Maven to Know is a weekly series by Indy Maven highlighting a member of our community. Want to be featured? Join us!
Give a warm welcome to Amanda Mauer Taflinger, the brains behind downtown staple, Homespun: Modern Handmade. In addition to being a small business owner, she’s also a mom to three kids, which she describes as “the best of me.” Read on to learn about her self-care habits, how she picks the perfect gift, and the local brand she’s most excited about.
My Maven Superpower is … carrying a whole lot of stuff at once. I’m a mom!
Book I look forward to reading this year is … The Vinyl Detective. It’s about a guy who searches for rare vinyl but he’s usually involved in some sort of historic thing along the way. That series was pretty interesting. I read a lot of detective mysteries, murder mysteries, and detective stories.
Self-care habit I swear by is … going to see a movie by myself in the middle of my day. Sometimes at least once a month!
A fun fact about me is … I was cross-eyed when I was born.
Favorite charity to give back to is … any organization that helps mothers and children.
RELATED: MAVEN TO KNOW: MARTINA JACKSON
Best career advice I’ve ever received is … to not try to predict your own path. Just be open to it meandering and taking some twists and turns. Don’t try to fight those turns too much, because for me, this is not anywhere I would have imagined myself going. So, be open to possibilities and try not to predict too much of where you’ll end up, or exactly what you’ll be doing.
I feel most confident … with my female friendships. When I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of close female friendships. I’ve developed more of those in recent years, and they’re extremely valuable.
Favorite purchases I’ve made lately … are my set of kettlebells and slam balls. Very excited about those. I have been working out a lot lately. I started going back to the gym, and I go to one that’s run by a local woman. I’ve been really motivated for the first time in my life to work out and put in a lot of dedication to my own physical health.
Local restaurant dish I can’t get enough of is … the ice cream from Lick. Can you ever really have too much ice cream? No. Their rosewater pistachio brittle is my favorite ice cream. It’s delicious. And it’s strange because I usually like chocolate, chocolate, more chocolate. But for some reason, that particular flavor from them is pretty tasty. My go-to.
Podcast I’ve been loving lately is … Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me by NPR. I listen to it all the time.
Go-to host gift is … a variety of food products that we carry here at the store. So, usually, I put together a little gift basket with peanut butter and chocolates from The Best Chocolate in Town. I like to include a variety of local food products that we carry here at Homespun because everybody eats food and everybody shares food.
The key to picking the perfect gift is … to think through what you know about that person and how well you know them. What are their favorite hobbies? What are their favorite colors? What kind of restaurants do they like to eat in? Do you know if they enjoy being in the kitchen at home? I find that making a physical list can be really helpful in figuring out things you know about somebody. I do the same thing with my three kids. I’m trying to teach them how to consider other people when they’re picking out gifts for other people.
Local brand I’m most excited about is … Metal Honey Foods. She does honey and she has four different varieties. One of them is a limited edition. I like her product because I’ve been looking for an interesting honey brand for a while that stands out a little bit more. It’s really, really good honey. It’s flavored really well.
Want to be featured as a Maven to Know? Sign up for our Membership Program—we’d love to have you! See all the Maven to Know features we’ve shared so far.
All of our content—including this article—is completely free. However, we’d love it if you would please consider supporting our journalism with an Indy Maven membership.
