At home with Sophie Cottrell, editor of Sceen'ry magazine

Inspired by her years living in different places around the world, Sophie created Sceenr’y magazine in 2016, each edition features the hidden gems and local favourites of some of the best cities in the world.

“Creating a print travel magazine has been the hardest, wildest, best decision that I have made” Born and raised in Perth by her serial entrepreneur parents, Sophie reflects that having such fearless role models is what gave her the courage to start the magazine. “I think since they always had a mentality of ‘why not!?’ I adopted this thinking of ‘if you want it, you can just go do it’. This kind of bravery definitely encouraged me to take big risks.

I chatted to Sophie about creating a community around you and the stillness that home brings.

Tell us about your childhood

I grew up with my dad owning his own plumbing business and my Mum being incredibly brave and home-schooling me and my three siblings. We didn’t fit the stereotype of homeschooling because my Mum was too social and too fun to let us ever get like that. We tried a little bit of everything and was always involved in the most creative activities. I graduated from high school and became a corporate travel consultant.

Finish these statements for us ...

I care more about… people than I do success or anything else. The reason I fell in love with travelling was people. Meeting incredible humans from around the world whose stories are second to none. I love hosting people in my home. I love taking the time to listen, encourage, and cheer on people. I feel as though if people walk away feeling supported and encouraged then that is the most successful thing that I can do.

My home is… my safe place, my place of rest. Over the years I have learnt to value rest more than I could have imagined. I have learnt to listen to my body, not push itself beyond reason, but to take care of it and slow it down and rest. Home is that space for me. I love having people in my home, I love creating warm spaces. I love the stillness that home brings.

I am most grateful for… my family. They are my support system, my encouragers and they always have my back. I am also deeply grateful for my community. Whether they are here in Perth or scattered around the globe, I have so many people in my corner who encourage and fight for me and that is truly the greatest gift of the heart.

The meal I love making the most right now… I am a little Italian obsessed at the moment. I have been watching Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix, and have been inspired by simple cooking. Like, salting your meat before putting it in the fridge, heating your pan before adding oil and so many other little tips. With that being said, I am currently making a lot of creamy Italian sausage pasta and then a Paleo Zuppa Toscana soup which is this Italian deliciousness and has my mouth watering right now. I also love baking, so I am making a lot of vegan breakfast muffins. 

Slow living to me means… being intentional with where you put your time. I think the essence of slow living is intentionality. Not running your way through life in a blur that you have forgotten to think, but being fully present wherever you are. It is really easy to keep living for the next thing but you will find yourself missing out on the beauty of the current thing, the current place, the people in front of you. It is not worth pushing so fast through life, that you forget to stop and absorb where you currently are. That is a lesson I am still learning and still cultivating.

Have a look at the print and digital editions of the magazine over at Sceen'ry.