PFB’s Panamanian Origins
Mazzy and me enjoying a walk in El Valle.
Nesting is no joke! I’ve never been as concerned with how my children’s room looked as I did when they were babies. When I was pregnant with Mazzy, my oldest daughter, I was inspired and as a designer, I had all sorts of tricks up my sleeve to make it happen. I knew that babies and young ones are attracted to simple shapes and high contrast, so I used color, texture, and simple shapes to make her room colorful, inspiring, and cozy. I worked for a scenic design company at the time and had access to a CNC machine, so I created a large zebra and giraffe out of fiberboard. I painted the silhouette of two lovebirds on black and white polka dot material and hung it over her crib.
ABOVE: Left: The OG Lovebirds, Right: Me pregnant in Mazzy’s room 2 days late
Then Mazzy was one year old, we moved from Pennsylvania to Panama, a leap into the unknown—a two-year detour from our Pennsylvania life with baby Mazzy in tow. As a mom and an artist, I was determined to build a playful and familiar environment for Mazzy, without spending a ton since our situation was temporary.
Turning Crafting into a Business
In Panama I was inspired by the lush greens of the jungle, the vibrancy of life and the history of the people there. I found a fabric store that had great patterned textiles so felt and fabric became my go-tos. I started cutting shapes of monkeys and papayas out of construction paper and felt. Together, Mazzy and I repurposed a refrigerator box, cutting and painting it, and gluing construction paper shapes on it to create a playhouse. These creations quickly caught the attention of friends and locals.
What started as personalized gifts for Mazzy became sought-after items, selling in a boutique nestled in the historic Casco Viejo. Nesting had become something more and it was the beginning of a business that would travel back with us to the States.
Some fabric panels that hung on a clothesline in Mazzy’s room in Panama.
Stateside, I scaled up. The fabric panels evolved into an array of designs, the animal cutouts grew into a full collection, and Pancakes For Breakfast officially took shape. It was functional art, driven by the simplicity of shapes and the joy of colors, grounded in the everyday life of a busy mom and imaginative child.
Mazzy at five years-old at our house in Pennsylvania in a t-shirt from our Panama days.