Building A Simpler Lifestyle.

Most nights, at 7:30pm, I looked forward to Scott coming home from work so we could watch our favorite HGTV Tiny House Hunters. He would travel 130 miles round trip, 4 days a week & it showed on his face how this drive alone, was taking its toll. Little did we realize that living vicariously through the journeys of those who choose to live tiny was our motivation to a whole new lifestyle.

Once we became aware of the inspirations by the tiny living communities of HGTV & that we weren’t just being entertained by this reality, we continued on this virtual venture via YouTube for more research & inspiring stories. Eventually, we knew we wanted to follow this minimal life. For us, our motivation was to be better tenants of our Mother Earth.

We knew we wanted to change our lives, but which tiny living was best suited for us? After watching YouTubers’ pros & cons of each, we chose to buy a school bus (skoolie) to convert into our first tiny home. Used RVs, specifically toy haulers, came close, but the strength, weight & cost of the school bus won our hearts.

While we were searching for our bus, we were already on a path to reducing our impact on our planet by choosing a vegan/cruelty free lifestyle. There is more information on that in my CrtrGrl blog. The tiny home living journey was just a link to the ever growing chain of lifestyle growth. This was becoming an adventure & we’re enjoying every aspect of this ever growing journey.

After paying off all of our debt, minimizing our expenses and saving up some money, Scott quit his job of 17 years. I had already retired from 21+ years of pet sitting, which also required much driving, due to health reasons. Together, we found & bought our bus, Skoolie Woolie & began to brainstorm on how to earn income. Living in North County San Diego, we still were paying for an apartment that was quite expensive. Reluctantly, we accepted the fact we may need help. We were grateful that Scott’s family opened up their doors so that we could work on realizing our goals.

While staying at my in-laws’ house that they had just bought in Northern California, we were able to use my father-in-law’s tools & receive lots of advice, including advice from friendly, welcoming neighbors. We also offered to help out with whatever Scott’s parents needed as our way of giving back for the free room & use of utilities.

During our stay there, we were working on a new project we had in mind for a while, to hopefully be our new source of income. It was also important that this business fit our lifestyle standards & give back to our planet. We have other smaller projects we started, but this idea was our biggest passion. So while building out our bus, we were building out our new company, Forest2Sea AWEAR Apparel.

AWEAR Apparel has been a long journey in the making. From an idea that sparked in our minds to our grand opening this past Earth Day. AWEAR Apparel is one of the ways we raise awareness of becoming responsible tenants of our harsh, but beautiful, Earth… our home. We created our eco-apparel using Scott’s award winning nature photography, from underwater to above. Our apparel is made in the US of recycled polyester from plastic bottles. We also donate 5% of each sale to The Whale Sanctuary Project, the first seaside whale & dolphin sanctuary.

Forest2Sea is our wedding theme & we chose to use this as our “mother ship” for all our projects, including our biggest project, AWEAR Apparel. We spent many days & nights on the computer, all while trying to build out our bus so that we can move out sooner than later, but time & obstacles had other plans. The challenges didn’t stop us, but it did slow things down. These obstacles did their job of testing our mental & emotional health. We went from plan a, b to c, d, e…

Obstacle runs are my favorite type of races, but in life, not so much. Personally, I had my fill & was ready for a small taste of success. Little did we know that the obstacles we faced were an open door to realizing one of our dreams, much sooner than we thought. We were able to find an incredibly beautiful place to park our bus and rent a studio, all while working on our bus & living with a community of like-minded people.

A beautiful family took us all in – pets, bus, FJ, hubby & wife to live on their gorgeous property in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Washington. THIS was our destination goal, but we didn’t expect to be able to move so soon. It’s where our obstacles took us. It’s still so surreal & we are so grateful to this family for welcoming us into their community! Now, with the Olympic forest as our backyard, we can work on realizing our business & continue to embrace the changes to an improved lifestyle.

Alongside our other eco-projects, our focus with AWEAR Apparel is to build a movement of like-minded, inspirational & motivational folks. Our main motivation is to protect our Mother Earth the best way we can. We want to inspire others to take those steps toward self-improvement. We built this business as a small, modest tool to becoming eco-conscious & be aware of what we buy, all along giving back to our community.

Our school bus build is just another way we want to give back to our planet. We know Skoolie Woolie, (aka SkooWoo), will take on a few phases as Scott & I continue to learn & grow. We’re excited about the future ventures SkooWoo & our business will take us on. We hope you all will hop right in & enjoy the ride with us.