Lifting Dreams on Little Wings: The Journey to a Hive of Creativity and Collaboration

From the disciplined drive of a Mary Kay representative to the fluttering flight of my creative dreams, I've been on a journey that's about to land in a space buzzing with potential.

 The dream is a hive—part boutique, part workshop, entirely heart. In today's episode, I'm laying out the blueprint of my aspirations, the support that's been my foundation, and the hope glimmering on the horizon as I eagerly await the decision from the property owners. It's a story of breaking barriers, just like the hardworking bee, with each hurdle overcome sweetening the honey!

I'm inviting you into my world where artistry isn't confined to galleries or studios; it's in the meals we cook, the gardens we tend, and the love we share.

My husband's recent accolades and the community projects stirring our town into a canvas of collaboration are just a few of the colors in this palette of pride. With Mother's Day reflections adding a tinge of tender nostalgia, this episode is an uplifting reminder of the 'Maya the Bee' spirit in all of us, daring to lift dreams on little wings. Join me as we celebrate the wondrous mosaic that is creativity, community, and family.

Dare to help my dreams, here is my Kickstarter!

Take my poll about the space! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hi, sorry for the missed episode. Thank you for your grace and giving me a little bit of breathing room for everything I have going on. I want to dive back into the doodles. So today, elo Lovey's prompt for the 10th is a bee, and this is just so perfect and ironic, and I will explain why. So I just have had so many things going on, and I had some pretty big things going on, so I just needed some extra time to catch up on those and I did not have a free moment to do a recording last week, so and this one is a little later in the day that I usually publicly or publish one. So as I'm doodling here, the bee reminds me of when I was a Mary Kay rep, years gosh, decades ago, and how the bee was a symbol of like impossibility. The bee wasn't supposed to fly and it was supposed to be inspirational for us because it did fly, despite what it was being told to do, and we were to achieve our goals despite of all the obstacles that were presented in front of us. And that little inspiration just immediately came back to my mind as soon as I saw that today's prompt was a B, because I feel like there's so many things that have been obstacles and my dream of having a space and having the ability to share and do the things that I wanted to do creatively. And I feel like I'm overcoming them and I have lots of support. I have lots of support and it just, I don't know, made me think of that's what I'm dealing with, because recently I kind of was presented with this opportunity to have this space again and so I readjusted some of the goals that I had and put that back out there and was being very transparent of what I needed and why I needed it.

Speaker 1: 2:25

And so I'm in discussions with the owners of the place and I, you know they were asking well, why do you want to have someone help you raise money for, like, rent? And I'm like, well, it's temporary, it's just for the month that I will be open and I'm trying to renovate the space to open it. And I was just, you know, thinking that would be a very helpful thing to have a nice cushion to give me a little bit of breathing room to open this place properly. And the other part of that Kickstarter request was for a sign. I got to invest in this big lit sign. So those were the two reasons and I was just very transparent of that. Otherwise, I have everything in order to pay the deposit and the first month myself, and so I'm very excited to have that in hand and presented that to them and told them I can answer the rest of their questions. They asked for some other paperwork and I have that together and I'm just trying to be as honest and open as possible with what I can provide to them, as they've asked for it.

Speaker 1: 3:44

So it's on the cusp. I mean, they talked to me and said that they'll let me know beginning of next week and I'm like you reached back out to me. You asked me about the space, if I was still interested in running it and all of that. So I really, you know, worked really hard in the last two weeks to since October with this dream. You know what are you excited about?

Speaker 1: 4:28

This space as I've presented it to you the idea that I've got it set up as a creative place and there will be shopping and there'll be you know make and takes, and there's this room that's perfect for birthday parties or parties with you know friends that you can create stuff in, and I've got people that want to reserve it for like meetings, and I'll be able to have meetings there and consultations for things that I'm already doing digitally, digitally, and so I just, you know, wanted to know can we, can we share what everyone's thoughts are about these? You know different options because the questions that the owners had totally valid. You know what are you going to do in down times, what are you going to? You know, do to create an income. You know to support this space and I feel very confident that there's a lot that happens seasonally that supports it.

Speaker 1: 5:33

But because of the things that I do and because of the interests that I have, this ebbs and flows so well with you know whether that is good or whether that is chilly, and you know it's not a space that's seasonal to, where you only go out in the summer. It's not like just a patio space. You know it's shopping and it's creating things, and the hours that I want to be open will appeal to those that are there for, you know, dinner and evening, and they're just walking around like what can we do while we're waiting at a table and the amphitheater is open and there's all kinds of markets and just all of that is going to balance out well with what I want to do in the space, you know, and every month it'll be a creative new presentation from an artist in the community getting other people's eyes on their work maybe that wouldn't see their gallery or see their work and that keeps it fresh and new and inventive. And I love being able to share that. And I know that the owners are listening because they didn't realize I had a podcast and I know that they're looking at my website because they're like oh, you sell on your site. Yeah, I have, you know, store on my site now and I have places locally that are reselling my work and there's activities that are happening all year long that I'm signed up with and am doing and I am very excited to you know what this dream is and share how much great positive feedback that I've had from everyone that wants to support it. I've had people that you know kind of circumvented the Kickstarter and are supporting me personally, which I'm blown away by.

Speaker 1: 7:45

I just can't believe people have done that and I can't thank them enough for you know doing that for me and I I can't wait to make a mural of everybody that supported me and share that in that space, because it's just one little way I can celebrate and thank them and you know, I'll still get my reward levels and I want to give them, you know, something to just thank them for their support. That is definitely something I don't want to overlook, because it just means so. That is definitely something I don't want to overlook because it just means so so much, and I've had people reach out and do that. I'm just, it just makes me so excited to feel that much love. And it's amazing to me that this is a community of people that have their arms around me, that aren't even family. I mean, they're my friends and they're people that I have grown up and met here and I didn't know I was going to cry.

Speaker 1: 8:49

It's just, it blows my mind and I can't thank them enough for doing that for me and I just, I don't know, I just feel like this is just the right thing, this is meant to happen, and it is such a big dream and I just, I don't know, it just feels so real, not surreal, but so real and um, yeah, I just, I love sharing about it, I love thinking about it, I love planning it and I don't know, I don't know how else to explain it. This little bee. You know people telling you this is impossible doesn't feel impossible. People also ask me all the time how much sleep do you get? You know you're always doing this, this, this, this, and I never feel like I'm exhausted to where I'm not getting rest, I just have energy. I've always been like that.

Speaker 1: 10:01

I work really hard. I don't know how else to put it. You know, I just have big convictions, I guess, and I have big dreams and I'm not afraid to work on them. So that's the only way I can frame it. But on the other side of that, I love supporting other people that have big dreams and I love sharing, any way that I can, somebody else's dream and being part of that. It's important to me too, and I have had the honor and privilege of being part of a lot of people's dreams and it makes me so happy, it makes me feel like I'm doing something good in the world, and so that's just one little way I guess I can explain it. So I just have been so excited about so many projects that I've been working on lately and I just have had to take the time to, you know, address those and and do them and work on them because they were really important to me.

Speaker 1: 11:19

There's this great project down home that is this property. That is just absolutely breathtaking and stunning and I've been working on maps for it and the vision that they have for this is just so specific and beautiful and I love getting the chance to like, okay, I'm doing this little tweak, is this what you want? You know I want to honor that vision that they have and you know the back and forth going between you, know design changes and illustrations and techniques of like the way that the map is supposed to look, and you know we have a digital version and then we're working on a print version and there's other projects that are happening with this piece and it just I love sitting down and working on that. It just makes me so excited to be part of it. And I see the update to the property and it's just like I can't believe I get to be part of this. It's just beautiful and it's supporting something that's down where we grew up, and so I just absolutely love that.

Speaker 1: 12:25

And then I have the honor of having an exhibit at our local museum and that's this weekend, and I got to do the first part of the installation this week and I just am so excited about sharing this with the kids in the community and getting people excited about thinking how their work can, you know, use augmented reality and you know I want these kids to like take something they're coloring and think about okay, the next step I can do with this is to make it move and then I can have my brother, sister, hold it and they're like in the, the experience and it's bringing this another realm of you know, life to art and I love that. I get to teach this at the museum. I just that that alone has been a blessing and just I love my class and getting to have an exhibit there and show, show people different levels of like what you can do with that technology and art is just I I can't thank them enough for the opportunity to get to, to share that. And I'm so excited about this weekend where I get to spend the day with everybody, um, playing with this technology and sharing it and showing it, and then I get to paint live coming up, so you know, sketching out an idea, sending it to them for the 720 market and then in a couple of weeks I get to do that live at their market and then we're going to give the canvas away and I'm so excited about that. I love somebody having a piece of art that I made and I can't wait to do that and spend the day at the market with everybody and talking to people and, you know, just encouraging them to try something on their own and painting.

Speaker 1: 14:26

And I love when someone says I can't even draw a stick figure. Well, you know how hard a stick figure is to draw, you know. Or just to draw a straight line. You know people say that all the time and it's just like, just draw, just doodle. You know, just just try. If it's just like you just draw, just doodle who, you know, just just try. If that's, if that's something you like, maybe you'd rather, you know, make something out of wood, or maybe you would like to arrange a bouquet, or maybe you would like to cook a beautiful meal, or, you know, it doesn't have to be drawing, it can be whatever that inspires you to be creative. There's creativity in so many ways, so it doesn't have to be exactly, you know, painting or watercolor or acrylic. I mean, it can be any kind of creative endeavor and creativity writing, you know, journaling, photography there's just so much out there and people forget that those are different ways to be creative.

Speaker 1: 15:21

So I'm really excited about, you know, just a few of those little projects. And then I've got so many other things that I'm working on for organizations and murals and I just, I gosh, I just can't appreciate. I can't even express how much I appreciate the opportunities and I just love getting to participate in those. And so if you're one of those organizations and you're happening on this episode, please, please know how much it means to me. And then some of the things that I volunteer with. I have been trying to play a little catch up on those because I had been waiting on some information and now they got information and I'm just trying to, you know, finalize some pieces that I've been working on for ads. And we have festivals coming up that are happening next month. I'm really excited to be part of and I just love being, you know, a little piece and part of those community events and I just, I don't know, I'm a very social person I guess, and I know that's a complete opposite of my husband, but he supports me. I'm very excited about something happening for him coming up. He was made employee of the month today. I was notified and I'm very, very proud of him for that. And then he's got some other stuff that's coming out and again, just super, super proud of him and I can't wait to share those when they're announced. But yeah, just the impossible.

Speaker 1: 17:03

The little, the little bee. Anybody remember Maya the Bee, the show Maya, maya the Bee? My daughters used to watch that when they were little. She had like red, curly hair, I think Maya did, and just always thought that that was a cute show. I did and just always thought that that was a cute show. So be a bee, despite what someone tells you, the odds, do it anyway. Find a way to make it happen. Use your little wings to lift that little body up those little dreams.

Speaker 1: 17:35

It's mother's day weekend, so because the exhibit, I'm not going to get to go visit my mom, which I know. We just had her with us on vacation. But I did get to send her some gifts. So I appreciate her beyond words. I love her very much. My cousin's going to take her to breakfast. My brothers I'm sure will be around, but miss her tremendously and again I'd have her live with me in a heartbeat. I just can't get her to move here. She has her heart set staying where she's at.

Speaker 1: 18:09

So but thank you for listening to me. Sorry, I got emotional. I just, you know, got my heart set on some things and, yeah, I just appreciate the support. If you happen to go on my Facebook page, I have a little poll going on for the next couple of days Just would love to have feedback on what you would like to see happen in that space, just so the people that are making these decisions they're watching, so for having a following, they're looking at like what I'm saying and I totally understand that. That's why it's there. And yeah, so if they can see everybody else's excitement about the spot that I want and know that I have support, I think that may help. But I will keep you updated. Have wonderful weekend. Thank you again, and I will talk to you all soon because you are so brutally made and I appreciate you beyond words, so take care. Bye.