Chef Silvana & Barrio Cafe

Barrio Cafe has closed their doors.  Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza held a closing celebration.  There was music, food and other artist booths.  Lots of people having a great time.

I became familiar  with her when I was looking into Latino artist and found out she exhibited local Latino artist in Barrio Cafe and also a small gallery next door.  I loved her activism and her generosity to her community.  I finally met her during Covid, I made and delivered masks to her for the employees.

 

I purchased her book and while I was there she was happy to sign my copy and also gifted me a copy of Sunset magazine she was featured in.  

Happily got a photo with her!

A couple of side stories.  I thanked her for helping me find my way to Pablo Luna.  I wrote about him in previous blog posts of August 11, 2021 and October 9, 2022.  Once I said that I knew she was grieving his loss so I gently moved on to another subject.  Asking her to sign my copy of her book.  Once we moved to the table where she was preparing to sign the book, she told me Pablo Luna's sister was standing behind her.  I was introduced to her and told her how I knew Pablo and gave my condolences.  His sister, (which I have forgotten her name) told me she recalls Pablo telling her about me and how he painted a mural on my office wall when he was in his early 20's.  I could tell her loss was still fresh.  She mention there is plans with a foundation in his name will be planning functions.  I'll make sure to follow up.

The second thing, I met an artist who had a booth with her laser cut items.  Very unique and pretty.  I was so overheated by the hot tempatures and needed water, which as a result I wasn't at my best and needed head to my car and AC.  I got her business card and I will write more about her an upcoming post.  Overall, a great day and felt such amazing energy all around.  Great day for my soul.

Another muralist

Meet Pablo, "Kaper".  Him and I crossed paths about 30 years ago.  He was an artist who loved to paint "tag" walls and one on occassion he tagged a wall that he didn't have permission to paint on and which lead to meeting me.  I loved his artist talent and he has some community service hours he needed to do so I got permission to have him paint a mural on my office wall.  It was beautiful, bright colors and the word PEACE.  I loved the mural and I can't believe I don't have a photo of it.  A number of coworkers thought it was a negtive message encouraging a "tagger" to paint.  Well fast forward 30 years and I came across  his instagram.  He is a fabulous muralist and artist.  I had the pleasure to met up with him.  Actually, I surprised him and he did remember me.  On this particular day he was painting a mural at the Barrio Cafe, downtown Phoenix.  It makes my soul happy to wittness the success story of Pablo the artist!

 

106 Vintage Co.

While in Nebraska I visited a local shop.... 

Check out their Facebook page
facebook.com/106vintageco

The owner, Cammie Metheny told how she bought this old building on main street in Coleridge, Nebraska.  It has been a grocery store.  Once she started removing the drop ceiling she found this beautiful tin ceiling.  One the walls she found fresco painted murals.  

Inside her shop you will find many treasures.  She makes furniture out of her finds.

When I was there she was working on a large window, trying to remove the glass.  Her parents were collectors so she's been doing this her whole life.  She also let me got through her other building where she has so many cool things.  

I told her I wanted to come play whenever I was in the area.  She then said she was going to be taking down a barn....I laughed and said when, I'm in!   She said when it was warmer weather, I'm like I'll be back in May!  What a great find and I will be back every time I'm back in the area.  

I'm also presenting my jewelry to her with the hope she'll sell it in her shop!  Stay tuned Coleridge area.  If you ever find yourself in the Coleridge area make sure and stop in her shop.  Also check out her Facebook page.

 I found some treasures myself.  A religious portrait, fruit baskets, turquoise painted wood strips, card holder, wallpapers and the best thing was my ledger!

Twist of Pine

On my last trip I headed to northeast Nebraska and Yankton, South Dakota.  I have lots of family living in the Crofton, Nebraska area and all of them frequent the Yankton area. My sister-in-law, her two granddaughters and I stopped in the Twist of Pine.  A shop in a cool building near the Missouri river and this fabulous park. The coolest thing happens when you walk in with kids.  The kids are offered a small bag to fill will a variety of candies.  This was a great idea, the kids are occupied picking out their candy and we walked around the shop.  The shop is filled with soaps, candles, foods, small furniture pieces, signs and t-shirts.  I remember walking through several times trying to absorb everything I was seeing. I met the owner, Lisa  and she explained she is opening a Bed & Breakfast in the area and this is a step in that direction.  They offer a variety of classes at the shop.  They have a cooking class that uses the products sold in their store.  The plan is to use the recipes at their Bed & Breakfast.  The night before they offered a painting class, painting the American Flag on a large piece of wood.  

If you find yourself in Yankton, South Dakota make sure and stop in The Twist of Pine!  You won't be disappointed.

www.twistofpine.com

Lisa & Cady

Lisa explained each of her employees has a business card with their job title.  It's extremely creative. 

Creative Business Cards!

Lisa Kneifl- Chief Visionary of Creative Retail and Marketing Experiences, the owner.

Cady Van Surksum - Marketing Consultant and Event Coordinator, maker of marketing items.

Brenda - Director of Retail Merchandising & Customer Service, "Normal Employee".

Hallie - Junior Associate Usability Facilitator, she's 10 and the "taster"

Michele - Public Relations and customer Retention, she a nurse, cancer survivor and knows everybody.  

Jolene "Jo" - Principal Mobile Organic Branding Strategy & Product Solutions Specialist, she's a handy woman, and makes all their wood and craft items.  

She's also a Probation Officer.

Rylee - Minon and Customer Support Apprentice, 15yr old intern

Colette - CCO - Chief Cousin Officer, she's Lisa's cousin and a pharmaceutical rep

Presley - OCD Director and Volunteer Coordinator, high school senior and always brings friends to volunteer their help and also a clean freak.

Jane - Assistant Coordinator of Weekday Entertaining Experiences, she's 70 yrs old and she works two hours a week, on Tuesdays.  "Tasty Tuesday"

Meet Morgan, an artist!

While I was on my Nebraska trip I met Morgan, one of many great nieces.  She's an ARTIST.  I fell in love with her creative energetic spirit.   We happen to be sitting at the same table at end of the evening at my father-in-law's 90th birthday party.  She began to tell me how she was an artist and loved art. By the way, she was making art the whole time she was sitting with me.  Actually the first time I spoke with her that day was her telling about her puppet, Annie Pop, which she made out of scraps of stuff including a popsicle stick.  Annie Pop sang for me.  She went on to explain how she loves art so much that she must make art everyday.  I was impressed  "Wow! that's over 300 pieces of art a year!"  We then spoke about what to do with all our art.  I explained I hang and display my art on my walls and all over my house.  She described her bedroom and how her walls are slanted, so I suggested she tape them on her slanted walls.  At the end of night she asked for my mailing address and we both agreed to send each other art.   So we are officially Art Pen Pals.   
I was fortunate enough to visit Morgan at her home and I was privileged to see her room.  She already taped up her artwork.  I must say I was so jealous of her art space/bedroom.  I loved the artistic vibe and energy.  I can see how her space feeds her creativity.  I would love a slanted wall art space!

Morgan, my new creative artist friend!  Can't wait to share our art!

Check out Morgan's, hat and jacket....way colorful!

My latest find...beads

I met up with a young friend and she mentioned a bead shop along Camelback Road & Central Ave.  I just happen to be in that area the following day so I stopped in.... a great find! 

Shannon MacLeod is the owner of this little shop along Camelback Road.  She has little bit of everything, she's an authentic bead store, not a bead store catering to the "what's the current fad" in beads.  She had a basket full of just what I was looking for, it was like finding the treasure at the end of the rainbow feeling.  Shannon is the owner and only employee at this time.  She's been at this location for five years.  She used to have classes but at this time she's reworking the classroom area, so nothing scheduled for now. She's on a very busy roadway but a little off the beaten path of that main intersection, she has a street sign which makes it easy to find.  Check it out if your in the area!

She recently changed the name of her business to

Beads & Findings International

You can find her Facebook page under her new name.

Owner/designer of GuruHoney

ANDREA WATKINS
GuruHoney:  2701 N 48th Street, Ste 2  Lincoln Nebraska
www.facebook.com/guruhoney.design

Here's some back story... on a previous trip to Lincoln I stopped in the GuruHoney shop on a random day at a random time but not at a random place.  While in college I lived up the street and was familiar with the neighborhood, University Place, along north 48th Street.  I used to walked pass these buildings all the time.  I loved her shop and even bought the coolest purse/bag there!   I got good vibes and thought someday I'd like to ask about putting my jewelry in her shop.  The clerk was very friendly and we exchanged Facebook information and she gave me a little information about the owner and the shop.  I didn't have my jewelry with me and it just didn't feel right at the time, plus I knew I would be back. 

On my most recent road trip I contacted Andrea Watkins to talk about my jewelry.  The minute I walked in and met her I got the goosebumps!  I set down my jewelry pieces and she loved them and again... I got goosebumps!  I have seven pieces for sale in her shop!

Here's some tidbits about Ms. Andrea Watkins and GuruHoney....

She went to college and graduated with a psych major, she was offered a job at a hospice and a marketing type job.  She took the marketing job because of the hours.  She worked her way up in the marketing field.   But she found she clicked with graphic design.  She is self-taught in graphic design,  she bought a big book on graphic design, studying all she could.  Keep in mind this was before the internet and Google.  She then took a "leap of faith" and left her stable job and went with a start up company.  She became creative director of a team of designers and the company became very successful. 

Three years ago, her dad got sick and he was dying of cancer.  She spent time with him and he was placed in Hospice the last six months of his life.  She recalls how full circle life was … being offered a job with Hospice when she graduated college.

Upon his death she was trustee of his estate and inherited set of buildings along North 48^th Street in the University Place neighborhood.  He did a lot for the area.  It was a huge project for Lincoln, trying to revitalizing the neighborhood.  The building GuruHoney is located  in is one of the buildings that belonged to her dad.  She once again took a "leap of faith", quit her job and became a landlord & a property manager.  It wasn't easy and she really struggled her first year.  With another "leap of faith", she figured since she had the building space why not open her own shop.  Along with a partner she opened GuruHoney.  She traveled to India with her previous job and lived there for six months.  She loved the culture and the name is a result of brainstorming and the thought of merging the culture of the east with the west.  Guru = high thinking   Bee = symbolic of hard work.  Creative & creating something good.  She began to design tshirts and was quite successful and told a story about one of her tshirt designs was worn by Mylie Cyrus in a photo shoot with People magazine.  She continues to revitalize the area in the spirit of father’s legacy and his vision for the area.  By the way the buildings are beautiful and the area is awesome.  It has a great vibe, a boho vibe.

I asked her how she refuels her soul.  She does Kosama – type of boot camp workouts, she loves to ride her bicycle, Lincoln has a great series of bike trails and yoga is another way she has found to refuel her soul.  She used to teach yoga and recently is finding herself being asked to teach yoga, again. 

She described herself as someone who has never been one that is not up for a challenge.  She talked about how tough it is because it’s a combination of what you know is in you and what you can do but it’s really hard because you feel you need a formal title, like artist, painter, designer, etc.  Creative people need to quit telling themselves “I’m not that”.  People wait around to be told they are “that” when they already are “that”.

I really enjoyed meeting Andrea Watkins!   She is a creative soul with so much ambition, nothing can stop her. 

The beginning of a new blog idea.

In my most recent trip home I was having lunch with my sister.  I was telling her how I was planning to add a interviews with to my blog.  I want to interview people about their jobs, passions, thoughts.  I explained how I would ask the same questions, maybe 10 questions total.  I have several people in mind already.  Artists, a teacher, some serious runners, crafters, moms, etc.

I asked my sister random questions….

1. How long have you been at you job?

She’s been at her job for 23 years.  She works with developmentally challenged children, ages 3-5 yrs.  She works within the school system with teachers, therapist, parents, etc.  It was tough for her to

.

2.  How does her job defines her? 

She loves children and definitely has a knack with kids.  Her job has taught her patience.  She loves to see the progress the kids make and the outcome.  She doesn’t like it when people say their child “can’t “ do something.  She has seen a child come into the class and he can’t open a book and he leaves the program with the knowledge about books, sounds, images, etc. 

 

3. Do you find joy in your job?

It’s chaos to brilliance when it comes to the children she works with.  It a challenge with so many moments of joy.

 

We stopped at this point because our lunch arrived...haha

 

What I know about my sister and her job...the kids love her.  Whenever we are out it never and I mean never fails a kid she's worked with notices her and that kid always and I mean always has a smile and a big hello for her!

 

My sister, Melinda!



 

This was a good start to what I want to add to my blog.  I know some very amazing women & men  doing some amazing things and I want to showcase them.