Mental Health as an Illustrator and Mother // Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week

Freelancing and motherhood. What a rollercoaster it has been so far.

I often have people say to me, “I don’t know how you do it, working from home with a toddler!” or “you must be so disciplined to get any work done at home, I’d be so distracted”. And yes, a lot of that is true and is also extremely flattering.

The thing is, I am a complete imposter, because you see the problem is I am not nailing it one bit. One human being (or should I say woman because let’s face it, this isn’t necessarily an issue for all working men…) cannot be 100% full time working and 100% full time mum.

Hello 2020! A little look back at 2019 (PART II)

Carrying on from Part I, I’m sharing all the things that brought me joy, and made me proud in 2019, from July through to December.

Hello 2020! A little look back at 2019 (PART I)

A very happy (and belated) New Year to all of you!

There’s nothing like a new year, let alone a brand new decade, to bring out the sentimentality in people. It’s been both interesting and a little depressing watching through everyone’s round up’s of 2019 via Instagram (I get it, you guys got to have a lot of holidays whilst we never made it out of the UK!) but I thought it would still be nice to share what a wonderful year it was - minus holidays - both work and in personal life, to maybe help myself not have so much FOMO.

7 Tips for Freelancing with a Toddler in Tow

Imagine you have a colleague at work who relentlessly needs your attention, messes up your keyboard (which makes your laptop freeze), is beyond filthy and has no personal boundaries? Working from home with a toddler is pretty much like this. In a shared office environment this person would probably have to visit HR but when your office is a corner, or at best a room, in your own home, you’ve got to somehow manage these tiny whirlwinds of energy!

It’s only after 18 months of tears, frustration and stamping feet (and I’m not on about my own toddler…) that I’ve been able to find ways to get through a day where emails have been answered and projects get completed. Here are my top 7 tips should you be on the verge of shipping your own tiny human off…

What Ophelia has taught me // #1

When I became a mother I knew that I would learn life lessons but I never anticipated how much they would filter in to other aspects of my life.

I liked to keep my ‘mother’ label mostly separate from my ‘freelance’ label, because I was almost defiant that I didn’t want to be defined as only a mother. I also didn’t want to share photos of Ophelia because she was such a special part of my life, that I selfishly treasured for my own, so it didn’t feel right to put her up on the internet everyday.

The Art of Living (and Blogging) Slowly

It's taken me a while to dust off the old blog and begin getting into sharing posts with you lovely lot again. I've had so much I've wanted to share, but as always, not so much of time going around these days.

Rambling notes on not feeling good enough

Lately I've been working myself to a strict set of to-do lists to try and fit in all the work I want to accomplish before starting my maternity leave.

I've been pretty chuffed with how well I've been hitting those targets; completing photoshoots, listing new products, re-working my wholesale catalogue, building a brand new e-commerce site and sorting out lots of niggly little behind the scenes things that essentially I want fixed and sorted before my leave.

Nothing gives me more satisfaction than marking a little 'x' next to those completed tasks. I feel like a total champion of the to-do list world.

But there's been a problem.

2016 Life Lessons

I actually can't believe I'm sat here, writing to you with only 1 more day left of 2016. This year has, by far, gone quicker than any year I can remember and yet at the same time it was the most arduous and gruelling year I've experienced to date.

It's not hard to get sentimental, retrospective and thoughtful about the past 12 months when faced with the idea of a fresh 12 months ahead. We all love a do-over, a chance to redeem ourselves for not spending the year in the way we 'should have done' with this sparkly eyed dream that we'll somehow crack this thing called 'life' and we'll look back on 2017 with dewy eyed pride that it had been a great year and we are truly greats amongst mere men.

Self-Improvement, Work/Life BalanceDeborah PanesarDecember 29, 20162016, new year, new years resolutions, life lessons, small biz adviceComment

Create More Than You Consume

When I turned to the last month of my Get To Work book, wondering what the inspiring graphic would be, I found my initial reaction to it quite surprising.

Practising Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful US clients / readers / customers!

It may not be a holiday that we celebrate here in the UK, but from my years of watching US sitcoms and shows I've always loved the tradition (and forgive me if this is not a tradition!) of sitting around the table and stating what you're thankful for.

It's so important to take a moment, even if it is just once a year, to show gratitude for what you have rather than constantly thinking of what you don't have.

Let's keep making mistakes!

It's been one year since I proclaimed from the rooftops (well, my Tumblr page) that I was going to stop working on my business and to instead pursue designing and illustrating full time.

Reading through this post (which for some reason makes me cringe and want to delete it forever from the eyes of the internet) I can recall so vividly how burnt out, tired and quite dejected I was feeling about the whole thing. The 'tipping point' part of that whole post was true - something needed to change in order to for me to change how I felt.

12 months on, what can I tell you?

Freelancing and Depression

There's a lot about freelancing which just shouldn't make sense to help depression. In fact, a lot of the elements that make up working from home, or for yourself, can be strong contributors to depression and anxiety; lack of human contact, unusual work hours and the ever ebb and flow of money have certainly been things that have contributed to my own depression.

There is however this unique and hidden gift lying under the crying snotty panic and fear riddled mess you seem to become when you have depression, and that is that freelancing can be your saviour.

Be Brave, Not Perfect

Ever had a month where work feels like it just is a relentless battle of one chaotic failure after another? That was the entirety of my March. Frankly, when April 1st hit I was glad to be out of that month believing I had some curse hanging over me.

It's pretty easy to displace the blame to other people, and even easier to look inwards and start blaming yourself too when things go wrong.

5 lies you shouldn't tell yourself as a freelancer...

Working for yourself is an absolute dream. It can be all of the stereotypes that people associate with it such as working in your PJ's, having your own schedule, being able to get up whenever you want but it can also have it's downsides like any good job.

I've been freelancing for 6 years now and these tips are just my own observations and experiences, all of which I've learnt to work with in order to thrive. I hope they help you too!

Does deleting your Facebook Page mean freelance suicide?

I’m writing this blog post today to reach out to you, to help me process a question that I’ve been trying to get a handle on for the past year: Do I delete my Facebook business page or not?

Work/Life BalanceDeborah PanesarMarch 8, 2016social media, facebook, marketing Comments

Favourite wellbeing apps at the moment...

Happy 1st March!

It's a new month, which means the chance to start some new habits for the month! Because I've been assigning a new resolution to achieve per month, I have decided to make March all about getting enough H20. Why is that important? Well, aside from being the purest life giver on this earth (seriously, I'm not joking) it's been proven to reduce headaches, improve attention, reduce hunger and even prevent wrinkles - all of that plus it's free. It truly is one of our best resources on the planet, so I thought I would try and stick to the 2 litre a day rule.

Keeping that fear 'edge'

For the past week or so I've been working my way through my HUGE box of business cards which I've been collecting for 4 years, inputting each and every one of them into a new spreadsheet database. You might think I'm a little mad for doing this time consuming, and let's be honest, inanely tedious job but it's all part of the process I've started since reading Alex Mather's e-book How To Get Illustration Clients.

New Year(s) Resolutions

How many of you made resolutions on December 31st, eagerly awaiting the midnight strike with lots of hopeful wishes for how you were going to be the most awesome-productive-human-being-that-can-achieve-it-all-no-sweat? And how many of you are still working on those resolutions, 40 days into 2016?

Illustration as Meditation

A big HOORAH as this is not only the first official day of launching my new website but also my first post on my new integrated swanky blog! For my first post I wanted to talk about 2 of my greatest passions and what it means to have them work together.

Meditation, Work/Life BalanceDeborah PanesarJanuary 21, 2016meditation, freelance, illustration, work life balance, mental healthComment