The Women Who Inspire Us blog series was born out of the desire to share stories and advice from women who have inspired me on my journey in the hopes that their stories might light up in you some desire to push that little idea in your head or big dream to the next level.  They are words from creative women who have re-invented themselves, started businesses, followed their dreams, pursued a creative line of work and so on, all of which filled empty or half full places in their souls.

This topic is near and dear to my heart given my own personal re-invention which I have shared with you in the past. I was first an Elementary Education teacher and then a stay at home mom, who loved bringing the classroom into her days of mothering with theme days, celebrations for every day events and home parties. At the same time, I felt like my own identity was suffering. While I cherished my days at home raising our growing family, I felt that my own identity was in crisis mode as life happened, illnesses and challenges arose and my value became solely entwined in my family, leaving me with little value of my own, as a stand alone woman. I know, it seems totally irrational, but I feel that this is a crisis that many mothers face.  If you have chosen to have a family, we, as women, often face the duality of being both a wonderful mom and a wonderful employee or some other combination of “greatness.” We put our needs on the back burner while catering to the needs of others. You can read more on that internal struggle and the founding of Life’s Patina,  here.

When I was in that place over eleven years ago now, I looked to women whose stories were like my own or women who I had admired for years. You see, I had always admired women in my own family and my emulation of those women is what prepared me for my early days as a mother. My mom, my grandmother Nan, my great Aunt, my great grandmother and countless others. The time period that these women resided in carried different expectations than that of our world today. They weren’t better or worse… just different. So along with the women in my own family who inspired me, I dug a little deeper into the stories of how women I had been inspired by from afar took their interests and passions and created something that enriched their lives, that was outside of their family. I was looking for a reinvention that allowed me not to step aside from my role as a mother, my most valuable one, but rather allowed me to combine that role with something that fueled an identity of my own.

A couple of years ago,  I had the thrill of meeting Martha Stewart, a woman I had long admired and followed for both her ideas and for creating a hugely successful business all based on elevating the everyday. As we all know, the environment of a stay at home mom is the everyday which includes an awful lot of the mundane … ie. breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, the kitchen, the home, cleaning, laundry… Needless to say, she hit on all of the above and more and made them appear more interesting, more artistic… more fun. Martha would have to be the first woman outside of my family who inspired me on my own journey. Aside from her, there are a few other women who have moved the needle for me on my path to doing what I do today. Some I have grown to know deeply and consider dear friends and some I still continue to admire from afar. We should all have women in our life that are like that. In this blog series, I would like to introduce you to a couple of mine.

My first interviewee is a long time friend of mine, Caroline Verschoor of Ekster Antiques. I’ve known Caroline for over 10 years. She has truly been an inspirational role model over those years in both her family life and as a business owner. When I came up with the cockamamie idea to sell things out of our barn a decade ago, I looked up “Barn sales” and Caroline’s came up in an article from The Washington Post. I cannot remember the exact title but it was about a Barn Crawl and Caroline’s barn was listed. I thought to myself, “someone else is doing this, so it just might work!” After reading that article, I reached out to her to see if I could visit her and buy from her for one of our very first barn sales. I had been collecting and finding treasures in my own neck of the woods, but the visit to Caroline was the first outside of my own little state. Upon entering her barn with the music pumping, the waft of old books, the chippy surfaces of European antiques and treasures, I was smitten. Visit after visit through the years, I knew that we not only shared the love of the objects in her barn that she had amassed but were sharers of the love of history, nature, hard work, great style and our families. My visits grew into not only buying from this woman whose taste I admired deeply but of sharing our life experiences and business challenges that felt like they bonded us even more so. My husband has joined me often on these trips, not only as a set of hands to help load but to feel the environment that is Ekster Antiques and visit with both Caroline and her husband John Paul.

Caroline’s style is a seemingly effortless melding of the elegant with straight lined European pieces that wow. Always tossing in a statement piece and using linens, tons of ironstone, silver, art, natural objects of beauty and curiosities, Caroline’s “rooms” that she puts together make one want to stay and linger and linger and linger a little more. Comfort and quality all wrapped up in one great big ball of beauty!

You can catch Caroline at The Lucketts Spring Market and The Cottage at Lucketts.

With that said, happy reading!

Like you, the idea to sell from my Barns was born out of necessity, mostly from deducting that my barns were raw space, rent-free and an amazing blank canvas for the artist inside of me, bursting at the seams to express myself in ways a rented space would not allow.  Mind you, I did start in a multi-dealer space…but now I am running ahead of myself.  I need to step back a bit and tell you about myself first, and in doing so, probably identify why you and I relate on more than just the ‘hunting for antiques’ level.

A look inside one of Caroline’s barns, chock full of European antiques and vintage treasures

When I received Caroline’s beautiful and heartfelt response to my questions, her answers deeply affected and resonated with me, for an unexpected blessing and perk from partaking on this path so many years ago has been the relationships that I have been able to form due to this business. I have met people that may never have come into my life, had I not chosen to dive in at a time that I had found extremely challenging. Facing challenges head on, even while we may want to just sit in bed a little longer and pull the covers over our head is often the impetus that we need to produce the greatest results. Caroline certainly has and has followed her heart to show her strength… and that is a beautiful thing. Thank you, Caroline, for inspiring me and others with your actions and words!

There is no greater inspiration in this world that we live in right now that moves you to tears than the women of the Ukraine. Watching the footage of women with one hand holding onto their lone bag of what they could bring with them from their past life and the other hand grasping the hand of their child or children who are often clutching their stuffed animal as they leave the world that they know to escape what they are experiencing in their homeland is truly heart wrenching. It is a vision that we all secretly or overtly hope and pray that we never experience and wonder would we be able to walk their walk, should we be called to do so? It is in solidarity, support and strength that we are supporting CARE’s Ukraine Crisis Fund during our upcoming Spring Sale. Care.org aims to reach 4 million in Ukraine with immediate aid and recovery, food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance, prioritizing women, girls, families and the elderly. A portion of every preview party ticket sold and every purchase made during our Spring Barn Sale will be donated to the fund.

As always, thank you for reading and if you have women in your life who inspire you, who you would like to let the world know about, please tell us about them in the comments section.