Who am I?

 

Oh where to begin!  We are retired - well kinda.  We are in our early 40s and are blessed to be in a position where we were able to thumb our noses at convention and escape the rat race.  In my former life I was a divorce attorney.  I went to court everyday and fought for my clients and their kids.  I LOVED it!  I loved everything about it....then I had kids.  I suddenly was less excited about going to work and found myself wanting to be at home with my son.  Then came my daughter.  I started to work from home and go to court less and less.  Then I just quit.  I just didn't have any of that fight left in me (Tom would disagree about that).  I have thoughts about going back - they are fleeting and disturbing and I quickly usher them to the background of my life - back to the "maybe later" shelf.  So I stayed at home with my kids - then I stayed in the car with my kids - running them to preschool, play dates and parties.  Then they started school and I suddenly had all this free time on my hands.  What to do?  I don't want to admit this but I filled my time not with volunteering for great causes or crusades - I filled my time shopping.  Not the mall kind of shopping but the digging through the junk kind of shopping.  I redid our house - every room with the treasures I brought home.  Then the treasures started piling up in our garage.  Projects I called them - they ended up way back on the "maybe later" shelf too...

 

One day Tom entered or tried to enter our garage and couldn't.  I had accumulated so many projects that there was no space to work on them if I ever found the time...Tom did not look all that happy.  He told me that he thought I had a great eye for things and that I should start selling at the local swap meet on Wednesdays.  I was reluctant.  I am a lawyer not a designer but I am also a realist and quickly realized that the next divorce case might be my own if I didn't rehome some of my loot soon!

So called and got myself a space and the rest is history as they say.  I fell in love with the "flea" life and haven't looked back.  I love everything about my new career:  shopping, reusing, repurposing, reinventing, redesigning, researching.  (Notice I listed shopping first...)  So some months later I find myself sitting pretty.  I have a new job that I love just as much (ok more...much, much more) as my old career.  I am grateful for my success and look forward to the journey of what is to come.

I remember when I started my own practice right out of law school and everyone said that I would never make it!  I remember being terrified and that every time a client's case ended I was sure that another client would never darken my door again.  I went to a continuing education class and some attorney who had been in private practice for 30 years said the same thing that I thought.  Something changed in me that day - I realized that I am not supposed to worry about the tomorrows that have yet to come - I am supposed to be present and enjoy what I am doing right here, right now.  And I do.  

 

I hope that I can provide you some of the joy that I have found in my new adventure and it won't hurt to pass along to you some of the treasures I've found.  Happy Shopping!