Microsoft went down. The velvet came out.
There are days you plan, and there are days that plan you.
This morning I sat down with my coffee, ready for a full day as Our Fashion Fix – conscious consultants. Client calls, Demo of our Ask Miranda platform, a couple of decks to polish. The usual lovely chaos.
Then Microsoft went down.
No Outlook. No Teams. Just that eerie quiet feeling!
My husband literally took one look at my face and said: "Well, you should have a snow day."
And honestly? He was right.
Snow days were never wasted days
Remember snow days at school? Nobody spent them sitting by the window mourning lost maths lessons. You pulled on your wellies and made something. A snowman, a sledge run, on in my case – I’m a northerner, you got yourself a massive pile of snowballs and lobbed them all at your mates. The day didn't disappear- it wasn’t what you planned because it was better!
So instead of refreshing my inbox every four minutes (I may have done that for the first 30 mins), I did what any woman with a side hustle would, I got busy!
I switched hats.
Hello, Timeless Traditions
Off came the Our Fashion Fix conscious consultant hat. On went the Timeless Traditions wreath-making woolen beanie and some gloves – secateurs in hand.
With workshop season now officially upon us, there's always prep to be done and today, the universe handed me the time to do it. So the table is now covered in:
• Velvet bows - tied, fluffed and lined up like soldiers.
• Ivy - trimmed, sorted and ready to adorn wreaths across Surrey.
• Ring bases - built, bound and ready to be dressed
There's something deeply satisfying about it. No logins. No buffering. No "you're on mute." Just my hands, natural materials and the steady rhythm of making something beautiful that will go back to the earth.
Why it's not as different as it looks
On the surface, wreath making and conscious consulting couldn't look further apart. One lives in inboxes and Teams calls; the other lives on the front door.
But the thread running through both is the same one that runs through everything we do at Our Fashion Fix: making things that are made to last and return to the earth with as little impact as possible.
Conscious fashion is about choosing well, caring for what we have and stepping away from the throwaway. A hand-made wreath is exactly that; seasonal, natural, personal, and nothing like the plastic version that ends up in landfill come January. Velvet bows can be untied, pressed and reused year after year. Ivy goes back to the earth. A good ring base will see you through many Christmases.
Slow, thoughtful, circular. Same values, different medium.
Why I love a side hustle
We talk a lot about side hustles as the "extra", the thing you squeeze in at weekends, late at night, or in the gaps between the "real" work.
But today was a reminder that a side hustle isn't just a backup plan. It's resilience. It's creativity with somewhere to go. It's the part of you that's ready when the main plan doesn’t quite go to plan.
When one door closes (or one server crashes), it's rather lovely to have another door ready to hang a wreath on.
So if you've got a side project quietly bubbling away, the candles, the alterations, the vintage rails, the illustration, the baking- indeed whatever your passion give it some love. You never know when it'll be its turn to step into the spotlight.
Back to the bows
Microsoft will come back. The emails will flood in. The calls will be rescheduled. And I'll happily swap my secateurs for my laptop again.
But for today, I'm on bows, foliage, and prepping for our workshop at The Cotswold Company tomorrow and I'm not even the slightest bit mad about it.
Fancy making your own wreath this season? Timeless Traditions workshop dates available on Eventbrite with The Cotswold Company, available for bookings for private events and dates available at my home 10th Dec, 12th Dec- DM for info- bring a friend, a smile and an appetite for mince pies.
#OurFashionFix #TimelessTraditions #SideHustle #ConsciousLiving #WreathMaking #SlowChristmas #SnowDay