2020

What an interesting year it has been.  I don’t want this post to be about COVID but that would be like ignoring the elephant in the room.  I have always been a huge fan of slow living and all that it stands for - everything from our eating and buying habits to how we interact with our community.  But the reality is I am living in a fast paced city where you are juggling many different agendas and the idea of a community is very transient.  This is a very different upbringing to the one I had - I was raised in a small town in Zambia where the TV didn’t start transmission until 5pm everyday and we were spending all of our daylight hours playing outside on the street.  

However since the pandemic, I am noticing so many elements of slow living have been brought back into our day to day lives.  We are eating more meals together as a family; many of the kids' activities have been put on hold, which means I am spending less time running around and they get much more time to just be independent; we are shopping less and, more importantly, we have spent an unbelievable amount of time walking in the woods and appreciating nature.  Yes sometimes it feels like groundhog day and I just want to board a Virgin plane and have a martini while flying somewhere (anywhere), but I do feel grateful to have slowed down.  It is definitely a conflicted feeling because there is obviously a lot of sadness around this pandemic - we see and hear about it every single day.  One area that I constantly hear about is the effect it has had on small businesses. Some have transitioned seamlessly online and managed to still keep the lights on, others not so lucky.  

I was in India right before lockdown and had worked with the artisans on some new designs.  Once I got back I never got the courage to bring them out and put them on the website - I think I felt bad that the world was falling apart and I was going to try and promote my new designs.  It just didn’t feel right, but then I remembered the joy the artisans felt when we worked on the pieces - new colors and patterns were being experimented with and it was just magical.  They have also been role models to me throughout the lockdown, as they are always smiling, no matter what is happening around them.  So, I have finally had the new designs photographed and was hoping to showcase them at pop-up shops and markets, but that is not looking too likely.  So, in the meantime, you can check them out on my website or at one of my stockists.  I am incredibly grateful to all you lovely people who have supported small businesses and chosen to adopt the "buy less buy better" approach.  Our journey has definitely changed in the last few months and who knows where it is going to next, but, for now, I am going to continue embracing the slow living vibe.  

I hope you have a peaceful and safe holiday season.  Let’s wish for a happy and healthy New Year!