As probably all mums can agree - becoming a mom changes you, in ways you wouldn't expect. My son is my everything, the love and joy he brings is unmatched. And still... being his mom kind of took away from being me. After some months of motherhood, I craved doing something else than cuddling, feeding, changing diapers, and going for walks. Luckily, I remembered how much I have always loved being creative, and I started to browse the internet for easy-to-start creative options.

Embroidery quickly caught my eye. It combines many things I love - you can literally paint with thread, and do whatever you want! Also, materials are easy to get and in contrast to e.g. knitting, you can just throw it into a corner at any given moment.

I started doing some tutorials on stitches and quickly tried my first patterns. Creating something again felt wonderful. I started my Instagram account, which gave me even more joy and a feeling of accomplishment, as there is a wonderful community of embroiderers and art lovers there.

It didn't take long until I realized that just working off of patterns was not satisfying me, so I started to experiment. The aurora borealis has always fascinated me, and there are some embroidery artists who do magic with thread, creating stunning pieces of it - but again, following patterns is not my forte.

So I went on an inspiration journey, looked at painting tutorials, and started to try things myself.

Painting was fairly new to me. In the beginning, I used regular painting canvases, adding embroidery after painting. It worked, but the canvas fabric didn't allow for fine embroidery details. Through trial and error, I soon discovered that tensioning the fabric in an embroidery hoop makes for a great canvas! With some good acrylic paints and a range of brushes (the aurora effect really changes depending on what kind of brush is used) and lots of experimenting and practice, I started seeing these gorgeous auroras taking shape!

At one point I created kits for people to make their own auroras, and I remember distinctly doing a YouTube video and repeating over and over "Trust the process". And that has kind of been my mantra ever since. Don't make it perfect. Trust the creative process. Make it your own!

So I painted them at night when my son was asleep, and during the day I embroidered on top of them. It gave me the opportunity to do something for myself. To slow down, be mindful, and concentrate on what I was doing at the moment without thinking about groceries, diapers, or appointments. It helped ground me, it brought me back to being me, not just mummy.

Over time I realized that I experienced postpartum depression. Being creative is a big part of the healing process for me. I like to call it my self-therapy.