A year ago I retired from my almost 4 decade healthcare career.  I truly enjoyed my years as a nurse and nurse practitioner and I honestly believe it to be my life's calling.  While I remain a nurse/nurse practitioner, those endeavors will be mostly of the volunteer nature - Free Medical Clinic, mentoring, presenting . . . not to say I won't do some consulting work if offered big bucks!!! ;-)

There were many reasons for my decision, but one of them was that I wanted to try my hand at something new - something I could create . . . own . . . manage.  So, I took 2016 to be the year I explored the possibilities.  Being a lifetime learner, this was a fun project!  What I found is that I really enjoy fiber arts - specifically weaving, spinning, dyeing and the such.  I bought a 4 shaft loom and a spinning wheel, planted a dye garden, set up an area in the barn for a dye area, joined a local spinning and weaving guild, and voraciously consumed online and print articles and videos about the subjects.

I then pondered, so what do I do with this new found knowledge and skills?  I could just quietly enjoy "retirement", but that's not really my style.  As I told everyone when I resigned from my job, it wasn't really retirement, but the time for a second career. 

So that brings me to today.  For the past month, I have been preparing for the launch of Flora & Fiber.