WARNING: A family size bag of potato chips was harmed in the making of this article.

Testing testing, is this thing on? Hello. Hi! Ok so, after going MIA for a casual 5 years it gives me great pleasure (with a side of embarrassment) in welcoming you back to the authentik – an Aussie lifestyle site and low key creative agency all about keeping it real.

Not sure if you picked up on it, (and if you’re new here just smile and nod), however it seemed only fitting to reference lyrics from the same Adele song I titled my first ever article introducing this thing called “the authentik” back in 2015 BC (before covid.) The article was titled “HELLO…IT’S ME”, and since journeying through the pits of hell and back, “HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE” seemed more than appropriate.

I know you must have been worried sick during our unintended hiatus (actually a little offended no one filed a missing person report) and wondering where the hell we have been this whole time, why we are back, and who that random guy and baby is in the photo?! Well friends, your much anticipated questions (perhaps even prayers? Ok no I won’t flatter myself), have been answered.

So…ALOT has happened over the past 5 years and I’m sure that if I didn’t go through a traumatic separation, become a single mum with a 1 year old and have a (second) quarter life crisis we would have over 300k followers by now and I would be getting paid to sunbake around pools of 5 star hotels in gifted bikinis that leave little to the imagination…you live and you learn people! #noregrets #iregreteverything

Along with my wasted potential, what I do have is a much greater sense of self, an amazing fiancé Jake – who my now 6 year old Olive and I adore, our cheeky 2 year old daughter Dot who instigates a lot of “she’s busy isn’t she” comments, our rescue dog Daphne who has undiagnosed dog IBS and zero spatial awareness causing us to trip over 50 times a day…oh and 3 ridiculous fluffy chickens who ruined the garden and invited a colony of rats to stay. Living the dream people, living the dream!

I also decided it was a great idea to start a sustainable maternity underwear label in the thick of my stint as a young single mum (because as if it wasn’t hard enough already lol), and I guess in a way it was a big “F U” to society and their unrealistic, un relatable and outdated image of motherhood/ womanhood, as well as to anyone who underestimated me and my situation.

“Along with my wasted potential, what I do have is a much greater sense of self…”

I wanted to empower and inspire women to stay true to who they are, to not be afraid to stand out and feel confident in their own skin – things I struggled with in my transition to motherhood. Despite the countless challenges along the way, the brand gave me an outlet to do just that! However, there was still something missing for me.

You know that ex boyfriend you can’t seem to shake, no matter how hard you try (come on we’ve all been there.) The one that starts creeping back into your thoughts as soon as you start getting your life back on track, haunting you in your dreams. It’s the one you start accidentally (repeatedly) drunk texting no earlier than 11pm on a Saturday night – well, the authentik was THAT boyfriend, and although I hated to admit it, it was true. All of it. The authentik completed me and I came to the realisation that I needed this bad boy back in my life.

INSERT EXCERPT FROM ORIGINAL INTRO ARTICLE BECAUSE LAZY**

‘With so many weird ideas constantly bouncing around in my head, I craved an outlet for collaboration, creation and inspiration. A place where I could explore different ways of sewing together concepts and ideas – endeavouring to make imagination flourish in the everyday. In this fast paced, chaotic and materialistic world I find myself craving simplicity, originality and authenticity. As millennial’s, gen X, Y, Z, L, M, N, O, P striving for that Aussie dream that our parents so willingly tell us they simply ‘worked hard for’, we are time poor, and let’s face it, usually just down right poor; so relatable, achievable style, ideas and tips are like GOLD.

I’m inspired by real people and am a self-confessed ‘people watcher’ wondering what’s behind the faces I see on the street – what’s their story? Are they a cat or dog person? Yes maybe I should have been a psychologist, but mostly I feel as though there is so much to learn from one another.

By collaborating and getting to know like-minded people who know a thing or two about a thing or two, we can awkwardly smile, hold hands and stumble through this thing called life together.

For me it’s a text from one of my more Martha Stewart friends with a simple and tasty recipe, finding out what potatoes are best for mash by calling my mum from the supermarket, weird beauty tips picked up from watching too much Kardashian’s, getting a heads up that New Balance sneakers are now COOL, and of-course furnishing my whole house directly from the side of the road. Sound familiar? It’s the little things that help to make our lives that little bit easier and that little bit more enjoyable. Sure there’s the more serious stuff and credit card worthy purchases thrown in, but being at a cross road it’s all about mixing the old with the new, pairing the cheap and cheerful with the statement pieces, eating 2 minute noodles one night and roast dinner the next, the 7am dash make-up and the tinder date face. We need balance in life and that’s what the authentik is all about.

“…we can awkwardly smile, hold hands and stumble through this thing called life together.”

I’m a terrible housewife, can’t cook to save my life, followed by a trail of mess, drowning in laundry; and when I do manage to wash stuff I some how cover everything in little white balls of fluff. I am a renowned plant serial killer, shamelessly blast Justin Bieber in my soccer mum car, and I have no idea what a green, blue or any coloured slip is and cannot comprehend daylight savings let alone politics to save my life. What does High School even teach you? #stillhavntusedalgebra #shakespearsux’

So look, I may not have it all together, but that’s what the authentik is STILL all about; daring to be ourselves and standing in the presence of our imperfections with childlike surrender and trust. It’s about being authentik and true to who you are.

Now that I’ve come full circle and emerging out the other side of what has been a wild half a decade (touch wood), I think it’s only right I start sharing my weird undiagnosed ADHD brain with you all again – TBH I need an outlet for my thoughts and ideas otherwise I go a bit crazy ‘chicken’ lady.

It’s pretty much a form of counselling for me. So yes that makes you my therapists…FREE therapists might I add. The best things in life are free, am I right?!

In-between making the 1000th snack for my kids and diffusing another toddler tantrum, I will hide in the bathroom, throw caffeine fuelled all nighters underneath mountains of washing, and simply do whatever else it takes to bring you content that marches to the sound of it’s own drum, hopefully delivering you with a richer editorial experience.