What is your name?
Maria Ziemann
What do you do for living and where do you do it?
I am the Head of PR at BOLD Communication & Marketing GmbH in Berlin. It is a Lifestyle PR agency with a focus on Fashion and Design with clients such as Burton, Kenzo, Caran D’Ache, Valentine Gauthier, Freitag or G-SHOCK, to name a few.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
That would be my colleagues. I love my team. If you spend most of your days away from home it is great to know you are spending it with people who got your back and share the same spirit.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
My favorite thinng is going to markets – preferably while away and traveling. I organize my own independent design market named, VOODOO MARKET in Berlin but we are currently on a baby break. I love discovering local handmade products and regional and seasonal food. That’s why my favorite market in Berlin is the farmer’s market on Lausitzer Platz each Friday. It is very small but the selection and offering spans from leather boots and gloves to handmade butter and bread to handmade Alpaca knitwear from Peru or seasonal fruit and vegetables. There is even a guy with a small Italian motorbike offering fresh coffee specialties. But one oft he craziest markets I’ve ever been to must be the market in Lourmarin, Provence, France. Handemade pottery, baskets, killims and I even found a lady who specialises in antique French linen. Pure heaven!
What was your last travel destination and what will be the next?
We flew with our four month old daughter to Sicily and stayed on an orange- and mango farm in a small village named Carruba, east of the Etna directly at the Sea. We got to pick our own oranges for fresh juice in the morning and the little one enjoyed the sound oft he waves each night. 😉 We are taking parental leave starting in April and will tour through France. We haven’t planned much where to start but we will stop in Normandie, Bretagne, Cognac and Provence (again).
Favorite city?
Melbourne – how I would love to live there. People are so relaxed, temperatures are mild and it is by the sea. Not much more that I need. But Berlin is the nicest place to raise my little girl.
Are you on Instagram, if yes can we follow you? 🙂
I got two accounts: @berlinprgirl (work and my favorite hometown) as well as an „adventures of a mom“ account @minivoodoo_official. I didn’t want to bother all of my friends with my pregnancy hormones so I got a separate account to exchange with other parents and cool kids. I met more and more interesting parents and it started to become a small personal parenting blog.
Show me your 3 favorite Instagram images you took!
Sorry – I think the three need to go (3). I picked some more because I couldn’t limit myself. Scuzi!
Left:My favorites: Food from the market, artisan and vintage interior, good tea and traveling – this was in Provence. Right: An hommage tot he best team I’ve worked with. The way it is in PR – people change every now and then but this crew became friends and we are still close.
Left:Discovered this waterfall near Byron Bay, Australia through Instagram and it turned out tob e one of our highlights of traveling. We walked a hidden path in the rainforest and when we finally made it, we swam under the waterfall which carried lits of water thanks to heavy rain a few days earlier. Right: One oft he pleasures of my work before becoming a mom was traveling – this was one of my favorite trips with a client to Laax, Switzerland. Never had I seen this much snow and mountains before. Loved it!
Left: This is me before my pregnancy but it could be me now as well. I still think of myself as someone who doesn’t take herself too serious. #nervergrowingup. Middle: Our baby moon on Lanzarote. This was the first time I could see my baby move – one of a kind moment. Right: Almost there – I was still very active and enjoyed my pregnancy. This photo was taken in Britzer Gärten, Berlin at the birthday bash of a colleague. I was simply very slow and needed to lay down whenever possible.
This was the day we brought our daughter home – I have to admit that it was pretty strange returning home being one more – but also very exciting. Life as a parent changes everything around for you. It is our greatest achievement. In this pic, she is just 5 days old and surrounded by some „buddies“ we gathered for her. Her dad’s old toy whale, an owl doll from Peru (a gift from a traveling friend) and lot’s of toys from independent designers, I got to know through my own project: VOODOO MARKET, an independent design market.
Left: Thank you for traveling with Deutsche Bahn – we traveled to a wedding with a 6 week-old baby and discovered the family compartement in trains. If the other families are with babies as wll – you even get to sleep while the little one is snoozing. Right: One of my favorite images because you can see how much we’ve arrived at being parents – despite the fact that it is our biggest challenge as well. The love that arrives once you have a baby puts everything else into perspective. I finally see who I am and what I am capable of doing – because I am stronger than ever before but I could not imagine doing it without my boyfriend.
Left: This image late on an autumn day with Summer temperatures. We had the longest Summer in Berlin. It was beautiful. Also, I love carrying my girl. Have you ever felt a sleeping baby’s belly move near your heart?! There are many more reasons why I love it but the list is so long – follow my adventures and you’ll see why. (Is anyone else noticing how I camouflage with the background :-P) Right: This was taken in Sicilly and I just love watching these two. She was getting tired from too much fun because he was making her laugh so hard and long – that’s the most adorable thing to see.
Who do you like to follow on Instagram and why?
People I find interesting with images that inspire me or stories that are authentic. But great images are what catches me the most.
Summer or Winter?
Summer always, always, always but I got some favorite things about every other season too.
Dress or Jeans?
Jeans – I grew up wearing the hand me downs from an older brother but I learned to love wide flowing dresses in Summer.
Tv-Show or Movie?
That’s like asking me if I prefer ice-cream or brownies.
Cheese or Bacon?
Am a vegetarian and I love French food… a good cheese is everything to me.
Ocean or Mountains?
Ocean. Did I mention I grew up in the North of Germany?
Name 5 things you can’t live without, when you are going on a road-trip!
Camera, sunglasses, bikini, Birkis and a backpack
Ok, last question: if you could be an animal, what would it be? (Unicorns and dragons are counting as well!)
Batman – he ist he coolest cat out there. (He’s my favorite Superhero because he is the only self-made one with lots of gadgets. No natural superpowers.)
