Diary of a Freelancer: Nursery Tour, Wrapping up my Freelance Jobs, and Preparing for Maternity Leave

View from the doorway to the nursery, pretty wardrobe and decor!

Entering the nursery! (And please don't worry I know I can't keep the pillow or blanket in the crib, it's just in there for decoration for now.) The pillow will actually move to the glider once that arrives and the blanket will be put away/stored.

Continuing around the room, the space for reading and where the glider will go. We ordered it From Buy Buy Baby and it should be in late August/September. It's a grey tweed and the white heart pillow (see above) will look perfect sitting on it. 

Dresser/changing table with pretty decor and my custom illustrations. I still need to add two more, but it's almost ready!

Some of my favorite details, Gorgeous Classic Books, French Bulldog bookends, and a pretty dress for display.

I spent a long time writing this post. Work/life/baby balance is something I have been thinking about a lot over the last few months. Should I feel guilty that I still want a career post-baby or should I feel strong and proud that I will be showing my daughter that she can do both? And it's something that I thought about not sharing, and wrote and rewrote and thought about deleting this post... and then ultimately I decided that I would share in hopes that fellow freelancers, pregnant ladies, and working moms going through similar feelings about this balance could relate and maybe could even share some advice.

It's been a crazy month and I thought I'd take today to share a little about where I'm at and what I've been up to since somehow July 2 to July 20th went by without a post! I've been working hard on illustration jobs and home "nesting" type work and it's literally been a blur. This week I'm hoping to show you some of the jobs I've been working on, Wrap up all of my outstanding freelance work, and, in addition to that, I really wanted to share pictures of my nursery as it currently looks. So those pictures are above and overall I'm SO happy with it. I can't wait to see it completely finished, and show you the finished pictures, which will probably be sometime in September.

So those pictures are my life update and then for work update, I have a goal for myself to finish up all of my freelance work by this Friday. My reason for this is that if baby chooses to come early (which seriously I would love but I'm not counting on it I'm just being cautious) then it leaves me in a tricky situation work wise. I'm left with having to potentially let clients down. If this happens my options become; finishing work/jobs while I have a brand new baby, have clients wait two months for their work, or have to stop their work in the middle and send them to a new illustrator/designer and then all of the work I already did becomes a waste / I don't get paid for it and my clients have to start over and loose time on their jobs. All options just seemed like "no way" to me and I can't let that happen. And while I am over-the-moon excited for baby I do still want to keep my clients happy and get them a product they love on time.

This brings me to my inner battle and future goals. I love being a freelancer. I love working from home, the variety of jobs I get to work on and the amazing and interesting clients I've been able to work with, it's literally a dream. It's been fun and challenging to learn how to be an artist, a business manager, an assistant, a CFO, etc., all rolled into one person. And so knowing what I have done, and what I do (and what all people who work from home/for themselves/freelance do) it's been really frustrating that I've had numerous people tell me it's easier for me, to get ready for maternity leave, then if I was working at an actual office for someone else. This comment upsets me because it makes me feel like the people who said it don't think I work as hard as someone in an office and that it's no big deal to just let my career go for a little bit. And I know, I know, who cares what other people think, but sometimes I do and I can't help it. I'm hoping maybe my fellow freelancers and work-from-homers understand, while yes there are some amazing perks to working from home (like I can take a nap in the middle of the day when being pregnant makes me really sleepy) the other side is that I do have to make up that time. If I don't work I don't get paid and my client relations would suffer. And just like people who work in an office I need to make sure I get every single job done and every client is happy before I go on leave. And since I have done both... worked for myself and in an office... I can truly say it's not any easier working from home. Basically, I feel that, no matter where you work or who you work for, it is hard prepping to take a pause from your career.

And it's funny... I start to feel guilty... like I'm being selfish for even thinking about this when I'm expecting a baby. So I'd love to hear from mom's how they balance and make it work. How do they continue to push forward in their careers and still are amazing moms. Please share your tips and advice! I'd really love to hear it.

xoxo