I want to showcase people that I think are remarkable on Book of Mum, working hard at it and spinning them plates. Harriet is a great friend and has launched a business called Farm Gate Vintage – selling as she says ” French Vintage Elements with Soul.
Here she has taken time out to talk about being Badass. Which by the way, she is, by the bloody bucket load. I mean here she is riding a horse with a bow and arrow, probably after changing a nappy, looking after numerous animals, stocking up her online shop and running her farmstead.
Anyway check it.
How do we manage to put on all the hats, whilst still managing to grow the social circle, cover up our grey hairs, learn new things and still manage to be Badass?
Driving the kids to school last week, listening to Protection, which Sebastian (my son of four years) had put on was real happiness for me. I realised then that happiness for me is actually in moments. Experiences intemporal. Fleeting. Beautiful.
As an e-commerce small business owner, how do we translate that vibe into a sale-able product to sit on our shop shelves? How can we add and transmit an element of ourselves to all of our pieces and customers? How do we do this without giving ourselves away entirely?
Answer: we stay Badass.
By fostering those aspects of ourselves and our crew that renew our energy pool, give us more strings to draw on when we’re going through our cyclical lull, keeps us real, alive, awake. By nurturing ourselves, we in turn are better mothers, sisters, owners, bloggers.
Moving out to France five years ago was a new and relatively cold slap round the face. I learned a(nother) new language, was grilled in a(nother) commercial company and I stepped onto the roller coaster of a first pregnancy. With family and friends afar, I retreated into myself.
Escaping Lyon for rural Burgundy allowed me to reconnect with nature, space and allowed me to take up riding again, which I’d relegated to dreamland through my 10 or so “gonzo years”. The not-long-after birth of my second child helped me to relinquish control over any aspect of my life. We bought land. I bought horses. I launched an online vintage business. I faked it till I made it.
The most beautiful things grow in the fertile ashes of what we once were. Hell, things grew like Japanese Knotweed.
Now, rather than trying to snatch moments outside of being a mom, a business owner, a cook, a cleaner, a lover, where I can be me, riddled with guilt and full of “why nots”, I’m choosing to regularly factor in my own moments in the spotlight. Even if it is just me and the dog who are there to bear witness. In allowing myself to shine, I’ve actually managed to dig deep and renew my creativity in pretty much all facets of my life.
In addition, this mentality has even given me the gritted determination to be better at being me than I believe I ever actually was. Each moment counts and all the family benefits as a result.
Harriet is Owner, Curator, Creator at Farm Gate Vintage, an online, French vintage kitchen and homewares business, established in Burgundy, France. See her latest finds and creations here
www.farmgatevintage.com