Past Lives

Everyone has a story about past lives, don't you? Well it's hard to say where somethings begin and other things end. But for me I made a very definitive change in my life when I left Sydney to move to the country and live on a farm with my hubby to be. I must say this was an incredibly daunting change in my life. I had studied and worked my way up in my career and was feeling at a peak when these changes came along. I did continue my career but with a work from home arrangement.  I also traveled back and forth to Sydney at least once a week, 3hours each way. On these days I would be up at 3.30am, out the door by 4.30am and in the office by 8am. At the time, pre-kids, these seemed like ridiculous hours, but in hindsight possibly just prepared me for the years to come! I had many friends suggest to me that I should start a handmade business so I did not have to travel. I knew realistically there would be a big difference in income from a corporate role to a small handmade business just starting out. We were in the middle of the worst drought in our lifetime, some say possibly the worst drought in history. With so much uncertainty I needed to work my corporate job. I dreamt of my handmade business, of making bags, I even made a few and showed people at this stage.


But anyone who has lived through drought will know the uncertainty is blinding. I really don't know how my husband would get up everyday and go out fighting to keep stock alive, hand feeding them day in and day out, only to find at the end on sale day their value was minuscule. To constantly watch the weather forecast and be heart broken when the forecasted rain passed you by. In this photo hubby and I watched as storms brewed, the wind blew and not a drop fell...it is truly heart breaking and I don't think I can relate it to any other feeling I have ever felt or experienced in my life. I still get a glimpse of those feelings if we do not get the rain that is forecast, even when we don't need it.

So needless to say at this point in my life my dream of Winnie&Clem felt just that, a dream, and not ever to be a reality.

Rough Seas and Icebergs

Upside Down - Inside Out! 

Have you ever felt that you are turning yourself inside out or upside down trying to achieve something that is new to you. Perhaps when you first became a parent, perhaps when you started a new job, perhaps when you returned to work after having kids, or perhaps just making a new meal. Well for me embarking on the journey of a handmade business, working from home, with kids, in a rural area has presented many many challenges!

I am not qualified in design, dressmaking, the arts, marketing or any other related field to my new found venture. In fact I hold a Biomedical Science degree, specialising in nutritional science and my entire working life has been in the pharmaceutical industry.  I feel like a duck out of water, or one riding very rough seas. But as the quote above would indicate it is through these difficult waters that we learn our best skills. I can see this to be the case in how far I have come and what I have learnt in just the past two years of running Winnie&Clem . But what you see on the surface of a handmade business is very much like an iceberg in these waters, there is always more to a story and somethings are just not a story to tell but a journey to travel, to live and learn.

I invite you to share this journey with me!