Zestful Zoe

Friends I am thrilled to welcome Zoe Grave to the blog! I met Zoe through her IG page and ever since our first DM she’s had me in stitches!

Zoe lives with her husband Tommy, three daughters and two dogs about 30 minutes outside of Boston, MA. “I met my husband when I was 19. I was a sophomore at Wellesley and he was a senior at Harvard. True story, the night after I met him I told my roommate I was going to marry him. I guess I was right because in 1999 we tied the knot! In 2004 our first daughter Adelaide was born, followed by two more spirited girls, Georgina and Daphne. Each of my girls has their own unique personality, but we all laugh a lot and can be very silly. We all truly love spending time with each other, and even throughout quarantine we were able to make the best of it! Our two Australian Labradoodles, Obi and Leia (we love Star Wars!) also keep us constantly laughing!”

Zoe can you tell us a bit about your childhood. “I grew up about 50 minutes outside of NYC, on a horse farm in Waccabuc, N.Y. As a child I used to love to pretend I was Laura Ingalls (I was obsessed with the Little House books and TV show!) and our farm was the perfect place to do just that! I would spend hours outside, climbing trees, running through the fields and catching frogs from our pond. Horses and animals in general were a huge part of my childhood, and thankfully they still are. I have an older brother and sister and all of us showed horses competitively. It was wonderful to have something that our entire family could enjoy together. I’ve lived in Massachusetts longer than I ever lived in New York, but I still consider myself a New Yorker through and through. Go Yankees!”

“Art and design have also always been a huge part of my life. My grandmother June was a very accomplished sculptor and I’m lucky enough to have some of her pieces. She was this tiny Italian grandmother so it was amazing to see these huge blocks of marble and stone that she would work with. My favorite piece of hers is a super tall totem pole. It’s absolutely beautiful. My mom also named June has an incredible talent for putting interesting and beautiful things together. With both fashion and interior design she is extremely creative and inspiring. She taught me the importance of your environment and how it truly affects your mood. She also has a love for color, just like me!”

Any anecdotes from childhood you’d like to share. “I mentioned how much I loved growing up on our farm and being outside, but on the flip side I have also always LOVED television! I find it very soothing and usually have it on for background noise. I find HGTV to be the best for that! When I was little if I did something wrong my punishment was always no TV for the night. I would say fine and then head immediately down to our barn. Thankfully my parents never remembered that there was a tiny TV down there. Nobody ever used it, but I would sit there cuddled up with our barn cat Tigger awfully proud of myself for finding a way to skirt the rules!”

“I love our home. I was lucky enough to work with Designer Dina Holland when we renovated our kitchen and she just completely got me! She was able to reign in my desire to use ALL the color and ALL the patterns and just really nailed exactly what I wanted. It’s been so nice to have a space during quarantine that really makes me happy. And here’s a fun fact - the bronze ship bell on the wall belonged to my grandpa and he would ring it to call everyone to the table for our big Italian dinners!”

“Art and design have also always been a huge part of my life. ”

— Zoe Grave

Tell us where and what you studied in college. “When I was little I always wanted to be a doctor. As I said - I went to Wellesley College and spent a lot of time in the science center and completed my premed requirements. I also minored in Studio Art. My art classes were a wonderful escape for me from the stress of my more academic classes. Looking back on it I wish I had taken more! Being at an all women’s college really helped shape my view of the world. I loved the sisterhood that I experienced there and the campus is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I’m so grateful for my time at Wellesley and I consider myself lucky that I currently only live 15 minutes away! It remains my safe haven and nothing beats a walk around Lake Waban when you need to clear your head.”

How did you end up in Graphic Design? “After having a number of jobs in the medical research field I decided that med school was not for me. I had always continued creating art as a way to relax and even took some painting classes at night. After my second daughter was born I didn’t seem to have as much time or the space for the mess that painting required and I started playing around with art on the computer. I found it a great creative outlet and it was so easy to pick up and put down. Even when I would paint, my true passion was
playing with color and I found that graphics programs could continue to allow me to do just that. I learned that Boston University had a Center for Digital Arts and they offered a program part time. It was a lot of work juggling that and being a mom to two little kids but, it really energized me and I met so
many incredibly talented people. I started out doing brochures and logos for small businesses which I really enjoyed. Now I primarily work for a company doing more web based advertisement graphics although I love to help friends if they need It with business cards etc. I know how difficult it is to be a small business and get started with branding, especially for artists! They usually know exactly what they want, but aren’t sure how to physically get it. They can sketch something out exactly how they want it but, don’t know how to transfer that onto the computer. I love helping them put their ideas into something concrete to help market themselves.”

So tell us how did you end up with your Essential Oils business? “One thing that is certain is that I love trying new things and sharing them with people. I fell in love with essential oils a few years ago and just started sharing about them! While I love diffusing them I realized there are so many other ways you can add them to your life.”

“I started making sprays for myself, because I needed them! It all started with my mermaid spray. My youngest daughter has extremely curly hair and it was always getting tangled and breaking. I did some research and mixed together some oils that are good for strengthening your hair like lavender and rosemary and added some argon oil to help with the tangles. I was so excited when I realized it actually worked! I started sharing it with friends and through word of mouth my little essential oil business was born!

“I had so much fun designing the labels for the sprays. The best part was working with my good friend Elena Boiardi! She helped me so much with the ideas for the labels and she even drew the mermaid for my mermaid spray. I’ll never forget how fast she sketched it out on a little notepad and I thought, that’s perfect! I was able to sketch it in illustrator, and to this day it is my favorite label of all the sprays!”

Goals and for 2021? “I want to continue my line of essential oil sprays and am working on developing another one for the masks that we all now need to wear! And speaking of masks, I recently started creating beaded mask chains. I was so tired of taking my mask on and off and looking for a clean place to put it down so I decided I could make a mask chain like people use for glasses! I was thrilled when people started asking me to make them one after seeing it on Instagram! Now I just need more time in my day! But I would love to keep creating these and trying some different combinations of beads and colors!”

“I’m sure we are all hoping for a better 2021 than 2020 was but, if I’ve learned anything from this year, it’s to try to slow down a little and really enjoy the family time. Before quarantine the five of us were always running in different directions. I hope that some of the quieter moments of 2020 will carry over to 2021.”

Thank you so much Zoe or sharing yourself with us! This word so describes you: Zestful marked by spirited love of life or enjoyment; ebullient.

You can find Zoe on her Site, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and You Tube.

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Til next time friends be well, wear a mask and be creative!