This interview with Emma was so inspiring and grounding. I really felt like I stepped into her world and her space as a mother and artist. Her everyday life is full of so much whimsy, beauty, and the art of slowing down. Emma has so many gems and pockets of wisdom in her words. Through dance parties, reading, baking, coloring, and helping mama sew—Emma has created such a magical and whimsical space for her toddler to connect with her own inner little artist.
My daughter is 2.5, so we’re deep in the toddler years.
My creativity absolutely exploded once I became a mom, and now it tends to come in waves. Sometimes it shows up as writing, sometimes baking, sometimes sewing — clothes for her, clothes for myself, stuffed animals, pillows & bedding. I’ve written and illustrated books for her, made scrapbooks, gone through DIY and craft phases. I’ll fall into a kind of deep obsession with one thing for anywhere from a few days to six weeks, then move on to the next. I rarely overlap creative forms — I don’t usually sew and write in the same season which is kind of funny. Once I’m in something, I’m fully in it, completely fixated until that wave passes.
The biggest one for me right now is sewing. I’ve been trying to downsize our wardrobes and our consumption in general, so I’ve been making as many of our clothes as I can. They’re not perfect — I’m self-taught — but I made us matching quilt coats last spring and have sewn some of our favorite pants and dresses. I love when our outfits match. There’s something about wearing something I made, on both of us, that feels like the most tender kind of art.
Creating puts me in the deepest flow state I’ve ever experienced. I came back to sewing during my daughter’s naps because it was one of the only things that kept my mind fully present — I had to focus on the stitches, and time would just disappear. I also love that I’m making things she and I both get to use.
Early in my pregnancy, I did a deep dive into our birth charts and saw how much creativity ran through both of us. I asked the astrologist what I could do to support my daughter, and she told me simply: help her keep creating. At the time it didn’t land how we would do it — now it makes complete sense. She sits on my lap while I sew, pressing the buttons with me. We’re always creating together, and I’m so curious to see where this takes us.
My daughter is teaching me more about myself than I ever imagined possible.
I was the classic girl boss — hustling hard in corporate software sales — and becoming her mom led me to a full 180. I left my career to stay home and slow down, and it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made. Nothing has ever felt more aligned. I also plan on homeschooling and am so excited for that future.
I’ve been writing since before she was born, and I’m finding so much peace and clarity in it now. I’ve always loved supporting other women — first as a manager, now as a life coach guiding women through matrescence. What she’s teaching me is that the quiet, internal work — the work that happens at home, in the everyday — is what matters most.
I’m a stay-at-home mom with no hired help. My husband is off on Mondays, which is when I see my two coaching clients — about two hours of focused work. The rest of my creative time happens in small pockets, often just 10 or 20 minutes, almost always while she naps.
I remember people warning me early on not to get “nap trapped.” But being trapped has never been a problem for me. Whether she was sleeping on my body or I was stuck at home, those moments became my window to create. Now that she’s down to one nap, that hour and a half is sacred — I don’t let anyone mess with it. I’m nervous about the day that nap disappears, but I also know my creativity will keep finding its way in: before she wakes, after she’s asleep, on Mondays when my husband is home, or simply by including her. We cut out sewing patterns together, paint, bake. It’s so much messier than doing it solo, but I love it.
A real, lived-in day: we sleep as a family and wake up slowly together. No alarms for my daughter or me. We’ll often read a few books in bed before the day starts, and we always try to get outside in the morning. We used to go to music and dance class, but lately we’ve been dancing at home. Her dad is a talented guitar player and I grew up dancing my whole life, so we put on quite a show.
Her nap is my uninterrupted creative time — writing, sewing, whatever’s calling me. If a burst of an idea hits in the afternoon, I jot it down on the notepad in the kitchen and come back to it later. Squeezing my creativity into these small pockets has actually made me more focused than ever. There are days I’m dying to get back to a sewing project, but I know it can wait — or I can pull her in with me. That part feels easier because she’s already by my side all day. It’s just part of our rhythm.
The challenges are real. I have a toddler testing every boundary, and with it being just the two of us most days — only the occasional drop-in from grandparents or friends — it can feel heavy. Leaving a structured corporate world to become a stay-at-home mom has been isolating at times. I don’t have a single friend from my past who made the same choice, and it took until Violet was about 2.5 (so literally in the past month!) for me to finally find a community of moms living a similar rhythm. I didn’t realize how different this path would feel — choosing to walk away from a career to be present and at home with your child.
And in that same breath, the most rewarding part is exactly that: being home with her every day. Watching her personality come to life. Sharing these creative bursts together. There’s no part of me trying to run from this season — and I know that’s rare in the world we live in. It doesn’t mean my ambition is gone. It’s just softened and taken a new shape. The work right in front of me — raising a whole human — is the most important and creative work I’ve ever done.
Music and nature have really been nourishing my soul and creativity lately. I’ve created a whimsical morning playlist that my daughter and I listen to every day. I light a candle in the morning and let it burn for a few hours. I’m honestly just trying to romanticize my life as much as possible — I know it’s cliché, but ever since I started making a fancy drink at home and putting on a fun playlist (sometimes bossa nova, sometimes whimsy, sometimes Irish lilts), my creative juices really start flowing. And anytime my daughter wants to dance, I make sure I stop and dance with her. It’s the best kind of break. Writing has also been so deeply therapeutic.
Also, this has been hard for me, but realizing that getting to my creative project is not an emergency. I’ll get there. There’s always a way to find a 10 or 15-minute burst, and for me it’s usually just about starting — once I begin, I can settle. Because when a creative hit comes and you can’t dig into it, it’s frustrating. So in the mornings, I jot down anything I don’t want to forget on a piece of paper, never in my phone.
Deleting social media has also been huge for really opening up my creativity and being open to testing new things without always looking for inspiration or comparing my journey or creative works to others. I quit Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok completely about two months ago. I was saving all this “creative inspiration” but never actually creating — just scrolling and collecting more. Stepping away gave me my time and attention back.
This one can be hard, but I have a few notes saved in my phone (and printed out) that I always come back to. The biggest one is my list of sips of self-care — small things I can do in a 10 or 15-minute burst. Putting on a face mask while I fold laundry. Keeping library books scattered around the house so I can read a few pages whenever I sit down.
If I’m overwhelmed, I almost always need to walk or get a burst of fresh air — even if it’s only 10 minutes and pouring rain. Journaling helps 100% of the time. I tried morning pages from The Artist’s Way, but I got frustrated when I couldn’t get up before my daughter. So instead, I do brain dumps during her naps, and that’s been just as grounding.
A list of “sips of self-care.” Brainstorm small things that ground you when you’re in a funk or feeling uninspired — a face mask while folding laundry, library books left around the house, coloring with your kids, eating something warm while curled up with a book on the couch. Keep the list in your phone or printed somewhere visible so you can reach for it when you’re spiraling. The point isn’t to do all of them. It’s to give yourself a soft place to land in 15 minutes or less.
A soundtrack-to-your-life playlist. Make one — or better yet, a few — for different moods and parts of the day. I have a whimsy morning playlist, an Irish lilt one for around 2pm that makes us feel like we’re in a fairytale, and a bossa nova one for the 4–6pm stretch. Light a candle. Make the fancy drink, even if it’s just water with cucumber and mint. Romanticize the ordinary, and let yourself stop and notice the small things you’d otherwise rush past.
Air it all out. Open every window in your house for 15 minutes, no matter the temperature. Fresh air resets the energy of your space, and something almost always shifts internally too. Then get yourself outside. Try a “listening walk” — no headphones, no podcast. Just listen and observe. It’s such a simple way to come back to yourself.
Mothers Are Artists is a weekly interview series documenting the inner worlds, creative practices, and daily lives of mothers who create.
These conversations explore the many ways in which motherhood and artistry shape one another; through sacred rhythms, messiness, and the mundane magic of everyday life.
The art that lives within everyday mothering.
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