I have been a big fan of Poppy’s for some time now and she graciously agreed to spend some of her time answering some questions about herself and her beautiful family.
As I am sure most of you are aware Poppy has two beautiful daughters Addy and Seren and is behind the amazing account @poppyleehp and www.poppleehp.com. She truly is a beautiful person inside and out. Here is what she has had to say;
Your daughters names are gorgeous. I personally found picking my daughters names harder than my boys. What was your inspiration?
Thank you lovely =D My girls have pretty unusual names!! A lot of people have a hard time pronouncing them actually, but you just say them how they’re spelt. It’s funny you say that you had a hard time picking your girls names, I totally relate… we had a really hard time naming our second daughter!! Hubby (@ryanjohnmusic) and I had picked out names for a girl and a boy before we were even pregnant… So we thought we had it all planned out!! But when we found out we were having a second daughter we had to find another girls name (I was so sure I was pregnant with a boy second time around we hadn’t even looked haha) and it was so tricky to find a name we loved!!
Both the babes names are Welsh because that’s where Daddy’s from!! We decided on ‘Seren’ for our first daughter, Seren means ‘Star’ in Welsh. And then when we were looking for our second daughters name we fell in love with ‘Aderyn’, which means ‘Bird’! Seren is a much more common name in the UK, but Aderyn is very uncommon…
The girls get nicknamed though, Seren is known as Sez or Sezzy and Aderyn is known as Addy =D
Given you have 2 beautiful children do you plan to add anymore?
You know what, hubby and I would loooove to have more kiddie winks!!! I look at the girls and I’m just so crazy about them, they’re such beautiful little creatures… But I’m quite sure we’re going to stop at two babies =( There are a few reasons, firstly, it’s just me and hubby in Brisbane, we don’t have that family network to fall back on for help. And that makes things hard!! It’s a constant juggling act between me and hubby, always making sure the other one isn’t getting too burnt out. But we manage… we just have to be organised and know when one of us needs a bit of a break to themselves. For now, I think if we added more babies to the mix, I’d be worried that it might burn us out that little bit too much.
And also financially!! I’ve taken nearly 3 years off work to be with the girls, and it’s time to start getting this mortgage paid off! We live in the teeniest tiniest house too, so we have big plans to extend and renovate next year… so I’m back off to work again 3 days a week next year at my “normal office job” in the city!!
But you never know where the future will take you… Maybe in 5ish years time when the girls are a bit older we’ll feel like we’re ready to add to the brood, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see =)
As a model how did you find pregnancy affected your career?
Hmmm… I guess it did affect modelling jobs for sure!! I gained a lot of weight when I was pregnant with Seren, I didn’t feel confident enough to apply for work. I went from being around 60 kilos to 85 kilos, and that whacked my confidence and how I felt about myself. I lost a lot of weight in the 6 months after having Sezzy from breastfeeding, but then I was pregnant with Addy before I knew it =) So I didn’t really get a chance to get back into modelling work again!! But to be honest I’m not chasing any modelling work either… I’m not quite confident enough to get back in front of the camera just yet, but I’m getting back into fitness now… so maybe in the not too distant future I’ll get back into it? My focus isn’t so much on modelling anymore though, I’m really enjoying my Instagram and website/blog for now and seeing where that will take me!!
How have you found motherhood and continuing your career? Have you found that magical balance we are all seeking?
Oh wowee… it is haaard!!! Haha!! Honestly, I really haven’t found a magic balance. Seren has literally just started daycare 2 days a week this week… so I’m hoping that will help somewhat in finding that magic balance? I find myself frantically trying to get everything done each day, juggling the children/house/work is definitely not an easy feat. I catch up on a lot of my online work late at night, then over the day I’m chasing my tail running around after the girls and trying to maintain the house too. It makes for one tired momma!! I often wonder what I did with all my spare time before kiddies…. I must’ve been so slack haha!!
What is your favourite thing about blogging?
Connecting with people and making them feel like they’re not alone is my favourite part about blogging… like writing about breastfeeding, so many ladies got back to me about that blog and said they completely related to what I wrote and it made them feel less alone. I loved knowing that. Everything I put up is in the effort that I’ll help in some way! I’m about to put together a project that I’m really hoping will help women/mothers feel less lone and more connected in a way… it can be quite an isolating thing being a mother. You can feel like you’re the only one going through certain things, whether they be good or bad. It seems as though my concept is a unique one as I haven’t seen anywhere else, so I’m hoping over the next few weeks I’ll launch that on my website… stay tuned!! =D
I’m hoping to get into vlogging too, but that’ll be quite casual!! In the not too distant future I’ll have that up and running! But let’s face it, I barely have time to scratch myself let alone edit a whole heap of video footage haha =)
Your blog is diverse is there anything that you favour writing about the most?
I love writing about anything that I think might interest my online friends!! Motherhood is an easy topic for me to write about, because I’m so consumed in it… writing about that just comes naturally. But keeping what I post varied is important to me too!!
What is your one piece of advice for anyone that wants to follow in your footsteps?
Oh golly… I’ve not even close got it all right yet so I’m the one that needs the advice haha =p I guess just be kind to yourself and do what you can, you can only get so much done when you’re juggling so much. Have a clear idea of what you want to do and go for it. I wish I’d started this online world years ago when I was pregnant with Seren, but it took me a while to have a clear idea on where I wanted to go. Just work hard and everything will fall into place!!
Thankyou again for your time Poppy. I love a funny down to earth woman! You truly are an amazing woman! PS we would love for you to move to Adelaide. We can run our own creche haha.
If you want to learn more about Poppy and her gorgeous family follow her on @poppyleehp you will not be disappointed!
Tanya
Xx
Four Little Creatures 