taking notes: june 2026
LET'S TAKE IT BACK TO THE BASICS.
Welcome back to Claire From Online: The Newsletter by Claire (from online). This is Taking Notes, my take on a monthly recap but with some fun pink headers this time (shoutout Substack, we’re inching further and further back into Xanga territory each year and I am simply overjoyed).
Housekeeping: some links throughout are affiliate links or commissionable. This post is free to read & comments are open, so smash those buttons, s'il vous plaît. It’s also quite L O N G U E — read on the app (instead of ur email) for the best user experience <3 LYLAS/B
June highlights
✶ Celebrating one of my oldest and dearest friends, Em, on her bachelorette weekend in the incomparable Portland, Maine!!! We ran around town in wigs and it was everything. It was my third time there, and I tacked on an extra day for some solo exploring. A perfect long weekend up in New England.
✶ The new Crystal Bridges expansion opened! There’s a Keith Haring exhibit in the new wing, workshop spaces, and a new cafe that serves absolutely ginormous lattes. I’ve texted all of my family and out-of-state friends to tell them to make a trip!!!
✶ I went back to my old book club, the Book Lovers Club1! I stopped going as much about two years ago, which turned into an awful habit of not showing up at all, but it feels so good to be back!
✶ I just appreciated the amount of time I had to spend on movement, hobbies, and rest. I cannot spend three hours at my journaling desk, go to two exercise classes and hang at a coffee shop in the middle of the day on a random Thursday in October, but I sure as heck can in the summer! (You are welcome to join us in public education.)
From the journaling desk
Here’s my June stack. I actually have SO much I want to share, and I will, in an upcoming post (or two), once I actually start implementing these changes. It’s early daaaays!
From top to bottom:
A6 Hobonichi Original (Spring Start): This is my work planner! Whatever I use for my yearly work planner turns into occasional lists/brain dump/swatch pages (and yes, some blank days) every June and July. Still useful, not at all cute.
Hobonichi Weeks: Currently using it to track my spending! We’ll touch on this a little more further down in this post.
Hobonichi Cousin Avec: day-to-day memory keeping and creative journaling. This is my first year using the two-book system (Jan-Jun / Jul-Dec) and I think I’m a convert! I know I can change my mind, but as of right this second, I don’t see myself doing anything other than the A5 Avec again next year. You all know my PERFECT split would be a Spring Start Avec (Apr-Sept / Oct-Mar) which sounds ridiculous, but is not that far-fetched when you consider the Japanese stationery of it all. Anyway, I get antsy in my books once that six month mark rolls around, soooooo why haven’t I done this sooner? I love it.
Midori A5 Diary: morning pages or just like, a regular diary, on hand to use when I want. I had to stickerbomb the front of it to encourage myself to use it again, lol. Something I’ve discovered only recently after giving myself a hard time about how infrequently I’ve been going for longform diary vibes, is that I have been able to give myself a lot of space to process how I feel digitally, in my Substack drafts. It’s kind of backwards, and of course when I’m on here I’m still writing with an audience in mind for the final product, but sometimes I let myself get carried away and type through some feelings that I know will be deleted (or sometimes not), which is still absolutely a method of journaling!! Longtime friends of the newsletter may remember the .txt document I’ve shared from 2008 when I was sixteen. Similar vibes at this function. Did you have one of those, too? Anyway, interesting discovery. About the inserts: I was using the A5 slim Moleskine notebooks that came with my Jenny Bick leather journal cover, until I remembered I actually just prefer Midori so much more!!! So I’m going to work through that notebook first, since it was sitting in my bookshelf.
Hobonichi Five-Year (A5): I’M HALFWAY FINISHED WITH THIS THING?! WHAT. Love her, as usual.
My five-year hobonichiversary is this week! Today when I post this, actually, if I post on 7/3 :’) I picked up a discounted Spring Start A5 cousin in July 2021 and just used April-June for list making and general nonsense. Being in my first Hobonichi felt like I opened a portal into this wild realm of planner/journal/scrapbook/diary hybrids. So much love. If you want to start a new-to-you planner this week for whatever reason, I support it wholeheartedly. I LOVE THE BEGINNING OF JULY!!!!!!!!!! SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR LET’S GOOOOOOO WE’RE ON THE ROLLERCOASTER OF LIFE
Reading, watching, listening
✶ The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1. I really enjoyed it, and I think I’m switching to the audiobooks for the rest at the recommendation of some friends. This was the only book I actually finished in June, oops. I was too locked in on reality TV, it’s true, but also spent a good deal of time on other offline pastimes and also iPad games.
✶ I did just remember that I’m listening to The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo on Spotify. I DNFed this book a few years ago, having more to do with the busyness of that season and a general reading slump, rather than not enjoying it. I have the physical copy somewhere. I needed to get out of my head on a bumpy flight (clear air turbulence is my nemesis). It was the only audiobook I had downloaded, so I decided to give it another shot.
Claire and I were technically neighbors (in the geographical sense, not in a way that suggests we hung out or that she even knows me). She was a senior when I was a freshman (I can pull out my yearbook). I grew up on the same street as the fictional family in this story. I can place so many details of, say, what a backyard gathering would look like on that block, and that is fun for me!!!! I loved growing up in OP.
✶ Backrooms — 4/5 stars, the found footage was really making me wish I had a dramamine but I enjoyed it so much, especially the ending. Mental health-wise, there were some days in June I was a teensy tiny bit in the Backrooms myself. Surely picking up a part-time summer job virtually surveilling a bunch of 20-somethings in Fiji will do the trick!
✶ Love Island - Soul ties is crazy but what’s even crazier is that this is Friendship Island and also Couple Island but really High School during COVID Island (not their fault) or Everything But the Banter Island. I’ve seen a few takes online saying that what makes USA so odd compared to UK is that… they’re never just talking to get to know each other! They’re forever talking about their couples and everyone else’s’ couples and… like, there really isn’t any banter, ESPECIALLY this year. Also, the challenges are weird this season and rarely move the plot along. I know production picks and chooses what we see, but something is off. Regardless, I tune in with a little cereal and two or three group texts going. I’m always like, 30 minutes behind my cousin and she berates me in the chat. I’m enjoying it more than last year’s season, but nothing will top season 6 (“and now? you’re sendin’ three home”). Sometimes I open up Threads and mean to type in ‘Kenzie’ or ‘Gal coffee shop’ or ‘Zach production plant’ just to see what the court of public opinion has to say about xyz, and then I get sidetracked by a student loan repayment rabbit hole and I have to rewind the Peacock app a little bit to hear the latest malapropism or see Kenzie doing the splits.
✶ Okay, sorry, I know better than to glaze over the iPad games. This month: Goods Puzzle: Sort Challenge (I think it used to have another name) and Yarn Fever (usually played while watching Love Island, baseball, or World Cup games). Next time it gets rainy and weird outside, I’m redownloading Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic. I should really finish a book.
✶ Been listening to this old playlist of mine while I tidy and journal and hang around the house. Added a few new tracks this week, it’s soooo cozy.
✶ Looking forward to seeing Phoebe Bridgers in September, Hovvdy later in the fall, and for new music from both of them, as well as Carly Rae Jepsen, my absolute queen.
Empties
For the past year, I’ve been tracking my finished skin/makeup/shower and even household products in my planner. From time to time, I even save the actual products to make a lil video. Here are the standouts from June — I’d repurchase all of them in theory, but I love Trying New Things so of course I already have different replacements for all of these, lol.
✶ Ever since I finished this shampoo, I’ve been sad
✶ Sydney Hale candles are theeeee best
✶ A very good body scrub
✶ Soap bars I always manage to find on vacation
✶ My brow gal Lilly put me on
A ‘project pan’ is fun to do & fun to document! Highly rec.
Good purchases
✶ A hydrafacial, hair cut & color, pilates & yoga. Living my truth!!!!
✶ An incredible iced vanilla latte at Smalls in Portland, Maine. It was strong, and still sweet, but never turned into watered-down milk even WITH ‘chippy ice’. I just need you to know it was just so good and I would pay $20 to snap my fingers and have one sitting in front of me right now.
✶ Community Garden candle by Loam (picked it up at Soleil in Portland). It’s burning as I’m writing this and it’s just sooooo summery and I definitely recommend.
✶ Living Proof sun kissed pear dry shampoo
✶ Another pair of my favorite Free People shorts (a Poshmark find!)
✶ Speedball B series pen nib set for swatching
✶ Bought in May, but this running belt was a very practical purchase I’ve been using on my walks.
Did you know the weekly recaps are back? I’ve listed (nearly) every purchase I’ve made in June on here, because I’ve been tracking my spending in my Hobonichi Weeks planner! It’s been going well, and I’d definitely recommend doing it yourself, if you’re at all curious about your own habits. (Also, because I cannot ever make a short and straightforward post on here, these also contain photos, feelings, and general life updates! I’ve definitely been On This App this summer!)
Snack Report
✶ LMNT! Feeling salty? (raspberry salt is my favorite so far)
✶ I’ve been loving sungold kiwis this summer! Sometimes I get so excited to eat them in the morning, I’ll scarf them down over the sink while my eggs are cooking or my bagel is toasting, lol.
✶ ZERO SUGAR A&W ROOT BEER, IT’S SO GOOD
✶ Don’t laugh, but I’ve been really into Kraft Singles lately. Yeah I see your organic sharp cheddar — let me get a nibble actually — and I give you grilled cheese on white bread made with ooey gooey Kraft Singles processed cheese product!!!! You’ll have to rip these Singles out of my hands… and you should, get this cheese pull!
✶ GoMacro kindly sent me some of their new GoMacro MacroSquares to try — my swalty girls, if you’re in line, STAY IN LINE! They are SO GOOD! Right now, they’re exclusively at Whole Foods. The Berry White Chocolate + Sea Salt is my faaaaavorite and I will definitely be grabbing some more next week.
Cookie’s Corner
Two years with our Cookie Dough this month! She loves FaceTime, her little hedgehog toy, sitting under my desk, playing hide and seek behind the kitchen island with Eric, sniffing around for rabbits on walks, and ice cubes in her water bowl.
Posts & online things I’m loving
✶ Keeping up with Kelsey, who is rowing solo across the mid-Pacific. She gets to Oahu TODAY, I think!
✶ Journaling doesn’t have to be expensive
✶ We’ve lost constructive boredom!
In case you missed it…
✶ Here are all the pens I’ve had inked up during the month of June! I did my lil July page yesterday — I’ll post that this upcoming week!
✶ Side-by-side comparison of three of my favorite everyday black pens!
✶ May favorites — naturally I’ll have my June Favorites video up by August :-)
Thank you!!!
Excited to share that through the end of the year, I’ll be offering six complimentary paid subscriptions per month to readers of the newsletter. Free subscribers will be upgraded to paid for six months; current paid readers’ subscriptions will be extended by a whole year. Shoutout to July’s selected subscribers: Hannah F., Leanne B., Amia W., Gillian S., Emily G., Logan M. <3 THANK YOU FOR READING! If you’d like to be entered into this little monthly giveaway situation, you can fill out this Google form.
Where to find me
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | ShopMy
Links & codes
Shop with Atlas Stationers using my affiliate link, or
shop my stationery favs on my personal Atlas Affiliate Storefront
Jenni Bick Custom Journals - use code ‘CLAIRE’ to save 10%
The New Primal snacks - ‘CLAIREFROMONLINE’ to save 15%
Tom’s Studio - ‘CLAIREFROMONLINE’ to save 10% on qualifying orders
Geometry Towels - ‘CLAIRE15’ to save 15%
xo Claire
This is that book club started by my friend Karly Tornatore five (!) years ago, where we all get a chance to share what we’ve been reading over the past month. It’s really special and I always get soooo many good titles to throw on my TBR. I much prefer it to a typical book club format.
featured in a post twice in a row because i am a Fan. anyway since u r holding me hostage i guess i will be purchasing a spring start! thank u claire 🤍🫶🏻
I'm obsessed with the Cookie's Corner sectionnnn HI Cookie!!