Sharing a Copious Secret
It is my first blog post of 2019, and the beginning of a new year is about reflecting on what you accomplished in the past year and knowing what your current goals are to make this next year an absolute success. Looking back on 2018, I am beyond proud of myself for the success Copious had; and there are many reasons for this success, one reason being I became even more transparent about Copious on my Instagram. I started being more direct about the struggles I was having and found out that a lot of my fellow friends that are entrepreneurs were going through the same things. This made me me feel even more connected to my maker community than ever before!
With all this honesty I was typing out to post on insta and talking with all my lovely #copiousladies at shows, there is one, not so well-kept secret I have been holding back and not openly sharing. One of my 2019 goals was to share this change because it was a huge reason for my success this year!
Summer 2017 the beau and I came home to see our families, we got to live at my family’s cottage for a couple weeks, and when it was coming to end, we both looked at each other and knew this was where we were meant to be. We had gone back and forth for 3 years, talking about moving out of Toronto, at one point I was ready to move, and he wasn’t, and then a year later he was ready to move, but I wasn’t and finally, we were BOTH ready to make the leap. Toronto had been grinding us down, and creatively we were feeling stifled by our huge rent and not being able to grow in our careers the way we wanted. We were treading water and didn’t have much to lose and A LOT to gain. We had walked consciously towards this goal, but only part way, now we were going to make the leap into our future!
The sunset at our family's cottage
We took our leap Dec 2017 and moved closer to our families, closer to nature, closer to our creative selves, and it is not lost on me that I had my most successful year in Copious! I was able to have a studio separate from my home to create a better work-life balance. I have been able to make yoga a serious part of my life, and this year when my major prep was happening for OOAK I didn’t have any back pain because I was stronger than ever before AND I have spent more time with my family!!! I am unbelievably lucky to have a beau that is close with my family and we have had an incredible year making memories at our cottage, at our Manhattan Friday Dinners (the grandkids cook dinner the grandparents provide the Manhattans) being able to see my nephew and niece whenever I want and taking lots of museum trips and trampoline park expeditions.
Memories made because we moved closer to our families!
Copious now officially resides in Kemptville, Ontario (just outside Ottawa) but I make several trips back and forth to Toronto to see bridal clients, stock up on supplies, see my fabric wholesaler AND attend my favourite show: OOAK. Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last 5 years, this last year, in particular, was stressful to see whether Copious would survive the move, but I found a whole new customer base. A dream is just a dream until you put it into action and 10 years ago I was with my sister sitting on the bank of a river in Laos, we had barely started our lives. She always had a clear vision of what her future held, and I was always a little more go with the flow kind of girl. She looked at me and said one day I will have children, and one day I will need you back home to help me raise them. She and I were raised by our entire family, we were lucky enough to have a huge support system, including each other. I am SO happy she knew what our futures would hold, lots of success in our careers, but also the love of our extremely tight-knit family, coming together to help raise the next generation.
All pictures were taken by myself, except this last one. It was taken by the incredible Kaja Tirrul of Jack Loves Mary. She captured this at a family wedding this year, an amazing night that the beau and I would not have had if we did not choose to move closer to the people we love!
If I couldn’t find a fabric that was up to the Copious standards, I started to come to the decision that I would not make the Alice Sweater anymore and honestly started to harbour feelings that maybe my clients were tired of this sweater and ready for a change. Throughout the winter though, I kept getting emails asking about the Alice Sweater and was it available in the Plum or Navy. Then the Spring OOAK show was upon me and more clients were asking about the sweater, this just confirmed that I had to figure out a way to keep this GREAT style going. Being an artist there is a certain amount of self-doubt that comes into play, I learned a long time ago it was easier to admit it, rather than ignore it. Hearing from all my clients about this style just affirmed that I had created exactly what I had always wanted Copious to be. A company that creates comfortable, stylish clothes that women love and feel confident in. It helped me see I needed to find a fabric that was equal to the original, and once I knew I would have to make it, I knew it could be even better because it would be Made in Canada.
After an exhausting amount of emails back and forth, I found Fine Cotton Factory, a mill that could create my coveted quilted fabric and dye it for the Alice and Sophia style. I was relieved to have found them but disappointed to learn what their minimums and cost would be. I felt like I was back to accepting that this style would be no more. I sat with this and had almost resolved myself to believing it BUT I just couldn’t let it die! I am unbelievably stubborn and started doing the math and knew if I launched pre-orders I could raise the funds to help move forward with producing the exact fabric I wanted for this style. Like many business owners, I bet on myself, my design and on my clients support of me.
