About

Mossflower Apothecary: Miniature gardens to enhance your world.
Copyright 2012 - Amanda Barnett
mossflower.apothecary@gmail.com

About Amanda:  I'm a teacher and proud mother of two. My husband is wonderful because he lets me buy too many books and plants. And books about plants. I love the fact that he never even looks at me funny! I also love my garden, India Pale Ale, Pandora radio, and 18th century manners. In college, I studied history and anthropology; even getting to travel a bit to work on digs as a volunteer archaeologist. Being outside makes me happy. I like old stuff. I live in Austin, Texas; it's pretty awesome here.

I created Mossflower Apothecary with hopes that someday this would become my own business allowing me both to create and enjoy nature and spend more time at home raising my kids. Currently I am a part-time language arts tutor at the school my son attends. 

The name "Mossflower" is a tribute to my favorite childhood author; Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series. Sadly, he passed away just last year. I will forever cherish his stories and I look forward to reading them to my children!

As a child, I spent most of my days outdoors. I am mostly a native of Texas, but many of my best childhood memories come from the 3 and-a-half years my family lived in Hillsboro, a small suburb of Portland, Oregon. It was there that I fell in love with nature. We had a beautiful garden of roses, azaleas and rhododendron shrubs, fir trees (that you just don't get in Texas), dogwoods, cherry and hazelnut all a bit overgrown and wild; making for the best hiding places of child’s fantasy world. We collected wild blackberries from the bushes that grew next to the fairgrounds where my friends and I would ride our bikes. I will never forget those carefree days of my childhood.

In the summer, I would spend many days at my grandparents’ townhouse in East Austin where I explored dry creek beds and tributaries of Walnut Creek. Recently, I found a stash of fossils my grandmother had saved from those walks along the greenbelt many years ago; which will now live among other artifacts and objects of personal interest on my bookshelves. Now a resident of lush East Austin myself, I look forward to nature walks with my family on our hike and bike trail and trips to one of my favorite places on Earth: Big Bend National Park. Here we are at our recent trip last November:

My son, Parker, is four (and a half!) and daughter, Viola, is 11 months. They are my greatest achievement in life!