Motherhood and Creativity Interview #8 - Sarah Robertson

Sarah is a designer, mentor and writer crafting brands that feel like home. She offers strategy, styling and storytelling through her business, These Are The Days.

Welcome to Motherhood and Creativity, an interview series where I share the words of creative mums who inspire me here on Substack and beyond.

I’ll be sharing words of joy, strength, creativity and community in motherhood.

I feel like when we read the words of mums who speak so honestly about motherhood - the good parts, the hard parts and everything in between - this can really help give us some comfort and feel less alone.

I find so much inspiration from reading about mums who are all weaving their work and creativity around their kids too, as this is the situation I’m currently in. Knowing that there are other mums out there with creative dreams and careers and they are making it work around the edges of motherhood, that is so encouraging.

I hope you enjoy reading the words from these wonderful mums over the next few weeks and months, and that you find comfort and inspiration in their words too.

You can read the most recent of the Motherhood and Creativity interview series here:

Motherhood and Creativity Interview #5 with

Ellie Nova

Motherhood and Creativity Interview #6 with

Child + Line by Sasha Kahn

Motherhood and Creativity Interview #7 with

Aleks Balazy-Knas

Motherhood and Creativity Interview #8 - Sarah Robertson

Sarah is a designer, mentor and writer crafting brands that feel like home. She offers strategy, styling and storytelling through her business, These Are The Days and supports a small community of creatives through her

Brand Seasons

publication.

How old are your kids?

My eldest is 9 and my youngest is 1.

When your children are older, what do you hope that they remember about the kind of mum that you were?

Honestly, I would be delighted if they knew I had tried my best.

Lindsay Johnstone

wrote a post recently, Not That Kind of Mother, and it made me see that I want to be the mother my daughter can talk to and have fun with.

I believe in being a steady presence for my kids, and that belief is often tested because life is a lot right now, but they are my priority and I think they know and, perhaps most importantly, *feel* that.

When you think about the tough parts of your motherhood journey, which of your qualities/strengths have got you through these tough times?

Emotional endurance.

Seven years of recurrent miscarriage and secondary infertility affected me in so many ways, ways I'm still untangling, and my eighth pregnancy with my son was an incredibly anxious time. I would go to scans believing we were likely to receive bad news because there was a greater chance of that than receiving good news.

I had primed myself for the worst outcome, so it was a shock every time I saw his heart beating. I had a lot of scans, which were helpful in some ways and unhelpful in others. We would get the news we needed so I could mentally keep going, but I was no sooner comforted by one scan before I was preparing myself for the next.

My first son, Harris, died in the second trimester of my second pregnancy in 2016, and I went on to experience five further losses, so I needed the reassurance that Lowen was safe inside of me.

I look back and wonder how I coped in that pregnancy, which will be my last. But I did. I suppose you could say I had no choice but to cope.

What brings you joy in motherhood?

Seeing my daughter hold her youngest brother. We were cuddled up on the sofa watching a movie the other day, and he crawled between us both and fell asleep. It was a simple moment but, for us, a special one.

I feel more attuned to the little things now. And Cora is, too. She knew I was expecting Harris, and while she was very young, we decided to explain that he died. I occasionally doubt that decision and don't underestimate the impact of it. But I felt called to be honest in an age-appropriate way. These Precious Little People was a supportive book at this time.

How important is creativity to you?

Creativity is a necessity in my life and work, and I enjoy writing as much as I enjoy branding. I also love to challenge myself with side projects, and while I’m a better starter than I am a finisher, there’s something healing about the process of trying and learning.

Tell us more about your favourite ways to be creative.

My branding and design studio, These Are The Days, keeps me fuelled creatively. I love to help clients shape their businesses through brand strategy, styling and storytelling and have done so for close to 20 years. 

While my work is mainly rooted in design, I enjoy mentoring, and collaboration is also important to me. I'd go so far as to say collaboration is the backbone of

Brand Seasons

. While I love to write about curiosity, creativity and connection, many of the posts I share through my Notelets on Nurture and This Creative Life series feature guest writers. I enjoy lifting others and being lifted, as it adds to the sense of belonging in this space.

More recently, I began working on the Brand Seasons Podcast, Playdeck and Paper. You can now listen to the podcast and I’ll be launching a crowdfunder for the card deck and mini zine in September.

I’m also making my way through

Beth Kempton

’s River of Words course. There's something so comforting about getting the words out of my head and onto the page in this season of motherhood.

Since becoming a mum, have you experienced a creative surge? What did that look like for you?

I don't think I've felt more creative than I did after my fourth trimester. Last summer I found myself wanting - no, *needing* - to write, and have never really stopped. I was intentional about setting up my Brand Seasons publication, I knew what purpose it would serve, but I hadn't anticipated wanting to delve into other topics quite so much. Creativity is at the heart of it all, though, and flexing that writerly muscle is helping me work towards publishing something that often feels scary to open up about. A BOOK!

What does honouring your creativity look like for you in this season of your mothering?

Making the time and space to write.

It feels as though someone is actively drawing nutrients from me when I'm too stretched to sit down to let the words flow once or twice a week. It doesn't feel like much to ask for but, sometimes, it just is.

Finding harmony in business and motherhood is a real challenge without the addition of creative side projects, so believe me when I say I feel energetically AMAZING if I can hit publish on a post from time to time.

What’s been your experience of finding a community in motherhood?

In the offline world, this has been harder than I anticipated. My experience of NCT wasn't what I imagined it would be, but I can now see that it was difficult for me to let people in. I was diagnosed with PND when my daughter was four months old and spent the next 10 months in therapy, which was incredibly helpful, because it gave me the chance to untangle some of the stories I'd been telling myself about my ability to mother.

I experienced my first loss soon after and began sharing my story online. This helped me to cultivate the community I was missing, and I still keep in touch with many of those women today.

I should add that I made one of my best friends in my first pregnancy and I still turn to her today. So while I may have felt lonely at times, I was never *alone*.

What words of encouragement would you offer to a mum who might be struggling at the moment?

Your growth as a parent isn’t always visible. But I genuinely believe each moment of doubt is matched by a moment of trust. You can be soft when needed and strong when it matters. It takes time to get to know a baby and to get to know a whole new you!

You can find out more about Sarah here:

• Read Sarah’s Substack -

  Brand Seasons

• Take a look at the ‘These Are The Days’ website

• Connect with Sarah over on instagram

Thank you for these beautiful, brave words Sarah.

So many parts of this interview stood out for me, including:

• The way Sarah describes being a steady presence for her kids articulates something that I’ve been trying to put into words for a while - that our steady presence is enough, and in fact it’s everything:

“I believe in being a steady presence for my kids, and that belief is often tested because life is a lot right now, but they are my priority and I think they know and, perhaps most importantly, *feel* that.”

• The inner strength that Sarah had in the face of such a difficult time, spanning so many years with such great loss and the impact that that must have had and still has on every aspect of her life.

• how important collaboration is to Sarah in her Substack and as a reader, I think that really comes across in Sarah’s publication:

“I enjoy lifting others and being lifted, as it adds to the sense of belonging in this space.”

• the clarity and intentionality that Sarah describes of setting up her Substack when she had a creative surge in her fourth trimester

• the way Sarah describes how it feels when she hasn’t got the time to write, is a feeling I can so relate to:

“It feels as though someone is actively drawing nutrients from me when I'm too stretched to sit down to let the words flow once or twice a week.”

• this wisdom shared by Sarah for any mums who are having a tough time, a perspective I’ve never thought of, but won’t forget now:

“Your growth as a parent isn’t always visible. But I genuinely believe each moment of doubt is matched by a moment of trust.”

I hope you enjoyed this interview in the ‘Motherhood and Creativity’ interview series - I’ll be publishing these interviews every fortnight for as long as the interviews keep coming through.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments:

• Which of Sarah’s words resonated with you?

• When you find the time to be creative in and around being a mum, how does it make you feel?

• Sarah talks about how each moment of doubt is matched by a moment of trust, how does this apply to your motherhood journey?