Vertigo and Transformation

I've always been a control freak.  My life was arranged in neat and orderly rows, everything in its place, schedules followed, no deviations from the straight and narrow.  That was my safety net.  Nothing random, no flying by the seat of my pants, no chaos, always in control.

This is what my life looks like right now.  There is no order, no control.  The universe is teaching me about randomness, about letting go, about jumping into the void to see what happens.  It's quite wonderful and very scary. And it's quite dizzying, hence the vertigo.

If you follow my blog, you know that in the past year, my husband and I have sold our home in Massachusetts, shed our lives of all our "stuff", and moved to Florida to embrace a warmer climate and a far friendlier community.  During the past 5 months we have lived in 2 temporary homes while enjoying the summer in New England and then while searching for a house here in our new city.  We've been living out of boxes and have packed, unpacked and packed 3 times.  Last week, we moved into our new permanent home.  This week, I am settling into my new studio space.

They say our lives change in 12 year cycles.  In my case, the cycles are sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, but they are definitely real. In thinking about the chaos that controls my life right now, I suddenly realized that the last big change in my life was exactly 12 years ago when I left a corporate job to pursue my dream and started Couture Allure in 2001.  Wow.

I don't know what any of this has to do with vintage clothing, but I do know that there are new and exciting things happening in my tumultuous world right now.  I am ready to embrace a less rigid existence, hence the transforrmation.  I hope you'll stick around to see what happens next!

By the way,I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to write your thoughtful and insightful comments regarding the question "Are you tired of vintage clothing?" last week. I continue to contemplate them with great interest.

Couture Allure is On The Move!

As you probably know by now, Couture Allure is on the move.  We are headed to Florida later this week.  Blogging will be sporadic as I pack up the business and get the whole family from here to there.  Shipping will be suspended starting Wednesday, Sept. 11 through Sept. 23 or earlier if I can manage it.  Thanks for your patience and wish me luck!

We've Moved!

The move is complete!  Thank you to everyone for your well wishes during this process.  It has been a long and arduous task.  The estate sale was a huge success with the help of a very dear friend and we managed to get rid of most everything we no longer need.  The packing up of the business and house took days and days, boxes and boxes.  Downsizing from a 2700 sq. ft. house to an 1100 sq. ft. one is very freeing though.  We have pared our lives down to the essentials and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to go from the bedroom to the kitchen in a few simple steps instead of down 2 flights of stairs! 

I'm still unpacking the business and trying to fit everything I need into a smaller space.  It will take some clever space planning, but I'll get it done and hopefully I'll be back up to full speed within a few days.  The best part is, unpacking boxes of vintage that were in storage is like finding the treasures all over again.  I can't wait to show you!