Meet Meredith Marks, Jewelry Designer and Real Housewife of Salt Lake City

Although you may recognize Meredith Marks as one of Bravo’s newest faces on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, that is just one of the many roles Meredith plays day in and day out. Along with being the ‘queen of disengaging’, Meredith is the sole designer for her line of fine jewelry, opened her own brick and mortar store in Park City, Utah all the while being a present wife and mother to three children.

I sat down with Meredith to talk all things jewelry, inspiration and the path that lead her to pursuing a career in the jewelry industry. Meredith’s past is equally as interesting as her present and I am so excited for you to get to know more about this amazing and multi-faceted woman.

EH: Something some people may not know about you is that you earned both a law degree and a MM from Northwestern University. Those degrees demand a lot of time, energy and dedication. Did you see yourself owning your own business or did you try a more corporate career first?

Meredith Marks: Well I started undergrad as a fine arts major and pretty quickly switched out of it because I wasn’t sure how to turn that into a career. I went to law school and business school thinking I was going to go down the business path and for a while I was doing exactly that. I was in real estate development and I owned a health club but then I was mugged one morning and it was a real wake up call for me and forced me to reexamine my life.

EH: I’m so sorry it happened that way, that is a really intense wake up call. 

Meredith Marks: Yeah it was, I had three small kids at the time, I was just trying to manage that and work but I had so many things being thrown at me at once and it was at that moment I realized I wanted to pursue my passion. 

EH: And so from there you went into jewelry design? 

Meredith Marks: I took some time off but fine jewelry had always been my passion so I kind of dove in head first, my husband had a business trip and I sort of piggy backed on it and started learning from there. I studied at the GIA and that was that.

EH: I’m sure you have wondered when you look back on that situation if you would have switched careers if that had not have happened.

Meredith Marks: Oh for sure, I mean that’s the thing, everyone’s career is such a process. I talk with so many young people who are, you know, feeling pressure because they don’t know what they want to do and my response is always the same. I tell them, “It’s an evolution and a process, there is no clear right or wrong, just try stuff out. You have to try different things to see what’s going to work for you and resonate with you.” 

Meredith’s love for fine jewelry and fashion started at a young age, she shared with me, “When I was a child I watched my mother get ready in the mornings or for events and was mesmerized by her jewelry. Many years back she had pieces from a designer, Marina B, who created jewelry with interchangeable colored gemstones and that was a huge inspiration for my collection. I do a lot of versatile pieces, pieces that are two sided, earrings that can be taken apart and worn as pendants and it was definitely inspired by those early memories.”

EH: Knowing where you are now, designing your own jewelry line, owning a brick and mortar, participating as a cast member of Real Housewives on Bravo, would you still have gone through law school and business school?

Meredith Marks: Absolutely. The degrees are beyond helpful and have been throughout my life. Legal thinking and reasoning, in my view, helps me not just in business but in dealing with people. I think that is represented on the show. When I’m trying to explain something I’m able to use that A leads to B which leads to C and clearly make my point. The business side of my past schooling is everyday as well, you have to when running a business. It all comes together. 

EH: It definitely comes across on the show. You are so poised and give off calm, cool and collected energy.

Meredith Marks: Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. It’s nerve wrecking for sure but it’s amazing and fun too.

EH: Being in a creative industry it’s hard to be on the ball all of the time, giving 100%. How do you stay inspired when you are feeling burnt out?

Meredith Marks: My go to is to take out some loose gemstones and sort of get things going that way. I’m very inspired by the stones, I feel they represent energies and I love how they sparkle, the colors - all of it. So if I feel like I’m having a moment where I’m stuck, that helps me. Creating new concepts and ideas helps get you off the hamster wheel you can easily fall into.

EH: What is a staple piece of fine jewelry you think every woman needs in her repertoire and would recommend splurging on?

Meredith Marks: I think everybody needs a simple pair of studs. I personally am a huge ring person, that’s my thing and what I gravitate to but I think studs is step one for building a cohesive jewelry collection.

EH: And on those busy days when you are running out of the house to meetings or to meet with friends, what jewelry are you throwing on to feel more polished if you didn’t have time to get ready?

Meredith Marks: I wear my wedding ring every day but I usually put on a couple of my other rings and a set of hoop earrings - it’s simple, it’s clean but refined. Hoops are amazing, it finishes a look completely. For about five years it felt like we weren’t selling any hoops, it felt like they went out of style for a moment but a few years back they came back with vengeance and I am living for it.

Meredith has come a long way since her early days of idolizing her mother’s jewelry collection. Since launching her own collection in 2009 Meredith has received many accolades in the industry in the form of awards accompanied by a long list of celebrities who wear her beautiful designs both on and off the red carpet. If you want to keep up with Meredith follow her on Instagram, @meredithmarks, shop her collection at www.meredithmarks.com and watch her on Bravo with season 2 of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City coming this Fall.

Meet Covey Founders : Emily DiDonato + Christina Uribe

Supermodel Emily DiDonato and Google Exec Christina Uribe are more than just best friends, they are, as they described to me, “integrated in every way possible”. One of the things they bonded over early in their friendship? Their ridiculously in depth and complicated ten step skincare routines.

As a skincare junky myself, I was extremely honored to not only have the opportunity to feature Emily and Christina on the site but also sit down with them (in our respective homes, of course) and talk about all things Covey.

Emily H: First things first, what is the origin story behind your friendship?

Christina Uribe: We actually met through our husbands about 6 years ago, I went to college with Emily's husband. It's interesting because Emily and I became friends as adults, you know, we weren't necessarily life long friends and whenever I say that a lot of women tell me, ‘yeah it's so hard to find adult friends’. I think that when you make friendships when you're an adult, they're so much more powerful in a way. You know who you are, you're more mature and so even though it’s only been six years, Emily and I immediately bonded and we are integrated in every way possible - I mean we share a dermatologist, we live I think less than 25 feet away from each other . .

Emily DiDonato: We do everything together. I'll just add to that by saying Christina was one of those people that when I first met her I was like ‘I want to be friends with this girl so badly’. It reminds me of when you were a little kid and you would ask people to come out and play with you, like hey will you be my friend? That's exactly how I felt about Christina and you know going off what she was saying earlier, I totally agree making friends as an adult and maintaining those friendships is a real conscious effort. 

Covey was founded out of a true passion for skincare as both Emily and Christina have full time jobs outside of Covey - Emily is currently the face of Maybelline New York and Biotherm, she is also gearing up to return to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2021 campaign. Christina works as a Senior Digital Marketing Account Executive at Google.

Emily H: You both have extremely full plates, why was it so important to you to take on another project like Covey?

Emily DiDonato: I think for myself, as a model my skin is so important. It is such a huge part of my job and I had so many experts around me, I felt like I knew what I should be doing with my skin but it turns out I very much didn’t. I would spend time creating videos for my Youtube channel - sharing my morning or nightly routine and people would come for me in the comments saying ‘that’s not how it’s supposed to work, those products are not meant to be together’ and I felt, at one point, kind of defeated and genuinely confused by skincare.

Christina Uribe: I wholeheartedly agree, even though Emily and I have such different lifestyles - we did have this shared problem. For me as an every day consumer, my skincare routine had become such a source of stress and pressure for me. I was at 10 or 12 steps and I felt like if I didn’t do all 10 steps in the morning or night something bad would happen to my skin. Covey has become even more important to me now that I have two jobs, with Covey and Google, to have something super simple and effective. It’s the same three steps morning and night. There are so many things every day as women that we are expected to try and figure out or have pressure about but your skincare routine should not be one of them.

Emily H: Tell me a little bit about developing the actual products and why you wanted to start with these three specifically?

Christina Uribe: We partnered with Dr. Russak, our shared dermatologist, in NYC. She really helped us to identify what are those key products that really make the biggest difference in your skin. Working with her helped us break through the clutter and taught us that everyone’s skin needs:

1. An effective cleanser because that’s the foundation for everything else.

2. A vitamin c serum, I asked her if I was stranded on an island what’s the one product I need with me and she said ‘hands down a vitamin c serum’ - it’s the skincare MVP, it does everything.

3. A really good moisturize to keep your skin hydrated. 

Once the formulation process started Covey took three and a half years to come to life. Christina told me, “for every single one of the three products, we had up to 11 different iterations. Throughout Covey’s lifecycle we had a focus group of 150 people from all different backgrounds and ages that tested all 11 of those iterations." This aspect of our conversation was especially important to Emily because, as we all know, we are living in a time where the market is saturated with products either created by or in collaboration with celebrities - some great and some, well, not so great.

Emily H: In a time where new products are being released daily by celebrities, or at least in collaboration with, did you go into the launch with a plan to show that Covey is legitimate and effective?

Emily DiDonato: I had so much anxiety leading up to the launch of Covey because I was just consumed with how do we show the world that we did not just slap a label on something. It was such a labor of love for us creating these products. That was something that was really important to us and we are glad that it’s showing and resonating with people that the work is really, truly there. 

Emily H: And what would you say surprised you both the most through this process - the time it took to create start to finish or maybe you had to invest more money than you initially thought?

Christina Uribe: I would say the amount of time that it took to formulate the products from scratch. Each of Covey’s products are custom formulations, we consulted with a dermatologist, we worked with a focus group - we wanted to be thoughtful in our approach and that took a lot longer than we thought.

Emily DiDonato: Yeah I agree, the time, for sure.

Emily H: And over the course of these three years, did you divvy up roles - maybe one person has strength in one category over another or has the whole process been pretty collaborative? 

Emily DiDonato: Pretty early on we had a conversation where we actually talked about and named our roles. Christina we immediately named CEO and mine was Chief Content Officer - we definitely talked about what we were both good at individually but there are a lot of times where we blend and overlap on certain things. We’re always bouncing things off  of one another but we’re both aware of where our strengths are. 

Christina Uribe: 100%. I think having a partner and being able to have that sounding board, someone else who is there to motivate you, to drive things forward is necessary. We couldn’t do this without one another and even though we have our own lanes to a certain extent, we are constantly in collaboration. I think for anyone considering starting a business, you should explore bringing on a partner very seriously because it’s really hard to do alone.

Emily H: So now that Covey is here, people have it on their bathroom counters, they’re tagging you on Instagram using the products… What do you see for the future of Covey?

Christina Uribe: We are truly committed to keeping things simple and developing products that are essential for your skincare routine and that are compatible with our existing products. Covey’s core values are, and always will be, simplicity, essentialism and compatibility. Our foundation for Covey though is just listening. We’re definitely in the active listening phase for deciding what type of product will come next.

Emily H: And Meet and Bee Inspired follower, @AllieMcelyea, would like to know what the inspiration was behind the color scheme and the branding for Covey?

Emily DiDonato: So for the name, I feel like that’s part of the branding too, Covey means a small flock of birds and we were looking for words centered around community and togetherness. So much of Covey was based around the community through my social media, Christina and I see the two of us as a little Covey, the three products are a covey of their own, so that’s the element of the name. For the colors and the packaging we knew we wanted it to be something you could feel proud to have on your counter, something beautiful but also minimal. We gravitated toward the light pastels right away. 

Covey is available for purchase here and you can keep up with Emily DiDonato and Christina Uribe through their social media :

@emilydidonato

@christinalynnuribe

@covey

Meet Jamie Greenberg - Celebrity Makeup Artist

Meet Jamie Greenberg: celebrity makeup artist, creator of Blighlighter and, to put it simply, one of the coolest people I have had the pleasure of talking to this year.

When our Zoom call connected, Jamie popped onto my screen wearing a graphic tee with an oversized knit, an eclectic stack of gold chain necklaces and dark nail polish waving across the screen as she greeted me. The hot pink lipstick wallpaper plastered behind her also added to Jamie’s cool girl aesthetic.

After catching up on one another’s 2020, Jamie and I talked about her earliest encounter with makeup, how she landed a job in the industry and the first famous face she ever touched.

( and because I know you are already wondering - yes, Jamie divulged all of her favorite
beauty products ranging from drugstore finds to her latest and greatest obsession in the skincare world )

Emily: So tell me a little bit about how and where you grew up.

Jamie: I grew up in Maryland in the Rockville Potomac area. I was very sporty spice growing up. I played soccer, I danced, I was always very active.

Emily: Did makeup have a place in your childhood?

Jamie: The first time I awakened to makeup was through one of my mom’s best friends, RIta. She sold makeup and she worked for this woman in our town who was on the Donahue Show, Faye Mendelsohn Cosmetics. Faye was one of the first women in the 80s and 90s to create makeup products and then put her name on it. I remember going over to Rita’s house and she had so many buckets and little suitcases of makeup - when I walked into her house, I imagine it’s how an addict would feel, I was just like “oh my God I have to touch and feel everything”.

Surprisingly, Jamie never went to cosmetology school. She studied film in college and landed her first job in New York as a film editor’s assistant, “after college I studied film and got into doing that in New York but I wasn’t satisfied. I kept trying new things, I even dabbled in comedy for a little and it just wasn’t working. I finally decided to get into makeup. I already had a knack for it but I wasn’t good at it in the beginning. It was really about putting in those 10,000 hours.

Emily: So how did you make that initial transition into makeup?

Jamie: My husband and I decided to move to LA and so before we did, I spent the summer working at the Ulta in Pennsylvania. I loved it. Once we were heading out to LA I just thought it made sense to try and work at the one in LA, too. They were opening the very first Ulta in Los Angeles at the time, actually.

Emily: Wow that’s kind of crazy to think about, the first Ulta in LA.

Jamie: I know right? That is wild, honestly. So, I worked there and after that I went to work at Bloomingdales. I really just started from the very bottom. It allowed me to totally hone my skills. When you work at the mall you have to pull people of all shapes and sizes. I got really good at different color skin, skin textures, different ages, different vibes, and really got to just experiment. You’re also in a sea of products. So you get to see what everyone is coming out with, what everyone’s using, and I just really, really loved it. 

Emily: Were your parents supportive of your passion and career at that point?

Jamie: They were supportive enough, just enough that I kept going. When I went to work for Bloomingdales, though, my mom did ask me why, like why are you doing this, you have a college degree and so on, but all I could say was ‘I love it. I love it and I just want to do it’. So, I did. However, they did love the discount.

Emily: When do you think it hit them that you were really going to make a successful career out of all of this?

Jamie: It just started to snowball and grow, so for instance, when I told them I was doing Kaley Cuoco’s makeup, they were such “Big Bang Theory” fans. That was when they were like ‘OK we can get on board with this, that’s amazing’. That, to me, was the ultimate validation.

Emily: OK, speaking of your very impressive clientele list, I have to ask, who was the first celebrity you ever did makeup for?

Jamie: Lionel Richie. A friend of mine was working for a production company and they were doing an interview with him, he called me and asked if I would do Lionel’s makeup for their interview. They didn’t even know if I would do anything, it was just in case he wanted it. 

Emily: That is an amazing answer. So random but so perfect.

Jamie: I was so nervous. I literally felt like I was doing brain surgery that day but he was so, so nice. My first red carpet was Katrina Bowden from “30 Rock” though and that was for the Emmy’s.

In order to have an accurate timeline of Jamie’s career, I asked how old she was when she landed those two pinch-me-worthy moments in her career to which she responded, “I think I was around 30 when I did those two. So for all of those people out there who don’t think they can change their careers you definitely can - I was headed down a completely different path and made the change. If you have the correct work ethic and spirit, no matter what you want to do, if you can not give up on yourself, you can get anywhere you want to be.”

Emily: Which style of makeup do you prefer: natural or red carpet glam?

Jamie: I love doing Red Carpet makeup. It’s definitely my favorite. I love a polished look, I love to make women look like the best version of themselves.

Emily: You recently launched a new make-up product, Blighlighter, where did the idea for that come from? 

Jamie: Basically I would mix four or five different products to get the perfect cheek product I wanted. It was one of those moments like why don’t I just make exactly what I want and need? It’s a blush highlighter hybrid. It’s very easy to use, you can’t mess it up. It’s made with all of the good stuff, it’s hydrating. It’s been around for almost 2 months, it’s done really well so far, it’s an extension of the joy and happiness I have found with this job. 

Emily: Do you want to create more products? Or was the Blighlighter a one and done creation?

Jamie: I’m going to create a couple more products but not a ton. I just want to create things that I think everybody needs in their repertoire. They will always be easy, functional, multi-tasking and smart. 

Audrina Patridge and Kaley Cuoco both shown here wearing Jamie’s Blighlighter in a combo of ‘A Nude One’ & ‘A Pink One’

Emily: Selfishly I have to ask, what are your favorite products that we can all find at a local drugstore?

Jamie: My favorite is a brand called Essence. They make these eyeliners that are so good. You have to give them a try. They’re creamy and smudge well but they last all day. They’re awesome. Burt’s Bees, obviously, I’m obsessed with anything Burt’s Bees. That’s all that is ringing a bell.

Emily: Which product or brand do you recommend splurging on?

Jamie: Your skin care. I would splurge on your skin care. It really does make a difference. Sometimes you just have to up your game - if you take care of your skin, you can wear less make-up.

My question inspired Jamie to start massaging her face and hands with her most recent obsession SerumKind, an emerging skincare line. Jamie told me, “It’s a brand called SerumKind - they’re from Korea. They create all of these different drops. It’s a sustainable line and they have a drop for every skin type. It’s very effective. They work so well and have a high concentrate of their active ingredients. It’s clean, vegan, cruelty-free. And they came out with this hand cream, it smells and feels like a dream. I’m obsessed.”

Emily: So if SerumKind is your newest obsession, what is your tried and true skincare product?

Jamie: It’s definitely a little bit of a splurge but I love the NuFace machine.

Emily: If you are rushing out the door and only have a few minutes, what area of the face are you refreshing to feel put together? 

Jamie: Slathering my face skin care and SPF. After that it’s a quick sweep of product on the brows, a little on the lashes, cheeks, lips, done.

Jamie is one of Hollywood’s most sought out makeup artists with a clientele list that includes Kaley Cuoco, Rashida Jones, Kristen Stewart, Joey King and more but her expertise is not limited to celebrities. That’s right, Jamie offers a variety of ways for her followers to connect with her on a personal level.

Emily: What has this year looked like for you? I mean you touch faces for a living and then suddenly in March the government is reporting we shouldn’t even be touching our own faces.

Jamie: It was a shock for sure. My job was one I never thought would be in any trouble, entertainment is the one thing people want to escape with. I was really scared but I went running one day and it came to me, ‘I could do classes’ and so I went to brands that worked with me in the past and asked them to send out products that I would use in these classes and the first one had 50 people, the second one had 100 people so I just felt like I was on to something. 

Emily: I think the way everyone has found a way to pivot their business model and adapt so quickly during this time is inspiring all on it’s own. That’s a really amazing way to spin the makeup industry in your favor while also helping so many people with something that is in their daily routine.

Jamie: It was really cool, It was a zoom session, and it was anything from I want to learn how to do this particular move or help me clean out my makeup, tell me what I need to invest in and so I would literally sit on Zoom in people’s bathrooms and they would hold up products and it would just be ‘Do I even like this? Do I need it? What do I do with this?’ but I put it on pause for the launch of the Blighlighter. But we are re-working the Jamie Makeup University, stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this interview and want to follow along with all of Jamie’s makeup looks, behind the scenes with some of your favorite celebrity faces or just get a dose of inspiration, follow @jamiemakeup on Instagram!

Meet Clio De La LLave - Founder of Booje Media, Co-Founder of DewEdit and Spade & Sparrows

This week on Meet & Bee Inspired, I am thrilled to introduce Clio De La LLave.
Clio is the founder of Booje Media, a boutique digital marketing and communications agency, and is also a co-founder of two successful brands, DewEdit and Spade & Sparrows with best friend and business partner, Kaitlyn Bristowe.

Clio and I hopped on a Zoom call and chatted about opening a digital marketing agency at 24, developing Kaitlyn Bristowe’s impressive brand, and our mutual love for astrology.

After spending an hour with Clio, it was easy to understand how she is so successful in her craft. Clio is intentional with her choices, she values quality over quantity in every aspect of her life, and believes when it comes down to it, committing to something and figuring out how to deliver on that promise is the best way to learn and grow in both your business and your personal life.

Emily : To be totally honest, I did a little research prior to our interview. I read that you studied marketing and advertising in college. Did you go into college knowing that this was the career path you wanted to pursue?

Clio: Actually it’s interesting, all throughout high school I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. I loved watching movies that had trials or a lawyer involved but my dad encouraged me to shadow someone for a day because he felt like he knew me and my personality and I maybe wouldn’t like it. It was so different than I thought. This lawyer I shadowed was at his desk basically all day with papers and contracts and I was like wait what? It was not what I thought it was going to be like at all. So that was good to find out early on. 

Emily: Yeah my dad was a lot like that when I was growing up, too.

Clio: Anything like that, talking to people, shadowing - even if it’s just for a day or a couple of weeks you learn a lot. But when I went to school I took a variety of courses and fell in love with my advertising class. I ended up doing a two year program that was really intensive. Part of the reason that program is so recognized is because they require you to do a 10 week internship and that is your schooling from Monday through Thursday. I would then go to school on Friday’s but I ended up working at a really large advertising agency and when I was in school that’s what I thought I really wanted to do. A lot of our teachers had come from large agencies. I, again, had this image of what it would be like and it was such a great experience but it was not necessarily what I wanted or envisioned for myself.

Emily: And that is when life can be scary and kind of frustrating - when you envision yourself loving something and then you try it and it isn’t what you thought it would be.

Photo via boojemedia.com, clio with her employees surrounded by dewedit and spade & sparrows products.

After graduating, Clio worked as a server which actually helped her to make a pretty big decision in terms of her future career path, “I knew I wanted to do my own thing. I don’t know where it came from I just talked to people when I was serving them and where I worked was right in the middle of the financial district, it was a lot of different people from all types of businesses and the more I talked to people, the more I was constantly thinking about going off on my own”.

Clio went on to tell me, “I went traveling for a little bit and when I came back I started telling people about my plans to do my own thing and I think just voicing it is important. That gets you talking to people about it and helps you to not feel ashamed that you don’t know exactly what you want to be doing but you’re figuring it out.

Emily: So is that when you decided to start Booje Media?

Clio: I ended up picking an industry where no one was an expert in it because it was so new. It was when social media was just starting to be used by businesses. I dove into it and I got lucky that it was an emerging industry. I wanted to carve my own path within it and in doing that I realized I knew a lot about something that people didn’t but they knew they needed it. So that’s really how Booje started. 

Emily: And how old were you?

Clio: I was really young, I was about 23 or 24 when I started Booje. The first couple of years, I will say, I wish I had a little bit more experience. I love that I did it my own way but I needed to learn a little more and so the first few years was me doing a lot of research.

Emily: You were 24, in a fairly new industry and were starting your own business with little experience - what were your parent’s or friend’s reactions?

Clio: I was really lucky that all of my friends and family were really supportive. Thinking back on it, I really don’t think I had anyone questioning my choice or trying to stop me. I think what I had on my side, too, was that I was so young. It was kind of like well this is the time to try it. I definitely had a safety net with my parents because I knew I could rely on them to help me which I am very thankful for. 

Clio listened to her gut and started Booje Media in 2010.
Although Booje is home to major clients such as 7 Eleven, Slurpee & more, Clio has kept Booje a boutique firm.

Why? To ensure the clients she takes on are the right ones.

Kaitlyn Bristowe is a product of what can happen when Clio and her client have a strong relationship and share the same vision.

Emily: So you and Kaitlyn are obviously business partners but you are also really close friends, too. Which came first?

Clio: Wow, no one has ever asked me that before. I think we were friends before but we didn’t know each other that well. I was drawn to Kaitlyn because she is so magnetic and we had gone out a few times together and I thought she was so cool. So we knew we liked each other but I think when we started working together so closely and having nonstop communication is what really built the strong friendship we have today. 

Emily: It looks like you guys have a lot of fun together. You can tell you both enjoy what you are creating together.

Clio: I love building brands but I like to do more of the back end stuff and the logistics. I feel like one of my strengths is that I am a bit of a visionary. I love getting ahead of what’s coming up next. I like being the first in a space. I always try to come up with ways to stay relevant and new perspectives and then I present them to Kaitlyn. We definitely enjoy working together and it really has been so much fun because you get to create this with someone that you love and that you get along with so well. 

Emily: So would you say you try to be picky with which clients you choose to work with?

Clio: Oh yeah, I only have so much time and space for new clients because Kaitlyn is such a big part of my business. We have Spade and Sparrows, her podcast, DewEdit and so I really only want to take someone on if I know I can provide value. In anything I have ever done it has always been about quality over quantity. 100%. That is what allows you to have that longevity. 

Emily: And if I had to guess, you apply that same concept of quality over quantity when developing your product lines like DewEdit and Spade & Sparrows?

Clio: Yeah, it wasn’t about how many scrunchies we could make or how many we could sell in one drop. It was really us starting with the base of ‘ok we need to create the best quality scrunchie we can’. It took us a little longer to grow, but we will always take our time until we can get to the point where we can increase the quantities without sacrificing the quality. So now that you say that yeah, totally. We took the same concept we have with our social media content and branding and applied that philosophy to Dew. 

Emily: How long did the process of building Dew and Spade & Sparrows take?

Clio: Oh gosh, they’re just so different. With Spade & Sparrows, the wine has way more barriers to break through with the legalities around it, but it all kind of depends on how quickly you come up with your name and your brand behind it. It’s also determined by how lucky you get with finding a manufacturer and getting samples. Dew was really quick. I think if I had to give a timeline, we spent 3 or 4 months putting all of our time and energy into Dew and with Spade & Sparrow, it was more like a year. 

Emily: You probably get this question a lot but if you could only drink one bottle of Spade & Sparrows for the rest of your life, which one are you going with?

Clio: Definitely the rosé. The new pinot noir is amazing and I love it but if I had to pick just one, I can drink rosé all year long. I love everything about our rosé. What’s really nice is it is definitely drier but you can taste hints of a little strawberry, too, it’s such a nice mix of flavors.

As someone who loves astrology, I couldn’t help but ask Clio what her sign was. It turns out she finds astrology just as entertaining and interesting as I do. We compared traits of our own signs - she is an Aries and I am a Capricorn - as well as the signs of our significant others. Clio divulged a story most people probably don’t know about her, unless you have been on a first date with her. She told me, “before, when I was single, I had this one website. It was so good, it was so accurate. It would give you the sign’s 5 strengths and weaknesses and would also describe what they are like in relationships. I would ask the guy’s sign and immediately pull up the website. It’s a great conversation starter. My friends would make fun of me and call me after the date and be like ‘did you whip out the website’?”

If you want to see more from Clio and keep up with her latest adventures in business and in life, follow her on Instagram here, @cliodelallave.

Meet Amanda Frederickson - Chef, Author & Restaurant Owner!

Amanda Frederickson has more than just food keeping her hands full this year - in the past 6 months she welcomed her second daughter Palmer into the world, released a new cookbook Simple, Beautiful Food and unveiled the model for her first restaurant, Radish Kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee. 

I first followed Amanda on Instagram after a friend encouraged me to watch her “Fridge Foraging” segment. Every Wednesday, Amanda invites her followers into her kitchen as she gathers ingredients already sitting in her fridge or pantry and seamlessly whips up a delicious weeknight dinner. Amanda told me, “I hate going to the grocery store and overspending. I also really dislike throwing out food and being wasteful, the fridge foraging really came as a solution to all of those things that are huge pet peeves of mine.”  

Amanda’s Wednesday Fridge Foraging is just as much entertainment as it is educational. Amanda offers great tips and tricks while filming but watching her grab a can of chickpeas from her pantry and thawed ground beef from the freezer along with some fresh veggies from her produce drawer and assemble a fabulous dish of Beef Kefta with Hummus and a Tomato Cucumber Salad is the adult version of watching a magician pull a rabbit out of their hat.

On the inspiration for fridge foraging Amanda said, “I think people get really nervous that they have to follow a recipe and so it started to help empower them to just get in there and start cooking. The Wednesday Fridge Foraging really began out of my annoyance that people felt they needed to go to 8 different grocery stores to gather ingredients. I wanted cooking to be more accessible and show that I can go into a fridge and just cook something and I think everyone can.”

Although Amanda’s abilities to create recipes on a whim is impressive and one of the ways she grew her presence on social media, it is only a small part of what makes Amanda so inspiring. 

EG: Tell me a little bit about your relationship with food. Was it a passion early on? 

Amanda F: I think I was always drawn to food but it was one of those things you don’t really realize until you’re older. Growing up I loved to bake, I loved to use my hands and I loved being in the kitchen but when I was growing up in the 90’s you couldn’t really say ‘hey after high school I'm going to go into the restaurant world’ - nowadays I think it’s more accepted which is so great. Back then it was like yeah right, you’re going to go to college even if you like food. To answer your question though, yes I’ve always been attracted to food. 

EG: So did you attend culinary school after college? 

Amanda F: Well not right away. I was originally in event and nonprofit fundraising. I worked in that industry for 10 years while I was cooking, entertaining, and exploring my passion in the food world. Then I had a job review. My boss at the time said to me, “you are the hardest working person I know, it’s amazing” and I had a great job, sort of golden handcuffs so to speak. I was paid well, I had six weeks of vacation, I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted but it was like a lightbulb went off. I thought to myself if I’m the hardest working person you know and I’m working for someone else? That’s not what I want to do with the rest of my life. I went home and said to my husband I am going to quit my job and go to cooking school - 3 months later that’s exactly what I was doing. 

EG: Wow that’s such a bold move I love it. 

Amanda F: I had lots of people think I was a little crazy. I had some people think I quit my job just so I could stay home and cook for my husband. There are always going to be people who don’t believe in what you’re doing and I think it stems from their bubble of fear to take risks. I was 31 and just felt like if I don’t do this now I won’t ever do it. 

After culinary school, Amanda landed a job in the kitchen of a San Francisco Michelin star restaurant which ultimately lead her to finding a happy home in the William Sonoma Test Kitchen for over two and a half years. And as for what Amanda took away from her time in the test kitchen? She said, “through cooking school you really gain the confidence to try new things in the kitchen and learn that you can fix anything that’s broken sort of thing but I really learned how to cook every possible dish in the William Sonoma Test KItchen.”

EG: So reflect back with me on writing Simple, Beautiful, Food. What is the most challenging part for you when it comes to assembling a cookbook? Writing the recipes? Piecing pages together?

Amanda: I actually wrote cookbooks with William Sonoma and co-wrote the Staub Cookbook last Fall. Writing of the recipes is pretty easy for me since I had to do so many in the test kitchen, that is really like second nature to me. The hardest part of the process was shooting the food after creating and testing the recipes.

EG: Really? I guess I didn’t think about that aspect but that makes sense.

Amanda: It’s tricky if you want to actually make any money on cookbooks these days. So with that said, I shot the entire cookbook with just one photographer and the two of us pieced everything together. Also just letting go, right? With the internet you can put something out there and can edit and change typos or realized ‘oh I messed this up’ and fix it. When it’s the book world, I mean it’s forever. That is really the daunting part for me.

Amanda released her cookbook, Simple, Beautiful, Food, this past April and filled it with her favorite recipes inspired by her time living in San Francisco and working for William Sonoma. Personally, I own Amanda’s cookbook and it’s a go-to for me on a weekly basis. Her recipes are simple and delicious but she also includes ideas and ways to interchange ingredients in case you’re missing one or two. Amanda’s cookbook, much like her Fridge Foraging, encourages her reader to branch out and experiment in the kitchen with her recipes there for guidance.

EG: What do you tell someone who is at home discouraged by their cooking abilities and has that ‘I wish I could cook but I just don’t know how’ mentality?

Amanda F: You just have to start. Get in the kitchen. You will make mistakes, I still make mistakes. It’s like any other art but you have to work on it to get the reward.

EG: What is your favorite kitchen gadget under $20?

Amanda F: A cake tester, it costs $2 from OXO. I feel like you can never find a toothpick when you need one and having a cake tester it’s just always in my kitchen and makes it easy. It’s one of my favorite tools. I also love a bench scraper for anytime you are doing something on your countertops. Those are two things people probably don’t think about but I love them and they’re super cheap.

When I asked Amanda about her future endeavors in the food industry she had the same entrepreneurial attitude as when she spoke about quitting her job to pursue a culinary career, “when we left California we left the ability to have a quick, healthy meal - they basically don’t exist here. I kept waiting for someone else to do it and finally my husband and I just said ‘Ok we’re going to do it’. I know a lot of people who want it here too and so we will do it ourselves”.

Amanda describes her new restaurant Radish as a fast-casual concept where healthy and delicious food options will be readily available to those in the West Nashville area. She is currently finalizing design details at the restaurant, taste testing recipes, and assembling her team of employees. All of the BTS details are documented on her Instagram page and so far the salads and cookies look to die for - which pretty much sums up the balance Amanda hopes to strike with her first restaurant.

I hope Amanda’s interview is the sign you have been waiting for to break out of your golden handcuffs and follow your passion just as she did seven years ago. She is proof that no matter where you are in your life, it is never too late to follow your dreams & quit your day job.

Thank you Amanda for being one of my favorite interviews yet and I can’t wait to come visit Radish but until then I will be enjoying your cookbook and Fridge Foraging every Wednesday!