Mother’s Day collection interview with Natasia Martin
Photo by Andrea Hanki Photography
Getting to know Natasia
Designer, Illustrator, Mother, Entrepreneur + Maker, Natasia Designs + Natasia Makes
FW: Give us a glimpse into your career and how it looked in the years leading up to the pandemic?
Natasia: I have a Bachelor of Design degree with distinction in Visual Communication and Marketing from the University of Alberta. After University, I dabbled as an in-house designer, working in small design studios and larger agencies. Then about 4 years ago, I quit my job and took the leap into full-time freelance design. In the past 4 years, the studio has grown into its own office (Then back out, silly pandemic!), and to include an employee, contractors and support team members. I’m also a sessional instructor at MacEwan University and co-host Ladies, Wine & Design Edmonton.
FW: Can you summarize what your journey into motherhood looked like ?
Natasia: With all the changes in my career and wanting to build a foundation and client base for my business, it never seemed to be the ‘right time’ to step away from my business for a big chunk of time to take a maternity leave. As someone who also struggles with crippling anxiety, panic attacks and depression, things on that front also never felt like the ‘right time’ to toss a whole bunch of hormonal changes and life challenges into the mix. Overworked, overwhelmed and constantly on overdrive, this made conceiving a little tricky when we were finally ready to grow our family. It wasn’t until I got business support, mental health support and started saying ‘no’ to things that didn’t serve me was I finally able to make motherhood a reality.
Navigating being pregnant in a pandemic, an emergency c-section (with an unlucky recovery to boot), being a new mom in the pandemic, and coping with postpartum depression hasn’t been the easiest, but I’ve built a wonderful support system around me, and have been focusing on caring for myself and appreciating the little things in this current season of life. It’s also helped me slow down and really look inwards to what lights me up and what truly doesn’t.
FW: What does your current work/life situation look like balancing roles of mother and designer?
Natasia: It’s been a bit of a balancing act. My days are filled with so many different bits that I juggle. For the business side of things, I spend time reviewing my team’s work, assigning work, designing for clients and my product line, fulfilling online and wholesale orders, social media planning and communication, bookkeeping, and other business logistics. With Eloise, I nurse, diaper, play, feed, and basically chase her around everywhere in the house. I’m still trying to navigate how much time should be dedicated to one over the other, or how to balance them all. The biggest thing I’ve been trying to remember is that in all of this, I need to take care of myself above anything and anyone else.
FW: What inspired your Mother’s Day graphic?
Natasia: Navigating the past year has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. From being pregnant in a pandemic, having an emergency c-section with an unlucky recovery, being a new mom in the pandemic, and coping with postpartum depression hasn’t been the easiest—then toss in running and keeping a business afloat in a pandemic, it’s been a whirlwind. If I’ve learned anything from this past year, it’s that I’m resilient as hell. I was able to make it through all of these things. It sure as heck wasn’t easy, but I’ve been able to stay positive and figure it out day-by day one bit at a time. So the text in my artwork is my personal motto from the past year.
The artwork in the middle is a collage that represents trying to balance all the bits and pieces of momming, entrepreneurship, getting through a pandemic, self care and everything in-between. The different elements tie into my latest ‘gratitude collages’ I’ve been working on, so each little piece is symbolic of one thing I’m balancing. I’m also still trying to navigate the balance of everything.
This is also something I know my husband has struggled with so I wanted it to be gender neutral and abstract so anyone can envision their own personal balancing act. I want to empower them and remind them that they’re able to balance everything they love and take on anything that comes their way since they’re resilient as hell.
Parenting through the pandemic
FW: What does a typical day for you look like right now?
Natasia: It depends on the day! Most days, I hang out with Eloise, play, nurse her, do different things around the house, run errands, see family or friends. When Eloise naps, I can get anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of me-time, which is when I work. If I have a project deadline or upcoming market, I have a nanny that comes for the mornings so I can get a little more work done than that.
FW: What are the best and worst pieces of advice you’ve gotten as a working mother?
Natasia: Worst Advice: ‘Sleep when the baby sleeps.’ Rage builds inside me when people tell me this and I have to refrain from punching them in the face. I typically respond with “Yeah, and I’ll run a business when the baby runs a business, do laundry when the baby does laundry, clean when the baby cleans, etc.” To be fair, I’m not a napper though, so it makes that extra difficult haha. Also, not every baby has nice 3 hour naps for you. For the first 6 months of Eloise’s life, she only napped for 20 minutes at a time, so it was impossible to get anything done other than feeding myself in that time, yet alone nuzzle down for a quick cat-nap under pressure. I much prefer ‘rest when the baby rests’.
Best Advice: I believe was from Amanda Schutz (although I’m not 100%): No client needs you as much as your baby needs you right now. To your baby, you are everything. You’re how they eat, play, sleep, feel comforted. They need you and only you. Your clients don’t need you like that, they can find someone else if you can’t serve them right now. It just reminds me that right now, Eloise needs me more than my clients need me. And it’s not forever, I’m not saying goodbye to my clients, but rather someone else needs me a little more right now and that’s okay!
FW: How have you managed balancing your workload in a time when childcare has been sometimes unavailable or sporadic?
Natasia: It’s been tricky, that’s for sure. Before Eloise was crawling, I was able to let her play nearby and do things around the house. Now I can’t do anything other than follow her around the house as she gets into everything. We don’t have a ton of close family in Edmonton that can be our ‘babysitters’ on a regular basis for childcare. Only recently did we hire a part-time nanny to come help out about 8 hours a week so I can get a little more work done. It’s working for now, but I’m also taking on very little right now.
FW: What supports and/or resources have made it possible for you to take on both career and child-rearing responsibilities?
Natasia: Before I had Eloise, I met with so many entrepreneurs, women and creatives that were in the same boat as me (but had already made it through to the other side) to hear their journey and know it was truly doable and possible. Hearing their stories empowered me, gave me hope and definitely made me way less scared to be a mom+entrepreneur. I’ve continued to rely on mentors and others who are going through similar experiences as me for amazing support. Whether this be mom-groups through AHS, planning a Motherhood LWD Edmonton event, of just connecting on a regular basis. We’ve also relied heavily on bi-weekly Sepps Pizza to make my life easier haha. As well as a part-time nanny. For my business, I hired a writer to help with social media, an assistant to help with invoices, emails and all the icky business things, a bookkeeper and accountant to help with taxes and a superstar design assistant to help with much of the design work we do right now. This has helped me be able to step away a little bit and take some time with baby E.
FW: What have been some of the biggest challenges or changes to your work life since the start of the pandemic?
Natasia: I found I’ve really had to hone in on what truly lights me up as a person. When I only have 30 minutes to work on something, I want to make damn sure that thing is something that fills my creativity cup and lights me up in the same way as self-care does for others. For now, we’ve temporarily shifted away from the majority of our freelance work to just working on products in our online shop because there’s no stressful timelines or external pressure. It’s helped significantly with mental health.
FW: Has the pandemic impacted how you parent your child/ren?
Natasia: It’s definitely made the parenting experience far lonelier. We aren’t able to access support as easily from family, friends, support groups and other family resources. So I feel like we have no idea if we’re doing this whole ‘parenting’ thing right since we have nothing to compare to. But, the perk in all of that is that we get to figure out what truly works or doesn’t work for us as parents since we have no external things pushing us as much. It’s helped to strengthen our family dynamic.
FW: How have the demands of motherhood impacted your career?
Natasia: It’s definitely made me scale back and slow things down. Which at first was so hard for me to cope with and accept. I’ve always had big dreams, fierce ambition and work ethic. But now, I’m okay with this slowness and I see it as a blessing and a gift to myself. I was always on overdrive and was wearing myself down—physically, mentally and emotionally. With this motherhood slow-down, I’ve been able to shift my focus, appreciate the journey and path that baby E and I are on now and to do things that I love. I’ve been able to create a steady fitness routine, get outside daily, all while being able to carve a ‘healthy’ amount of work in doing projects I’m passionate about. I keep reminding myself that I’ve worked my butt off to get where I am, and I deserve a maternity leave as much as anyone else.
At the start though, it was so hard. I just wanted to keep my career as it was. But then when I worked, I either resented my clients for taking time away from Eloise in her rare and limited adorable infancy or I’d resent Eloise for taking time away from the clients and projects I love so much. If I wasn’t working, I’d miss work and if I was working, I’d miss Eloise. But without work, I felt empty as a mom since my work definitely lights me up. So it’s been about finding a healthy balance that allows me to care for myself and do the parts I truly love about work and motherhood.
FW: Have you formed a personal motto or philosophy surrounding your recent experiences?
Natasia: That I’m resilient as hell. Being pregnant comes with its own challenges, so does being a new mom, so does running a business, and so does a pandemic. Mix all of them together and we’ve got a bundle of challenges. The only way to get through it all is resilience.
And also, just to embrace this season of slowness. Baby E is going to be a sassy teenager one day and want nothing to do with me. I’ll always be able to build up and have my business and presence in the industry. But right now, I have a cuddly little baby that just wants to hang out with me all day and that’s okay.
FW: Has the pandemic positively impacted your career/life in any way?
Natasia: Having my husband be at home has been a blessing in disguise. He’s been able to watch Eloise grow in ways he would have never been able to had he been commuting to the office each day. Plus if she’s having a meltdown, he’s always around for extra support. We were always the types of people who had 80000 things in our schedule. And one of the scariest things about becoming parents is that all of a sudden, we wouldn’t be able to do all those fun things we loved. Now, since there’s nothing going on and no one is doing anything anyways, it’s totally guilt and FOMO-free. That in some ways has made being a new parent easier.
FW: If you had to pick, what would be the biggest thing mothering through the pandemic has changed your perspective on?
Natasia: I’ve gained newfound respect for moms and mothering entrepreneurs. I hate to admit this, but before when I would be at networking events and people would tell me about their kids or babies—I always thought they were no-fun Nancies. I placed negative assumptions on them that because they had kids, it meant they didn’t care as much about their career, the industry or business. Now, I see it as the opposite. To be able to still do what you love even while home-schooling kids, or working from home with no childcare just goes to show how passionate you truly are about your work and what you do. It’s way harder to do what you love with kids, so you have to be twice as efficient, hyper-focused and with fierce passion. Working moms and entrepreneurs are super-humans.
Check out Natasia’s apparel + print contributions to our Mother’s Day Collection with The Branded Good!
