They Say Timing Is Everything...

This week has been very productive, but certainly not in the way I had planned it to be. After spending the holidays at our farm in Upstate New York, we landed back on the West Coast, and within a few days, the rain storm hit and began pummeling Santa Barbara County and the surrounding areas. The very locations that got hit hard by the Montecito mudslides were being evacuated once again five years to the day. As we’re all cleaning up in the aftermath to varying degrees, I’m reminded once again that plans change, you can’t win a fight with nature, and we’re all more adaptable than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

When emergency alerts began popping up, it was hard to imagine how precarious the situation was in our burn scared hillsides and how our neighborhoods were holding up. The reality was that areas of Santa Barbara County were flooding fast (rain totals in some regions reached 12 inches in a 24 hour period). This is where the timing part comes in... Our stores were closed and my husband, Jeffrey happened to be close by on his way home and checked in to make sure everything was ok. Everything was not ok - One of our stores was an inch deep with water. It's hard to imagine how much worse things could have gotten had he not been there, but after a Herculean effort and with the help of our team, we're in much better shape. They say, "timing is everything," and in this case, that couldn't be more true. All things considered, we count ourselves lucky, but many others in the state of California have suffered far worse. For everyone who was impacted by the storms, our hearts go out to you.

With all that's gone on this week, this post is shorter than usual, but I have curated a collection of my favorite stormy weather essentials for you to peruse!

We hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound, staying dry and that rainbows are on the horizon.

Sending lots of love,