Yes! It’s amazing how time flies and to realize that I am celebrating 4 years in business as an independent Face Paint Artist in Orlando, FL!

I owe so much to all of my wonderful clients for always keeping me in mind, for inviting me to paint at your events year after year and for your referrals to friends, families & businesses. You are the fuel that keeps my little one-woman business going strong. 

I also want to thank my family for being so supportive. Running a small business is a big task and their love and encouragement is a big reason why I am able to do this full time and with such great energy!

 Some of my favorite events last year, aside from all of the super fun birthday parties, were the UCF Tailgate parties, the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell Run, the Orlando Science Center’s 4th of July celebration and the Gucci Children’s line launch party amongst many others!

So far, this 5th year has been excellent and I look forward to many more years of awesomeness to come. Thank you so much!

Although I am hoping to Blog my story in some sort of chronological order, this morning I felt compelled to share a bit about a love story…my love story.

In 1998 I was walking to the bus stop early one morning to catch the bus to school. The time had recently changed and so the stars where still out. I had been through a tough time in my teenage years, had no direction and felt a huge disappointment with boys altogether. They all seemed so immature and ridiculous. I was only 17, but as any girl can dream, I hoped to one day meet a man with essence, someone who wouldn’t waste time playing games or making me feel bad, someone who I would fall madly in love with and share a great life with. I recall looking up at the stars and making a heartfelt wish, more powerful than any wish I had made before. I wished for true love.

Just a few months after making that wish, I met the love of my life. It was during a job interview at a new restaurant in the City of Weston in South Florida. I was walking in for my interview and a young man by the name of Abdias Ernesto Garcia was walking out from his. The owner of the place introduced us and we shook hands politely. That moment was so much more than a simple handshake, it was the beginning of our love story.

Abdias had recently moved back to the U.S. from his homeland of Puerto Rico and was getting a fresh start with a new job. I was in 11th grade in high school, going through a tough financial shift with my immediate family and getting a job to help out my mom and contribute to our family as we had lost everything we had.

We worked together at the Restaurant where I did everything from hostess to serve drinks and he was a waiter and eventually a cook. We became good friends and he taught me one of the most important lessons of my life, how to improvise.

After a few months of giving me rides home and hanging out at work, we went out one night. We met at an IHOP and ended up at a 24-hour Walmart to buy a CD he wanted. (having only lived in the states for a few years, I had never been to a 24-hour Walmart, lol). At the end of the night I gave him a ride home.

That night was magical. We talked all night, as if we’d known each other our whole lives. He read to me from the inspired pages of his journals, played some songs that he had written on the guitar, showed me some of his favorite music and I told him about my life, how I loved art but wasn’t sure of how it would ever amount to anything, about how my family was falling apart at the seams and about all the trouble I’d been getting into recently since no one was paying attention to me. We showed each other our toes because it seemed to be important at the moment and we laughed and sighed at the stories that we shared with each other.

Time seemed to fly and before we knew it, the sun rose and we welcomed the morning with a perfect kiss that bonded us for life. Like I said, that night was magical.

After that, we were inseparable. What I appreciated about this new love was that we not only shared a bond in what we had been through and felt a true comfort in each others arms, but we both knew that there was a deep meaning in our relationship.

One night we sat on the swings at a Playground and again, had an amazing conversation that set out the foundation of our future plans. He told me of his goal to one day be a music producer and how he wanted to be able to live off of music, be a full time musician and go on the road. I admitted to wanting to be a full time artist and to stop being so shy about my love of music. That conversation would forever change our lives because it was the beginning of a journey that got even more and more interesting. It all began with a wish upon the stars…