Featured Artist Larissa of Reef Botanicals and Fabric of My Mind

Do you every meet a person that seems to cram 48 hours worth of life into a day?  Such is the case of Larissa of Reef Botanicals!

Larissa’s mother was an art minor in college and always had an eye for beautiful things and her father was a tool and die maker who was able to think in 3D, look at a finished product or sketch and work out the correct die to make it work.  Between them, Larissa inherited a love to working with her hands and creating beauty in the world.

Larissa has been a lawyer for almost 17 years and a face painter for over 9 as well as a favorite aunt who definitely benefit from her creativity.  She loves to hike and dance, ice skate, roller skate and participates in the NJ MS walk every year.  She is also a master party thrower, hosting 3 major events every year for the Kentucky Derby, Mardi Gras and a Halloween Bash.  She is an actor in a community theater and an avid reader who loves old movies and British humor.  Sound like a lot?  Well, her loving husband just adds to the madness by being a skater who plays ice hockey, surfs, scuba dives, bakes bread, cooks gourmet meals, makes cheese and brews beer when he isn’t running his IT company.  Sounds like a match made in heaven…if your idea of heaven is constant running from one fantastic event to another!  Larissa was thrilled when she found that Eric shared to love of creating when he suggested that they make candles together; and when that got delayed, dug in an made their first batch of soap!

Of course, there are plenty of bath and body product makers out there, so why even take a look at Reef Botanicals?  Well, Larissa was appalled at the amount of chemicals that were found in many skin products and soaps; some of which are unpronounceable, so she set out on a mission to create an all-natural line of products that she would be proud to use herself.  While this might mean that there are some product and colors that you will not be able to find in her soap, Larissa decided to stand by her decision feeling that safe and natural are more important than a few missing soap scents.  Instead, she uses some of those amazing fragrances in her candles instead!  See, you can have it all!

Now, as if their full life was not enough, this fun loving lawyer/actress/facepainter/soaper recently dove into fiber and fabric arts!  After winning a HAF shirt recycling challenge and receiving a sewing machine as a gift from her family, Larissa has been sewing and knitting as fast as her fingers will fly.  While these two endeavors are a bit newer, Larissa is quickly finding herself addicted.  In order not to confuse her customers by having too many different mediums in one shop, Larissa launched Fabric of My Mind and is quickly adding more and more products as fast as her fingers can make them.

Are you ready to experience a piece of the life of Reef Botanicals and Fabric of My Mind?  Makes me dizzy just trying to imagine cramming this all into one life, but this team does it with style.  Both Reef Botanicals and Fabric of My Mind are easy to find on HandmadeArtists as well as her blog designed by the talented Eric.  If you want to see some amazing facepainting, check out her blog.  You can also follow Larissa on facebook at ReefBotanicals and FabricOfMyMind and on Twitter.