Ain’t no hood like motherhood
Today we will tell you a special story, a story for Mother’s Day. About A’marie and Lili.
I’m a visual type of a person and I feel people through their work. That’s why I was so pleased with this story with A’marie, I see love and knowledge in every seam, ruffle, bow and detail. That is also how I fantasize about new interiors and paint the walls.
Senja follows us attentively behind the lens. Each one of us tells her story, but today we are saying it together. For all women who have become or will become moms. For their beautiful bodies experiencing so much transformation, feeding and raising children in their wings.
I read emotions from photos, and I express myself better through photos, rather than text. But I will try to describe the emotions I feel about myself now that I am mom the best I can, and show what is truly important to feel good. Those little things. However, they are not really little.
Ever since I became a mom, my whole life focuses on my children, and everything has changed, but for the better. For us, every day is chaotic and I barely manage to do everything, but I have never been happier. In all that chaos I wish I could stop the time, because I want all of this joy and love that I feel to stay inside me and around us forever. In my photos I try to capture, at least for a moment, all that joy and a beautiful life to have a reminder of those precious moments. My blog is a kind of a diary; I take a photo of the interior which I love to arrange for my family and myself.
Where there is love there is life. And there is a lot of love in our apartment. It is not only beautiful because of the right colour of the walls, but also the emotions and stories these walls tell. Maybe I don’t have as much time, but I use it wisely by choosing carefully how I use it and with whom and also I choose carefully what to buy.
I am a mom of two little boys. My body has changed due to pregnancy and age, but it is just as it should be – perfectly imperfect. Even though most of my photos mostly capture interiors and children, I very much focus on food we eat, clothes we wear and the fabric we use to cover ourselves when we sleep, as well as cosmetics we put on our skin. I have learned all of this step by step, but looking back at it all I must say I am very pleased with the way we live. I think quality is more important than quantity. Why don’t they teach you this in school?
Every day I try to find a moment for me. With a nice cup of tea or coffee, a hearty breakfast, a good book or a favourite magazine, I put on some jazz and enjoy myself. Indulge in small things: a nice hand cream or a beautiful dress. Don’t say there is nowhere to wear it. Put it on to match your sneakers and go for a walk.
It is important to know how to choose, combine and make sure that the clothes we buy is actually good for us and our skin. We are all very sensitive, and our skin lets us know whatever she didn’t like. A woman is particularly sensitive in pregnancy and it is not easy to choose a material that suits her.
This creative weekend I had an opportunity to wear pieces from new A’MARIE basic collection, whose comfort I felt during my first pregnancy. In pregnancy it is particularly hot so it is important to have clothes which is cool and soothing. Materials and pieces used are extremely functional and most importantly I still wear them after pregnancy.
I must admit, I am not the ironing type, unless it is necessary. Sometimes months pass by and I haven’t ironed a thing. I am not willing to replace time spent with boys with time spent with my iron, never. Materials are easy care – you can just put them on a hanger, straight from washing, and they will turn up nice and tidy. Perfect!
I was writing about creativity for my blog and I would like to quote some sentences from one of my favourite books:
Creativity changes form. One moment it one thing, in the next it is something else. It is like a shiny spirit that appears to us all, and still it is difficult to describe because opinions about what they saw in this shiny light are not the same. Is using dye and fabric, or pieces of paint and wallpaper a proof of its existence? What about a quill and paper, flowery edges of paths in the garden, building a university? Yes, yes they are. What about a nicely ironed collar or devising a revolution? Yes. Touching leaves of plants lovingly, making a killing “in that great opportunity”, finding your voice, kissing someone the way it is supposed to be done? Yes. Holding a warm body of a new born, raising a child until they become adult, helping to raise a nation from the ground? Yes. Working on your marriage and in your garden, because that’s what marriage is, searching for mental gold, finding that lovely word, sawing a blue curtain? All of this is a part of a creative life. All these things come from the Wild woman, río abajo río, a river beneath a river, which constantly flows in our lives. Some say that creative life is in ideas, others it is in deeds. It seems that, in most cases, it is in simply being. It is not about mastery, even though by itself mastery is very good. It is about love for something, about so much love for something – whether it is a person, a word, a picture, an idea, a country, mankind – with this abundance we can only create. It is not about whether we want to, it is not a wilful act: we simply have to.
Moms, you are beautiful, and you are the most beautiful in the eyes of your children. You are fairies from a fairy tale. Read them stories and create new stories, stories of your own. Happy Mother’s day!
Lidija Tomas Matijević
