about: in-depth jb studio lore
Hi my groovy friends, welcome! I thought I would write a bit more of an in-depth post on the lore of Juniper Bloom Studio.
If you haven’t yet, I recommend checking out the “about me” section, for more on the studio (and sort of the first part to this one). I’ll still recap a bit, just in case.
Hi, I’m Roxie! I’m thirty years old, and if you care about the ✨personality chart things✨, I’m an ENFP, and an Aries Sun - Capricorn Moon - Cancer Rising. I am married, and I have a one year old son and a 6 year old step-daughter. We also have four pets (I just want a farm at this point); Juniper & Kiri (our dogs), and Umbra & Boo (our cats). Eventually, I would love to make a small line of stickers and possibly more of all the pets!
Aside from crafting, I love videogames, dancing, yoga (though I need to get back into it post-birthing a baby), theatre, and of course my pets and little family. I currently work part-time as a barista, and for the past decade I have been a freelancing graphic designer, chalk artist, and worked in various fields of marketing.
As you may have read in the ‘about me’, or inferred from our pets’ names– Juniper, our Australian Shepherd mix, is the namesake of the studio. I adopted Juniper in the summer of 2020, in the midst of a breakup and planning a move. She has since lived with me in a total of four states and eight different homes. She has also, of course, been around through meeting my husband (2022) and having my son (2024). Now, she is lying next to me as I write a blog for a business I named after her.
🤎 What made you start Juniper Bloom Studio?
Having worked in business and marketing a bit– and also having my art become my job in other ways in the past made me realize more and more through my twenties how much I would rather be my own boss. I enjoy business and marketing, and I also am used to the idea of my art being a “product” of sorts (it wasn’t easy back then though!). While those aspects are probably enough on their own to want to start a business, the real reason began with my son.
When I was pregnant, I was working at a coffee shop– all the way up until a few weeks before I went into labor. I was on my feet constantly, swollen and numb, and each day grew harder and more frustrating– yet I had to work. Now, don’t get me wrong here– I completely understand many people work through their pregnancies, often physical jobs, and often with other kids to care for and haul around too. Everybody’s body is different, and every pregnancy is different. But my body was 29 years old and it wasn’t feeling too hot, I’ll tell you that much. My point here, isn’t to complain about how hard it was to work while pregnant, but to continue the story.
I worked until I was nine and a half months pregnant, did not get paid for the two weeks leading up to birth, then I was given six weeks of paid maternity leave before needing to return to work. I’m not going to get all into that issue, but I’ll put it this way:
When I told my friends and even family about the six paid weeks, many replied with “oh that’s pretty good!”, or “oh that’s nice, I didn’t get any for mine!”. When I spoke recently with a few friends from the UK, they couldn’t believe I was required to go back to work so early. I think it can be about perspective, of course, but I do think many of us in America normalize the pressure to be a mom as a uterus-having individual, while maternity leave remains an issue. I digress! This is about lore.
So, for reasons upon reasons, I simply didn’t want to work. Not because I was lazy, not because I was being sassy, but because I was so physically and emotionally drained. If you haven’t had a baby, just know that when you do, your hormones pretty much throw a rager in your brain chemistry and all hope is lost forever (or until you’re sleeping more than 40 minutes a night). I was showing up to work hateful, tired, and wearing pretty much a diaper.
And I missed my son, so much. They grow so fast and especially at that age. So for about 5 months, my husband allowed me to leave my barista job to be a SAHM. I am a firm believer, when it comes to being a working or stay at home mom, in choice. If you want to work, you work girl! If you want to be a stay at home parent and you can afford to do so– then that’s great too, it’s whatever works for you. And it worked for me… Sort of.
I am grateful to the moon and back for those five months, getting to spend all day every day with my baby. I won’t lie– it’s not easy, not at all. Sometimes, sure, but it’s really quite harder than I expected, at least. Being a stay at home mom can be lonely. It can make you feel so isolated and crazy even. You can feel guilt even though you’re with your child every day because you’re just so tired that it’s hard to be present with them.
So when we decided to move to a slightly bigger living situation, with slightly higher rent, I had to go back to work, and that guilt just multiplied. Not for working– because that’s ultimately to put a roof over my son’s head and provide him with food. But for the lack of energy, mindfulness, and general love and excitement that children need.
I reached my point of “that’s it, I quit!”, then didn’t quit, because we still have bills to pay, but instead I started a business. I took what I knew from similar-ish work, and my rage toward the system and guilt about my son– and I suppose somewhere in there my love for art too, and Juniper Bloom Studio was born (after being in mental utero for almost a decade). And here we are, still working at a coffee shop, but a lot more hopeful for the years to come.
Cheers, Berrie Babes!
xo/jb
