Hi there! 😊 My name’s Pauleen 👋🏽, adoring Mum to my 3 beautiful kids and loving wife to my best friend and other half Alex.
That there is my fam and I. I love that pic because it was taken on Mothers’ Day a while back and it’s my go-to pic and screen saver that reminds me just how so very blessed I am to have my beautiful family!
I started this blog because:
1) I love writing, I love stories and I love sharing possibilities and I love creating stuff.
2) I want to share the various experiences I have, that may inspire someone else’s story, someone else’s journey through life. I don’t like feeling stuck despite being stuck in various stages of my life but I always find a way to get unstuck – these are just some of the experiences I hope to share and inspire you with on this blog.
I’ll write about Kenya (where I was born and lived for a good chunk of my life), about Australia (where I moved to and lived for 5 years), about Saudi Arabia (where I’m currently living with my family quite recently), about our travels, and offer insights that may be interesting, funny, enlightening, inspiring (fingers crossed!) … ummm let’s see how we go! 🙂
While I’m good at creating stuff, I’m actually a Swiss trained hotelier, a former HR & Admin Manager at a mulitnational company for about 15 years before wrapping that up to be a work-from-home Mum once my family and I relocated to Australia from Kenya in 2017 then Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Since then in my WFH lifestyle, I started my first business, Red Orchid Ventures, where I imported African accessories and bags I bought from Kenyan artisans and sold at Craft Markets in Adelaide, sharing ‘The Beauty of Africa’s Fashion to the World’.
I then designed faith apparel through my online business Kingdom Nation in addition to designing and selling inspirational and faith-based wall art on my website and Etsy through my business Art Of A Kind AU.
My recent achievement – I wrote and published an eBook – ‘Overcoming Self-Criticism with Self-Compassion: How To Be Nicer To Yourself And Finally Shush Your Inner Critic’, as well as an accompanying Guided e-Journal: ‘How To Master Your Mindset in 30 Days’ through my website Sserene.
Having moved countries a few times, traveled alot, going from ‘Migrant Mum’ to ‘Expat Mum’, not to mention about life in Kenya as ‘Local Mum’, I have lots of adventures and stories to share about those experiences along the way on this bog. Luckily I love new adventures so I hope to take you along with me and my family for the ride!
Quick ‘About Me’:
1. I was born in Kenya and come from the ‘Meru’ tribe, one of a total of 42.
2. I am super organized and detail-oriented – I have a file, folder, or list for most major/minor things in my life.
3. I do not have a sweet tooth and will get tonsillitis from sweet dessert.
4. I get my quick sense of humour from my Dad, who had the quickest wit of anyone I know or met. Miss you Daddy!
5. Favourite meal – salmon, a healthy wholesome salad and some warm Indian naan bread mmmm! Oh ya, love sushi too, any day every day. Ok fine, I love food – mostly to eat it not cook it myself (waste of my hotelier training!)
6. My husband and I each have a ‘special handshake’ with each of our 3 kids that end with hugs and kisses every night.
7. If time travel were a thing, I would go back and be a SAH Mum just to have the ‘privilege’ of raising my kids when they were babies – no greater joy now that that is what I’m doing!
8. I’m learning to be less of a perfectionist and embracing progress instead – work in progress!
9. If there is 1 talent I desperately wish I had, it would be singing (think Whitney Houston voice).
10. My love language is acts of service (starting with someone else doing the mountain of laundry that’s never ending!)