Dear mamas and humans who create life with their magical bodies –

You deserve to celebrate yourself throughout the pregnancy, too. The life you are creating is sacred, and a true miracle. It deserves to be celebrated and revered. But, you powerful human, so do you.

The container that is housing and creating a future soul is still worthy of love, joy, laughter, celebration, pleasure, and feeling good. Take the time to document your journey however you want – but don’t forget to celebrate yourself along the way. Too often maternity photoshoots can turn solely focused on the belly – instead of the entirety of the magnificent human that is surrounding that belly. So indulge in yourself in this journey, celebrate the changes and the feelings, and don’t forget that you are still f*cking beautiful, powerful, and deserving of your own joy and moments.

I love taking some good beautiful belly shots, don’t get me wrong. But I love even more for you to see yourself as the powerful sensual create you are, as a whole.

As a late-to-the-coming-out-party-bisexual I’ve had a mixed relationship with Pride. It wasn’t until 2019 that I went to my first pride festival, still feeling more like an Ally than the B in LGBTQIA+. Through the pandemic as I settled more into my queer identity and feeling comfortable enough to even claim the word queer, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on the important of Pride.

Pride feels like a giant party to us now - full of glitter, rainbows, dance parties, singing, and general tomfoolery and magical displays of authentic queerness. But Pride started as a protest, as a riot, and we can never forget that. [If you aren’t versed in the origins of Pride, research the Stonewall Riots].

We have Pride as we know it today because of Black Trans Activists + Lesbians, primarily sex-workers. While we celebrate Pride month and how far we have come, it’s also to remember how much further we still need to go. That we still need to actively work and fight for our friends and family who exist on various intersections and experience discrimination at an elevated percentage. Let’s celebrate our history, while continuing to fight for a better future.

And to celebrate this liberation made possible by Black Trans Activists, here are some amazing Black Trans Artists doing AMAZING work that you got to check out!

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Seagirl Abuson | The beautiful human featured in the images and photoshoot accompanying this blog post! An amazing woman doing incredible work for the LGBTQIA+ refugee committee. “Seagirl Abuson came to Canada as a refugee last year. She spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya after fleeing homophobia and transphobia in her home country of Uganda.” - to support her cause, visit this link.

Follow Abuson on Instagram

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Syrus Marcus Ware | As a visual artist, Syrus works within the mediums of painting, installation and performance to challenge systemic oppression. Syrus’ work explores the spaces between and around identities; acting as provocations to our understandings of gender, sexuality and race. His work has been exhibited at the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019), the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Gladstone Hotel, ASpace Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, SPIN Gallery and other galleries across Canada. His work has been reproduced in FUSE Magazine, The Globe and Mail, THIS Magazine, and Blackness and Sexualities, amongst others. His work has also been included in several academic journals including Small Axe and Women and Environment International.

Follow Syrus on Instagram

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Backxwash | A trans artist creating an incredibly unique blend of metal and rap - in 2020 she was the first Trans artist to win the Polaris Music Prize, which is known to celebrate diversity and to support up-and-coming Canadian artists.

Backxwash is the stage name adopted by Ashanti Mutinta. Growing up in a religious family in Zambia, she started making hip hop beats as a teenager before moving to Canada in her late teens to live with her siblings. She studied computer science before exploring Montreal’s live music scene and going back to expressing herself through music. [source]

Follow Backxwash on Instagram

The first blog post unveiling the new studio location! We’ve been here for a little over a month now, and each day + each session I fall deeper in love with this space.

This session was one of the very first ones we did in the new space. I remember when she showed up and I asked her what she was wearing for outfits and she excitedly said “nothing!” - and I thought “oh my goddess we are infusing the studio with SUCH amazing energy right away!”

This amazing human was such a gift to have in the new studio space, and she really was so excited as I tried out new ways to play with the light in the space, and moving around ALL of the furniture to find the perfect pool of light.

I am so grateful for each client who comes in through these doors and infuses these four walls with their power, energy, and badassery. I can’t wait to see how this space grows over the years, and how it supports more amazing humans in their self love and self growth journey.

My conversion rate for clients is slow. I know I’m a slow burn, plant the seeds and wait to sow, kind of marketer. I know that when you start thinking about doing a boudoir session, it might be years before you book.

There are a million-and-one blocks that we put in our way that stop us from having those experiences that our soul deeply craves. I know that it might take you years to realize that you don’t need to wait to lose 10 pounds. It might take you signing up for my newsletter and me planting tiny seeds of “you are worth this” for months before you start to believe them. But slowly, the blocks start to dissolve. Slowly, being subject to witnessing people reclaiming their power will start to dissolve your own blocks.

F*ck it, let’s just eliminate talking about boudoir exclusively for a second.

We get in our own way in so many aspects of life. Creating excuses and reasons why we don’t deserve those things that our soul is asking for. We put ourselves last, and everyone else first. We keep saying “next year” for 5 years, before maybe that thing that was on your to-do-list just disappears completely.

You only get one life-long, deeper-than-the-ocean love in your life. And it’s the person you’re sitting with right now. It’s you. So when are you going to let yourself have those experiences and dreams that your heart has been asking for? Maybe it’s dance lessons. Maybe it’s time to learn to paint, or play guitar. Maybe it’s booking a boudoir session with me or someone else to start exploring this side of yourself. Whatever your heart is asking for, it usually asks for a reason. Those requests aren’t meant to be ignored: your heart wants to be heard. You deserve the love you shower everyone else with. You deserve to date and romance yourself. You deserve nice things, too.

One of the biggest barriers people put in front of themselves before booking or doing their boudoir session is “but what would I WEAR!?” I’ve been saying it a lot lately that the outfit is one of the least important parts of the session. I’ll say that again: what you wear is one of the least important parts of the experience.

So don’t stress yourself out over it. We can make anything look amazing - because YOU are amazing, and you infuse that energy into anything you wear. Super fancy lingerie can be fun to shoot and if it makes you feel like a million bucks go for it! But you already are a million bucks just as you are, and we can make magic with any outfit (or lack there of) that makes you feel like fire.

My favourite thing to shoot is you. Which is why I think I love shooting implied nudies so much. When it’s just you, no lingerie, no distractions, your essence shines through so much more. You are able to stand in your power and fully embrace your true unique power. The light just paints your skin, and is able to dapple across your collar bones, and accentuate the lines of your body to enhance the wonderful masterpiece you already are.

So don’t let the worry of not knowing what to wear to your boudoir session hold you back! You already are enough.

You are an original.

Each atom of you is an intentional brush-stoke made by the universe.

There is no one like you. You are the only one. An original. A masterpiece.

When you walk into my studio, I want you to remember this. That you, yes you, are the only one like you.

Within the four walls of this studio, the whispers and doubts that live inside your head will no longer reign supreme. Here, you are as the universe intended you to be: a work of pure art. A modern day Botticelli.

When you feel tempted to become small because of a self-limiting belief placed inside your brain by some marketing executive, I want you to come back to this feeling of you-ness. To this feeling of originality.

This beautiful vessel of yours houses all your dreams, aspirations, goals, all the memories of a lifetime spent laughing with the ones that you love. And that there is no other vessel that contains a soul such as yours. Each stretch and roll on your vessel is exactly where and what it is meant to be: an indication that a beautiful soul resides within. That the lights are on, and someone lives here. Someone loves here.

You are a piece of the universe, creation in motion. You are meant to live loud, be bold, take up space, and be nothing but yourself. The whole damn time you are on this earth, just be the magical original that you are.