11/30/2023
If anyone else feels like life has been a little upside down, inside out and backwards lately.. you are not alone.. I definitely feel you :S Where to start..
Well, I would like to start with a heartfelt thank you. Thank you to every single one of you reading this for your kindness, support and mostly PATIENCE with yours truly.🫶🏼
This year has been the toughest one of my life personally. No matter how hard I tried to keep smiling and moving forward, I just kept tripping over myself and getting lost in my own emotional mess. Retreating to the cave in my mind where a flurry of to do's, should do's and general overwhelm swallowed me up.. I avoided confrontation of any kind. I avoided checking texts, emails, anything that would tangle me up in more of my 'mess'.
Gardening and foraging became my escape. 🌱
Changing SCANDISKIN to Bloom was my way of attempting to take control and pivot the business, while continuing to offer products I was passionate about and hoped would bring people joy through nostalgia - as they had for me! Other old souls out there would dig it (I thought) and I had fresh, ambitious plans.
Then life happens and business pivots don’t matter anymore.
When I decided to change SCANDISKIN to Bloom (midsummer), I did not know we would lose a close member of our family within a few weeks - a gentle spirit who supported my creative ideas, never had any regrets in his life, loved his only grandson to bits and often drove from Cobourg to mind him, so I could go into the shop and work. This was our third big loss in a few months and it hit hard… unearthing any residual grief + emotion we had tried to bury earlier. Instead of getting new Bloom promo cards printed and updating my website as I said I would.. I avoided all of it and just focused on supporting my husband. Head down, just trying to take a day at a time.
Come October, I knew I needed help with my business. I couldn’t focus and was back logged in so many ways. I reached out, asking for help in the form of an accountability buddy. I made an honest (though slightly cringe) video, shared it and thankfully received amazingly supportive, kind feedback from other overwhelmed souls who were also looking for support with their business. The response was amazing. I was SO hopeful and ready to organize myself, plan meetups and get my sh*t together!
Right when I felt like things were on track, I had the rug pulled out from under me. Finally, we had full time care for our son, I had my energy back and fresh support in my inbox. I was able to give my business the attention it needed - but it was too late. I was too late. I had been trying to hold on so desperately to a place (the shop) and a feeling (pure joy). This cozy little sanctuary in the village I call home, a space I loved SO much and got to share with others would need to close.
Running a shop has been one of the most joyful, fulfilling, emotionally enriching experiences I've been lucky enough to have and I am heartbroken it will be coming to an end in early 2024.
I am SO grateful I got to connect with YOU and so many other amazing kindred souls under the warmth of cozy lighting, ambient jazz, a faux crackling fire and in a little piece of local history. I will so miss the chats and connection we got to share and am actively thinking of how I can bring those moments into the new year.
I apologize for the confusion in not having posted this news sooner and any backlogged messages I have yet to reply to. These were just other tasks I quietly chose to avoid because it simply hurt too much. If I addressed it, then it became real. I didn't know what to say to people, how to 'spin' it without sounding gutted. I was not ready to face the facts and embrace a new path.. but I am now.
There is a beautiful line from one of my favourite movies You’ve Got Mail, which I’ve watched more than I like to admit. In response to Joe Fox(Tom Hanks) implying her shop closing isn’t personal, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) hits the nail on the head..
J: “It wasn’t personal..”
K: “What is that supposed to mean? I am so SICK of that. All that means, is that it wasn’t personal to you.. but it was personal to me. It’s ‘personal’ to a lot of people. And what is so wrong with being personal anyway..? 💌Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being ‘personal’. ” (love this)
I wholeheartedly agree. This was personal from the start and I will continue to keep it personal until we close our doors.
We will continue to sell our Nordic skincare + lifestyle goods in our online shop which is currently being transformed back from Bloom to SCANDISKIN (more patience = much appreciated).. so my new challenge for 2024 is figuring out how I can offer an honest, PERSONAL, cozy, multi-sensory experience to our customers in a fresh way that brings our shop offline once in awhile..
Stay tuned - I’m working on it 🙂
and once again, thank you, thank you, thank you my loves.
Cheers,
Trish x
❤️🩹
