Can you hear it? SUMMER IS CALLING.
I am writing you from our summer house in New Hampshire, here early for the long weekend to spend time opening the house and a winter ‘clean up’ of the front yard – a moment to take the cornhole out of the basement, get the sun-bathing chairs on the dock…the boat was just dropped off. I am too excited. I have got to calm down. We just love it here so much, love these precious weeks of summer beyond words.
Many of you know this, so I will say it quickly. I used to hate summer. GASP! I know. What?!? But I was working for a corporate company that had little flexibility; I had to be in the office. My daughters were off from school, and so I shipped them up to New Hampshire to be with my Dad. I flew up on weekends. I was pretty sad, missing sunny days while freezing my ass off in jacked up air-conditioned office, escaping at the end of the day to sit in my car with the windows rolled up just to warm up. My babies were 5 states away – and when I came up on weekends it was all so rushed. It was really hard, and YUCK, I feel over-privileged saying that but it’s true.
When I think of all the gifts Jane Win has given me, summer is at the top of that list. And I guess the pandemic was in on that gift too, as it gave permission for people to work anywhere. All of a sudden, I had flexibility. I work from the lake, my kids, now grown and coming back and forth from home, seeing friends and their jobs. There are still a lot of moving parts (always!) but I have so much summer, I pray for the days to go by slowly as I treasure each one.
Currently, our family group chat is filled with ideas on what we want to do this summer, what adventures – favorite traditions. We have a family Olympics with egg toss and raft races. We have cocktail competitions where we create the evening cocktail and teams compete for the best one (ps the mojito always wins). Tiki and I just declared that this summer we are going to eat more hot dogs than ANYTHING else. It’s FUN. And with grown children who love to bring their friends, it’s more than fun – it is my complete raison de vivre 💋
When I am here, I take the longest walks and hikes. I swim 10 times a day AT LEAST. Jumping off the boat. Wake surfing. Playing tennis. Seeing friends every day. It is so incredibly active, but it also gives my mind a moment to think. When my Dad was alive we would take very long walks and I would talk through ideas at work and creative things I wanted to do. I miss those walks (and him) so much, but the ‘practice’ of putting myself in a place I love and allowing my creativity to be in focus – it is where I come up with the next new Jane Win concept – it is vital to the success of the company. Maybe that sounds silly, but you saw the JW team traveling like mad all spring, and during times like that I get so much energy from meeting customers – but it is less creative. When I am here for the summer, I have piles of jewelry that I take outside to photograph for Instagram; I think about what I want to wear, what ‘treasure’ we should create next. I was just daydreaming of a delivery of all butterflies and bunnies for next spring, with hand carved rabbits in natural stones (think purple amethyst and yellow citrine) with pink tourmaline eyes. I am determined to create more bracelets that allow you to wear your coins in a new way, adding a wrist ‘stack’ to our neckmess. The ideas just FLOW when I open myself up to them.
I know that many have places and people and times of year they adore, so you can relate. Post-covid I think I was ready for parties and dressing UP and ‘events’, but in contrast this summer I am going to be very basic. Hot dogs. Throw on dresses. Living in a bathing suit and cover-up. A million sun hats everywhere, so easy to grab. Here are my must haves, thought you might want to shop as well 😉 Sending tons of love for the long weekend, summer is calling ❤ xx Janie
