new workspace = self care

It may not sound like these two go hand in hand, but try making all your dreams come true while in the presence of another creative brain merely feet away.... Yes, I absolutely LOVE our small house, but it is sometimes a challenge to keep my ideas flowing when my workspace is an open loft....and Christian is either writing music, playing music loud, or watching movies when I have time to spare and am trying to get in my creative groove.... and getting in that groove is a big part of self care as much as daily physical exertion for me.

Last year, I knew there was something brewing for the building on the property, but I was a bit confused as to what direction I wanted to go in.... part of me wanted to make it into something that could be doubled as a commercial kitchen. Another part of me wanted to turn it into a small apartment for out-of-towners. It wasn't until I actually started planning a temporary (or long term) housing situation for animals (ex: chicken ICU has been our laundry room), that ideas started flowing .... then as I was doing the initial planning, it started becoming clear what I wanted... The roof repairs were first. My plan was to just get the basics done. Then came the ceiling. Then it was more clear......

As most of you probably remember, I used to sell quite a bit of vintage clothing and housewares here in an online store and on Etsy. I had a few big 'yard' sales in the years past because when we moved, there was just no room for inventory, however I still have several bins of clothing stored away in this former 'dry storage' building.... I actually loved selling and having little photoshoots for my pieces...
Not only was it fun to do these shoots, it was more special when someone with not a whole lot of confidence would agree to participate..... There is nothing like seeing someone come out of their shell as you watch their confidence levels go up.... Below are a few of my all-time favorite shots... I admit that digging through these made me super excited to get back into vintage clothing and photoshoots for the store....

....now this is where the self-care part comes in. You see all these photos? They each made me SO HAPPY. every part. from picking out the outfits for each model, to setting up the shots, to yelling "give me what ya got!" to editing afterwards. This is definitely what I want to do more of in the coming years....

So... this new workspace will provide me the freedom to dabble in these photoshoots again, sell off some of my vintage pieces, which might fund more fun vintage-searchin' road trips, which will in turn bring me more of that in which I need in the self-care department....

A few things I have decided that will be utmost priority, is staying organized. I basically dismantled the online store before because in the new house, it was impossible to be organized in such a small space, and when it came time to ship something out, half the time I would waste hours looking for it....

Anyway, I am looking forward to what the next 6 months will bring and am hoping to have all the clothing out of the bins by the end of next month! After that is done, expect more shelter dog pics, and more field trips for Reece & Coco!!

Happy Wednesday, y'all! Tomorrow brings Christian's mixtape, although I am pretty sure if it goes up tomorrow, it will be the last one for a while while we try to find a similar format.... the one we currently are using goes offline this week... boo.

xoxo

-s