My husband goes for a walk every day in quarantine, so I decided to be cute and surprise my husband with a picnic when he got home. And what the heck, why not post it on TikTok? Well, I guess this is what going viral looks like.

I think it’s funny that this happened because honestly, that morning I was having a small hissy fit about the Internet. I feel like there are so many “creators” copying what other people do, and they are wildly successful. I’m one who respects originality and unique content, so I try to replicate that with my own work. Yet I feel like a lot of the time it looks like a lot of failures rather than successes.

Then I post a cute video about my marriage and BAM, it does well. What’s up with that?

But you know, the more I sit here and really think about it, the more I’ve come to realize a truth about human nature: People want a good story. I fully believe that we are all storytellers and story consumers at heart, which is why social media is so successful. It’s a wide mixture of both, and people love to share about their lives. It’s part of the human experience.

That’s probably why I’ve always loved blogging so much. I love to share the creative things I’m working on, and I love sharing the stories behind them. Sure, it’s because I’m trained to be a journalist, but I think it’s also because it taps into some deep part of our human nature. We all have stories we want to tell.

So I guess in today’s chapter of On My Plate I’ll start by saying this, what’s the story you want to tell? And how will you tell it?

Here’s what’s been going on lately:

When I first started making sourdough bread I was having a lot of successes. Then as soon as I started trying to make bread for my blog, I was pulling out loaves of bread that were rock hard, not risen, and very gummy. So, despite the fact that I sit here and write on this food blog pretending like I know what I’m doing, I just want you to know that some of us still can’t successfully make sourdough bread. Don’t worry, I won’t give up. And I’ll still be making sourdough discard crepes.

Speaking of TikTok, I found this incredible hair tutorial that shows you how to curl your hair in five minutes. I am obsessed and literally do this all the time now—even in quarantine. Very much looking forward to the day I can rock my new hair with a cute outfit on the streets of Manhattan. Sigh.

Last Sunday I did a deep clean of my apartment, then treated myself to a mini spa in the bathroom. Bath bomb, chocolate mug cake, face mask, and an entire bottle of champagne later, you could say it was a pretty great way to end the weekend.

I’ve had some pretty terrible acne in quarantine (probably stress…) so I started using this exfoliating mask every night. I’m almost convinced it’s magic in a bottle.

And to wrap this up, I’ll end with this. If you’re thinking of becoming a writer of some kind (or even starting a blog), this Medium article will help you jump over a few beginner mistakes.

Toodles, happy Sunday.

Photo was edited with Color Pop in the Bright Brunch Lightroom Presets.