2020 Recap - What. A. Year.

You know the joke ‘I just flew in and boy are my arms tired?’

Well, if 2020 was a joke it might be ‘We just got to the end of the year and boy is my entire body/spirit/everything that could possible be tired is exhausted and maybe even a little crushed.’

This year began with devastating fires which rolled into a pandemic and is ending with a cluster of COVID in Sydney. We’ve adjusted the best we can to everything, but on top of coronavirus, we don’t know anyone that hasn’t had other major issues to deal with this year, ourselves included.

Instead of reflecting on the difficult times this year has brought for us personally and for our business, we want to say how grateful we are to all of our customers who showed us support in this past year. We felt your love amidst the backdrop of uncertainty and used your encouragement to steer Outer Island in a new direction. We launched a new product this year, Takeaway Art Kits, after teaching our last in person class in February at the Botanic Gardens. Our eco-art DIY painting kits are a way to enjoy learning to paint and to create in the safety of your own home.

We created a line of Christmas cards, which we had to re-stock multiple times. Thank you for that. We also created free downloadable coloring pages for the beginning months of lockdown in April. We loved seeing your creations and it inspired us to try new things.

During the many months when we couldn’t travel we explored NSW, visiting Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour and also many, many daytrips to go birdwatching. We felt re-connected and grateful for nature in new ways and became more aware of nature in our backyard and in the Inner West. I joined too many local fungi facebook groups back in autumn, but that’s coming in handy now with all the summer rain.

Like nearly every other maker we know, we are crawling to the finish line of this year, ready for a rest and ready for a restart next year. Some things we look forward to in 2021 are: getting a COVID vaccine, visiting the U.S. (home), makers markets returning in person, hugging, dancing and creating new products for Outer Island.

One positive thing to come out of 2020 is that there seemed to be a new appreciation for Australian made items. We hope that brings back some local manufacturing. Our products are made sustainably and as local as possible. Our mission for Outer Island has always been to bring awareness to the magic of native plants, animals and habitats, but within that, deeply embedded, is to do that sustainably and with exciting, fun and colourful design.

It’s nearly Christmas and our online store will be closed until mid-January. You can still order and it will be shipped when we re-open 11 January. Until then, we’ll be snorkelling, birding and bushwalking, sharing our summer vacation on instagram in our ‘summer diary’

Merry Christmas, happy new year. We wish you health and happiness.

Cheers,

Stephanie + Amy