This past September in 2023, at a time I was feeling overwhelmed, stressed and stretched thin being over committed to my business, I decided to make a change. Moving away from being a full service floral studio to primarily a wedding and events florist. It wasn’t an easy choice for me to give up my daily orders and deliveries but one that I feel is for the best for where I am in life right now. With my husband now retired, it’s been great having him around to help me more with the floral business. But it has also made me very aware of the fact that he has more time to play and travel and to hang out with our children who live away from the area then I do. That’s one reason. Another is my parents are getting older, I’m getting older! I really want a little more time to spend hanging out with them and taking them on trips and being available to help when they need it. So saying goodbye to so many wonderful regular customers isn’t easy to do. I love my customers and designing for them. Yet in my heart I know this is the right choice for me. I know I will be happy to have these special moments creating memories with family and friends. Plus slowing down a bit will also renew my own spirit and fuel my creativity.
October was the first month with no weddings or daily orders and I enjoyed a lot of time tending to my gardens needs, cleaning and organizing the studio. As well as some time in Colorado visiting two of my west slope kiddos and sharing this trip with my parents. Their first time to see their grandson’s business in person. It was a great trip for all of us and reinforced my belief that this is the right choice for me. As I start to think about what I want next year to look like, I realized that in every area of my life, I want less to be more in 2024.
I want to commit to less floral obligations, less over committing to what other’s would like me to do, less rushing around, less go, go, going. I’d like to experience more moments of stillness, pausing to simply enjoy a sunrise or sunset without feeling like I am late for some obligation. I also want to pay more attention to my own well-being and make changes for increasing my own physical activity. I look forward to getting back out there and enjoying some hiking, biking and kayaking. Yes, dropping some extra pounds will be great for me to do as well. I look forward to staying open to changes in the coming year, to continuing to clear out clutter from my life/home/studio, leaving open space for something new to come in later on. But for now, for this moment, this next year, I simply want to focus on creating open space for possibilities. I look forward to not having my time so booked up, so I can enjoy a few moments to pause and appreciate my life and those I love.
I had an ah-ha moment a few weeks back when I changed the location of a class from a venue to my studio. There were 5 lovely souls signed up and I didn’t want to cancel but I also knew it wasn’t very smart to pay a venue to host that size of a gathering. What I found was that I enjoyed having this small group in my humble little studio. It gave us all an opportunity to just relax, enjoy creating at a slower pace and engage in more conversations between us. It was wonderful, I loved it and decided these smaller, mini classes were something that really fueled my spirit. and so I will most likely have more of them in the coming year. Details to come!
Sharing in classes and outings is really enjoyable to me, but I need to be careful not to stretch myself to thin, so this coming year instead of doing the Local Delights series for 6 months in a row like we did in 2023 we will just meet up for one or two gatherings. They too will have a different twist to them but I’ll save that surprise for another post.
Another activity I’ve done the past couple of years were farm tours and those were a big hit visiting local flower and veggie farmers. Working with the Airway Hts. Rec Center we visited a variety of farms and everyone loved the outings. This next year I will team up with both Airway and Medical Lake Rec programs so that twice as many people can join together on each tour. We will visit less farms, only 3-4 a trip instead of 5-6. We will have lunch at a farm and have more time to spend at each one. Plus a couple of the farms will be those who raise animals. So anyone who is thinking about diving into raising chickens, goats, pigs or cows will have an opportunity to learn more about raising them. Right now it’s looking like a later May and mid August date for those.
I think I will also team up with the Rec centers to do a late spring plant shopping outing. We will visit just nurseries and farms that are open to sell plants, bulbs, tubers, seeds for planting. This outing will truly be for those who would find it fun to visit several places to shop for items for your garden. The fun part about doing this is we all meet up at one location and travel together on a bus to each location. This way you can relax and visit with each other and enjoy shopping all day without having to do the driving.
All of this class information is sent out in my monthly newsletter. You can visit my website to sign up if you’re interested in hearing from me once a month on what’s coming up.
Here’s to less being more in 2024. May we all find small ways to focus more on what will better serve us in the months a head so we enjoy a happier, healthier more balanced life.
All the best to you, Sue
