Jenny Graham
YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE UNIVERSE, NO LESS THAN THE TREES AND THE STARS; YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HERE. AND WHETHER OR NOT IT IS CLEAR TO YOU, NO DOUBT THE UNIVERSE IS UNFOLDING AS IT SHOULD.
-Max Ehrmann (with a JBD thanks to Annie M.)
Image Credit: Jenny Graham
Live, eat and beautify the natural way. I grew up planting tomatoes with my Dad in our backyard garden and with a Mom who taught me olive oil is, actually, a good facial moisturizer. I recently met a woman who makes a living embracing the natural elements. Read on to learn about this cropped and curated lifestyle, by Jenn Segale, founder of Garden Apothecary. A professional horticulturist, her knowledge and plant passion have birthed a brilliant company everyone should know about.
What is your constant muse?
Nature is my constant muse. Dirt. Flowers. Seed pods. Roots. I love it all and constantly try to find ways to capture it, then show it to the world. Whether it’s through my landscape design company or my product line, I find that everyone wants to learn a little something about nature – and I’m always happy to share.
When did you begin Garden Apothecary?
Six years ago as a simple garden blog. My background is in farming and botany, and after doing landscape design for so many years, I found I wanted a place to house my pictures and rant about nature. About a year later, I started the product line. Although “botany” and “beauty products” seem like a far leap, it’s amazing how well the two subjects go together. I always tell customers the only reason my brand stands out is because of my background. I am not an esthetician. I’m a botanist. I know plants and luckily they happen to be good for us and make us beautiful! I ensure that when you order one of my Vanilla body scrubs, you don’t just smell a vanilla-like fragrance. You see a whole organic vanilla pod, the tiny seeds and smell the intense oils. Most people will never get the chance to see the Vanilla plantifolia orchid in the wild, but with my products, it comes to you.
Tell us about your trip to Belize. Did it inspire your Spring 2013 line?
I spent about a month traveling in Belize last January and another three weeks in November. It was an incredible experience to meet and spend time with local Shaman, bush-medicine healers and farmers for weeks on end. I toured spice and cacao farms, abandoned jungle plots, Mayan ruins, medicinal plant trails, and small family gardens. I enjoyed being in the jungle looking for medicinal plants. The jungle is like no place in nature I’ve ever experienced and it was intense to see the layers of teeming wildlife all around. I’m currently writing a book, called Sacred Plants, profiling four people I spent time with in Belize and their relationship to healing plants. I fell in love with cacao when I spent time on a organic family farm in San Pedro de Columbia. Cacao creates a lovely, rich elixir, once fermented, roasted, ground and mixed with hot water. But used as a powder can be an intriguing beauty treatment. Cacao’s natural fatty oils are rich with healthy properties that get absorbed quickly in the blood stream. I’m playing around with body scrub recipes and have recently released a batch of organic cacao perfume and massage oil. Once you use it, you really know why it is called the food of the Gods.
What is one product you would never want to live without?
Honey. For your face or hair, honey is the magic skincare product. I mix two tablespoons of raw, local honey with one of my French green clay mud masks for a indulgent daily face cleanser.
What does the public need to know when it comes to organic products?
I think it’s important to remember your skin is your largest organ. We absorb most everything our skin comes in contact with, some moving through our system with ease and others getting trapped and causing health problems. If you wouldn’t want to eat or drink your body care products, don’t use them! There are an abundance of amazing organic products out there, and hunting them down will be worth it for your body. Buy products with a shelf life, an organic label and something that has few ingredients. If you cannot pronounce the ingredients on your body care labels after a glass of wine, don’t use it. I guarantee you’ll be able to read mine…even after two glasses!
What will never go out of style?
Flowers will never go out of style. We are inspired by their color for beauty, their geometry for fashion and their scent for body products. Giving someone flowers is a centuries old tradition of showing how you feel. Cultivating, picking, eating, bathing in and smelling flowers is a practice that will never go out of style.
What are cure-all skin secrets?
Drinking tap water is my cure-all skincare secret! I try to avoid bottled water and just go for filtered tap, drinking it at room temperature or with an organic tisane tea. Best thing you can do for your mind and body!
What advice would you give your 25 year old self?
Ha! I would tell my 25 year old self to keep going exactly as you are, with maybe a bit less carb intake! It’s amazing how great of a track we are on, when we think we know nothing.
Is there an experience or person who had a significant influence on you or your business?
A lot of people motivated me to keep going on my path in life. My Grandma and parents always told my brother and sister and I to “do your thing.” We somehow managed to take that and use it as a life lesson and just follow our passions and be weird. Also, as cliche as it sounds, plants really keep me on track. It’s so simple with nature – is this healthy and does it look and feel nice? That’s all you really need to answer in order to stay fulfilled. Filthy, curse-word rampant hip-hop music helped a lot, too. When all else fails, listen to Snoop Dogg!
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed.
Photos c/o Garden Apothecary
I gave the commencement speech at my high school and college graduation ceremonies. I don’t know what the chances of that are, but I’ll take it because in each instance I spoke about breathing in the air, not being afraid to care and choosing your own ground (thanks Pink Floyd). I am pretty sure I threw in a little diddy about ships not being safe in harbor. A bit cheeseball? For sure. Yet the overall meaning of all of it remains with me. Today it’s more about dreaming with care and following the sun. When I heard the song Follow the Sun by Xavier Rudd I had it on repeat for a while. Typical habitual musical behavior for me. It hit me like a hot note. So much so I must share the direction of love with you. Which way is the wind blowing? What does your heart say? Follow the music of the sun right here.
Okay, the cake was from my actual birthday earlier this year (thanks Meggy Vino). While I am a bit older than the five symbolic candles, and the blog is much younger, I’ll take any excuse to make a connection or commemorate a date. Jenny by design went public a year ago today. What a big wild wave of a ride it has been…
Spectacular stuff happens when you go with your instinct. When you give goodness back to the world. When you are honest. Creating JBD in the midst of a tough time turned into experiencing things I never would have imagined. Just this Tuesday, so unexpectedly, I found myself on-air with Ryan Seacrest chatting about how this very blog came about. Life keeps happening. Embrace it. Thank you for reading and for sharing your thoughts with me. It’s a real diary of all things full of delight.
p.s. I wrote a post a year ago today about leaping before you look. It still feels right. Perhaps une tradition d’anniversaire de blog? Enjoy.
JUNE 14, 2012: My aunt sent me a book of poetry about a year ago this week. I was recovering from a heartbroken moment and in the midst of life, leaped before looking. I began to write a blog, if only to keep my heart and mind occupied during those dog days. Exactly 12 months later, I launch the new look of the blog, on a late hour of a summer eve. To leap before you look can be a delightful piece of life unfolding, when no one is watching and the real stuff begins. I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I enjoy writing and curating it. Take it from me, anything is possible, just don’t quit.
Don’t Quit by Unknown
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
If you were a poem, how would you read? The winds of change, the swell of the day…anything is possible.
Image first seen here.
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
Quote from Love Actually
Surround yourself with positivity. I am regularly thankful for a stellar circle of true friends. Kate, a teacher and one of my dearest pals, emailed me a YouTube video a couple of months ago. All of her fourth graders were captivated, she said. I watched and smiled and utilized the magic of my day job to reach out to this Kid President, hoping for a sublime moment of agreement (to collaborate with him at a movie junket). The absolute best part of my job working for a movie studio and as a blogger is storytelling. Whether it is progressing because of a pep talk or traveling the world for a press junket, it is always about connecting with people. Kid President embodies and promotes compassion and creativity as a means to change the world. Check out his inspirational videos right here. Now go create something that will make the world awesome.
“There’s a zone that you can go into; a lot of people haven’t reached this level, but it exists. It’s a level where you’re seasoned enough or you’re so happy doing what you’re doing that you kind of zone out. My eyes look crazy when I do it, but it’s like you see everything as beautiful, you know? You reach a point in your mind where, as you’re dancing and listening to the music, you can create anything. You make other people see it. And that’s the power of it. People give you energy, they push energy to you when you dance, and you push it back out at them in your dancing. It’s a cycle.”
– Lil Buck
p.s. Please watch Lil Buck perform The Swan here or go in person.
Singular sensations, kids. Singular sensations. What do you want to blossom over the next couple of weeks? Invest in yourself and you’ll be able to invest in others. The dance of life depends upon it.
Image via A Chorus Line (my favorite Broadway show of all time)
