The Next Adventure… The Story Behind the Etsy Shop
I know this is getting redundant… I promise to stop using the word “shenanigan” and refrain from farm references for at least a week. 🙂
Homegrown In The City
The new year shenanigans of 2014 were just dying down when “homegrownjewlz” opened its doors. With only one product to sell, it seemed crazy, but I knew I needed to start somewhere and the time was right.
A decade-ish ago I moved off the farm, and left much of the homemade life to search for what else I may find for myself. I moved to Atlanta and found much more than I could have ever hoped for–a high school job teaching English, my husband of ten years now, and an incredible Italian family who loves me as their own. What I found didn’t replace what I’d left behind, but it did enrich my life and open doors I’d never noticed before. I’m incredibly blessed to have lived two very different lives–one on the farm growing up, and another in suburbia growing into myself, and learning to appreciate both lives. My husband and I now live in a niche of downtown Atlanta, where our townhouse is connected to five others, we border the town square and bocce ball court, and hear the mutterings of the city until late into the night. I traded in quiet, starry nights for a city-scape off my bedroom balcony and could never say that one is better than the other–they’re just different and I’m eternally grateful to have experienced both.
For the first time, I’m entirely embracing all that is and ever was homegrown about my parents, my siblings, and myself. I love that I know how to sew everything from church to prom dresses, preserve bizarre looking meats and vegetables for the winter, make cinnamon bread from scratch, crochet baby blankets, stir up the perfect strawberry jam, and appreciate homemade detergent. I opened my Etsy shop because I’m proud of the way that I was raised and want to infuse homegrown ideas into products that I can share. Whether it’s homemade detergent, strawberry jam, patchwork aprons with rickrack from my mom’s “sewing center” or any other homegrown creation, I want to bring a little more wholesome and a little less “made in China” to our everyday world.