It’s been a while folks! As some of you may already know, I moved from Nashville, TN after a year and a half of living and working there. I moved to Nashville three months before the Covid-19 pandemic began and two months before a huge tornado came through the city, destroying a large part of the city. To say it was overwhelming and depressing is an understatement. I made the move to Nashville after living in NYC for a year thinking it would be a bustling city of musicians needed stylists and fashion designers at their ready! I was at my fashion stylist internship with celebrity stylist Tiffany Gifford two months before everything got shut down. I ended up getting a retail jewelry job at a popular boutique in the Gulch. It definitely wasn’t apart of my glamorous plans, but I wanted to try to get through the pandemic and figure out if Nashville was for me. I guess I forgot to mention that for the first lockdown I drove to my mothers house in Eaton, Ohio and stayed there with her until we were all free to get out of the house again. What a strange time, but I had honestly a great time catching up with movies and cooking at home with my mom. When I got back to Nashville, I tried to find my groove, or vibe so to speak. I had got hired to do some assistant work for Tiffany here and there, but she already had a full time assistant and didn’t need me much. I started focusing on my clothing brand, Sojourn Sisters, as an artistic outlet and really getting serious about making it grow. I started an Etsy shop and began to ship off one of a kind garments to people all over the United States. If I wasn‘t working at my full time retail job, I was home sewing. I got to meet some wonderful models and photographers and had a few really fun photo shoots with my clothing. As much as I wanted to love Nashville, I just wasn’t feeling it as a long term stay for me.
*First photo shoot of my robe collection with model Samantha Tall & photographer Veronica Williams
My next move was always going to Los Angeles. Much like NYC, I felt like it was something I had to do as a human and artist, so I started manifesting that idea while also toying with the idea of moving back to Chicago. After all, it is my favorite American city, so far. However, after visiting again after being gone for a few years, I felt like I had already done my time there and that hey, Chicago will always be there. So I moved home with my family in Ohio for the next six months and got as much family time as humanly possible! My mom got a 1990 Chevy van and my sister, mom and I got to work to make as much art as we could and go out in the van to sell it. We had such a fun learning experience and some luck selling our goods! We particularly were popular with the college crowd at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio farmers markets. I honed in big time during this time on my brand. I started making candles too, which proved to be a really fun and profitable way of living. I can’t count how many hand made garments I made and sold during this time. It was the reset and recharge I desperately needed after the stress of the pandemic and our new way of living.
*Juicy, our incredibly fun van - you can imagine the excitement people got when we drove by.
As I’m finally getting some time to reflect and write this all down, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Denver, Colorado with my pup, Eugene having the adventure of a lifetime driving across the United States to get to LA. I cannot wait to see where this road (haha) takes me! I love sharing it all and hope to have a lot to talk about at the end of this trip. ✌🏼
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