Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathylee Morales.
Cathylee is a wife, a mom of two boys and proud owner and master instructor at Once Upon A Creation. It has always been a dream of hers to combine her creativity and passion for bringing joy to others and in 2017 she was able to do just that! Just 1 week after giving birth to her second son, Roman, she was laid off her job. Shortly after, hurricane Irma-the most intense hurricane to strike the US since Katrina- came rolling through. Finding employment was difficult. Her wonderful husband of ten years, who worked in the hospitality industry, was deeply impacted as tourism declined and their finances took a huge hit. A really big one. In the midst of the turmoil, she made the bold decision to chase after her dreams. It was then Once Upon a Creation came to fruition. With the support of her husband Jesus, she started creating custom items for friends and family. Next thing she knew, orders started coming in… And kept coming. She began to expand in her ability to create custom items into wooden signs and launched her DIY private sign party service with now over 3000 customers.
Fast forward to 2020, in the midst of the pandemic where small businesses were shutting their doors left and right, she took a bold move and opened a small 300 sq. ft. studio. Her studio is in a warehouse, which she shares with a few friends of hers that have a wedding business. That little space has become an outlet for people to come and explore new creations and relax their minds in the middle of a pandemic. As the year progressed, Cathylee saw so many of her fellow makers in the industry trying to survive. So she opened her doors for them to come teach their specialty hobby in her studio. That then led into people loving the idea of doing more than just wooden signs. For example, she brought in a chef to teach how to create your own charcuterie boards of meats, cheese, fruits & veggies. The chef taught the class how to properly cut and display the board to be a Pinterest worthy creation.
Another workshop she brought in a local florist to come and teach how to make a beautiful centerpiece with a stem bar right in the studio. Another chef taught how to make and decorate cakes. Another amazing maker taught how to make macrame home decor and so much more. The list goes on and keeps growing! Now fast forward to 2021. Once Upon A Creation has outgrown the studio space and is searching for a new and bigger space in Clermont. The business has now expanded and is not just wood signs anymore; she’s been able to bring in a permanent chef for culinary workshops. We will now be able to offer cake pop workshops, tea parties, themed kid parties, baby showers, bridal showers and more, all with an art and culinary combination.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some of the challenges and obstacles have been to try and let the community know about who we are and where we are located. There are so many great Facebook groups but with so many rules and regulations our posts tend to get removed. We are all about networking and supporting other small businesses, so we are trying to get creative to help spread word to the community about all the fun things we can do!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are different because we don’t offer just one thing. We started with wooden sign parties, but we’ve now expanded into more creative art & culinary workshops. We love to bring in other makers to collaborate, so we can offer a huge variety of art, crafts and culinary workshops. For example, over the past few months we’ve been able to offer charcuterie workshops, ARTchery workshops, cake pop making workshops, macrame, centerpiece making, cake decorating, candle making and so much more. We even offer Mommy & Me workshops where Mommas can bring in their little ones, as young as the age of 3 years old, and craft away with us. We offer themed workshops as well. Like our very popular, Taco ‘Bout A Workshop. We bring in a local, small business named Taco Kings, who make the best tacos in town. They cook fresh tacos right outside the studio doors and serve midway through our workshop.
I mean who doesn’t love to craft, eat tacos and enjoy a complimentary margarita at the same time! For the summer, we will offer summer camps and plan to bring in local authors to come read their books and participate in an art & culinary creative workshop that matches the theme of the book. We will also be having a Luau and making some fun, creative Hawaiian themed crafts and bringing in luau dancers to teach. We are most proud of the rapid growth and the creative niche we’ve been able to fulfill by offering fun and unique workshops. We are thrilled that we’ve been able to expand and offer more than just wooden signs now. We just love being creative, bringing joy and making some special memories that will keep our clients wanting to come back for more. Being able to build on this, even during the pandemic, has made our workshops that much sweeter.
Our New location is 4300 South Highway 27 Suite 207 Clermont FL, 34711. Also our grand opening will be May 15th from 6-9pm
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happy is seeing the fun, the creativity and the memories that are being built inside the studio walls. I love seeing everyone put their phone down and be present and in the moment creating something to their own unique style. It’s so cool to see the skeleton of a project I created, and although it’s the same project, they all end up looking completely different. Another thing that makes me happy is to be able to do something I love. To be my own boss and put my heart, blood, sweat and tears behind every workshop and to get such great feedback.
Pricing:
- Mommy & Me workshops start at $25+
- Wine Down Wednesday Start at $25 +
- Speciality workshops starts at $40+
- Choose your own creation starts at $35+
- Private parties packages start at $250
Contact Info:
- Email: info@onceuponacreationco.com
- Website: www.onceuponacreationco.com
- Instagram: @onceuponacreationco
- Facebook: facebook.com/onceuponacreationco
Image Credits
Elevate Films FL JLEW photography
