So excited to announce our first Canadian curator! Bethany Menzel shares beautiful snippets from her life outside Vancouver, B.C. and manages to look effortlessly stylish despite running after a two year old all day. This summer, we celebrated and cried along with her as she bravely faced the both the joy and heartbreak of motherhood with her Goldie Bloom and our hearts felt connected with hers. The internet is so funny that way, isn’t it? Here’s to another great month with a mother we all wish we lived next door to.
Follow along with Bethany and her family here and pick up the Mommy Mailbox she curated here.
Tell us a little about you, your family and your blog.
I am a wife and mother, blogger & hair stylist. My husband, David, and I are coming on 5 years of marriage this summer. We have 2 daughters: Poppy Darling (2) and Goldie Bloom who was born this July 10th, and passed on July 20th. Our blog is dedicated to sharing the story of our family, faith, home life, and fashion.
What are some of your favorite things to do together as a family in Vancouver?
We live in a town just outside the city, right along the coast so we spend so much time at the beach all year round. I'm a sucker for a day of wondering through the awesome row of thrift shops in our "old person town". But my husband is a musician, which always gives us lots of reasons to spend nights out in the city which we love.
You are a traveler! What are some of the best tips you've learned for both the travel part and the vacation part with kids?
Our daughter really is a delight to travel with; we have a lot of fun taking her to new places. I never step foot on a plane without an iPad loaded with Peppa Pig episodes and a full bag of Goldfish crackers. While on vacation if we can book a hotel or AirBnB with 2 rooms then that is a game changer. We are able to still stay up and hang out past 7pm in the other room and she is able to take her usual afternoon nap.
We've followed your journey with your precious Goldie and felt enormous gratitude that you shared this piece of motherhood. What do you do to honor her each day? What is a precious memory from those days that you hold tight to?
We scattered her ashes at the beach near our house, so going down there is always special. We just like to sit at the water and it allows us to feel like we spent time with her/focused on her. Grief is a very interesting journey and I feel worse when I feel like she isn't involved in our lives day-to-day. She never came home with us or had a room here so to be able to have a place that feels like it's hers is really comforting.
If you could tell a new mother anything it would be....?
Hmm, I really do my best to stay away from giving too much advice. I’m always biting my tongue when there are a millions things I want to share with new moms having just gone through it. But, something valuable I learnt is that every stage goes so quickly. Not to be concerned about the fact that your baby needs to be rocked to sleep when someone else can just set them down and shut the door. It will be gone in a matter of months and you'll probably never rock that babe to sleep again. So I'm learning to enjoy all the things that initially I feel like I need to fix.
When shopping for yourself you look for pieces that are.....? For Poppy?
If it's shopping for clothing, basic. I've realized that no matter how many things I buy I tend to rotate the same 3 plain tees and black jeans. So I'm trying to build my quality basics. For Poppy, cheap. I shop all the time at consignment stores for her because I have so much fun dressing her but can't justify spending a lot. If it's over $5 I usually leave it.
What are you looking forward to this year?
I have no idea, haha! I feel like this year is a huge unknown for us, so I'm looking forward to seeing a direction take place, but I really do enjoy the unknown. And of course, summer. I live for summer!