Homing in

I always boomerang back to the blog in the new year. Something about the breathing space between Christmas and Jan 1st, something about looking back on what has gone and thinking about what will come.

I’ve had this little corner of the internet for over 10 years. At various points in my life the posts have been a trickle or a rushing stream but one thing remains the same: I love having them. They’re like a digital scrapbook of where my head and heart were at.

While I love the immediacy and casualness of Insta stories, ultimately, they are fun places to visit – the blog is home base. 

Post frequency probably never reduced as dramatically as when Ari was born. I could for sure blame new parent fatigue, and the tornado that is a new baby. But it was more than that.

Everything felt too close to the surface to talk about. I wrote a couple of pieces (published in TheJournal and Image Magazine), but lots of it was just too new, too raw, too overwhelming to really process and package up in a neat little post with a pretty header shot.

While I feel no closer to having the answers – and actually more sure than ever that there aren’t any “right” ones – I feel surer of myself and my interests as a parent and a person to dip my toe back in. 

I’ve seen other parents talk about this; the creative desert that can follow having a baby. It makes sense in a way – so much of your self is nourishing this little being, literally and figuratively, no wonder everything else lies fallow. But, without stretching the metaphor too far, that break has resulted in what feels like better, surer soil.

I feel thirsty again, curious and open and excited to share, document and explore. 

So in that spirit, here’s what I hope to talk about in the coming months:

• Nesting and decorating a rental. For a myriad of reasons, a “forever home” may be a long way off, so we’ll do as much as we can with what we have, which right now is a lovely house on the outskirts of Galway.
• Flexible work. There are so many new ways of working – and new tools and approaches needed to do it well – and it’s an area I’m really enjoying exploring (a piece on parenting and flexible work ran in the December issue of Image)
• Creative collaborations and side projects (often with seriously awesome women I’m lucky to call collaborators). 
• Creating a Montessori-inspired home on a budget and parenting stuff in general.
• Fun finds and nerdy internet shiz.
• Life in Galway and exploring our new neighbourhood (not to mention the whole beautiful West of Ireland!)

I also have a few posts featuring some recent photography work too, which I’m looking forward to sharing.

As always, thanks for sticking around.