After much prayer, many late-night conversations, and more than a few tears, I’ve made the decision to close Apparel 212.

This isn’t the ending I pictured when I started the boutique.

I loved finding pieces I thought you’d love, styling outfits, packing orders, and watching something I built from scratch find its way into your closets. There were exciting moments, stressful moments, and plenty of moments when I wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into.

And if I’m being completely transparent, the boutique had already become harder to sustain than I wanted to admit. And more expensive.

Then the past several months rewrote the script in ways none of us saw coming.

My son Kobe’s melanoma diagnosis changed a lot about how I look at my time and where I want to spend my energy. Between appointments, scans, surgery and recovery, teaching full time, our family, and just trying to keep up with everyday life, I’ve realized I simply don’t have the bandwidth or the desire to keep trying to make Apparel 212 work.

And that’s hard to admit.

Because closing a business you built can feel a little like admitting you failed.

But I’m starting to realize that maybe knowing when something no longer fits your life isn’t failure.

Maybe sometimes it’s just figuring it out.

And, fittingly enough, that’s kind of what this whole blog is about.

There’s another side of closing a business that isn’t nearly as sentimental.

The financial side.

Starting and running Apparel 212 left us with significant credit card debt. Money went into inventory, shipping, advertising, websites, apps, and all those little expenses that don’t seem quite so little when you add them together.

I learned some expensive lessons along the way.

Unfortunately, high interest doesn’t care how good your intentions were. It just keeps compounding.

So now the goal is pretty simple: sell through as much remaining inventory as possible and put every dollar I can toward cleaning up the financial aftermath of this adventure.

That’s why you’ll see deeper discounts and all sales final as we finish clearing out the store. At this point, it isn’t about making a profit. It’s about finishing well, paying down what we can, and creating a little more financial and mental breathing room.

And then comes the next challenge…

Figuring out how to get rid of the rest of that debt.

I’ll definitely be sharing that part of the story here, too.

I’m already researching, calculating, brainstorming, and probably overthinking every possible way to pay it off faster. So stay tuned…if I happen to discover some miraculous way to make a pile of credit card debt disappear overnight, I promise I won’t keep it to myself. 😂

More realistically, I’m guessing it’s going to involve a lot of small decisions, extra payments, creative ways to bring in some additional money, and trying things to see what actually works.

And I’ll share that part, too.

The wins.

The things that don’t work.

The ideas that sound brilliant at 11:00 at night and considerably less brilliant the next morning.

So…what’s next?

I have absolutely no idea. 😂

And strangely, I think I’m okay with that.

The food trailer is still part of the story when our energy and schedule allow. I’ll keep teaching. I’ll keep writing here. And I’ll keep sharing the messy middle of midlife…debt payoff, family, health, hormones, weddings, work, crazy ideas, and all of those “well…what do I do now?” moments that seem to show up regularly around here.

No polished highlight reel.

Just figuring it out as I go.

If you still see something you love on the Apparel 212 site, now is definitely the time to grab it. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

And if you originally found me because of Apparel 212, I hope you’ll stick around.

Because apparently turning 50 isn’t about finally having everything figured out.

At least I hope not…because I’m running a little behind. 😂

Here’s to closing one door with gratitude, paying down what we can, and figuring out what comes next.

With coffee, gratitude & a little less inventory ☕🤍

– Stacy