Nurture

RETREATS
- Nurture Fall 2023
- PAST RETREATS
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ABOUT
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RETREATS
- Nurture Fall 2023
- PAST RETREATS
SERVICES
HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
BLOG
ABOUT
- PRESS
- TESTIMONIALS
CONTACT
- APPLY

RETREATS
- Nurture Fall 2023
- PAST RETREATS
SERVICES
HARVEST TABLE DINNERS
BLOG
ABOUT
- PRESS
- TESTIMONIALS
CONTACT
- APPLY

We love questions as much as we love butter, which is a lot. We’d love to hear from you!

NurtureRetreat-218

Sonja Seiler

Founder & Creative Director

I am picturing you reading this and it makes me sm

I am picturing you reading this and it makes me smile. Thanks for being here. I'm pouring us a cup of something hot (It's cider. It's been mulling on the stove all day with cinnamon, allspice and orange peel). We're both sitting on the kind of comfy couch that is part cloud, part lumbar support - it holds us, but it lets us (and anywhere that aches) sink into its pillowy depths. Our hearts unbuckle. We both grab a still-warm cookie from the tray at arms' reach (brown butter cowboy cookies that bring out an inner yee-haw of delight) and settle in for the kind of conversation that rivers. It meanders at a leisurely clip and lingers in deep pools where it matters. You ask me about what I'm up to, how I'm feeling, and what's lighting me up, and I ask you the same.⁠
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What I'm up to:⁠
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Searching for kindred spirits in my new city; ignoring my dirty dishes until I have a snit; grieving difficult anniversaries of personal loss; designing menus for incredible people, signing petitions and writing my representatives in support of a ceasefire; embroidering our Nurture napkins; planning my wedding; moving my best friend to Hamilton and getting used to that commute; cooking for nuns; enjoying my chili crisp era; learning how to quilt; finding the perfect people to fill the last two spots at Nurture (is this you? I hope it's you.)⁠
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How I'm feeling:⁠
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Cozy - it's Fall, my favourite season. Numb, horrified, keening - it's genocide. Grateful - it's a privilege to be surrounded by the best people whom I hold so dear.⁠
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What's lighting me up:⁠
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Butter my sister brought me back from Ireland; baths while someone else makes dinner; owl videos; work that I adore; Regency romance novels leaning towards erotica; the hint of holiday season in the air; elevator kisses; my friend's new baby; when you write me back.⁠
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I would love to hear from you, support you and be in community with you. What are you up to? How are you feeling? What's lighting you up?⁠
⁠
📷️: @katieharrisonphoto

Welcome to an opportunity for your product to beco

INVITE BELOW! I think my love of churned butter, h

INVITE BELOW! I think my love of churned butter, heritage homes and wood stoves confirms it, but I’m sure I was a pioneer in a past life thanks to a natural resonance with the adventure of pursuing new frontiers. It’s no wonder, then, that the entrepreneurial life suits me. It’s a life that demands presence, grit, imagination, and devotion of the highest order, along with bursts of luck exactly when you need it.

It also means a respectful tip of my bonnet to others on the same journey. The ‘just starting out’ phase in business is a tender one, full of big dreams and stark realities that can be difficult to bear alone. It’s why I love love love that Nurture is a natural landing spot for those who are building something.

Nurture is an incubator, which sounds like such a tech-bro term, but I mean it more like the warm glow of a fire that warms you and your business in the dark than I do the empty spark of jargon.

Nurture is a stop for a hot meal, watering your ideas, real rest and kindred fellowship before you head out to your next horizon.

Over the 9 years we’ve run our retreats, I’ve been delighted and honoured to feature quality products in our Nurture Care Kits made by incredible Canadian Makers who were just starting out. It’s been very rewarding to watch many of these small businesses grow both roots (brick and mortar stores) and wings (incredible features and collaborations their pioneer selves could only have dreamed of).

As we approach our November retreat, we are putting out our welcome wagon to invite a new crew of makers to collaborate with us. We’re also excited to be building an online Nurture Marketplace featuring Nurture Care Kit contributors new and old, right on time for the holidays.

If you are the maker of a product you feel would be a good fit for a retreat care kit, or you know of someone who would be, tag yourself in the comments, DM me, or investigate our full collaboration invitation via our bio link. We’d love to get to know you and your products and put them in the hands of people who will equate them directly with care.

📷: @katewatkinson

#canadianmakers #handmadeontario #supportsmall #shoplocalontario #makersmovement

To me, this photo captures the intangible feelings

To me, this photo captures the intangible feelings of Nurture in a nutshell:

Observe how everyone is fully present to what @stephpellett is saying. I love how open and unguarded her face is, how genuine everyone's smiles are. There is a softness, a gentleness in the energy of this photo that beautifully reflects what it actually feels like to be there, sitting at the Nurture table, amongst a group of people you can breathe easy with.

Look at how the bowls are empty. This affirms that folks have lingered long past their morning oatmeal (which was 'Strawberry Shortcake - roasted strawberries, vanilla bean whipped cream, crumbled shortbread and pistachio-mint drizzle, FYI). We love a linger at Nurture, and they happen naturally. There is no rushing, no gobbling, no pressure to up and do the next urgent thing. Here, we sip our coffee slowly, enjoying one another's company, giving our breakfast time to digest with ease.

Check out how the sun pours in to this room like magic: in the mornings it is pale lemon, like whipped cake batter. In the afternoons, it's baklava honey gold.

You can see we don't stand on ceremony here. Everyone here is wearing what they feel comfortable in. Some are still in their pajamas; others wear their favourite sweater, or the pants with the elastic waistband. Again, room to breathe.

Right around the corner from when this photo was taken is our first workshop of the day, where the table will be cleared and covered again in the artistic expression of one of our incredible facilitators. All our hands will be set to creating, our hearts telling us the what while the person leading us in their craft shows us the how.

After that, this table will be cleared again and laden with the luxury of a lunch that makes your synapses fire with its vibrancy, textures, colours and flavours. You'll feel like you've stepped into another workshop, because how you put things on your plate is itself an artistic act.

This table is the heart of Nurture. It's where we feast, play, learn and connect. We can't wait for you to experience it!

📷️: @katewatkinson

#ontarioretreat #retreatyourself #retreat2023

Introducing our incredible Nurture Fall 2023 Team.

Introducing our incredible Nurture Fall 2023 Team.

There is not enough space on a reel to share about how much each of these women inspire me, so feel free to do a deep dive on their accounts and websites to learn more and become as enamoured as I am.

@stephpellett is our resident Nurture Creative Producer who makes our behind the scenes as nourishing as everything public-facing. She is a systems witch of the highest order, and as I mention in the reel, your life will change for the better when she enters it.

@francesbeattyphoto and I met 7 years ago and I’ve been fangirling over her work ever since. When she said yes to being on our team I let out a squeal of glee normally reserved for high school girls at boy band concerts. Can’t wait to see our Nurture weekend through her eyes and soulful lens.

@mimaschrwonstie I first heard about and fell in love with Christie and her work when her husband sat next to me at one of our Harvest Table Dinners. I knew I had to meet her, court her, and have her share her incredible work and wisdom with this Nurture cohort. She walks the talk of a committed artistic practice for creativity’s sake and weaves in ancestral connection in a way that is both grounded and profound.

@gentledecay is a deep listener, secret keeper and flower poet. Her willingness to dig into the darker parts of the creative practice and celebrate the beauty there is what drew me to her like a magnet when I met her at a workshop years ago. I was like: ohhhh, this woman KNOWS.

@lizawallman and I met at a picnic through mutual friends and I told her in my characteristic lack of chill that “she is great and would she like to be friends”. Thank GOODNESS she said yes, because she is now both a friend and a mentor when it comes to the importance and health benefits of making one’s art and creative practice a priority and maintaining a sense of playfulness and whimsy in our lives.

And lastly, me! If yesterday’s post is any indication of my ardency when it comes to holding space for and feeding you, you are in good, earnest hands.

We’d love to spend the weekend with you and have only THREE spots left! Grab yours today!

📷: @katewatkinson

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