Meet the team
get to know us
bess
founder / ceo / designer / podcast host
Bess is the creator and mastermind behind ‘Life with Bess’. Bess graduated university with a degree in Physiotherapy, only to realise 6 years later that it wasn’t her dream. She decided that she needed a change and quit her full-time job to embark on a new journey and created ‘Life with Bess’.
Forever a creative at heart, Bess has always had a project on the go, trying everything from screen printing, hand lettering, sewing her own clothes, bullet journalling, and recently refound her love for embroidery. Residing on the northside of Brisbane, Bess lives with her husband Jake and 2 Border Collies (more on both of them below).
Bess is a self-professed movie buff, and on any given day you’ll find her watching Netflix or Disney+ (with the subtitles on) while she busily works away. Fantasy is her genre of choice when it comes to both books and TV. Bess is also a huge Marvel nerd (Team Cap) and if she could choose a superpower, she’d pick teleportation – both to never be late again and to avoid traffic.
Bess’s Favourite Product:
“I love the fabric packs. Curating all the colours of fabric all together and being inspired to stitch on something different. Not to mention I love that feeling of unwinding the fabric getting ready to cut it! ”
jake’s Favourite Product:
“Thread Club, easily. I love the fact that you can collect every single skein of DMC embroidery floss possible and not need to go out to the store. Spotlight scares me! Haha.”
jake
Business brain / it helpdesk / web design & development
Jake works at LWB only part-time. The rest of his week is spent as a Financial Adviser. Jake is the dream-facilitator at LWB and has often been quoted mid-discussion with “Jake would say just go and do it”. Jake is the Instagram husband and personal cheer squad of Bess, amateur photographer, IT helpdesk if anything on the website fails and customer service when required.
Small business is truly a world of wearing many hats at once. Jake is often found putting the final touches on website listings, proof reading website copy, approving podcast edits and crunching the numbers of new products and releases.
aurora + wren
studio assistants / security / workplace wellbeing
After training four guide dog puppies, Bess and Jake longed for a dog of their own that they wouldn’t have to part with 8 months later. Enter a wheaten Border Collie called Aurora (or Rora, Roo for short) and her little brother, a Blue Border Collie Wren (sometimes referred to as Renagin).
The dogs have many important jobs at LWB including sniffing all incoming parcels and keeping the team happy with pats and belly rubs.
Aurora is also excellent security and no one gets past her spidey-senses.
with a little help from…
from the bush collective
holly + rob
WOOD WIZARDS / PHOTOGRAPHER (HOLLY) + CARPENTER (ROB)
Holly and Bess first connected on Instagram in late 2018, and quickly became close friends. Holly and Bess are both passionate photographers and Holly runs her own photography business part-time, as well as being a teacher and mum (talk about busy!).
In October 2020, Bess asked Holly and Rob, who is a builder by trade, if they would consider helping her make their own embroidery stand. The ever patient Rob said yes, and the rest is history. Rob and Holly complete the first stages of the stands, which involves sourcing timber, cutting it to size, drilling and then sanding each piece for the stands. The stands then arrive at the LWB studio where they are sanded, painted and packaged before being sent off to you!
Life with Bess respectfully acknowledges the Turrbal people, the traditional custodians of the land upon which we live and work.
We humbly acknowledge their elders past, present and future and celebrate and honour their culture.
