It’s been a while since I felt the urge to put my thougths into writing. Mostly, I think, because I found another output for my need to create. I’ve been keeping myself busy with homeschooling the kiddos, and creating products that I love and enjoy sharing with you through my little business. Which brings me to this blog post.
I have been struggling a bit with this sales gig. If you’ve known our family for a while now, you might have followed our little adventure into minimalism.
After Norah was born, we decided to sell our house in Alfred, flip a house downtown Ottawa and, at the time, the plan was to flip a few more houses and then eventually move into our dream home with a big enough cash profit that would mean I could stay home with the kids without the money worries of living on only one income.
Well, after one flip and many emotions on my part, I suggested another course of action for our family! I had always wanted to do things a little differently. Meaning I had big dreams but lacked the ‘get up and go’ motivation to make it happen. Lucky for me, I have a husband who has a lot of drive and sometimes even stresses me out with how much he wants to accomplish things. So, I guess we are a good match after all!
I pitched in a few of my craziest dreams… a post I had seen on Facebook about a Dad who had mapped out a way for crossing the US and visiting the most National parks on his trip. And then, I shared a short youtube clip of a family who had flipped a trailer into a beautiful tiny home and lived in it full time for a while giving them time to figure out they’re next adventure as a family while being mortgage free!
(Taking our RV on it's last journey)
I started looking at kijiji adds for used trailers or buses and found the one with the perfect layout for our family! Jeremie was in!!!! We bought it, flipped it, moved into it when we sold the Ottawa house and then left with it to travel through the States for a winter!
(We said goodbye to our RV a few weeks ago)
All of that to say that, while we transitioned into tiny-living, we adopted a whole new take on material things and really downsized and became intentional with all of our purchases. Now that we have moved back into a ‘real’ house again, we found ourselves needing furniture and, well, things to fill our space.
Jeremie and I both enjoy photography and appreciate the way things can be made beautiful depending on the way you arrange and look at them. To put it simply, we love beautiful things… and I absolutely love making things beautiful!
That is where my little business comes into play. As much as I realize that what I’m selling is just stuff, and that I totally get how you can live your life fully without it. I also have this passion and desire to make things beautiful wherever I am. May it be in a tiny trailer parked somewhere in the middle of the desert in Arizona or on my porch with my many rocking chairs and a few branches I gathered from the woods while enjoying a nature walk with my children.
Beauty to me is a form of meditation! It brings me back to my body, my senses and fills me with gratitude for the life I’m able to live.
I recently picked up a book titled ‘ Selling with love’ by Jason Marc Campbell. I was struggling with the sales part of my tiny business. I felt like I was trying to push people into buying stuff… but then, at some point in the book, Jason talks about your soul’s calling. He goes on asking what is a problem you wish you could solve in the world?
For me, what really moves me, is the lack of connection, of meaningful relationships and the lack of time to make these connections and relationships happen that we now experience in our society. The busyness of everyone. How we carry our many engagements and activities as badges of honor!
A song that always moves me to tears is L’Amerique pleure by Les Cowboys Fringants. The kids now call it ‘the song that makes Mom cry.’ And Finn just can’t stand it whenever he hears it just because he knows the emotions that will follow! I tried explaining to them that the tears I shed while listening to that song has little to do with sadness but rather a moving of my Soul.
Somehow, that song explains perfeclty what I find is missing in our world and my Soul is moved in wanting to remedy that situation. I just recently realized that that’s my Soul’s calling: I want to bring back love into the mundane, everyday things.
Like the song says : (pardon my French ;p)
Un aut' truck stop d'autoroute
Pogné pour manger d'la ch'noute
C'est vrai que dans la soupe du jour
Y'a pu' tellement d'amour (yeah!)
On a tué la chaleur humaine
Avec le service à la chaîne
À la télé un aut' malade
Vient d'déclencher une fusillade
La question qu'j'me pose tout l'temps:
Mais comment font ces pauvres gens
Pour traverser tout le cours
D'une vie sans amour?
C'est si triste que des fois quand je rentre à la maison
Pis que j'parke mon vieux camion
J'vois toute l'Amérique qui pleure
Dans mon rétroviseur...
Ouais, n'empêche que moi aussi
Quand j'roule tout seul dans la nuit
J'me d'mande des fois c'que j'fous ici
Pris dans l'arrière-pays (yeah!)
J'pense à tout ce que j'ai manqué
Avec Mimi pis les deux filles
Et j'ai ce sentiment fucké
D'être étranger dans ma famille
La question qu'j'me pose tout le temps
Pourquoi travailler autant
Éloigner de ceux que j'aime
Tout ça pour jouer la game
C'est si triste que des fois
Quand j'suis loin de la maison
Assis dans mon vieux camion
J'ai tout' l'Amérique qui pleure
Que'que part au fond du cœur
As I was talking to the kids, I took this ‘soup part’ from the song that says there ain’t any love left in the food served in chain restaurants anymore. And tried to make them see how, when we share a homecooked meal together, we are truly blessed because it’s not something that is readily available to everyone nowadays. They looked at me like I was coo-coo for crying over something as simple as a bowl of soup but I still hold on to the thought that love can be brought back into these simple day to day moments and that is the ‘WHY’ behind my little business.
I want to offer you items that you can bring into your home, to either comfort you after your day at work, or remind you that it’s ok to slow down and light a candle or enjoy a warm bath with a beautiful soap. It has nothing to do with the item in question but everything to do with the moment. The space it creates in your day to day life to bring more peacefulness, more mindfulness, more calm, more beauty and more love! And if I may even go as far as to say, it might make you question a few of your life choices, make you ask yourself if maybe you could change a few things and in so doing bring more love into your own life.
I want to offer things that, when I see them or envision you using them, I know I’ve helped in creating a memory or a moment shared with family that just happens to defy the busyness of our society! It might just be stuff, but just like a simple bowl of soup can bring me to tears, I hope a simple candle or soap or thrifted item can bring a sacred moment to your home!
If you are new here, well, that’s me in a nutshell… homeschooling mom to four kiddos which, as long as I can send them out to play in their own seperate playroom for a few hours a day, I love to pieces!!! I love the life I’ve created with my husband (most days at least) which allows us to kind of do our own thing on our own time. I love to travel, create, drink coffee and am passionate about LOVING the life I’m living(sometimes that means therapy, meditation, time with friends, hard conversations with loved ones, nature walks… but I want to take it all in… the good and the not so good! Cause that’s life!)
Thank you for reading,
With all my love,
Genevieve
You can find my products by following this link:
Or on instagram at sacredhomeandhearth