It’s been a blessing during this lock down and imposed quiet-time to be able to flex some creative muscles, and step outside my usual comfort zone. To try new editing techniques, new shoot ideas, or new niches to experiment in. Maternity boudoir is something I’ve shot a few times now, but I definitely want to call it in more from the universe and create more maternity magic with expecting parents.

This amazing woman and I have worked together quite a few times now - from her engagement photos, to her boudoir photos, to her wedding. So when she agreed to model for me for some maternity photos, I was deeply grateful to be able to document another big milestone for her and her family.

I really love the energy of this babe - she is so warm, loving, caring, and full of so much joy. I have no doubt that the human she is expecting will be the coolest little peanut ever, and so deeply loved. Congrats, babe!

“And then there are the cravings.. Oh, la! A woman may crave to be near water, or be belly down, her face in the earth, smelling the wild smell. She might have to drive into the wind. She may have to plant something, pull things out of the ground or put them into the ground. She may have to knead and bake, rapt in dough up to her elbows.
She may have to trek into the hills, leaping from rock to rock trying out her voice against the mountain. She may need hours of starry nights where the stars are like face powder spilt on a black marble floor. She may feel she will die if she doesn’t dance naked in a thunderstorm, sit in perfect silence, return home ink-stained, paint-stained, tear-stained, moon-stained.”

― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

***

I had the honour of creating socially distanced magic with this amazing woman and artist when things were starting to feel really bleak in my life. I felt drained of my artistic life-blood, staying inside spending too much time allowing fearful messages to play in my mind. Covid has been taking a toll on all of us, each of us riding this wave simultaneously but in our own different experiential boats.

So when she slid into my DM’s asking if we could shoot socially distanced outdoors, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring art, inspiration, and joy back into my life.

Creating art with people, learning their stories, and watching them come to life in front of my camera brings me so much joy. I just love holding space for this intimate and beautiful transformation to take place.

These images will always be a reminder that even in the dark times, there is inspiration, connection, and light to be found.

I also highly recommend checking out this amazing woman’s work, she is an incredibly talented visual artist. You can scope her work here.

This session was from before the world screeched to a halt. This beautiful human walked into my studio with such an amazing energy - she had prepped for this session through and through. She had created a spotify playlist for us to listen to during her session, full of all her favourite feel-good sexy songs to help channel that inner goddess and bring her to LIFE (spoiler alert, there was a lot of Lizzo and Beyonce and it was perfect). She knew exactly what she wanted out of her session, and what would make her feel the best. We are often told not to be too much, too forward, too loud, too anything. But, by now, we all know that is garbage. That there is no such thing as being too authentically yourself – there’s just the type of people who haven’t met themselves deeply enough to respect how deeply you know your self. And it scares them.

Meet yourself deeply. Honour your own needs, wants, desires. Know how to maximize your experiences in life - from knowing what playlist to put on to feel the sexiest, to caring for yourself and nurturing yourself in darker times.

One of the hardest things about this time is not getting to meet and connect with such inspiring women and humans through my work. Not being able to hear people’s stories, and be a part of their journey… it breaks my heart. I am working on other ways of helping people in their journey’s via Patreon, but I am missing that in person soul-to-soul connection that comes with this line of work. So for now, I will just go through old sessions and fall back in love with all my past clients. Waiting for the day I can fall in love with new souls.

*Side note, this amazing human does makeup! She did her own makeup for her session. You can check out her work here.

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”
― Eckhart Tolle

Welcome to the dawning of a new age.

Scary, isn’t it? The whole global community has been upturned in the span of a couple short months. The ground beneath our feet feels unstable, and you may find yourself moving through various emotions each day. This is the first time most of us have had to deal with something of this scale. The whole world is going through a collective trauma – we are all grieving losses together. The loss of our stability, the loss perhaps of our health, of a loved ones health, the loss of the future, of structure, of certainty.

But not the loss of hope.

We are being asked to be still on a global scale. For a modern world that is constantly moving, constantly pushing onwards, constantly needing more – the act of sitting still is profound. It is giving humanity the opportunity to allow our dust to settle. If, in this stillness, we allow ourselves to lean into the unknown… we will receive the gift to see ourselves, and the planet, with renewed clarity.

We are being asked to surrender. No, we are being forced to surrender. The universe has sent us all to our rooms to think about what we have done (and maybe what we haven’t done). I don’t know about you guys, but I fucking hate sitting still. I am not good at surrendering to the flow of the universe. I am a go-getter, filling my days with projects, goals, and dreams of the future. I always told myself that I would sit still, one day, when I was done with X project, or after X occasion. But I never did, I always plunged straight into the next thing, barely remembering to breathe.

And now, there’s no other option. We can either surrender to this experience, or we can allow ourselves to be consumed by the fear of it all. I choose surrender, because with surrender comes hope. And that’s not to say I am not terrified – I am. Each day comes riddled with waves of anxiety, grief, fear. But when I allow myself to let those emotions course through me (instead of fighting them), when I surrender to that release, I also welcome in the light: the creativity and inspiration that comes in heavier waves than the darkness. The hope that weaves it’s way through each day in it’s own pervasive way.

We are, quite literally, ALL in this together. Every single person on the planet. Not one heart beat is removed from this equation. And we get to choose who we are in this shifting world, who we will become.

Which archetype will you choose to embody as we move through this together? Will you live in fear, bound and restricted by that archetype?

Or will you choose to bring light to your life, and those around you, to bring art, creativity, love?

The world is shifting, and we are welcoming in a new age. Let’s hope that we can fill this one with less material desires and more desire for community and connection. Let’s choose to fill this world with an abundance of our gifts, our hearts, our love, our hope that we can collectively do better for ourselves and one another.

We will make it through this, together. All we need to do is surrender to love and hope.

“Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.”

– Byron Katie

Yesterday I felt a little bit blue, a little like I needed some cosmic direction for my weekend and to help reset my mindset. I sat down with my tarot deck and pulled a card to help align me for the weekend. I had held in my mind “what should I focus on this weekend?”

The card was the two of cups, reversed.

The self-love card.

Two of cups reversed symbolizes self-love and the need to pour love back into ourselves to be able to operate at our highest. To give the most back into the world, we must first give the most back into ourselves.

I am always so proud/honoured/grateful/ALL the happy adjectives for my clients when they dedicate their session to themselves. When I ask “what’s your inspiration/reason for a session?” and they say “to celebrate myself!” I clap internally and externally (I do, I will actually clap for you at our coffee consultation, in public, at a cafe. Very goofily and excitedly. People look. It’s a thing. It’s a great thing). Celebrating ourselves and loving ourselves are FUNDAMENTAL parts of the equation for soul-deep happiness.

So look in the mirror today. Look deep at the love of your life. It’s who you are spending the rest of your life with, and damn, aren’t they just amazing?

“You can't make yourself feel positive, but you can choose how to act, and if you choose right, it builds your confidence.”
― Julien Smith

Today I feel inspired to talk about the powering of making a choice.

Is putting on lingerie and getting “sexy” photos done going to change your life? Yes, but only if you choose to let it and see the power in making that choice for yourself.

Is deciding to make the commitment to yourself, to celebrate yourself, to embody an act of pure confidence, going to change your life? Undeniably, as long as you are conscious that these are the choices you are making for yourself.

The power of boudoir lies within you: it lays within the decision you make to choose yourself. To choose confidence, to act with self-love towards yourself. It lays in you and the choices you make.

As one of my biggest self-love idols, Teri Hofford, said:

Confidence, self love, self acceptance, body love, body acceptance, courage, bravery

It's not something I have.

It's something I choose.

Confidence, acceptance, self-love - these aren’t final destinations to be arrived at. They exist in the form of separate, everyday, individual acts towards ourselves and those around us. They are each a journey of their own, and need to be honoured as such.

By now, we’ve come to recognize that the way we think and the way we act shapes how we feel, and how we perceive the world. So what if we started acting, and thinking, confidently and with unapologetic self-acceptance. If we all woke up and made the choice to be confident, and full of love for ourselves.

Imagine what that would do for you, for your friends, for the world.