Hello lovely, I hope you are having a beautiful day!

Welcome to my blog! The place where you’ll never know what you’ll find but you can be sure it’ll be the ramblings of a tired and slightly delirious mother.

I thought to begin with I’d start with a little post about me and my studio – start small and with each post I hope you’ll learn a bit more about me, read things that show you’re not alone and maybe even give you a giggle to yourself.

I’m Lucy! I’m a natural light motherhood, newborn, babe and family photographer based in Heworth in York. I am a lover of neutral tones, cosy knitwear and squishy faces.

I am a mum to an 11 month old. She is my world and the inspiration behind Lucy Rose Studios.

I run every single day – if I don’t get to run, I get grumpy and that’s all there is to it. The only time I haven’t run was the first 12 weeks after giving birth and I loved it, soaking in those mornings in bed with my tiny babe on my chest, husband waiting on me hand and foot – what more could you want?! (obviously my brain has erased the painful, bloody nipples, episiotomy aches and pains, exhaustion and constant fear but… I won’t go in to that now). But by the end of those 12 weeks, I was like a dog dreaming about running on the beach, legs twitching at the thought of getting back on the treadmill. Nowadays, I’m up at 5am before my baby wakes and the husband goes to work to get some time to myself (this is a very new part to my routine but so far I’m loving it, starting to feel back like when I woke up and ran to the office).

11 months ago I was a Bid Manager working behind a desk in a male-dominated design engineering company but the birth of my daughter, alongside everything that led to her birth and everything that has followed (which I’ll go in to in a separate post!) pushed me to really think about what I wanted from life. I’d have done anything to spend more time with my girl and not go back to a 9-5 (that was really more 8-6.30) office job, seeing her only on the weekend. I’ve always had a photography dream and my poor husband has spent far too much on cameras and gear for me over the years – finally I can say to him it was worth it!

I’ve always been a creative and had a busy mind – my husband jokes that I can’t sit still and need to be entertained just like our little one. And it’s true.. if I’ve not got my camera around my neck, I’m painting in the garden, rearranging the house, doing interiors, knitting, sewing quilts, drawings, baking (a big love of mine!) and so much more.

At school and university, I was all music as a singer and violinist in 3 or 4 choirs at one point and 2 orchestras, even playing in the Birmingham Symphony Hall with some of the best creatives I’ve ever met. But unfortunately that’s been slowly put to one side as I’ve gotten older and been in work full time! Sometimes I get my violin out and give her a wipe down but that’s not quite the same.. And my poor family hear me singing on the daily but one too many vodkas at uni mean the quality these days is more backing vocals than choir girl..

This was all, obviously, pre-baby when time wasn’t absorbed into a black hole! For now, my creative outlet is playing on the floor with too many toys and snapping and cuddling your babes!

Back before I had my little one, when I was sat in my garden in my jammies at 3pm with a rekordilig, bowl of crisps and my paint-by-numbers complaining that I was tired after a full night’s sleep, I didn’t really know what motherhood would be like. I knew it’d be hard but.. well.. that didn’t really mean anything to me. Everyone’s hard is different so I just figured I’d be alright because everyone else is. I knew I wanted a babe more than anything and it took us a long time to get our little one. I am grateful every day for our gift but my DAYS, is it hard! And now I’m going through it, all I want to do is empower every single woman that I know, meet and speak to. Because whilst you can do it, the support that you get will dictate how YOU do. Your baby will be perfect as long as they are fed, warm and loved. It is the mum that needs help and people talk about it a lot but then don’t follow through. The guilt I have for not checking in with my friends who had babies before me keeps me up sometimes (well.. my baby does but the thoughts don’t help). I just didn’t know and was naive to it all – and that’s okay so I have to give myself some grace.

I talk about this a lot with Mamas and Pops in the studio. I am so grateful that people feel comfortable enough with me to chat about anything and everything. I say it a lot because it’s true but I make my studio a home from home, like you’re going to see a friend.

You come in to my home, to my studio on the second floor with sofas, cushions, caffeine, chocolates, etc. I am more than happy to be your fairy godmother when you’ve turned up on your first outing with your babe and you’ve forgotten nappies, cream, wipes, outfits – I have it all on hand from newborn up to walking. I do because I’ve been there – out and about, poonami to deal with but you’ve used the last of the nappies and she’s rolling the poo deeper and deeper into her outfit.

If you’ve had an episiotomy, I have ring pillows. If you’ve had a c section, I have cushions to lean on and feed with. I’ve had Mamas lie down on the larger sofa and shut their eyes whilst Dad helped me with their newborn babe.

I have absolutely zero judgement. Because I can promise you, if something disgusting, weird or gory happens, it likely happened to me too. I don’t care how you feed your babe as long as they’re fed; I don’t care what time they go to sleep or how many naps they have as long as they’ve slept some; I don’t care if you bath every night or not, as long as they’re clean. I don’t care because what you do with your babe is your choice, like what I do with my baby is mine. I’ve had SO much unsolicited advice and when I was a new mum it SHOOK me.. now.. well, now I shake it off. But it’s been a long road and we’ve made it this far!

I rambled more than I thought I would on this first post.. so if you made it to the end, I applaud you (or you’re nap trapped and you’ve run out of things to watch and scroll) but either way, thank you for reading!

Please do let me know your thoughts.. what do you want to hear or know?! I’m an open book.. probably too open but if I bottle things up, I’ve learnt I implode. It feels a touch self absorbed to be writing all this stuff thinking people actually want to know but if noone reads it, it is making me feel better at least, and therefore is worth it.

Love,
Lucy x