laura k bray

How do you stay in touch with people once you leave social media? This one of the main concerns I hear from people when they find out that I’ve quit social media. To be truthful, you will fall out of touch with some people. But you know, that’s not always a bad thing. At least it wasn’t for me. According to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the number of people humans can sustain relationships with is 150. He based this number (called Dunbar’s Number ) on the size of the human brain. The thesis is that primates are wired to be in group sizes that will assist with survival. While there are arguments about the validity of this theory, I know I feel stressed-out when I have too many relationships going on and not enough time to nurture them.   Being a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend is very important to me. It brings me joy to take care of the people I love. I cook for them, check-in on them regularly, and give them my focused attention when I am with them. But I mus...

I took my first social media detox in November 2018. I decided to take a break for 30 days. It felt amazing and I learned a lot about myself and my use of social media. I returned to social media, as planned, determined to take the lessons I learned from the detox to mindfully interact with Facebook and Instagram. I had the very best intentions. By May 2019, all my good intentions were forgotten and I found I was back to a place where social media was affecting me negatively . I promised myself that I would get back on track. (You know where this is going, right?) Before long, I was back to what I perceived as an unhealthy relationship with Instagram and Facebook. Something needed to change. The pandemic hit. I used it as an excuse to stay 'connected'. Instead of feeling connected, I watched in horror as people tore each other apart online, saying things they would never to say to one another if they were face to face.  In September 2020, I deleted my business page and told my...

"If I dismiss the ordinary-waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen-I may just miss my life." -Laura Pashby Lately I've been reading Little Stories of Your Life: Find Your Voice, Share Your World, and Tell Your Story by Laura Pashby. It's so good! While I think the book's focus is on micro-blogging (aka Instagram posts), I'm finding so much inspiration for my longer form writing in it. The exercises are inspiring and I'm using them as writing prompts and ways to improve my photography. If you haven't read it, I  recommend you get it. One of the prompts is to make lists that you can later use for storytelling and I thought I would share one of my lists with you today-a list of my favorite things in my studio. While my whole house is filled with things I love, I typically save the most beloved things for my studio. It's where I curl-up to write and stitch so it's very important to me to fill the room with things that make...

The first thing I ever baked was a batch of Bisquick ™ chocolate chip cookies. The recipe was my mom’s go-to chocolate chip recipe. It was in a yellow cookbook, sold as a way to market Bisquick ™ . The cookbook was cheaply made and already falling apart when I got my hands on it, the cardboard dangling off the metal spiral binding. Obviously, it was a well-loved cookbook. ( Excerpt from The Bisquick ™ Diaries by Laura Bray ) So many of my memories come from food. Family traditions, smells, and tastes are like gateways into my childhood and now, the childhood of my daughter. It was with this thought in mind that I chose the word NOURISH for my Word of the Year for 2022.  Nourish will be the anchor for my days. I will explore NOURISH in all it's meanings: both in it's relationship to food as well as how I nourish the people I love and even myself, through acts of kindness and sustenance (food or otherwise). With that in mind, I thought I wanted to share the Chocolate Chip ...