I can trace the moment I decided to start AK Black Currant back to a pivotal life moment in 2018. For those that have not spent much time in Alaska, you need to know life at times is not easy here due to a cyclic boom and bust economy. You don’t always get to choose if you get to stay or go. After years of wondering if we would be able to make it here, we finally decided to buy a home. Even after that I still waited to buy anything for the house including plants just in case we had to leave. One day I decided that it was safe. This was home. I went out and bought over $100 worth of new plant babies! I was so excited. The very next day the dramatically reduced state budget was announced, and both my husband and I suddenly found ourselves wondering if we would still have jobs by the following month. I remember sitting on our couch and saying half to myself and half to the Universe, “but I just bought plants!” In the months to follow, my husband and I were faced with difficult decisions and had many conversations about what home means to us. We attended many going away parties for friends that decided that Alaska was no longer a good fit for them. We too had to decide to stay or go. We decided to stay. This is our home. So, for me, the potted plant has become an unexpected symbol of defiance. It is the juxtaposition of wild nature and the domesticated. It is this exquisite tension that has come to define my life in Alaska and my new business AK Black Currant, wildly domesticated home decor!