Seeking Simplicity

For a long time now, I have been seeking simplicity.

And life before this transition was anything but.

By now, you’ve probably heard that we bought an 1870s house for Folkling.


Buying a house for your business may not seem simple, and in a lot of ways, it isn’t.

But that’s just when you look at it close up, with blinders on.

Seeing only the endless projects, all there is to do.

How much more you are now physically responsible for.

Believe me, there have been many days that I’ve woken up over the past two months and it’s been hard for me to see anything other than those things.

To not be overwhelmed.

To not think “what did we just do…”

Because before opening again, there is a lot to do.

But sometimes instead of just putting one foot in front of the other all of the time,

you need to step back,

pause

and look at the big picture.

Where are you going?

What are you working towards?

What do you want your life to look like?

In a lot of ways, I was on autopilot over the last few years.

Just trying to keep things going.

Just continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

There was a system in place and I kept pushing the buttons to make it go, just like it always had.

But I wasn’t really headed to where I wanted to go.

And I think the thing that I have learned time and time again in my life, is that you often have to do the big flip-everything-upside-down thing that seemingly makes everything more complicated, to reveal the bigger picture and bring clarity.

Because when it all shakes out, and the transition is over, things are often in the aftermath— simpler.

And you’re actually somewhere you want to be.

Or you’re headed towards where you want to go.

The shaking up, in a way, allows for all of the unnecessary to fall by the wayside, and you're often left with the essential core of what you started with.
And sometimes that's necessary. To go through that process to get back to the core.

And that’s why we left our objectively perfect, brick & mortar on Main Street.

And while I do miss our shop windows… I don’t really miss a lot of the other complications, set backs and frustrations that came with that space.

This decision was about the big picture.

This decision was about seeking simplicity.

Seeking simplicity is important to me because as you may know— Owen and I strive to live a simple life.

We don’t own, nor do we watch any TV.

We don’t have any streaming subscriptions, or really any subscriptions for that matter, save for the ones necessary for the business.

We buy most things used or secondhand or learn to do without.

We actually do without, a lot.

We don’t have any pets.

We don’t own a lot of tools or gadgets or screens.

When there’s an errand within walking distance, we walk.

We wear the same things a lot.

We take care of what we have and when it breaks, we fix it or mend it.

We use cloth napkins and rags and don’t by paper products.

We recycle, we reuse, we reduce.

We don’t eat out often.

We make our coffee at home every day.

When we travel it usually involves camping and keeping our expenses to a minimum.

I don’t get my nails done, or my hair, or my eyebrows, or go anywhere to do anything “beauty” related for that matter.

We drive old cars.

We buy in bulk.

When we need entertainment, we spend time outside.

I am not saying the alternative to any of these decisions are inherently bad by any means.

We all have different priorities, needs and aspects of what brings us joy.

My point is, these are the things that we have consciously chosen to implement in our lives to live as simply as we can.

This is what simple living has looked like for us.

So that we can get to where we want to go.

And we are always finding new ways to do that.

Look at through another lens— it’s being frugal. Mindful. Being content with what we have.

And in our personal lives, this is often second nature for us.

But with Folkling— There was a different narrative.

There was a lot that did not feel simple with Folkling.

To make Folkling work in its former iteration involved me individually around the clock working the jobs of more than one person, having multiple part time employees, and having very little margin in my life.

Not owning our building meant that we were limited in what we were able to do with our vision.
To say nothing of the many aspects (and people) that are out of your control when you rent a space. Or the very real feeling that you are month after month throwing your money away with your rent check and not building anything of substance that will last and be yours.

Being a prominent store front on a downtown Main Street also meant that we constantly had to hear the public complaining outside our door (and often in our DMs…) about our limited hours.

Many people didn’t understand the ethos and vision that we had, or what it took to implement it. And that’s okay, but hearing about it all day everyday while I was behind the door working, started to wear on me.

Folkling also derives a lot of inspiration from nature, and not having any around the shop, or implemented into my work day, felt lifeless and disorienting.

And then there was the aspect of having to spend countless hours on a screen day after day, to run the business. Which took me away from the people in my life and limited my ability to be without my phone.

To say nothing of not having traditional weekends or time off, and routinely having a six, sometimes seven, day work week.

I’m getting too into the weeds now…

My point is, my values, what I live out and embody day to day in my personal life, felt disconnected once I showed up at work.

And while your job certainly doesn’t have to be 100% in line with your values, sometimes the very real bottom line is that you need a paycheck to pay your bills with and provide for your family.

And that is more than okay.

But Folkling is different.

Because I created it.

It is an extension of me.

It is my art.

It is my values.

It is the culmination of everything that I have lived and breathed my whole career as an artist.

And after four years it was starting to look like something I didn’t recognize.

Something that was motivated not by my values, but the need to pay our rent, our employees.

Something that had to be re-stocked frequently enough to be open to the public every five days.

Something that had to be together enough to make a post on the grid every day.

Something that was constant enough to have a new collection online every week.

Something that was available enough to immediately answer any question or need of any customer at any given hour of any day.

I found myself often cutting corners on my values and vision because of how overloaded I was and time and time again thinking:

“This isn’t right, this isn’t why I started doing this.”

And so, largely thanks to Owen, who is often the one to help gently guide and remind me of the big picture,
(in contrast to my barreling through, get-shit-done, work-around-the-clock work ethic) we did the big flip-everything-upside-down thing.

In the name of a better life. A slower life.

In the name of our vision and our values.

In the name of simplicity.