Recipe For A Happy Retirement
My story is very much about finding and actively engaging in pursuits that make me happy: gardening, hand dyeing items people enjoy and sharing what I've learned.
For most of my life I worked for others in civil service, in small start ups, in corporations. The last of my several careers was in high tech, specifically training and consulting. Just before the high tech bubble burst I lost my job. It was an opportunity to start working at something over which I had more control.
So, my son and I started a business making hypertufa garden art. It was great fun and very satisfying but after a number of years it just became more physically demanding than I could handle. And, truth be told, my son needed more autonomy in the business.
I started thinking about what I would do next. Yes, I had more time to garden but what else? Browsing around Etsy and other sites I fell in love with hand dyed quilt fabrics. The colors and textures were stunning. But I have always been an unenthusiastic quilter-lots of ideas but not enough passion to follow it through.
I was a more of a sewer and the next questions was, why weren't the same kinds of colors and textures available in knit fabric? Since there weren't, at the time, why couldn't I do it? After all, as a Boomer I was certainly familiar with tie dyeing and had done a little of it in the past. How hard could it be?
The answer was, of course, much harder than I thought. However, the challenge of learning to dye well continues to be more fun and more satisfying than I could have imagined.
As I accumulated dyed fabric and scarves, I realized I needed my own Etsy shop. It has morphed slowly over the years from hand dyed yardage, to scarves and then hand dyed clothing blanks. I have plans to reintroduce hand dyed yardage and hand sewn pieces over the next year. After that, I know something else will emerge.
Something was still missing, though. I have never been a teacher but have always loved training others. Remembering what was difficult about learning a new skill, being able to deconstruct it then explain it to others is very rewarding. Not much beats seeing that "aha!" moment. The final piece of my retirement triad is making videos about hand dyeing. I've only posted four but have several more in the works.
My Etsy shop has become a major piece of my life. It allows me to continue to explore, learn, create and share. It's an essential ingredient in my recipe for a happy retirement.
