Hello. If we haven't met yet, I'm Courtney Holm – founder and all-rounder here at A.BCH.

It's obviously January because everywhere I turn are declarations of new-ness and endless lists of ins outs that have me knee-jerk checking myself. People everywhere (online) will tell you what's it for the year, read: the only way to true happiness, from skin care, self care, recipes and sustainable clothing trends. 

Meanwhile, I've been trying to find what old stuff I can use up, work with, fall in love with once again and not because I'm a zero waste saint. I actually get a kick out of using shit up. When I cook a meal from who knows what dregs I have hanging around the pantry (formally known in my household as Scrounge), I happen to get a very nice rush of endorphins. When I use scraps of fabric to create something rather un-scrappy for Red Line, I can't help but feel a jolt of energy. It's a creative source for me. When nothing else inspires, leftovers do the trick. Maybe it's a self sufficiency thing or me trying to exert control in an area I can while everything else flings wildly out of control. But honest to goodness, it feels better than shopping or eating out or even buying a new bolt of linen.

I'm subscribed to Aja Barber's Patreon - which is brilliant by the way - you can sign up too and I guarantee it will be well worth it. Anyway, she's talked about using up half finished bottles of skin care products and samples before to buy less, save money and declutter and then just this week she talked about it again and just how good her skin is feeling right now and I thought to myself, what fresh bliss! If I can clear out space and use up something that gives me nourishment or damn fine skin and save my money in the process, I'll feel amazing. You can bet that's what I am doing right now.

So forget the long lists. For me, what's old is in!

I've also been thinking about what I need less of - and it's mostly my phone. And what I need in moderation - that would be writing. Back in the early days of A.BCH I mandated myself to write and publish something weekly on A.BCH World. But the pressure of that was too much for my all-hats-self so what ended up happening was very little writing indeed.

But in life, I have so many rich and wonderful conversations, that I have always felt it would be at least nice, if not important for me to reflect them into something less ephemeral than a passing conversation or panel discussion. 

My little resolution to you (whoever actually reads what I put out there - hello!) is to write something intentional on a quarterly basis. I've thought a lot about it and feel it's something I can maintain and look forward to, mull over and build on over a month or two before editing and publishing. It'll be called Clothing 2.0, and it will be here I can spend more focused effort on the educational side of what we do at A.BCH.

Think of it as a slower digest of the sustainable fashion world happenings, my take on the global pulse of circular economy for fashion and likely a few systems maps to explain myself. And if I find inspiration to say something more frequently, well good for me, but the quarterly cadence will contain my primary writing focus for the next 12 months.

So with that, I invite you to join me on Substack for Issue.01 to be released in the coming quarter. I hope you'll subscribe and stick around.

As always, please reach out to chat or to find out how the scrappy skin care regime is going.

Courtney