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 48th 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.
