We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Billhartz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Starting a business always feels like a risk. But taking the last bit of money out of your bank account to start a business can feel like downright insanity.

I remember the giddy, thrill-charged, what-am-I-doing feeling like it was yesterday. I had this crazy idea to take every bit of money we had left in our account and order hundreds of plants from Florida.

It’s not like we weren’t already prone to taking tremendous risks. I mean we had just bought our home after traveling full-time with three little ones for 2 years in a van. We told ourselves we were going to make our own path no matter the cost. 8 years as a military family will do that to you. We were bound and determined to live for ourselves and build a meaningful life where we could be with our children. Build a legacy.

So up until this day we had been doing everything from selling art, to building out travel vans. And here we were with $1500 left in the bank and no clear way to fill the account back up. But I had a dream of the future I had been holding on to.

Plants had taken over our lives in so many ways. Gardens, a greenhouse, and an entire home filled with them. I wanted to feel like I was still living in nature, like our travel days, and plants are the closest thing there is to bring that feeling to your home. I had a large enough collection that I had dabbled in selling locally for a while. The potential was not lost on me.

My husband was used to my wild ideas at this point so when I suggested we drain the account and try something new, he was ready to jump in head-first with me.

Within an hour of getting the green light I had set up our business with the state, called a nursery, then trucking company, and put everything we had into a truckload of plants.

Life was a blur after that, With a Lowes sign that said Plants For Sale and a basement full of foliage we would set up in the driveway, we doubled our money in a week. Within a month we had sold all of our plants, moved to a new location and bought even more plants.

Now a few years later, we only sell specialty and rare plants and mostly pottery. Handcrafting pots for our favorite living decor is the business we dreamed of and didn’t even know it. We are now working from home, involving our children, and making connections with people who care about what we care about. Our pots are in homes and stores across the nation. And it was all born from the insane moment we took the risk to give everything we had for a vision of the future.

Amanda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi! I’m Amanda Billhartz, one of the dreamers and makers behind The Curated Jungle — a small-batch pottery studio where my husband and I craft nature-inspired concrete planters and art from our home in Illinois.
Our journey into the world of pottery was anything but traditional. After my husband left the Navy, we spent two years traveling full-time with our three young kids in a van and RV — exploring wild places, visiting tiny towns, and learning to live simply and intentionally.

That time on the road deeply shaped how I view home, creativity, and the importance of meaningful surroundings. When we eventually settled down, I started filling our space with plants — lots of them — and quickly craved pieces that felt just as alive as the greenery itself.

That’s when the “I Can Make That” side of my husband kicked in (everyone with a partner like this knows exactly what I’m talking about!). Before long, our garage turned into a concrete-splattered studio, and our shared love of art, texture, and nature grew into a full-fledged pottery business.

At The Curated Jungle, we handcraft concrete planters, botanical art prints, and jungle-themed decor— all with a focus on texture, earthy mood, and botanical beauty. Our pieces are created to be statement pieces that can easily be gifted, lived with, and loved.

Our pots can be found in homes and shops across the nation. We especially love working with plant shops and people who want something more meaningful than mass-produced goods. Our goal is to help create warm, inviting spaces that feel treasured and intentional — the kind of shops and homes where guests want to stay awhile (and take everything home!).

What sets us apart isn’t just the handmade nature of our products. It’s the why behind what we do. We believe in slow living, thoughtfully designed homes, and building a business with our family that brings joy to others.

Our three kids are a big part of this story too — they are growing up in our studio, learning that creative work matters, and that doing something you love (and sharing it) is a gift in itself.

What I’m most proud of is the connection we’ve been able to create with our customers and retailers — so many of whom become friends. We hear stories about our pots being given as wedding gifts, upgrading shop windows, or passed down with beloved houseplants. That’s the kind of impact we never take for granted.

If there’s one thing I want people to know about The Curated Jungle, it’s that behind every piece is a real family, a real story, and a whole lot of love (and concrete). We’re here to help create spaces that feel rooted, warm, and alive — one pot at a time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that business is only for “business people.”
That success was something other people got to have.
That I wasn’t built for it.

Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of examples of financial freedom or creative confidence. I believed I’d always work for someone else, live paycheck to paycheck, and stay in the kind of rentals I had grown up in — the kind with peeling paint, leaky ceilings and neighbors you don’t make eye contact with. 
I didn’t feel talented or special. I didn’t know anyone who had built something of their own.

Something in me knew though, even when I didn’t, that I could be more. I could be and do anything I could dream up. And so, I slowly started dreaming. Dreaming of living a life that didn’t follow the same patterns I had seen, but one I loved and what that could look like.

I decided to break the pattern and derail the life I was stuck in. In a moment of clarity and brash resolve, I packed two duffle bags, left everyone and everything I knew and moved across the country by myself at 24. And that changed everything.

I realized there were no rules — no gatekeepers. Life was fluid. You could fall down, mess up, feel lost… and still come back stronger. You could build something from scratch and call it your own.

When I met my husband, I had already declared (to everyone and myself) that I’d never get married or have kids. Another destructive belief stemming from what I was unlearning about my worth. But the moment I met him, I saw something I hadn’t dared to imagine: A family. A family that loved each other. A family that worked together.

He became my “what if?” partner. What if we didn’t have to follow the typical path? What if we could make something beautiful together? We were together everyday after that. Learning together that we could do anything we wanted. And what we wanted was the same dream I had when I met him. A family, together, creating beauty in the world with each other and others.

Together, we unlearned all the limits we were raised with.
And after over a decade together, we built a family business out of our dream called The Curated Jungle.

And every day, I remind myself how lucky I am to have broken out of those limiting beliefs and want to share with the world- that you may not feel like you can yet. You may not know exactly what you want or if it will work out. You just have to dream up what success and joy looks like for you. And you just need to start. That is the hardest part. So grab the moment when you are feeling a little crazy, a little wild-eyed and fearless, and do the thing.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Going into business with your partner is no easy feat. And yet, we love it.


My husband has been my partner in everything we have done since the day we met. In fact, we were engaged within six weeks of knowing each other and married not long after. We’ve always had that jump in with both feet kind of energy. After years of raising our children under the rule of the Navy — deployments, moves, and long stretches of solo parenting — we knew we wanted to build something that brought us closer instead of pulling us apart. Something we could do side by side. As a family.

We didn’t set out to start a pottery business. It started with many dreams, a house full of plants, a bag of concrete, and my husband’s forever, “I can make that” attitude when I couldn’t find pots that felt personal or special. 

The first few were messy and cracked. Our kids helped mix the concrete with garden shovels. Our garage slowly turned into a full-blown studio, and suddenly, we were building something meaningful — not just for ourselves, but with our kids right in the middle of it just like we had always dreamed.

We balance each other out in the best ways. I dream big and chase ideas fast. He’s the grounded one — methodical and enduring. We’ve had to learn how to fight for our vision and still protect our marriage. There were nights we packed orders until 2 AM, covered in concrete and laughing giddily over packing materials. There were also plenty of moments where we didn’t agree, or we hit a wall (sometimes literally — concrete molds are no joke).

But we always came back to why we started: to make something beautiful together. For and with our family.

This business is a love story — not just between us, but between what we make and the people we get to share it with. And I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thecuratedjungle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecuratedjungle_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecuratedjungle
• Other: TCJpots.com – Wholesale Pottery Site

Image Credits

– Amanda Billhartz