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How I Started, Bashfully Told


Friends and I trying to recreate the moments behind the Tertulia scent.

Right now, this business is just me, Emily. Sometimes the team grows, and other times it shrinks, usually seasonally. I'm a bit bashful sharing, but the story and people behind a business, product or service is something that resonates with me when I buy something or hire someone. Here's an effort to tuck away that shyness to share my story and face.

I went to architecture school, graduated and after months of job hunting, found a position as an intern architect in St. John's. My feelings about architecture did—and still do—oscillate from absolute enchantment, to irritation to outright anger. I've been moved to tears when I walked into a building (Sagrada Familia) and gotten lost in excitement for hours when I'm on a roll with a design project. My beefs are that the industry is very visual, focused on product not process and seems inaccessible or out of reach to most. People 'consuming' experiencing and getting involved in the architectural process are disproportionately wealthy. My experience working in a firm was feeling pushed to design quicker, in turn feeding consumption with only enough time to make sure the building met code requirements, and looked okay. I'm proud of the buildings I designed during that time, but that work stopped inspiring me. So I started this business, which at the beginning was a side hustle of property management for airbnbs.