I’ve asked some of my favorite creative mamas to help out while I’m away with our new baby. Today we get a look behind the scenes at a day in the life of one of my favorite stationers – Chelsea and Jamie of Sugar Paper – including a peek at their beautiful studio! –Nole
Being a working mother can be tricky, as any working mother can tell you. It’s a constant juggling act of making sure you honor your commitments to your family and also your business. Learning to prioritize which needs to come first at any given time is the hardest part. Your heart can pull you one way and your deadlines can pull you the other… and sometimes it feels like nobody wins. But the truth is, it’s what we do here everyday and we’d be lying if we said that we didn’t love both jobs. Being a mother is the biggest honor and biggest challenge of our lives, and surprisingly, we feel similarly about Sugar Paper. – Chelsea and Jamie of Sugar Paper
We’re often asked how we do it so we thought we’d share a day in the life.
6:30am Little People Pop Out of Bed
7am Breakfast Chaos
8am Showers for Mom, Kids Get Teeth Brushed + Clothes Changed
8:45am Preschool Commute
9:00am School begins
9 to 10 Coffee, Personal Phone Calls, “Me Timeâ€
10am In Office: Email, Phone Calls, Meetings, Design
5:30pm Head Home
6pm Dinner
7pm Bath Time
7:30 Story Time
8pm With any luck, Kids are sleeping…
8:30pm Kids are actually sleeping
9pm Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, “Me time”
11pm Bed
Rinse and Repeat
xx.
p.s. Ed Note: For a more in depth interview with Chelsea and Jamie about the evolution of Sugar Paper I highly recommend this article on The Everygirl! –Nole
I know this article was about work and life balance, but the way it’s simplified, they make it look very easy when it’s fact it’s not. I don’t know of any business owner who can stroll in mid morning and leave as early as this article states and not have to work again in the evening. Granted, they’re established so perhaps they don’t have to at this point in their career? I’m just a bit disappointed there’s not more mention of what happens while in the office…we all have working sessions and meetings, but what else goes on? I absolutely ADORE Sugar Paper, but this seems very brief and skimmed over and used as filler content.
Hi Megan,
I’m sorry you feel this way. I’ve included a link at the bottom of this post to a more in depth interview that Chelsea and Jamie did with The Everygirl regarding the evolution of their business, which includes a team of employees and their thoughts on work-life balance. I’m grateful to Chelsea and Jamie for providing a guest post for my maternity leave so that I could spend time with my new daughter, and while some guest posts will be longer than others I find the images of their studio to be really inspiring!
Oh I love the touch of humour from the daily routine! These offices are absolutely wonderful too… What a nice feminine and bright decor!
Hi Megan,
I hear you… Work life balance is, in fact, very tricky. Nole asked us to provide a post while on leave and clearly I am not a blogger, nor did I have a ton of time to craft an extensive post (as I am trying to cram the most I can possibly accomplish into very tight days before racing home to the kids). My apologies if I rushed through it, but somehow it now seems appropriate, as the “rushing” is such a big part of making it all work.
Our company is 11 years old this year and for the first five years neither of us had children. The 14 hour days we used to put in are no longer possible with little ones… And I should mention that we both have help in the form of childcare and Sugar Paper staff. Without that assistance, none of this would be possible.
Thanks for your candor. Reading it back, I agree that a brief timeline does not tell the whole story.
Xx.
Chelsea
Thanks for your reply Chelsea (and Nole!). I love posts like this when readers get a chance to see inside companies and the daily lives of the owners. I really enjoy hearing about the details from established businesses so that those of us young in our careers can take notes with hopes that we can one day be as successful as Sugar Paper. And have a beautiful office like the one shown here!