Shop Talk - Gather Goods Co

March 23, 2018

Gather-Studios

I am embarking on a new phase of Gather, one that I had intended to start from the beginning but along the way, it became other things – wonderful, beautiful things, but diversions from my ultimate goals. I love nothing more than driving down a winding back road and am grateful for each of the opportunities that have lead me here and all the things I wouldn’t have been able to see had I not explored other directions.

In stepping back for the past year and refining and editing what I really wanted to pursue and in looking for shared office space for my husband’s peppermint bark business as well as a place to house the goods from my online shop, we recognized the need for a space like what we had created with the original Gather: a cozy space that encourages community, is collaborative and feels like a home, filled with plants and light and like-minded individuals who are able to put their heads down and work when they need to but also to pop up and chat when they want to.

This really hit home after doing a year and a half of accidental research, when looking for our own small office we kept seeing the same thing: soulless spaces that weren’t resonating, none of them were Gather. We actually didn’t intend to embark on another big venture, instead we were planning on just ramping Gather up quietly behind the scenes but in all that looking for space we happened upon one that was only a few blocks from our own home and in the walkable downtown core of Cary, a community that we had truly fallen in love with after the first Gather shop here 4 or 5 years ago, and where we had moved just eight months prior.

My husband and I, despite all appearances, are actually quite risk-averse, and after extensive pro-con lists, deliberating, manifesting, praying and every other way you can think of decision making, recognized that this space was really a great option for us if we could get past the initial hesitation of jumping back into a new thing.

To me, the heart of my business has always been in facilitating and helping others, and in creating community and conversations that spotlight others, ideas and design. The shop, while a portion, was only a piece of it. In addition, I recognized a strong need to be more behind the scenes and less of a day to day retail shop but more of a private space that is only public facing occasionally and a space where I could continue to host classes and events but also a place where we could work out of quietly.

This new space, which we are calling Gather-Studios is only a few blocks from our home and right in the walkable core of downtown Cary and like the original Gather space it also has a back garden area (and also like the original it needs to be spruced up). I would love to offer this back garden space to an emerging flower farmer. I have other plans too, but for now it will be office space, an occasional showroom and classroom space.

There are a handful of office spaces available in the building and I have already leased out a few. If you are looking for a private office/studio space to rent, please get in touch. I am looking to get these filled asap and once they are gone, they won’t be available again for at least a year.

Here are more details about the space:

Gather-Studios, a new private work space in downtown Cary is currently looking for tenants. There are a limited amount of private offices available for 1 year lease terms. Ideal tenants are creative professionals who are looking for a quiet, collaborative community environment, curated by Michelle Smith of Gather Goods Co, who alongside her husband The Apothecary’s Kitchen will also have office space there. Photographers, Wellness Practitioners, Makers and Artists, and Design Professionals are a great fit, but you aren’t required to be one to lease space. In addition, Michelle will be hosting classes and private events in the front space as well as in the back garden patio. For more information please visit https://shop.gathergoodsco.com/pages/studios and email Michelle at info@gathernc.com.

October 2, 2017

Meditations on Stillness & Hope

There are times when the world feels like a hard-edged place and it is challenging to catch your breath and reflect and absorb it all. I feel like right now we are living in such a time. And while I think there are some people who are bolstered by this type of environment, to be an activist, to create change, to shout from the rooftops that the world is not right and justice needs to be served, for me, and I sense many others, I really thrive in a place of less reaction and more contemplation.

I have taken to wearing the same simple outfit everyday: jeans, a v-neck t-shirt, no makeup for the past year or two. It is only recently that I’ve recognized that this is my armour. That the predictability, the comfort, the autonomy of such clothing choices make me feel secure and more able to face the world that we live in currently. So I am a turtle tucking my head deep into my shell to reflect intensely on my core values, to realign them and make sure they are true, to make sure they are not being drowned out by all the other noise surrounding us and my clothes help with that as obscure as that seems.

It is hard to not react and to find the time to meditate deeply when the world seems to be spinning faster and in an ever more off-kilter direction. It is jarring to slow down and pause because spinning can feel like a natural rhythm once you’ve been doing it for awhile. To stop, to step off a spinning carousel, onto solid ground, still feels wobbly for awhile. We get used to the pace we allow ourselves, to the amount of content we absorb, to the expectations we and others set on ourselves to be “productive”. And we live in a culture where “hustle” is often lauded and feels like the mantra of the moment.

I am ever so slowly getting used to a less fast pace where solid and not spinning ground feels comfortable but I find myself trying to fight it still – I am so used to spinning these past few years yet also deeply craving a break, a pause, a reprieve. I prefer the long, quiet in-between spaces, the time to create without expectation, but it really does take awhile to remember that this is where the good stuff lies. That out of stillness come the breakthroughs and the epiphanies that can’t be scheduled and fit into preordained time frames or occurrences. Overall, I respect the seasonality of life, and I have faith in its profoundly recurring nature even if my build, then retreat, then torture, then contemplate method is predictable.

I have been meditating on stillness, on subtlety, on optimism, on grace overall in a world whose own values seem muddied. I recently listened to a podcast with writer Junot Diaz. He was talking about an essay he wrote called “Radical Hope is Our Best Weapon” in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. Hearing him describe the philosophies and perspective that went into his piece, was moving and a point of view that I wish I heard more often. He said a lot of powerful things but this statement really resonated with me: “Society gives us a lot of prompts and a lot of encouragements to be reactive, emotionally reactive. In this, we have received tremendous tutelage. So the ability to do what our societies seem incapable and unwilling to do is important. It’s incumbent upon us to be reflective, to be complex, to be subtle, to be nuanced, to take our time in societies which are none of these things and which encourage none of these things…”

Yes, yes to all of this, yes.

March 27, 2017

People I’ve Loved

I love this new series of prints and greeting cards in the Gather Goods online shop designed by People I’ve Loved:

Hold Me Like Before greeting card

A list of music that I can never hear without thinking of you greeting card

You are Not an Imposter poster

Take it one thing at a time poster

Illustrated peekaboo card

Things Will Work Out Print

November 29, 2016

Patience & Embracing The Season You Are In

This is not me right now. I currently have bed head, pajamas on, and a sling around my right arm. I’m dictating this into my phone and I am in so.much.pain. Apparently rollerskating with a group of nine-year-olds was not the best idea.

I have been in a heavy season full of growth and never quite connecting all the dots properly for a long while now. And while I have always been an optimistic glass is half-full person, this year I started thinking that my glass had a hole in it. I’ve experienced burn out and my laser focus has at times wavered for the first time in my life. I’m hyper driven, the physical embodiment of grit, and love what I do, but hustling too hard can damper that. People can be disappointing, things don’t always go as planned, when the challenges are great and they keep presenting themselves, when the mountains keep appearing, it can accumulate. Needless to say, I’ve been stuck.

Recently though, I have been regaining my clarity. I can see glimmers of the future emerging and it looks peaceful and sweet. Then I broke my wrist in two places! Here I am at the bottom of another mountain and in some moments, the challenge of that feels really frustrating. I’m tired of steep terrain, I’m tired of things being hard. I just want to sit, kingly on the top of one of these mountains, just to take in the view. Maybe that’s why my arm got broken.

A friend suggested that perhaps this time in my life is trying to teach me patience. Touché. And it’s true, this is where I am, no amount of wishing or doing can change that, and yes, it’s messy, and it hurts, but if I pause to look out my window I can see that the leaves are a beautiful vivid orange and that only occurs in this particular season. As is true in nature, I can count on another season being ushered in behind this one but right now I’m going to pause, right where I’m at, and see the beauty around me. How about you? What challenges are you looking to overcome these days? Let’s be encouragers to each other as we each navigate our own sometimes (okay oftentimes) messy paths towards who knows where. After all it’s about the journey not the destination, right? -Michelle

November 9, 2016

Words I Need To Hear

Be A Nice Person

This morning I woke up knowing in the pit of my stomach that the country I love voted out of fear and not hope. My gut was telling me that this would happen, to take a look at Brexit, that history repeats itself, that the brightest light can only exist as a contrast to the darkest corners, but nonetheless I was hopeful and willfully naive.

You Are Capable Quote

But being willfully naive however is the very root of the problem. We can’t just all assume that the world and values around us are the same. We have to actively work towards change each and every day and be vocal about it as well.

Action Cures Fear Quote

Today I want to pause to say to those hurting: I hear you, I see you, I will fight for and with you. It’s not acceptable to stand behind fear and hate. I choose to be a voice of love, hope and compassion. I am embarrassed and ashamed at the prevailing attitudes of our country.

If All You Can Do Is Crawl, Start Crawling

Today I’m posting the words I need to hear, shouting out loud, in my own way, that the world does have goodness, and that emboldened, together we can work together towards that.

Do What You Can Quote

I encourage you to do the same. Let’s let love, not fear, rule our hearts, and not just today, but everyday. Let’s never forget this feeling and use it as fuel to do the deep and heavy, but compassionate work, that needs to be done to make this so. Let’s let these feelings stir our hearts towards action, not just for us, but even more so for others.

Mother Theresa Quote on Poverty