Hi there! My name’s Maria and I’m SO glad you’ve stopped by.  I hope you grab a cup of tea or coffee or a sneaky glass of wine and stay awhile. You’re always very welcome here….

A BIT ABOUT THIS BLOG

I started Pastels and Macarons in June 2015 as a place I could share my creativity with whoever wanted to come over and read. At the time of starting Pastels and Macarons, I didn’t actually know what I would focus on writing about, all I knew is I wanted to take pretty photos and have a blog with “Pinterest worthy” images. I wanted a name that made me think of prettiness and what is prettier than pastel colors and beautiful, decadent macarons?

Over time Pastels and Macarons has evolved from a blog were I shared meaningless random and pretty things, to a blog that shared Craft and DIY tutorials with a few cleaning and organizing tips thrown in the mix.

It took me a long time to find a real direction for this blog but I eventually realized what I was most passionate about is sharing useful and fun articles to help make the lives of women, predominantly mums easier by providing realistic and actionable tips, information and resources with them.

Pastels and Macarons is a place for you to come and relax, get tips and learn ways to help YOU Make A Better Home and Live A Better Life. Becuase this website is dedicated to you! To help you and encourage you, to show you that as overwhelming as life can get, there are things you can do to help you manage it all that little bit easier without losing your mind.

Make A better Home, Live A Better Life is the website’s tagline. So if you’re looking for a place where you can get some new ideas, organizing tips, cleaning tips, ideas on how to make life that bit easier and more beautiful, ways to help manage your time, family, finances and also allow you to find a few minutes to care of yourself, well then friend, you have landed at the right place and I am so, so excited you are here to read along.

A BIT ABOUT ME

 

Me & my family

Well… where to start?

I’m a wife to my amazing and supportive husband Ryan and a mum to two very active, loud, cheeky little boys Locky and Coopie. They are ages 4.5 and 3.5. I am also currently pregnant with our third and even though the thought of having another child slightly petrifies me, we are very excited to welcome one more to our crazy tribe.

I’m a stay at home mum and a blogger. First and foremost I am a mum to my two beautiful boys. I work hard every single day to make sure we do plenty of fun things, activities and socialise. Among the chaos of parenthood, I try to keep a somewhat tidy and organised home. Though this proves to be a challenge every single day, I try to work hard to make sure there is some sort of order. Don’t worry, I’m not superwoman and many times I let things slip. We are all human after all.

You will find me sharing tips and ideas to help you with your own home and life but don’t ever think I have it all together. I do not. I just share what I try and works for us but we ALL let things slip and being pregnant is not helping me at all to stay on top of my home!

Ryan and I have been together for over 10 years and married for three years. I was six months pregnant with Coopie and locky was only 1 year old when we tied the knot… I’m all classy that way. In all seriousness, it was a beautiful day and I wouldn’t have had it any other way (even though I was falling asleep at my own reception by 9pm and all I wanted to do was go home to bed…)… ooppss.

 

Where are you from?

So it may get a little confusing around here at times when I use US and UK English. I apologise for that! I write a lot of my articles in US English as my main audience is from the US and Canada.

I’m from Australia and I currently live in a small town, in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia. I have the very lucky job of following my wonderful husband around the world for his job. Even though I complain at times about us moving so much I am used to it now and it has become somewhat addictive.

We have been fortunate enough to have traveled to many places and have lived abroad twice. We have lived in Borneo, Indonesia and we recently moved back to Australia after living almost three years of our lives with the boys in Brussels, Belgium. Both experiences were amazing and I feel so blessed every single day to have had them.

Some other places we have traveled to:

Bali, Indonesia

Thailand

Singapore

California & Nevada, USA (we did an amazing road trip together pre-kids and it was AMAZING!)

England, UK

Belgium

France

Spain

Italy

Holland / Netherlands

Australia (I add this in here as we have traveled to many parts of our amazing country Australia and we’re still not done)

So as you can see I have the travel bug and you bet I will never let having kids get in the way of traveling. Our boys traveled with us during our time in Europe and even though it wasn’t easy, it was worth all of the effort.

If you’re wondering why I don’t write a travel blog instead, trust me, it has crossed my mind but I don’t want to turn traveling into something that isn’t fun anymore. I have travel blogger friends who say blogging about travel can take the joy out of the experience. No thank you. Plus I can’t addord to travel to new destinations just to make sure I have something to write about. I wish! haha.

 

What did you do before kids and what do you do for work now?

Before having my children I worked as a Beauty Therapist. I managed beauty salons and also had my own clients that I would pamper. I am a qualified Beauty Therapist (Beautician), trained in different massage techniques, qualified Nail technician, studied some Aromatherapy subjects and have done a lot of training in skin therapy. I loved my job and loved the social aspect of it. I worked in different businesses so I managed to get great experience in all areas of beauty but my favorite was when I worked in a Day Spa and with Essential Oils and natural skincare. It was a lot of fun and I had a huge passion for learning more about the benefits of living a natural lifestyle with essential oils.

These days I work on my blog. My blog has been my hobby for a long time and it has helped to keep me sane during all of the challenges that becoming a mum throws at you. It has been my happy place when I feel I am going insane raising two boys very close in age. I do make a small income from my blog, this helps to pay the costs of running this blog and does help to cover some of my time. It doesn’t feel like work because I love it so much which is the best part of it all! I only work on the blog a few hours a week at the moment as kids that don’t nap aren’t exactly helpful when it comes to you trying to get any work done. But I’m ok with that for now.

 

How do you make money blogging? I’m interested to know!

Good questions, I had no idea also and for a long time, I could have been making an income without even realizing it.

I will be sharing articles on how to start and monetize a blog in the future, you know when I find all the time in the world! So, for now, I can’t offer much advice or else you would be here for the next month reading my advice, but I promise I will get around to it. Watch this space because I will try and create a small and comprehensive series to help you start on your own blogging journey.

 

Again thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog! I do hope to see you here again soon.

 

Maria