February 14th, 2008

welcome to my first post. this one will be a bit long so please bear with me. as i stated in my intro, i am almost one year in to a "retired" life. i always seem to use quotes around the word retired because it is hard to believe this has really happened. i spent 30+ years in the specialty apparel retail business and always experienced 60-80 hour work weeks. needless to say i never had the typical home/family life....coming home at night..cooking dinner..eating with the family etc. i rarely was home before 8:00 pm and traveled a minimum of two weeks per month. i worked really hard saving..investing...planning..so that i could retire early and experience a different kind of life. i have been married for 25 years to an amazing man, have a massive, adorable, energetic golden retriever and really wanted to spend lots of time with both of them. my strange realization after this year is that, although i had periods where i really loved my jobs and was quite successful, i never really had the passion for fashion required to truly be satisfied with my career. this year has been one of discovery and, as cliched as it sounds, searching for my bliss.

ok..just realized spell check does not work..kinda in a panic with this as i type faster than my brain processes spelling...will try to correct errors but if a few slip through please forgive me....

i have spent the past year focusing on what i love...family, cooking, recipe development, gardening, non-profit work, etc. so many opportunities have opened up that i am always busy. people constantly ask me so many questions... if i am bored, how i spend my time, how to make this work financially...how to get involved in non-profits, etc that i thought i would start a blog and share my life, my experiences and my journey. i hope to make this a 2 way dialogue with readers so please, if you read my blog, please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions.

all for now,
happy valentine's day!

napafarmhouse1885