"Life begins at the end of your comfort Zone"- Artisans on the move...

One big passionate adventure, is the best way to describe our journey in the arts and now science of decorative painting...We've never been afraid of change, and it's really what's taken us to where we are today, always searching for new ideas, better ways to do things, always open for learning and evolving.  It's taken us on this mad fun unpredictable exciting ride, that started in the garage of our home and when you're married to your business partner and are both madly into the same thing, everything runs just a wee bit faster, what feels like a million miles an hour and has taken our lives  into one big artistic overdrive. Our friends call us mad but we wouldn't change one bit of it. 

We have (apart from a bit of travel) lived pretty much in Auckland all our lives. It's been our place, our home... our start, middle and present. It's where we have built friendships, relationships, clients and customers...But just now, that has all changed...Like many, over the "Covid Period" we began to re evaluate "life" both personally and professionally. Our journey has not come without sacrifice and family time has been one of the biggest things that we have had to sacrifice in the last 10 years, that's  us working most weekends, weeknights and travelling back and forth all hours of the day and sometimes nights as well doing all sorts of crazy hours. It takes an enormous amount of strength and resilience to start a new concept, grow a business, from nothing whilst having a marriage and raising a family. We are  "always on the go" and to be honest that's how we like to live it,  it's all our daughter has ever known, Mum and Dad have always got a project going on but we have always worked towards the day where we can still be "on the go" but have more time to be with and around her and there is no better year to jump at this for us than 2021. 

Photo caption: We've enjoyed some amazing years living on the coast in Auckland and our local beach a minutes walk from our house will be missed. Our daughter has literally grown up on this beach....

With a growing network of Artisan retailers and the need for a larger warehouse space for paint manufacturing, we recently made the big decision to move both our home and warehouse out of Auckland, the big smoke, the only home our daughter has known and the place we have called home all our lives.

Photo Caption : An amazing place we've called home... Goodbye Auckland.

The Artisans have moved and we are now in the stunning Bay of Islands, the winterless north, subtropical climate, stunning beaches  with plenty of fresh organic produce, it's an "artsy" area with plenty of creativity and its a place we visited just briefly over the Xmas holidays and immediately fell in love with. 

Our first day arriving on the property, and that brilliant sunset across the skies was a great ending to a massive day of unloading the trucks 

It wasn't a hard decision as we knew in our hearts immediately this was the place for us, it just felt right,  we viewed the property for about an hour and a half, made an offer, sold our home in Auckland in 4 days, packed home and the warehouse and all the machinery, made the move up in 5 truck loads, all done and dusted within a month, so if any of you have noticed that we've been slightly MIA on social media lately, now you know why. If you haven't noticed then we've done a good job of keeping things active during this massive relocation:-)  

Photo caption: a much needed early morning coffee whilst recovering from the previous day of moving... Adrianna, learning how to reach up, open and swing the gate into the paddock...a novel idea for her.

A big exciting adventure is how we're viewing this, with a custom built warehouse on a lifestyle block built to suit everything we do and want to do in the future, a large homestead to paint and transform the hell out of, and loads of land to try our hand at landscaping and gardening, it's a new adventure that we've decided to open up and share. When we were in retail we shared everything we knew, what we were doing daily, weekly, monthly on social media.... however opening up your home and your new lifestyle  that you know nothing about certainly comes with a bit of hesitation and reservation but as the title of this blog says "life starts at the end of your comfort zone" 

We don't have a clue what we're going to do with all this land, neither of us having any farming or gardening background, and having switched to a plant based diet recently  for health reasons, neither of us have any interest in farming animals other than maybe a couple of lambs that we promised our daughter she could have as pets  if we moved to a rural site. So the outdoors is yet to be decided but what we do know is we want to turn this large homestead into "home", in Artisan Paints and Products of course and we we've decided to document and share it along the way.... not just painting side of things but the whole lifestyle change and journey.

Photo caption: Taking a break from all the unpacking to enjoy our new local spot for inspiration... nature is so good for the soul and creativity 

 

As I write this I am currently surrounded in boxes and boxes of stuff that are constantly staring at me waiting to be opened. They say moving houses is one of the most stressful things you can do in life, and they're not wrong there, packing a decade of your life into boxes as well as your business was no easy feat, that in itself was a pretty emotional journey filled with memories that you are kind of saying goodbye to when you not only leave your home but also the city you've grown up in. But it's done  and here we are in the sunny Bay of Islands and as I sit on our deck with a glass of wine writing this first entry, staring out to the palm tree lined landscape that surrounds us,  l'm excited to start this adventure....so we invite you follow this lifestyle blog through our facebook page "Artisan AT Home NZ" click here to like and follow the page and also click here to follow us on instagram under Artisan.At.Home by clicking here, we'll share our findings of adjusting to  the "country life" a bit of gardening, food, a whole lot of learning and whatever else this adventure takes us to, with a whole lot of painting thrown in! We look forward to seeing you pop up on the pages .... stay tuned xx - Dorophya

Photo caption: Quick shot from where I am as I finish this first entry