about me
Hi, I’m Blanaid!
I am the founder of One Turtle Studio and recovering ‘non-creative’, here to share my creative endeavours and journey with you.
As a woman who struggled to acknowledge the existence of creativity within myself for so long I now have a passion to help others value and nurture their creativity, make changes and pursue personal growth in order to enjoy a more fulfilling life.
With One Turtle Studio I am building a creative space to share my photography work with you, as well as my experiences and thoughts on creating a lifestyle uplift, that includes a more earth friendly path. I am so grateful and happy to be on this journey and to be able to share it with you.
A bit of background
I was born and grew up in Northern Ireland and currently live in Sussex with my husband, James and daughter, Charlotte. After working in finance for 25 years, driving myself so hard to the point of burn out, I felt I was missing out on life and that there was more to me than my current hamster wheel existence. In 2017 I was fortunate enough to be able to slow things down professionally and have the space to pursue some personal interests which is when I found a passion for photography and developed a deeper connection to people and the environment. I had a strong desire to develop this into something of significance in my life going forward and I was starting to sense the type of life I wanted to create for myself.
Jump forward to 2020
I was still attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to transition from my old to new self. Trying to learn photography and find my own approach to it, make lifestyle changes, embark on a creative entrepreneurial journey, reinvent myself and then a global pandemic, brought about some challenges. I experienced self-doubt, overwhelm, fear, despair, mindset and money blocks, self-sabotage, the inner critic, imposter syndrome. You name it, I felt it!
Thankfully I found a way through enough of the negative blocks to enable me to set clear goals to help me live a life that had balance, meaning and fulfilment. I am still very much a work in progress and always will be. And that is just how it should be.
I have always considered myself to be someone who cared about the environment but on real reflection my lifestyle didn’t and still doesn’t support this perception of myself particularly well.
It was highlighted at the beginning of lockdown in 2020, when with time to focus on the weekly shopping I was horrified by the amount of plastic coming into my home and more so by the fact that most of it was not recyclable. It wasn’t that I had been totally unaware of this previously but had justified not giving it too much thought due to my busy life and need for convenience. I could no longer ignore or justify it to myself and so made a decision to live a more ‘plastic free and earth friendly’ lifestyle.
I made a commitment to myself that I would end 2021 having taken steps towards achieving my personal and professional goals. This would require me to show up consistently to work on different aspects of my life and make the necessary changes.
a new journey
I hadn’t figured out how I would achieve my goals but I started with one thing, my mindset, and from there the path started to become clearer. The life that I am building for myself is one where creativity will play a much bigger role. It will include living a more earth friendly life without overwhelm or feeling bad about not doing enough or when I make choices that don’t always fit with that aspiration. It will involve ongoing and intentional change and adaptation as I carve out a path that feels more authentic and complete for me. I have found so many helpful resources online in the form of audio books, blogs, podcasts, webinars from leading experts and inspirational people and will share some of what has helped me to shift my life from unfulfilled, stressed out and stuck to living more intentionally with focus, motivation and creative drive. My hope is that it will help at least one other person to transition to a more fulfilling life in whatever form that might take for them.
Latest on Instagram
looking around me
Photography has taken me on an interesting and unexpected personal journey over the last few years. By spending time walking city streets, on beaches and in the countryside, witnessing the struggles of others and disregard for the environment, I experienced a strengthening concern for both people and planet.
As a business owner it was important to me from the outset to use my business to make a positive contribution to society and align myself with other entities with the same goals.
I am proud to be a member of Work for Good, an organisation which makes it easy for small businesses to support charities. Currently 10% of all One Turtle Studio profits go directly to support selected charities.
