Making memories with family in a fast-paced world
Lifestyle blogger wants us to create memories with our loved ones in a fast-paced world
For Monika Hibbs, creating her first book was as much a personal passion project as it was a professional next step.
“I went in thinking, ‘ You know what? If this does well or doesn’t do well, at least I did it for myself. And for my family,’” Hibbs says. “It was one of those things that I can now check off my bucket list.”
For the book, which is titled Gather at Home: Over 100 Simple Recipes, DIYS, and Inspiration for a Year of Occasions, Hibbs admits she kept her expectations in check during the writing process. By doing so, she says, the end result became better than she ever could have imagined.
“I feel like when you go in with that expectation, the results blow you away,” Hibbs says. “I wasn’t trying to create the next best book out there. It was just like, let’s try this out, and at the end of the day, we will have a book in front of us.
“And that, in itself, is such an achievement for me.”
The lifestyle blogger and owner of Monika Hibbs Home says the hardcover book will become a keepsake for her three children, Liam, Lillya and Blake.
“The thing that actually excites me the most is to have it captured for my kids, to have for them to look back on over the years,” Hibbs says.
That emphasis on family is something her longtime followers and fans will be happy to see comes through prominently throughout the pages of her new book.
“I was really focused on family, and as the title says, gathering at home. Even including my mom’s recipes in the book was just super-special to me,” she says. “I really, really wanted to create this representation of my family and our everyday life touches in the book. So, it becomes real for the reader. It’s not just a bunch of recipes and DIYS on the page. It becomes a story in amongst it.
“And that really was my favourite part, trying to create that story. And really being able to engage with the reader in that way.”
After starting her blog, then called The Doctor’s Closet, in 2011, Hibbs — who was on track to become a physician — quickly came to realize that her passion for writing surpassed her desire to pursue medicine.
“I started it for myself as an hour a day when I could not think about medicine,” Hibbs explains. “That kind of evolved. And then I walked away from medicine not even a year later.”
Despite not knowing where the shift would take her, Hibbs says she was eager to follow a path that would, in the end, see her doing something that she loved.
“When I look back at medicine, I loved medicine and I loved helping people, but it wasn’t necessarily an innate passion of mine,” she says. “I know a lot of people that are stuck in very, very successful jobs and positions that took a lot of years of schooling to get to and they’re not even happy. So, I’m so grateful and proud to be in a place that I love my job and am so excited for each new step.”
She admits that, looking back, she never could have imagined it would grow to become a full- time career that would see her employ several full-time staff, as well as, more recently, her husband Troy.
“Hard work has never scared me or intimidated me. I knew that, whatever I chose to do, if I worked hard, it would be successful,” Hibbs says.
“But, if you would have told me that I would be writing a book because of that decision to start a blog, it would have blown my mind.”
Hibbs’s popularity has grown to include an online following of more than 184,000 fans who are drawn to her perfectly curated images of her home, DIYS, recipes and more.
“It’s very classic and traditional. Timeless and inviting,” Hibbs says of her esthetic. “I’m all about hosting and entertaining and creating memories. So, I would say it’s a little bit of something for everybody.”
Hibbs also took that “something- for- everybody” approach when she decided what to include in the book, which highlights simple recipes and do- it- yourself creations to elevate a family gathering or party.
“I really stress throughout the book that it can be a gathering big or small. It doesn’t have to be this elaborate, long- table dinner in your backyard,” she says.
“To me, those moments are special and come naturally to me, I get excited to host those kinds of parties. But, I really wanted it to be inviting to everybody. So, even a morning breakfast with your family or with your girlfriends. Those are still moments where we can gather together. They don’t have to be 50- plus people. It can be two, three, four or five.”
When prompted to pick a favourite recipe and DIY from the book, Hibbs pointed to the Heirloom Tomato Pasta — “insanely delicious” and “so easy to make,” she says — as well as the decorated Easter eggs. “It looks so intricate and impossible to do that when you first look at it, you think I can’t do this, and then you realize what an easy process it is,” she says. “It’s almost like a DIY for dummies because it looks so good after.”
Simplicity, but with maximum effect, is the whole point of the book, she stresses.
“We all live at such a fast pace these days. And I feel that too. I do last- minute Skip the Dishes, which I think is totally fine. But, in those moments where you are celebrating a special event or occasion, gathering your friends, or your cousins or your kids to create these little DIYS is so fun,” Hibbs says. “So, this can also be a place where people can open up a page and trust us knowing that we’ve done it, it is doable.
“It’s about creating those memories while creating the projects as much as it is about creating the project itself.”