hello Claire and other creatives who read this!
Thanks for opening up this thread, Claire.
If I was to come to your camp fire, I would bring lots and lots of hot, builders tea!
I'm a late 50s, creative, extroverted-introvert who lives on the Isle of Wight in England. I am / have been really active on Instagram for the last 5 years, but it doesn't feel all that comfortable anymore.
So here I am on Substack, sharing bits and pieces of my art and photography practice and inviting folk to Take a Moodle with Me: as a way to slooooow down a bit and take time to breathe, to find a small pocket of time to connect / reconnect with yourself or if like me you’re struggling with the frenetic pace of life and could do with some reminders to take a step back and replenish your energies.
Hi Debs - lovely to meet you!! Wow I really like the sound of your space here - here's to replenishing our energies and staying slowed down enough to connect. I hear you on insta - I delete it 5 days a week and just show up in a measured way for two days - it's not the place it was...
I loved the Isle of Wight - I visited for a music festival years ago... looking forward to staying connected and thanks for the tea - I'll have mine with extra milk in a pink mug! Cx
Thank you Claire!
Its really early days for me here - I'm hoping to really build up this community over the coming months.
I'm impressed that you actually delete the app for 5 days - wow! I'm getting close to doing something radical like that. I read about a woman who stopped using social media a year ago and she's finding she feels better in herself! Here's the article if you're interested. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/may/18/in-the-year-since-i-quit-social-media-my-screen-time-has-fallen-my-mood-is-up-even-my-resting-heart-rate-is-lower
Oh I’ll have a read thanks Debs. Yea it really affects my mood, my ability to be present with the kids and also my confidence actually - I’m not searching for anything other than more dandelion clocks for my two year old 😂✨✨
I hear you about growing slowly and sustainably - there’s time we have so much time. 🐢
I hear you! Thanks for reminding me to slow down! 😊 Have a great weekend
✨🙏⭕️🎁🐢🪄
This is awesome. It's a digital version of hygge! I'm Claire, I have a Substack that documents my journey to authorship, although I have no idea when I'll actually publish my memoir... it's kind of taking a lot longer than I imagined. 🫣 I also have another Substack where I write about my younger brother. He is serving a 19-year prison sentence.
I recently moved to Denver, got a dog, and enjoying the mountain life. I am having so much fun connecting with all of you on Substack and learning about your creative endeavors.
Ahh the mountains - tell me more about those? Wow how brilliant to have two different foucses - I often think I'll write memoir but I don't know when I'll start or if I'm brave enough... so nice to be connected here Claire... sorry for the delay - I've been running to catch up and wanted to make space to connect in properly. Cx
This is amazing! I’m going to set aside time to read through it properly later, but in the meantime...
I’m a writer and embodiment coach from Belfast, N. Ireland. I use Substack to record my reflections about embodiment and reconnecting to ourselves, the Earth and each other. I also share practices and inspiration!
I used to work as a campaigner for the national students union until I set off on my own path this year. I’ve also been involved in lots of other activist spaces, including in feminism, environmentalism and homelessness. So my embodiment work very much takes on a systems level lens, and I like to look at how internal transformation connects to external transformation.
I also love hiking, sea dipping, yoga, reading and gardening.
I would bring a large mug of hot chocolate to sit around the fire 🔥
Hi Claire and everyone. I'm Janelle and I recently moved to one of the most beautiful spots in the UK, Ribble Valley. We adopted our amazing cat Victor last year. I am a writer, working on my first novel. I love books and all associated bookish things (libraries and bookshops are my heaven). I came to Substack a couple of months ago - I think similarly from Emma, Farrah et al. I find it a much more generous, interesting, slow and warm place than social media. (So a lil nervous about notes). I've been enjoying finding my feet on here and embracing putting my imperfect (cos there's no such thing!) writing out into the community. I'm married to my childhood sweetheart and we are child free by choice. I also work for a charity part-time and do some freelance copywriting and comms work. Lovely to be here with you all!
Hi Janelle - how lovely to hear from you! I’ve not heard of the Ribble Valley I’ll have a look on google maps now. Ah we have such an incredible second hand book shop here near us - the second biggest in the UK - it’s in a converted train station and has so much character. You’d love it there. Good luck with your novel writing. 📕 ✨
Barter Books! It's been years since I've been but YES I do love it. I must get back there asap.
I live near Clitheroe if that helps :) Tbh I knew hardly anything about the area until we moved here. I just keep being stunned at how beautiful the place is
So it’s Lancashire? Ahh 😌 🗺️ you learn something new everyday! Yes Barter Books - it’s so magic 🪄 I’ve spent many a rainy morning writing on my laptop there. 📚
Yeeeah. RV is the whole district
P.S Would have to be a nice chilled bottle of white wine for the campfire. Hope that's okay? Maybe Picpoul de Pinet
😋✨ 🥂 oh lovely yes please!
Hello! I think it's so funny how as writers our least favorite thing to do is self-promotion. It's just so uncomfortable! I have many hobbies that change with the seasons, including birding, crochet, oil painting, gardening. But my favorite things in the world are spending time with partner and our menagerie of pets! I'm working on a memoir about this time period. My difficult (narcissistic, addicted) mother has been on hospice since July 2022. We live in different states and I write about her a lot. It's good to laugh!
I joined Substack because I want to create a newsletter community of seekers, thinkers and artists. My newsletter is called Spirit Seeds. I invite you to check it out!
Oh this sounds a beautiful read Kelley. It’s great to have space for our authentic voice isn’t it. We have been chatting about what drink we might like to bring to the fire circle - do you have a fave?
I've been wanting to experiment with hard kombucha. Anyone tried it?
Hello creative wanderers! *inviting us to receive a breath together* Sitting here sipping my decaf cinnamon and coconut sugar coffee and taking in all of your wonderful intros...
..guess it's my turn!
I'm Silvia, an emerging intuitive artist with plenty of passions to fill multiple lifetimes. A lifelong student with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. A bit of a late bloomer in terms of really knowing what I want to do with this life, in a true 3/5 way in Human Design, I've been trialling and erroring my way to this point. Weirdly, or not so, it is the breath that has provided clarity and direction. And I am sensing that it is becoming a mission of sorts - to one day hold space for others to connect with that sense of clarity and direction. (Astrologically, Pluto is ready to spend the next 20 years in my 6th House - the house known for our work, our service, our wellbeing.) So yeah, getting ready for some deep deep shifts and deep deep work.
Grateful for this community and for these connections!
Hi, Silvia! What a lovely intro. For what it’s worth , you’re not at all alone -- I have no idea what I’ll be when I grow up, and though that used to terrify me, I kind of love the uncertainty of it now. It’s all wide open and possible.
So nice to “meet” you and looking forward to many chats!
Yes, there is definitely something magical about the uncertainty. Endless pool of possibilities. ❤️ Looking forward to our chats!
That's the great thing about knitting, it's always there for you to come back to. When you are ready xx