and then you kind of end up here - part 2 of the story

just take my photo already, so I can go play!

Growing up I was rarely inside. I loved adventuring around the neighbourhood. I grew up in an era where parents let their kids run wild and loose on the streets of suburbia. I was a bit of a lone wolf too, out for my own adventures and whoever was around could tag along. But I also had no problems amusing myself.  Neither of my parents were outdoorsy folks, or really very adventurist. But my Grandma was. She was a traveller and a homebody all in one. She was truly a remarkable woman! I most definitely have her spirit in me. But the point is, I didn't grow up with summers at the cottage or camping or any of that. I camped in high school but that was more of a party away from parental supervision kind of adventure ;) But I was comfortable with being in the outdoors.

Then I moved to Vancouver right after college, after I'd gone out there for my reading week break. I started life over, in the middle of the mountains and old growth forests and ocean wildlife. I explored around those first years, before settling in Vancouver proper and I loved those times. Discovering all the little hidden spots, meeting new people, creating my own story as I went. Most of my friends went out of county to explore after college, I chose to explore my own country. And I connected and fell in love with the natural world that makes up a huge part of Canada. There is no greater peace than being lost in your own thoughts on the top of a mountain, looking over miles and miles of forest and sky and ocean. This was home to me. That sounds cheesy but it was true for me. Not everyone can disconnect like that to be able to get lost in such a large space. But it's where I'm most comfortable. Not that I'm anti-social, I just find social times harder to focus in.

One of my favourite spots on the planet - Summerland, BC

And I think you can see that in a lot of my stories and illustrations. It was such a huge part of my being, it was going to be evident in my work. That's a big part of what I related to in the Finnish shops, the use of natural elements in their work. In the years I lived out West I also saw those natural resources be sold off and cut down and disrespected. Now, while this is not a political post, it's important to know this, because I discovered something about myself after moving back to Toronto. I am 100% Tree Hugger. Yeah, I used to make fun of them. Now I realize I've always been one. Funny how that happens. And I'd forgotten that part of me after a few years back in a bigger city, where strolling through a park does not measure up to a hike in the forest. Sorry. It just doesn't. Walking through city parks reminds me how badly we maim and litter our nature. When you're deep in the forest you are completely detached from civilization. It's untouched by us. I got kind of angry. Why does no one care? Don't you want to have fresh air, and trees and clean oceans? (this would be the point I realized I really was a Tree Hugger type!) These are not issues that are of particular interest in areas of the country where you don't live side by side with nature. It's not Toronto's fault, this is a common thread within a lot of cities in Canada, and North America I'm sure.  And I want to make a point that I am not a Toronto-hater. It is what it is. It may not be for me, but it's great for a lot of people. But it could use a bit of a green make-over. We all could be reminded how to live a cleaner existence and lessen our footprint on the planet. If you've followed me for the last few months on twitter and instagram you may have seen signs of this shift. This was my personal growth. Finding that side of me again. I'm not usually one to bow to peer pressure or to follow the pack, but I found that coming back to Toronto, being around old friends, old habits started to emerge. That's all on me. That's also not Toronto's fault.  I've always been quite comfortable with who I am, sometimes a bit lost, but never unsure of myself. That's what I was feeling. Confused and unsure of what the hell I was doing anymore. That was new territory for me. But as those old friends started to fade away, and I started to gravitate more to like minded folks and find my place in a creative community I started to be me again. But that's when the thunderpeep story started to change...

packaging parties!

Small business is hard. A creative small business is hard. Not only do I run thunderpeep by myself, I also work a full time day job (affectionately referred to as Le Day Job) and make an attempt to have a social life in that spare time. This tests friendships (trust me breakups with bad friends are as important as breakups with bad boyfriends), makes trying to start new relationships a challenge (it's almost kind of a blessing being single with no kids to look after, but the boyfriend situation needs to change, at least so I can have someone to help with all those OOAK load ins ;) and planning for a future with questionable income very challenging. But any small business owner knows this, I'm preaching to the choir here. We all do it because we love it. But somewhere towards the end of 2014 I realized that I wasn't really loving it. I wasn't happy. This wasn't what I'd set out to do, and the love just wasn't there. Having come back on side with that little Tree Hugger me, I had a long look at the greenness of my own business. Was I doing the planet a favour, or was I contributing to the problem. Sure there's a place for stationery in everyday life. There are eco-friendly ways of producing and encouraging people to not just recycle but to reuse the products was also possible. At least I hoped it was possible. Cards are pretty disposable, maybe I should be making more long term pieces. Maybe I just didn't want to do it at all anymore (don't worry, this story has a happy ending)

That's when things started to go sideways. In a way, I was personally being rebranded, so shouldn't that mean that my company will move in the new direction too? Plus I turned 40, always a good time for a big life shakeup. Right??!!!

read the next chapter here!

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We all start from somewhere

I've been thinking a lot lately about the direction of both this blog (which actually needs a direction!) and the business. And of coarse myself. So much has changed since I moved back to Toronto, and to be perfectly honest with you, it's not all good. So I took some time to find my direction again, to find myself again, to fall back in love with my life.  This is that story. Not a story about Trolls (I'm sorry but that is coming later), but a story about hitting the pause button and rebranding a life and a business, not in a new direction but in it's proper direction.  (and as I now actually finish I realize how freaking long it is so I've broken it into 3 parts - seriously who knew I had so much to say on the topic)

But before I share the new thunderpeep, you should probably know a bit about how it all started. Let's start with this awesome photo at the top. Because it's a glimpse into the core of this story, the moments in time that brought us to today. This is also a glimpse into one of my truly nerdy habits. I'm a planner. But not a daily schedule kind of planner. I'm a large scale, take over the world kind of planner. Epic plans. Like the journal in the photos.

 Back in 2010 I took, what was then, the trip of my dreams. And I'd planned that trip for a full year, I cut and pasted all these awesome things into my trip journal, that was my intended itinerary all drawn out in red on the map to the left (mother nature and a shut down at Heathrow eventually altered the final trip) The most important part of that journal was the birth of thunderpeep the business. It was one of those brilliant moments while lost in my thoughts, watching the wintery Finnish landscape zoom past me while I traveled by train from Turku and Tampere. I'd only been in the country for about 5 days, but had already been completely inspired by the landscape and the creative culture.

I remember sitting on that train between Turku and Tampere, thinking about all I'd taken in the past 2 days. I found Turku to be one of the most creatively inspiring places I've been. Yes they have a great art gallery there, but it's the creative culture that inspired me. This trip was before Etsy really exploded, so the idea that creative makers could do their own thing and make a living of it was still a pretty foreign concept to me. But in Turku this concept seemed to be thriving. They encourage it, they teach it, it's a part of their long history. A creative business isn't a foreign concept there. We all know and love Marimekko, but in Turku there was a handful of adorable smaller shops along one of the main shopping streets in the downtown that were also 100% Finnish designers. Aarikka and Klo Design were 2 of my absolute favourites. They both embodied that clean, organic and functional Finnish design sense that I loved. And while they are also on the international scene, they are still deeply rooted in their culture, they are still very much Finnish companies, designing and producing in their own country. I was in love with this concept. Of designing, and constructing and creating and bringing it all together under one Canadian roof. They weren't just jewellery shops or bag shops or clothing shops. They were houses of design. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to design around all the weird little stories in my head and make them into something that made your life happier, without a massive imprint on the planet. Just because an item has a function, doesn't mean it has to look boring (you all know IKEA, this is the same concept just way better - sorry IKEA, I do still really like you)

I always loved the scandinavian celebration of Midsummer and the mythology of those long dark polar nights with the aura roaring high overhead. So I built my first thunderpeep collections around those 2 events. Those first 2 illustrations - Midsummer Dreams and The Ice Castle are still pretty popular sellers too. I imagined these 2 collections a year, with illustrations and stories playing out over all sorts of materials. Paper goods were the easiest medium to start with, so there were prints and cards and a wee selection of fabric goodies.

Now, I'm no seamstress. This we know. So that was a struggle. And I didn't have the wonderful QuilterSteff in my life yet. Luckily I eventually discovered silkscreening and great local companies who supplied already sewn bags etc that I could just print on. But the prints and cards really took off. And suddenly the Lordy Lordy Look who's 40 card showed up (that was the very first greeting card I designed solely for the company) and that was a huge seller. So other greeting cards followed, because they were in demand. People thought I was funny and wanted more cards for more occasions. This is awesome, look at me go. I loved typographic arts and I'd worked so long in publication design, making words look pretty so it was a natural progression into greeting cards really. And businesses grow and develop into new things. Right?

At this point I was only selling online, I was missing the shop local component of my first vision. Then a year in my daytime life halted and changed direction as I made the decision to move back to Toronto. Not because I didn't love Vancouver, but I had just lost the job I loved thanks to the crumbling newspaper industry and was motivated to make a go of my business. Toronto seemed like a natural fit. I had grown up here, so already had a built in support system of friends and family. Toronto is a big business city. Toronto is an Arts Loving city. Toronto is where you go to make it. All the things I had run from when I moved out West. But I loved coming back to visit Toronto, it was always so full of life. So vibrant. Instead I found myself in a new city, where my quirky nature loving stories weren't really as relevant. Stories of mountain trolls were received with blank stares and changes in conversations. (I'm not actually kidding, that has actually happened a couple of times)

But those cards with silly and ridiculous sayings. Everyone, everywhere can love them.

You can already see where this story is heading, right?

This move back to Toronto was where I got derailed. And this is where the story may get controversial. If you know me in real life you know I do sit slightly to one side of the whole Vancouver vs. Toronto hate-on. (and if you're reading this from outside of Canada all you need to know is most of Canada has a strong dislike for the country's largest city - Toronto, something you don't realize until you spend time outside of it. Being so far to the West, Vancouver seems to have a particularly strong dislike for Toronto, and the feeling is kind of mutual) Having grown up right outside of Toronto, but living through my most impressionable years out on the West Coast now gives me a slightly different perspective on the world I live in, the people I share it with and the way I chose to live my life. But even that took some time for me to realize as I acclimatized to my new Toronto life. So I will tread delicately in the next chapter of this story….

You can read part 2 here

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