Welcomed into our fresheather realm today is a lady whom we admire immensely for her creativity and talent in the kitchen. Laura Wright is more commonly known as ‘The First Mess‘, blogging and photographing her way into the path of great success. We are delighted to share with you what we learnt when we delved a little deeper into the life of Laura!
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Hi Laura, how are you? Before we start, please introduce yourself:
Hi! I’m Laura from The First Mess. I blog about healthy, plant-based recipes and all the other good stuff in life.
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We’ve been following you on instagram for some while now, when did you first start using the account?
I started using Instagram about 4 years ago. It’s my favourite social medium related to my blog.
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Did you ever think that it would become such a success?
That depends on how you define “success.” I’m really happy to engage with some of my followers on there and to hear their feedback. I feel like that’s the communication stream where people seem most comfortable asking me questions or anything else, so in that regard I would say it’s a success! And it still blows my mind that over 100,000 people like to see these little tidbits of my life.
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Your photographs are consistently such a high quality, what piece of kit do you use?
For my blog I use a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 50 mm f/1.4 lens. On Instagram, it’s about 90% iPhone and the occasional DSLR shot if I’m sharing something from the blog.
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What’s the best thing about living in Canada?
It’s kind of a dorky answer, but the free healthcare is pretty incredible. There are a lot of protection measures by the government to preserve wildlife and forests too, which is so important.
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We haven’t been, but hope to visit soon. If we were to come, where would you recommend we go?
You should visit Montreal for sure. That’s one of my favourite cities in the world. I lived in Toronto for a few years (and loved it), and the healthy food scene is exploding there right now. I haven’t really travelled across much of Canada if I’m being honest. I visited the east coast for the first time a couple summers ago and it was so peaceful. I’m hoping to get back there soon.
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Have you met any life-long friends through blogging?
The friendships I’ve struck up through my blog have definitely surprised me. You tend to think of yourself as a little remote island with this kind of job, but it’s so important to connect with fellow bloggers. It’s a very new career path, so the more support you can find, the more successful we’ll all be together.
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Is blogging your full-time career? How are you able to make a comfortable living?
It is now. I was juggling freelance photography, serving at a restaurant, and the blog for a long time though. I only stopped working at the restaurant very recently. I took on a book deal and, in the last year or so, decided to work with ads and fitting partnerships to earn revenue on my creative content so that I could spend more time on it.
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We are dog lovers too, in fact Hannah has a spaniel puppy @ideathespaniel – what’s your favourite breed of dog and why?
I’d have to say mutts are my favourite because that’s what our girl Cleo is! We got her from a local rescue organization and we think she’s a jack russell/rat terrier + hound mix, but we’re not totally sure. She’s the sweetest, most loyal, and snuggly dog you could imagine.
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What’s your take on a balanced lifestyle and what do you think of the term ‘cheat meals’?
I think living in balance has a lot to do with eating your vegetables and listening to your intuition. Sometimes you need a green smoothie and sometimes you need pizza or some other comfort food. Looking at any meal as a “cheat meal” is unhealthy to me. It implies that there’s something inherently wrong with the food, and in turn causes you stress because you’ve built up this negative culture around it. I eat a lot of healthy food, tons of produce and plant-based proteins, but I also eat french fries, pizza, chocolate, vegan ice cream, and salty snacks when I feel like it. I enjoy those things in the moment, and then I usually crave a big salad the next day. Balance comes naturally when you tap in to what your body is saying.
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We tend to turn a blind eye to ‘clean eating’ and ‘fitness trends’ it just isn’t us and we’d rather spend quality time with friends eating brownies. Are we more likely to find you in a gym or in the cinema?
Oh, the cinema for sure. I’ve never been a fan of gyms first of all. Something about all those machines and all the electricity needed to keep that going. I’d rather go running/cycling, or do yoga or some sort of at-home routine. But yeah, socializing and taking time to connect trumps any sense of urgency to work out for me.
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Have you ever been to the UK?
No not yet! On my list 🙂
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What are your hopes for the expansion of your blog?
I’d like to pursue more “real life” extensions of my blog and the work that I do there. Ideally in the future I’ll be doing brunch or dinner get togethers, workshops with other bloggers, or something like that. I love connecting with readers and bloggers online, but it has an insular quality to it as well. I’ve also been quietly planning an outdoor living/plant nursery concept shop for a while.
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Cookie or Dougnut?
There’s a local place that sells incredible vegan doughnuts, so I’ll have to go with that 🙂
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Oooooh donuts for us too! Thank you Laura for joining us today. It’s been amazing to gain a little insight into your life as a blogger and we will continue to follow your inevitable success along the way. Thanks for constantly inspiring us to be more creative and efficient! If you too would like to follow Laura and see all of her creations, check out her blog and give her a cheeky follow on instagram!