What's AFTER Accessories by Antoinette?

This blog post was originally meant to be published in July 2025, however I had to put work aside due to a health hiatus, which you can read about here. Thank you for your patience!

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This blog post briefly outlines physical and mental health challenges (namely depression and anxiety). If at any point this is too triggering, I urge you not to read on. Below are some helpful organisations which I encourage you to contact, should this blog post cause any distressing thoughts, emotions or reactions to arrive.

Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/ | 1300 224 636

Lifeline: https://toolkit.lifeline.org.au/ | 13 11 14

Reach Out: https://au.reachout.com/

For urgent assistance: 000

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I'm frequently reminded that, after a handful of years, people take one of two routes in terms of their small business. Either they grow to become a big business. Or they leave it and move on. There's no right or wrong way to go about it: we all have to do what's best for ourselves.

As my sixth year in business rapidly approaches, I’ve found myself dwelling on this question more and more.

Who knows what tomorrow holds?

“What’s after Accessories by Antoinette?”

It doesn’t help that, over the years of meeting people, many have asked questions and made suggestions from a similar vein.

“When are you going to get a real job?”

“How long are you going to keep this up for?”

“I saw that [PLACE] is hiring.”

Some of the time, these questions and ‘helpful suggestions’ have come from people who aren’t saying them out of ‘good will’. They are purposeful jabs, directed from a limited mindset, whether it be a generational curse or just a part of their unwilling nature to accept others as different.

Even so, my answers remain the same.

“I already have one.”

“As long as I can.”

“No thanks.”

Trust me when I say, I have thought about it. It’s a question drilled into my mind, not only from outside influences but through thoughts – and fears – about the future.

With full sincerity, a ‘real job’ is not in the cards for me. Not anymore. Perhaps it never was.

Growing up, I saw my life going very differently to how it is today. I expected myself to get a job, go to university, to complete my studies: the same path that many people follow. That was the plan. That was the idea. That was the goal I followed blindly for years, even when I lost inspiration for it, because I had nothing else to aim for.

And then, life threw a curve ball.

Just two years out from university, I became very sick. My resume? Worthless, now that I spent more days in bed than anywhere else. I was fighting for my health and to keep up the grades I had maintained for over a decade leading up to that point. It felt like there was no time for anything else, even if they would take me in out of pity.

The following year, I abandoned my studies in order to save my life from the injustices I had faced every day since becoming sick. I chose to abandon the piece of paper I was less than 6 months away from achieving. I was already so detached from it; I just didn’t care. I was riddled with crippling anxiety and launched into a failure-fuelled depression for months.

But it didn’t last forever. And the world eventually became open ended once again. There was potential and possibilities. There was colour and change. There was hope and a hunger for more. And on a sheer whim, knowing I would never be well enough to hold a full-time ‘real’ job, I started Accessories by Antoinette.

Over the last 6 years, a lot has changed. My health has become better – and worse, depending on which area you look at in particular. But the diagnosis remains the same. I will never be well enough to be considered valuable to an employer, and I am fine with that for one simple reason.

Now, more than ever in my life, I know what I want.

I want to be free. I want to have choice. I want to have opportunity.

I want to be able to prioritise my health without guilt or shame. I want to be able to pursue my passions, as well as the passions of others when they come calling. I want to be able to run freely – not crawl in across the shards of broken hopes and inspiration, just because ‘that’s the way life is lived’.

I want to be able to improve and master my craft and my own individual style - much like I did with our dahlia magnets. [Left: Improved design; Right: Original]

So, when I think about what’s after Accessories by Antoinette, I only see one thing: a cold, hard and (hopefully) purple grave.

This business – and crafting as a whole – has given me so much life, even during the times that I am sure it will be the death of me. And as long as I am still able to, I truly cannot see myself stopping.

I love my job, even when it hurts. I love the people I have met and the family I have made. This chance – the impossible leap I took in 2019 – has given me more than I could ever ask for. And I know that in every fibre of my being, I would be a fool to ever give that up.

Maybe one day, I’ll find a new passion. Maybe it won’t be under Accessories by Antoinette, or perhaps the ambitions of this business will change. But right here, right now, and in the foreseeable future, Accessories by Antoinette isn’t going anywhere, and neither am I.

I love my not-real job. I pay my not-real bills with my not-real pay check. And I look forward to all of my future not-real projects!

If for, whatever reason, you were hoping Accessories by Antoinette wouldn’t be around for much longer, I am sorry to disappoint. Thank you for reading and for being here. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t value every like, comment or follow, or friendly face at the markets!

Kimberley (they/them)

Accessories by Antoinette