Brittany Leah

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Been A While | Update + Life With Baby

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog.

My last post was Beltane 2018, around when I started to feel a lot of new creative energy, an even stronger desire to connect with nature and to improve my art skills, particularly in botanical illustration.

About two days after my last post I found out I was pregnant. Archie and I were not planning a pregnancy, however we were not opposed to it and so we welcomed the new chapter into our lives. Fast forward to today and my full-time job is to take care of the most beautiful angel I could ever imagine.

During my pregnancy, I didn’t really feel like sharing too much online. I had nausea in the beginning and then when that passed, I just felt very inward (I actually am not a social person anyways). I continued to practice drawing, learning about plants and decided to learn calligraphy on my own.

Then when I had the baby I totally didn’t feel like being online at all. In the beginning phase of having your first baby it’s very stressful to say the least and I felt like I wanted to be more present for my daughter. I still want to be that way, but now I’m more in the groove of having a baby and I can relax a little bit more and occasionally do some things for myself while she’s napping or playing on her own.

I’m still not on social media as often as I was before and I like it that way. Becoming a mother has forced that change on me, or I did it to myself because I take my role as a mother to a baby pretty seriously.

I had a traumatizing birth experience and was forced to be in the hospital since I went into labour early. The medical staff were horrific and we are still dealing with the consequences of how awful they were today. It sickens me to even think of the whole event. Maybe one day I will write about what happened, but not now.

I’ve never been apart from her since she’s been home and have never even asked anyone to babysit. I cloth diaper and make all her purees. (In the beginning I used disposables because I was so overwhelmed, sleep-deprived and couldn’t think straight). I don’t sleep train her, I stay with her until she can fall asleep. I try to make sure she’s in fresh air and exposed to nature for a bare minimum of an hour a day.

I can’t imagine doing things any other way even though it is very time consuming. It’s a labour of love.

This year I was able to grow a little bit of my own baby food. Having a new addition forced us to move to a bigger space where we had room to dig out a garden. So I grew my first vegetable garden this year and was able to accomplish my goal of growing at least some food that I could puree for the baby. I didn’t get much – three zucchinis and three small squashes and a pumpkin – but it all went, or will be made, into purees for Sophie.

 

Other than growing some baby food we had a tomato overload in our garden. We’ve also got brussels sprouts that are almost ready, a couple eggplants, a few peppers and some onion scallions. Not much, but it’s very satisfying to at least begin learning about growing my own food and I’m looking forward to building on that skill year after year.

 

Anyways … I’d like to start posting on here again, time permitting. I don’t really have a strict niche on this blog and for now I will just post as I’m inspired to and see where it goes. I might just want to share my art and photography, or maybe natural home and lifestyle things, wild plants I learn about, or maybe even books that I love.

I suppose there is a general theme though … nature, creativity, “slow-living”, healthy home.

It feels good to post again. It must be the Autumn air … the autumn has a creative effect on me and I think on lots of others as well.

Happy October and thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

My 2017 Life Review : New Creative Energy & Accomplishments

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Its great that I’m seeing so many people posting about how 2017 was a good year for them. I feel the same!

2017 was a very notable year for me for many reasons. I totally changed my interests, my views on what I think is important, what I want to put out into the world and create … this was not a forced change, it just happened naturally within me.

First of all, this was the first year I started to live with the seasons. As in, I became fascinated with noticing the natural changes in my environment as we went through spring, summer, fall. I took pictures of interesting plants and flowers in my region, and tried to learn about as many as I could. I didn’t blog about this too much, because it was so new and overwhelming for me. Like a whole new world opened up.

Of course, I feel like I didn’t notice or learn as much as I wanted to, but the amazing thing about life is that it is a constant renewal and cycle which will start again and you can expand on your knowledge in the next season.

Becoming interested in nature is a different shift from what I originally started blogging about which was makeup and fitness. But I wouldn’t say that it is a totally new interest for me because as a child I was fascinated with plants and folklore, as most are, but of course we get ‘educated’ out of that.

Through blogging about ‘natural’ products and healthy living I started to think it was odd that we place so much value on those qualities, meanwhile we continue to live in an artificial world in ignorance of the natural world.

I also realized that I was blogging about lifestyle products you can buy, because all the advice that you hear about blogging successfully is focused on buying and selling – mostly having a business perspective with your blog.

I found this really hindered on my creativity and I felt like I wasn’t being myself, to be only talking about superficial things like organic makeup or fitness even though they were aspects of my life.

I still like to blog about things that I use or wear that I feel merit attention, but now it comes naturally as part of my lifestyle, rather than products being the main focus and purpose for blogging.

The good thing is, that through experimenting with blogging, content creation and social media, I revived my affinity for art and photography which had been dormant for several years.

In my late teens and early twenties, I had been really into visual art and I used to draw and paint and experiment with taking photos. But I quit progressing my artistic abilities believing it was frivolous and wouldn’t help me in the ‘real world’. (Which is an absolutely ridiculous notion because all businesses use art in some way or another.) And so, I went on and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Politics, which I don’t use now, but probably has helped in a way to steer me back into my artistic and nature-loving side.

Anyways, back to 2017 …

Through being on social media I started to notice that there is a niche of artists and creators putting out such inspiring content that really resonated with me. People that like forests, plants, folklore, the simple things in life or diy and natural home stuff creating beautiful images and art based on that lifestyle.

Through being in that community, and in combination with my desire to learn more about plants, forests and old myths, I feel so much more clear on who I am and what I want to do.

 

In a nutshell, this year I’ve :

– Taken an interest in learning about nature and creating art and photography based on that.
– Learned to identify a few wild, edible and medicinal plants in my environment.
– Taught myself photography! Okay well, there’s still lots more to learn, but over several months, I’ve learned how to use the manual settings on my camera. Lots of trial and errors, lots of fails.
– Taught myself how to use Photoshop and Lightroom. I went from absolutely zero knowledge in February, and now I have a working level of proficiency in these programs. Not expert yet and still lots to learn.
– Started painting and drawing again.
– Started my first container garden. Grew herbs, tomatoes and microgreens for the first time. Such a fulfilling endeavour!

(Please note that by “taught myself” I mean, watched YouTube tutorials. It’s awesome what we can learn these days at our fingertips.)

So that’s that. I’m not doing resolutions, but rather just celebrating what I’ve accomplished and looking forward to continuing with what drives me.

I don’t think I’ve ever stuck to a resolution, and when I’ve quit bad habits, it wasn’t around New Year anyways or because I tried hard … I just matured and became interested in more important things.

So I’m going to close this off with saying that I have a new energy for life that I’ve never had before. I never felt happy or clear about what I wanted to do when I was a student or working full time in the corporate/hospitality industry and spending too much free time at bars with peers. I was stunted, and I’m trying not to regret wasting time.

Instead, I will be excited about expanding on my skills and knowledge in art, nature and good literature.

Happy New Year to you!

What accomplishments are you happy about from the year?

Why I Quit Makeup Blogging

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When I first started blogging, the topic I chose was “green beauty” where I would discuss natural and organic makeup and personal care products.

I wanted to start an online presence because I wanted to gather experience in creating digital content and working online.

I chose that topic because everyone says that if you blog, you should have a niche as narrow as possible, to become regarded as an expert in that field. So I thought the topic of organic makeup would be an easy one to become knowledgeable in, and at the time I had accumulated a sizeable makeup kit of natural only brands.

I never really thought that makeup was all that I am about, but I imagined that maybe I would get some low-stress work opportunities in that field, so that I could spend more time doing things I love like being in nature and reading books.

So, that was my mistake. I should have always gone for a lifestyle theme I love, but I was afraid I didn’t have a narrow enough niche in any other interests.


How I Feel About Makeup Now

Through being in the “green beauty” community, I became very detracted from makeup. Even though it was organic and “safe” it all started to seem very superficial. I started to realize that makeup just really isn’t important or necessary.

The makeup industry, even the organic one, is not empowering for women. It needs you to feel like you have to paint your face everyday to be beautiful.

“Organic” makeup started to feel like a hypocrisy to me. If we are interested in natural products, then in a way, doesn’t that mean we are concerned about the environment, and the consequences that over-consumption has on the planet?

But in order for the organic makeup industry to thrive, it still requires people hooked on consumption and acquiring fancy new things. It still contributes to environmental pollution – the extraction for all the ingredients, the petroleum used to produce packaging and transport these products all over the world.

Most things we use, of course, require energy to produce. But some things are necessary and some aren’t, especially when we are in an environmental predicament.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that sprucing up with a little gloss or mascara is a bad thing. I still like to occasionally do that.  But I think that our inherent desire to enhance natural beauty is being exploited.

It’s like tons of new “organic” makeup brands are popping up monthly all so that we can have the luxury of choice. This is an unnecessary decadence and too much of an imbalance focusing on outer appearance.

Beauty should be simple – nourish your body and cultivate your mind and soul, do things that actually make you happy and fulfilled and it will show in your physical appearance.


On Fitness

Then I decided that I should focus on fitness, since it is a daily part of my life, I’ve worked as a personal trainer and I enjoy it. Well, I soon discovered that I just do not enjoy creating content about exercising.

I felt like blogging about it made it unnecessarily complicated. To me, it’s just an everyday part of life like getting dressed and making food.

Fitness, like beauty is simple (to me). You need to get your heart rate up in high intensity, short intervals. Learn how to swing a kettlebell properly. It will change your life.

I also don’t find creating fitness media to be very visually appealing or beautiful.


Where I’m At Now

birch-snow

Beauty is a good thing. But that of the earth is more important than a perfectly blended out crease or winged liner every single day.

The world just doesn’t need more makeup or fashion bloggers. Because of the emphasis on these industries, we are turning the planet into a wasteland.

I’ve come to a place where I really appreciate the small things in life like crafting, reading or making food. Reviving a connection with nature and ancient wisdom which has been sorely lost. And obviously with the latter, that entails an eco-friendly lifestyle.


What I’ve Learned About Blogging

Being pressured to have stay within a niche can feel really restrictive. Only stick to something really narrow if you have a genuine passion about it.

It’s okay to start to blog about general things under not too broad of a niche that you’re interested in. This way, you will get practice and find out what you are good at.

The old cliche : Be authentic! Don’t resist who you actually are and what naturally compels you.

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