Remote Learning, Relocating, and Returning to Life

September seems to have come and gone but apparently the trees didn’t get the memo. Are we the only ones with a yard full of green leaves still? Poor earth, all confused! Well, my fam and I seem in sync with with summer disorientation lingering this month.

First, by an unexpected turn of evens we found ourselves house hunting. We’ve wanted to move for years but it never seemed to be the right time. So with this opportunity suddenly appearing we thought this may be it. Well it wasn’t it. However, instead going back to the regular scheduled program we got bit by the moving bug and started house hunting in earnest. If you know anything about the current housing market you know houses are selling quicker than snow cones down under; I’m talking 15 minutes after being listed! Needless to say we came away not only with no new home but frazzled nerves. We’ve been in our little house for 20 years. We raised our kids here, laughed/cried/screamed here, entertained and pow-wowed. We got my mom’s cancer diagnosis here, my dad’s, and my husbands. This back patio of this house is where I engraved my grandson’s name and mourned his loss. So in all sense of the word this is our home. We have, what for it, one and a half bathrooms! I know! We’ve raised kids and had sleepovers under these conditions! Any who, it seems like this is where we’ll stay. The middle young adult is about to spread his wings, the teenage girl is going into college, and the little is now in the school system, albeit remote, that has been so good to my kids.

Speaking of remote, we are now in the 3rd week of remote learning and feeling totally like fish out of water. Between computers not working, codes being written and rewritten, emails being accidently deleted, folders lost… we thought we’d never get settled in but here we are. The little is in Kindergarten and his teacher is online via Zoom for the full class. Here’s something you may not know. New Jersey is one of the few states who DO NOT have a state funded public homeschool option. This means you can indeed homeschool your children but it must be through a private school. Doing so with out state funding means each homeschool family’s budget dictates whether there is an online teacher visible in real time or whether there is no teacher and only written correspondence. Other states have the option to homeschool but the state pays to have the children do so they are synced up with the local public schools. I homeschooled by daughter from 3rd grade to 8th and we had to pay for all instruction through private education. What is ironic is that now, due to Covid, remoted learning connected right to the public school is now available. So it actually is one of those silver lining things for families that were considering homeschool anyway. Due to Covid, we are saving money on private education and, In our case, the teacher is there real time, full time, explaining and taking questions. How many things in your life have ironically turned out to be a silver lining in this Covid-19 fiasco?

The third thing that happened in September… I opened a boutique ya’ll! The Boutique by CCPCL was an exciting idea who’s time had come. It was a scary, bumpy, sleep deprived ride but I did it all on my own. That is one of the most satisfying thing for me. Troubleshooting, planning, and creating on my own. I’m 47 and could easily be out of touch with technology. Don’t get me wrong it’s not easy, but I get in there, do my research and get it going. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 different videos saying the same thing in different ways, sometimes it takes reverse engineering, sometimes it takes 4 cups of coffee! In any event, the project that is yours’s is the project that you will always be proud of. I had a launch date of September 12th and I launched on September 12th! I was so moved by the support I received and the launch was a success. We opened with a bang and kind of like when you have a baby, I was simultaneously ecstatic but also acutely aware of what it will take to grow this baby.

Top take away of September?

1. If you can’t move still go to some open houses. You’ll get fresh new ideas on maximizing your space and maybe regain a whole new sense of gratitude about your current dwellings.

2. Big or small doesn’t matter, the family in the house does.

3. Even the worst circumstances can have some great silver linings.

4. Never say you can’t because you can. It may be hard, but that’s not the point. You can do it.

So what’s on tap for you in October? Now that we’re back to schedule I look forward to just settling into our routine even more. The one thing I really want to do though is to do some re-centering of myself. There’s some spiritual digging I want to do and some reaffirming of what I know to be true. I’ve found that during the quarantine some of the minutia of others has spilled over in my lane. The balance of helping others while not loosing my own grip, when does empathy become too much of a compromise, and why is it so easy to bring up self doubt. These are some questions I’m getting to the bottom of for myself, personally this month, in a kind way, not a self ridiculing way.

You’re not alone if you are still off balance, if things still don’t seem “normal,” and if you are convinced things will get worse before they get better; but all we can do is work on ourselves. Work on ourselves, love our families, be there for our tribe. Be kind, be empathetic, be generous. And give yourself a bit of time and grace.

Adventures In Boutiquing - Creative, Uncommon, Fun

So I have been head down and working my behind off trying to keep track of all that needs to be done to open the store and then actually executing whatever that is. I’ve finally got to the stage where I can see everything coming together, the to do list being checked off and launch day in clear sight!

One of the things that is in the owner’s hands is establishing who the brand is. I’ve blogged, been an artist, ran my own business, all for years so I have some branding experience. This time things were different. This is 2020, branding is is now front and center where before social media it was more subtle and called for a strategy that was pretty straight forward. Did you want to be mysterious and make people curious, or did you want to expose yourself and make people feel like you were their next door neighbor. That was basically it. Today everyone sees everything all the time. Even when you aren’t deliberately showing anything. Your brand needs to be well developed and clear in your head because you are present in many places at one time, whether you are physically there or not. And don’t forget with social media being on 24 7 there are thousands if not millions of people doing exactly the same thing you do every single day, every single moment, every single second. If you don’t know who you are you’l just disappear in the shuffle. Which is why I have three words. You may have noticed them under my logo, “Creative, Uncommon, Fun.” I think they completely express who I am and what I want to put out into the world. Even this post-Covid world where everything is no longer like it used to be, these three words still hold significance with who I am and why I create and now curate.

Creative. Creating is making something from nothing but it can also be making something new from something that already exists. Why does one create? To express themselves. Whatever expression, endearment, happiness, sadness, confusion, elation, contemplative, furious - all expressions that are expressed through creating. Whether we create a circumstance, a manifesto, a situation, paint a scene, take a picture, put together an outfit, or decide to do none of the above, we are expressing ourselves. So I say it is happening every second, why not deliberately consider what you are creating, what you are participating in, and have a say in it so it reflects who you really are?

Uncommon. The definition of common includes ordinary, standard, and plain. Need I say more? Why think what everyone else thinks, do what they do, be who everyone else is?

Fun. I think one word when I think fun. Light-hardheartedness . Is it frivolous to dare be light hearted with the state of the world today? Absolutely not, I’m no doctor but I think it just may be the remedy for the anxiety, depression and discouragement that we all feel at some point or another.

So that’s me, that’s where my head and heart is. That’s what I want to contribute to the world with my art and with my boutique. What I’m interested in now is what do you think when you hear the three words? What does creative, uncommon, fun, respectively mean to you? This will be the subject of this week I want to share your feelings and looks you create from these three words?

Adventures in Boutiquing

It is July 24, 2020 and I am launching my online boutique on September 12, 2020 and I’m currently at the what-was-I-thinking phase! The process started out slow with getting my licensing and paperwork in order, sourcing my vendors. Now I am ramped up in full on crazy business mode and I won’t deny wishing, right at this moment, that I had a partner. My to do list is 20 items long and literally break a sweat at the thought of the integrating as in “integrate your excel list to Quick Books,” or “integrate Shopify to your website.” Maybe this isn’t as much as a blog post as a inquiry as to who knows how to integrate. ANY ONE! ANYONE HERE KNOW HOW TO INTEGRATE?

I'm No Martha Stewart

As I was revamping my website to include my name change and basically the pivot I’ve done in life, I came across one of those stories that pop up on the internet when your reading or searching for something else. It’s always a list; “7 Worst Vacation Spots in the World,” “10 Deadliest Roads in America,” “5 Celebrities You Thought Were Dead.” This one was, I think, was “13 Famous Feuding Couples,” The list included Gweynth Paltrow and Martha Stewart. GP has the famous lifestyle blog and brand, and Martha Stewart… well is Martha Stewart. The article quoted MS in a Bloomberg TV interview as taking a pot shot at GP saying, “She's a charming, pretty person who has a feeling for lifestyle. She wants to be a lifestyle arbiter. Fine. Good. I think I started this whole category of lifestyle.” She later was quoted as saying in a Porter interview, "[Paltrow] just needs to be quiet. She's a movie star. If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn't be trying to be Martha Stewart."

Creating fine knitwear has been a dream of mine. Now I’m so excited to share my style with you! The knitting community rocks and it really is like a little club of happy people!

I regularly cook for my family (three still in the nest) and for my parents. My whole family and I have food sensitivities, my parents have a specific diet, and my daughter has severe food allergies. Cooking for my family takes an enormous amount of thought and preparation. To say that my meal decisions are a matter of life and death, really isn’t an exaggeration. I know there are many with food allergies and dietary concerns. I want to connect with others that are in the same circumstance.

This gives you chills if you’ve recently changed your business name to anything and added, “Living” to it as I did. Let me say, I have no intentions of being an authority on anything. I have no friends that are yogis to the stars, or that vacation in Corsica. Well, I actually do have a friend that vacas in Corsica, but you get the point. I have no dreams of fame or being anywhere in MS’s peripheral vision to bring on the wrath. I renamed my business “Living” because that’s what I’m doing. I’m living to the best of my ability and have been through some stuff. There’s been occasions where I found purpose in the challenges and setbacks of life from the fact that others could be helped, could see themselves in me, or that my reminder of gratitude what just what they needed.

I’m I licensed cosmetologist from New Jersey, by trade. I’m a skincare and makeup guide who also happens to be married for 21 years, have 4 children, and as you read on the front page of this website, I’ve been through more than the average mama-bear. The death of my grandson in Dec of 2018, was the final push I needed to semi-retired from the beauty industry and to pursue all the things that move me and give me joy. As a younger women I did everything I could think of. I always ran my own business and was a maker, creator, or artist selling what I created with my own hands. As I became older I somehow believed I wasn’t being serious about life I didn’t focus on just one thing. The focus did pay off in a lot of ways but did leave a hole. The hole, I found out, is that I need to be doing everything that brings me joy, and life.

So here I am, no Martha Stewart but I am living!

I’m the wife of a brain cancer fighter. Living with cancer effects the whole family in ways only other cancer families can relate to. Brain cancer is the least researched cancer and many people do not talk about the experience. I know the real life struggle, I deal with it daily, I want to be able to share that with others going through the same thing. I want them to know they aren’t alone.