But not on purpose.
For the last 20 years (basically my adult life) I have been working in the restaurant industry. Restaurant work is hard work. You’re on your feet all day, 10-12 hour shifts, high stress situations, and oftentimes you’re working 40+ hours a week. I’ve always “worked my way to the top”, no matter what job I was in. I’ve helped grow businesses, but never embarked on anything for myself. After operating a restaurant through a pandemic, I finally recognized the importance of self-care and that special place we call home.
The Gardeners Wife was born out of the need to feel more connected to all things and to do something for myself. This is my story about how I got here, it’s about how I finally found myself, by way of finally doing something for myself.
Hi, I’m Elizabeth, and I kill plants
Everyday, during the pandemic, I went to work. I worked hard to get us, a restaurant, through a very fast and abrupt transition from dine-in, to take-out only and survive a pandemic. We never closed, not one day, to do that. Every morning as I would leave for work, I’d say bye to my husband Aaron who was, inevitably, always working in the garage on a project for a client.
The garage is his workshop, and his office sits just inside, off the kitchen. He owns a landscape design company called Austin Yard Barber, and he thrives doing it.
He, too, was in the restaurant industry his entire life, and knew nothing else. What he did know, however, was what he loved to do. He loved working outside, in nature, with his hands in the dirt. He loved working with plants and steel and wood and crafting outdoor spaces. So in 2018 he took a leap and started Austin Yard Barber.
As I left for work, day after day, I saw him doing what he loves, and I thought, “I want to do that too”. I wanted to do what I loved, just like he did. Why wasn’t I? Am I not allowed, or was I just too afraid to do it?
Photo by Nikole Velasco Photography
I asked myself, over and over, every day,
“ what would fulfill me?”
I love coffee. I love being cozy in my home. I love unique, handmade goods, and I love decorating. I’m good at running restaurants, but am I passionate about it?
On Mothers Day 2020, I had a socially distant coffee date with my mom, my brother & sister-in-law. I told them about something my boss had said, when the pandemic first began. She said “you might want to think about what you want to really do, because you might not have a job in a year”.
“What do I do?”, I asked. “Well,” my brother said, “Nancy and I thought about, maybe, one day, opening a coffee shop.” My ears perked up, because…coffee. “I would love to help with that!”, I said, because it’s safe, it’s what I know. We chatted a little about it, but then moved to another topic.
As I drove home that afternoon it came to me. It’s the clearest vision I have ever seen. I wanted to open a coffee shop that had plants all around, and they’ll hang from the ceiling, and we’ll have couches and comfortable work spaces, and in the back of the shop will be a little “plant inspired” boutique that will sell all things plants, made by local women artists…and it will be called:
The Gardeners Wife
Photo at 2 Tarts Bakery in New Braunfels, wall art by The Paper Committee
The evolution …
from coffee shop to pop-up shop happened pretty quickly when I realized I did not want to be in the restaurant industry any longer, and I didn’t want to deal with staffing shortages, product delays, or the upkeep of a coffee shop.
What I did realize is that I wanted to pursue the second part of what “The Gardeners Wife Coffee/Shop” was going to be: The Shop!
The Shop, as it was in my mind in June of 2020, would be a place where I would bring in small-batch, handmade goods created by women artists and women-owned businesses, that all had one common theme: plants. The Shop would supply all things to make your home your sanctuary, and provide organic and eco-friendly products to enrich our lives. The Shop would support the community through different classes about plants and programs on plant care, hosted by the Gardener himself, along with other pro’s in the field. Ultimately, The Shop would be a space of learning, growing, and….connecting.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Flowers
I started creating dried floral arrangements in June 2022 and fell in love with everything about it. From finding the flowers to arranging them, I found a a peace and quiet in my mind as I sat there on the floor, creating a beautiful mess with stems and leaves and buds. The Gardeners Wife took on a whole new meaning, and I felt it taking shape, real hard shape, into what it is today.
Today you can order custom arrangements, and find my arrangements all around Austin, as I continue to pop-up at different markets. Most recently, however, you can find my flowers 6-days a week at my brand new brick-and-mortar shop, CLOVER + MAVEN located in East Austin.
My mission is to help us find connection with our ourselves, our home & each other. My mission is to help us connect with our home space by cultivating a space that is our peaceful sanctuary, where we can find solace and true relaxation. My mission is to help us connect with ourselves through consistent self-care routines and using products that are good for our bodies & the earth. My mission is to embrace the connection we have with one another through working with women owned small businesses who have a dedication to ethical practices & sustainable standards, and to connect them from me, to you. My mission is to connect with local organizations and non-profits to help nourish our community because...
We are all connected,
nourish your roots.
I work with women owned small businesses to curate a socially conscious and eco-friendly collection of small-batch, handmade goods for home and life. Many of the women I work with already donate a portion of their sales (or time) to non-profits. I wanted to do the same, so I started my “Be the Change” initiative, where I highlight a non-profit and donate 3% (the number of joy) of my sales directly to that non-profit. It’s a way to feel connection with each other, and with our planet. By starting the conversation of “how can we help each other”, we open the door to a more caring and kind world. Don’t we all need a little of that?