Category: Flower Den Friends

Flower Den Friends

Waves & Wellness: Retreat to Love – Join us in Ecuador!

Posted on

An immersive tropical experience in the therapeutic modalities of energy, art, & self reflection

Escape to Ecuador for an unforgettable retreat with Flower Den & friends from May 1-7, 2025! Literally dive into a week of relaxation, creativity, and personal growth at our “Waves & Wellness: Retreat to Love” event. Nestled in breathtaking coastal scenery, surrounded by the energy of the equator, this retreat offers a unique blend of activities designed to rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit. You’ll be comfortably burrowed in a safe & secluded spot between the jungle and the ocean – hand built with creativity and love.

Transformative Offerings

  • Reiki by the Sea: Feel your energy shift as you level up your mindset with positive vibrations
  • Therapeutic Art: Learn avenues to share, release, and respect your own unique path to creativity and expression.
  • Self Confidence & Reflection: Shine your light while still embracing your shadows. 
  • Cacao Ritual: Participate in opening ceremonies with cacao, intention setting, and meditation.
  • Hypnagogic Light: Meditate to light & sound with a relaxing session from Daniel’s Roxiva light. If you’ve never had this experience, you’re in for a beautiful kaleidoscope of color, sacred geometry, and sound.

Meet your Ecuador Retreat Leaders

Alchemy by the Sea Heart Centered Practices

Join our host Shenandoah Stubbs for energy healing & sound therapy. Shen’s an amazing guide at helping to process trauma with reiki and healing sessions, including sound and oracle readings.

Not only will Shen lead our cacao ceremony, she’ll also offer potion lessons where you can make your own formulas with water from the surf, essential oils, and expert guidance on intentionality and alchemy.

Most importantly, retreat guests will receive private 1 on 1 personal energy sessions with Shen to help you learn ways to trust yourself and your inner voice. 

Therapeutic Art Creative Workshops

Also hosting is Flower Den’s cofounder Angie Weeks, putting her Therapeutic Art Life Coach certification to use for your benefit. Here’s a few of the activities Angie will lead you through:

Intention Bracelets & Dream Catchers: Set your intentions and craft beautiful reminders of your journey.

Pour Painting & Rock Painting: Embrace the art of letting go, trusting, and how transformation can blossom when you’re intentional.

Beach Mandalas & Yoga: Create meditative art in the sand and practice yoga on the beach with ocean views.

Empowerment Sessions & Confidence Building

Ashton Mikayo will help attendees magnify their inner light and build confidence. She’s an inspiring photographer, creative, and innovator. Guests will enjoy:

Embodied God/dess Solo Sessions: Connect with your inner god or goddess in personalized sessions that will help you glow from the inside out!

Crown Building: Align with nature by foraging materials from the jungle to create a crown, then release it back into the ocean as a symbolic act of letting go.

Culinary Delights are included

Relax and enjoy your experience with included breakfast, lunch, and dinners – all curated with healthy local foods to nourish both your mind and body! We may attend a nearby restaurant, there are a couple of great local options with views and excellent food.

Ecuador Adventure awaits 

For all our attendees, there will still be plenty of free time to choose your own adventure. Enjoy the opportunity to engage in a variety of thrilling activities led by locals like:

  • Snorkeling
  • Kayaking
  • Horseback riding on the beach
  • Jungle tours
  • Visits to sulfurous hot springs
  • Surfing lessons 
  • Whale watching tours (season permitting)

Stay at Hermanos Perdidos Surf Hostel

Our villas are located in Las Tunas, Ecuador, and there’s space for up to 14 attendees. Most rooms will have dual occupancy, however, there are a couple rooms that sleep 3. The hostel offers a pool, hot tub, inspirational art and murals, and beautiful grounds to relax with a good book or podcast. Yes, there’s strong internet.. so you can stay connected, too! Spots are already booking up, so be sure to register early and tell your friends. 

How Much Does a Retreat in Ecuador Cost?! 

We want EVERYONE to have access to this special event, so we’ve designed tiered rates to encourage you to book early and save!

Early Bird Special

Book your spot by 11/11/2024 to enjoy our early bird price of $1977.99 per bed. After this date, the cost increases to $2388.99 if you book with a friend before 01/01/2025. Afterward, it rises to $2493.00. Don’t miss out on these savings! 

If you’d prefer an easy monthly payment plan, we’re happy to offer that too! Just fill out the form below and we’ll contact you with details.

Arrive Early and Recharge

Consider arriving a week earlier for a silent or meditative retreat from May 11-17. Take advantage of discounted rates on early bookings and enjoy additional sessions with Shen to set the perfect tone for your upcoming Waves & Wellness experience.

We hope you’ll join us for a week of connection, exploration, and rejuvenation. Secure your spot now and embark on a journey back to love and wellness. We can’t wait to welcome you to this transformative experience!

For more information and to book your place, contact us now. Spaces are limited, so act fast!

Cardano & Blockchain Events

Cruisin’ the CNFT Convention with Cardano Community

Posted on

We had a great time at the Cardano NFT conference #CNFTcon2022 in Vegas this year! It was a pleasure to meet so many creative minds, hear about interesting things happening in various Metaverses, explore stake pool options, and of course delve in to amazing NFT projects focused on art & utility surrounding the Cardano ecosystem. 

The conference opened up with Charles Hoskinson - Cardano’s founder. Charles is always so great with his ability to elaborate on the big picture in layman’s terms - if you aren’t subscribed to his YouTube channel do yourself a favor & check it out! Plus we love that Charles is so inquisitive and curious with all of the developers and projects. He really wants to see everyone succeed and collaborate together in the best possible way. He took time to thoughtfully answer questions, and although we didn’t get to meet him in person, it’s something we look forward to in the future 🙂

We’ll mention a few companies & projects in this post, but mostly I want to focus on the people we met and some of their inspiring visions. Since the Cardano ecosystem is constantly growing, maybe it will inspire some ideas for you to get involved, too?! Our favorite part of all of this is the community. There are faces and brilliant minds behind these Discord & Twitter screen names.

For example, we loved the concept of the Cardano Caravan…a group of artists and Cardano fans who met up in the Midwest and made their way over to the conference in Vegas. One of the artists best known online as Schhhart did an awesome oil painting of Charles that we just loved. We told them they should make it an annual excursion and next time we want to join in on the roadtrip! 

Another highlight was the Prismatics booth & NFT project. We had the pleasure of doing lunch with the artist, Alexia, her marketing manager ‘Dolphin’ - what a great conversation. Alexia is originally from Switzerland and is full of talent and neat ideas. We talked about the magic a passionate team creates, and how she loves to collaborate on projects. Her booth was well thought out with meditation pillows and pretty crystals - even a photo spot to capture all the community members she met. Kudos!

Click the link to mint: https://cyberia.gg/en/

It was great to meet our friend Srink in person, working on a project surrounding the chakras that will include free yoga & mindfulness sessions for NFT holders. Yes please. His NFT’s were beautiful featuring various yoga poses and utopian type planets that represent the different chakras. Twitter handle is @atomofgod

We loved meeting up with the Proxies crew. To talk about the project and learn some of the backgrounds of its cheerleaders. One moderator is also a HS teacher and he created a Web3 club for his students at the school where he works. He mentioned some students are now planning out their Web3 majors - how neat! He's also creating his own project focused on RPG-style gaming community & choose your own adventure story telling. Twitter handle @CosmicCutiesNFT is minting now

We joked we were turning into droids in this picture.

We also made a serendipitous connection with Steve & his wife Angie from Texas, after helping a woman we saw fall & injure herself in the parking lot. We shared in fun, vulnerable & meaningful conversation throughout the weekend. Both investors with exciting ideas for their own project bringing useful utility to the Cardano ecosystem. You can follow their journey on Twitter @steveofw73

They introduced us to Virginia & Jason, who run the XYZ stake pool. Virginia does real estate in Virginia along with fix & flips, so we had lots to talk about. We shared our goals to weave Flower Den & Vow2Save in with DAOs, and we talked about potential options to tie our projects & crowdfunding campaigns in with a stake pool as well. 

Another project we thought was interesting was Faces; it was the first AI art recorded on the Cardano blockchain. He’s currently minting his second run with ‘We the Blinded’, combining famous works of art with masks and blindfolds. Daniel minted one of those in hopes of getting a bonus poster, but no luck - maybe next time! 

Of course we had to stop over to the Nano frames exhibit, because they offer square, round, and mountable digital frame displays that connect with your Cardano wallet, and display your NFT collection. So far, they are the only frame that connects with the Cardano blockchain. Eventually we would like to get one of these in all of the Flower Den Retreats properties, so we can display both digital and fine art. We planned to take one home, but they were out of black frames, so we’ll have to order online. 

The Blockchain education booth was of particular interest - we get so many questions from friends and family about this stuff…and we’re no experts haha! We thought it was a synchronistic partnership they created with the AZ Science Center, and hope to see them in all the science centers across the country someday! Plus the coffee shop they are building is a fabulous non-threatening way to introduce people to blockchain education. They have free downloadable infographics, and you know we’re going to put some of those up in our AirBnB’s. 

All in all our interactions were thought provoking and genuine, which made us love the Cardano community even more. If you’d like to get involved with an NFT project or learn more, join our discord and we can all learn together! 

Cool Vacation Rentals

Smitten over Stillwater & The Commander Grain Elevator

Posted on

Just….WOW! Sometimes this career path is so cool because we get exclusive access to vacation rentals & amazing new listings before anyone else. This was the case with some dear clients in Stillwater, Minnesota; Sally & Bill, who recently put the iconic Commander Grain elevator up for short term rentals on AirBnB. It was an honor & a pleasure they asked for our tips & feedback! 

Stillwater has such a fun downtown with tons of live music, libations, & energy. I was impressed by all the rooftop decks and restaurants with views of the Saint Croix River. Take an adorable trolley or a riverboat cruise, or opt for the trail loop over the river and through the woods into Wisconsin. There’s tons to do and see.

The property itself is unforgettable. Not only is it the focal point of Stillwater’s downtown, it’s a cornerstone of its history. Enter to the sweet smells of grain wafting through the air, and step up into the innovations of Sally’s father, architect Michael McGuire. He kept the charm and original wood walls of the grain silos, yet completely renovated the space for modern day living. The grain elevator was formerly his office, where he designed thoughtful living spaces for thousands.

Local art adorns the walls and the coffee table, and the design is both compelling & comfortable. The space is perfect for a weekend with friends or family offering 2 bedrooms and an upstairs outdoor deck, complete with views of the downtown, famous Stillwater lift bridge, and Saint Croix river. It was great to hear live music from the private deck, and bonus that both bedrooms have river views, too!

Visit this architectural delight in Stillwater, MN designed by Michael McGuire

We walked to a spectacular dinner at Feller restaurant in the Lora Hotel, which is formerly a brewery. Daniel had a banana nut bread old-fashioned, and had to go back for more, LoL. Bill arranged an exclusive tour for us of the caves the brewery used to store the beer in (yes, caves!) and I officially fell in love with this town. Plus there’s Matt’s Basement coffee shop & tea lounge right below the rental – so quick & easy. Make sure to take a stroll & support the local restaurants & shops!

We didn’t get to experience Stillwater’s kayaking or the beaches this time, but we’ll surely be back to this historical gem again.