Stay at Home Mom-ing With a Side of Seeds.

Stay at Home Mom-ing With a Side of Seeds.

Let me start this off by saying that my mom was an all-time hall of fame stay-at-home mom.

Like stay in our pjs, play board games on the floor, make all the homemade popcorn, find an excuse to stay home from school, joyful, fun, mom of four kids. She crushed it. She loved it. I honestly felt made for this life with her as my example. I couldn’t wait to have our house full of four kids piling everyone in a stroller to go to the park with homemade snacks and having playdates with friends. And to be honest, I felt this way when I had my first daughter.

When Brennan was born in 2013 I was head over heels for this chunky little baby (who slept well and ate well and was generally pleasant) and loved getting her dressed and doing laundry while she crawled around the house. We went to the park and met friends for early dinners, I exclusively breast fed her for about 14 months (she adamantly refused a bottle). Because of this we were pretty attached at the hip but after many, many bouts of mastitis I was actually very happy to be in a feeding groove with her that didn’t hurt or require a bottle or anything on the go. We traveled to California, to friends’ weddings, and she went on 26 planes in her first year of life. And then, I got pregnant with our second daughter.

Brennan was ten months old when I took that pregnancy test and we were surprised but overjoyed to be having another baby. I breastfed while pregnant for about 4 months which was not my favorite feeling and then welcomed baby Regan when Brennan was nineteen months old. We had family support (including my cousin and her girlfriend living with us for a few weeks) and I was high on newborn naps and snuggles and did not think that she would be our last baby because it didn’t seem too overwhelming quite yet.

While I was pregnant, I generally felt pretty good but I was busy with a toddler who was becoming a pickier eater by the day and when my husband was traveling for work we would often end the day sharing a plate of cheese and crackers. I knew we both needed a bit more nutrition but didn’t like the idea of adding in supplements or powders or anything that wasn’t coming from whole foods. I started to research some easy add-ins like chia seeds to put in our smoothies and snacks. I found that if I added a tablespoon each of chia, hemp, and pumpkin seeds to our meals (from smoothies to granola, sprinkled in baked goods and chocolate bark, mixed into yogurt, and even blended into soups) we both got a bit of added protein, healthy fats and fiber.

My creative brain tends to never be at rest.

So, I started to research how I could package and sell this seed mix and came up with “Mom Nom” as the business name. I joined a food entrepreneurship class and met a fun and interesting group of people who were all working on their own food-based businesses. Our class ended with a presentation night at the Nashville Farmer’s Market where I shared my business plan and samples of the mix. Honestly, it was a hit! I was so proud of the idea and had a great response from the audience. It may have helped that I was about 7 months pregnant at the presentation.

This seed mix was relatively easy to source and make, and I could feed my creative side with the branding and development of the business. But as I got more involved, I realized that a food based business has some limitations. I would likely have to travel to food shows, trying to get picked up by stores and larger distributers and my margins were low. It was hard to imagine (at the time) anyone paying $4-5 for a package of seeds with 1-2 servings in it. I was also simultaneously taking a jewelry making class to try to figure out how to make our family’s gold anniversary bangles. Once I realized that I could be set up in our garage to make fine jewelry and could sell one piece making much more money than selling some seed packets, I gave up on the food world and quickly moved over to jewelry.

Going from tutoring, to childcare, to a food business, to jewelry was quite a journey.

But, I learned so much from each of these experiences and really understood what it looked like behind the scenes to offer a product or a service. It took these different roles to grasp pricing, investing time, hiring contractors, branding, customers service, accounting, and ultimately what I enjoyed and found rewarding to spend my time on as a mom to two children under two. My husband was also in the early days of starting his business so we didn’t have money to invest in a business or even much childcare at the time. I was fortunate that I could work on creating our gold bangles in our garage while my girls napped and after bedtime. I felt a real sense of accomplishment making each order and shipping it out, especially when staying home with kids, because there is an endless list of tasks each day that never really feels complete. Toys always needed to be put away, clothes cleaned and replaced with bigger sizes, tears dried, baths given and bedtime routines done. I loved being with my girls in those early years, but when I shut that garage door behind me to listen to music or a podcast and create a piece of jewelry with my hands, I reconnected with my creative joy and sense of purpose, and I was hooked. It felt so good to be making something that was serving a need, and I felt so much pride knowing that each gold bangle would be helping to celebrate a milestone and memory in a woman’s life.

I regularly share my outfits, bargain finds and investments on my Instagram. Follow along here if you’d like to see more! And never hesitate to DM me with a question or if you’re on the hunt for something, the only thing I love more than shopping for myself is shopping for someone else!

+My latest finds here.
+The power of the brow.
+Our trip to Rome, Italy.