Hooray, I’ve just re-opened my Good Clothing Company Etsy site! Although it has been a while, design, colour, shaping, and hand has not left me, although I had temporarily left it. Not a day went by without a thought that I would continue. I just needed to clear out and regroup, and here I am.
It’s been a time – good, sweet, yet challenging all the same. So much. Since the last time I wrote, I’ve (along with Andrea Taylor, best friend and co-conspirator in life’s grand adventures) packed up our lives from Kelowna, BC to Saint Martins, NB, Canada. We left a two bedroom condo, heeding the call of, “Drive East, Middle Aged Women!” to trade it in for a character house (built in 1902) and studio space in a gorgeous seaside town by the Bay of Fundy. We left British Columbia in a swift move (although we had been planning for years), in less than a month from listing the condo to packing up our belongings, putting them into storage, and moving out.
We got a new car, drove around the province to visit all our families, then headed east, no set place in mind, other than the Canadian Maritimes, where the people are friendly and a house with a yard could be affordable, a dream we had almost completely given up on.
It was a move on sheer instinct and when we saw our house, we knew it had called to us. And we love St. Martins. The people, the creativity, the peace, the beauty. People say you come here to be healed and soothed, and they are not kidding.
After settling in, I thought I would just get right back to work, zip bang. After all, New Brunswick is amazingly steeped in culture, arts, and creativity, we’d fit right in and go at light speed designing and writing. Um, no…I crashed. I had creative block that I only heard of in realms of mythological proportion. I tried to get started, sort out my studio, but it got so bad I could not even look at or touch my fabrics and it completely gobsmacked me. I remember one day attempting to sort out my boxes of threads, tools, fabrics, works in progress, and collapsing in a heap of tears. All these old fears and trepidations came flooding in, some I thought I had long since dealt with. I then realized how hard the last few years had been, as they were for many. Covid isolationism, financial setbacks, world turning upside down, family issues of care and dying, grief, even the process of now getting what we wanted with a dream come true felt overwhelming. So, to heal.
And things are getting better now. I’ve talked and cried so much out, put certain things to rest, resolved and reasoned with old and new friends, kind and kindred spirits, and time alone to process, feeling still a little woogedy, but much stronger. I’ve unpacked my stuff, took my Etsy shop out of vacation mode, and began making some new creative connections. Biggest of all, I’ve started to plan and dream again, even getting new fabrics and starting new items. I’ll be adding more items shortly, and in the meantime, feel free to have a gander at the site by clicking here and pick out something pretty for yourself while you’re there.
Thank you for reading. I thought of just glossing over what the last while has been for me – easy, breezy, but I needed to be honest. And for anyone out there who goes through not being okay, that’s okay, too. Feel all you need to, talk it, cry it out, and take the time you need to get better. Because one day you will.
Wishing you goodness,
Heather
Good Clothing Company 