It’s never too late to be who you might have been —Mary Ann Evans (Pen name George Eliot)
My friends it has come to this. I have officially run out of coping
mechanisms for life. What is a Gen X woman to do when the kids are mostly grown
up? What do they do when they can’t sell the house and move to another province
because there are still kids at home and now their parents are aging? What do
they do when they have already acquired two dogs and three cats and they can’t
keep house plants alive, so acquiring more living things is not an option? What
about when they realize how impractical it would be to quit a job and start a
new one just because they are feeling restless and besides that they know they
would just go back to the job they have now (as they have done so many times in
the past)?
They start businesses, that’s what.
It’s me. I’m they.
Meet my newest adventure, Sassy and Spicy - Unapologetically
You -- from Sassy to Spicy, your style speaks volumes. I am doing something I
have wanted to do for a long time - start a print on demand business. I can
finally express the words and phrases that have been living in my head for
years, hopefully with people who appreciate them, because I have been bothering
my co-workers with them for long enough. I have been annoying my family for
even longer. If you have ever had a
conversation with me, there is a good chance you might see something you said
end up on a t-shirt or hoodie.
I am not sure where this obsession with printing stuff
started. Maybe I have the same gene that afflicted moms in the 80s that made
them want to put photos on t-shirts and bedazzle their entire wardrobe. My children should be grateful they weren’t around
when t-shirt photo printing booths were everywhere in malls. They are lucky
they survived my matching jammies phase.
I remember about 12 years ago when I worked at the Timmins Hospital
(shout out to Med 2 as it was known at the time). There was a student nurse who
was working under a preceptor and on their last day of placement they gave their
preceptor a travel mug with custom words printed on it. I don’t remember the
words on the cup, but I do remember everyone asking where they got it, and they
explained that they had it made on a print on demand website. That was the
start of my obsession. If that nurse is
reading this, I still remember the time you and I went to Montana’s after a rough
shift and had nachos and margaritas. I thought you were amazing and to this day
I am grateful to you for putting me on the print on demand path.
For years after that I remembered that cup. And, when my kids were old enough to state they no
longer wanted to wear matching jammies, I started using print on demand sites
to make custom clothing for them. Every year my favourite part of Christmas
would be designing my family custom clothing and watching them open it. That is
until about two years ago when my 15-year-old begged me to stop with the custom
clothing and just stick to the Christmas list they gave me.
Since my kids no longer want custom clothing, it’s time to
do something for me and create the type of print on demand clothing/accessories
I always wanted to. With that in mind, I give you Sassy and Spicy, a brand that
celebrates the bold, witty, and unapologetic sides of us Gen X women through
designs that tell our stories. Whether you're feeling sassy, playful, and
nostalgic or spicy, daring, and bold, I got you. This isn’t just clothing - it’s
a badge of self-expression for us who are redefining ourselves on our own terms.
At least that is what I am hoping to make it into. I have a
lot to learn, and like everything I do, it
will be messy and disorganized, but fun. I can’t say I won’t join the ranks of
thousands of ADHD perimenopausal women who have abandoned their Etsy shops
because they lost interest in their hyper-focus hobby, but for now, I am going
to enjoy the ride.
Join me on this journey as I share my story of rediscovering
myself, learning something new, embarrassing my kids and husband, reigniting
old passions and everything in between. I will even throw in some funny quotes
that give you a good laugh and some spicy quotes and book recs to make life a
little more…..spicy.
Follow me here:
Oh yeah--check out the shops:
https://sassyandspicy.etsy.com
