How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
Hello, my name is Necie and my Wish is to host wellness tea parties and paint/journaling parties and turn this into a business.
Tea and art are more than just hobbies—they’re part of my soul’s ritual for healing, connection, and creativity. Tea offers me a moment of calm in a chaotic world. It’s my daily ceremony of self-care, a quiet invitation to breathe, reflect, and be present. Each cup carries warmth, intention, and a story.
Art, on the other hand, is my voice without words. Through design, color, and creativity, I express emotion, tell stories, and create pieces that uplift, soothe, or inspire. Whether it’s a journal page, a digital print, or a serene tea-themed scene, I pour love into everything I create.
Together, tea and art allow me to blend comfort with creativity—ritual with expression. They are how I nurture both myself and others, offering beauty, peace, and inspiration with every brushstroke and every brew.
Whom I want to serve:
• Women, primarily ages 30–65+
• Often caregivers, older workers, or professionals in transition
• Living with chronic illness (e.g., fibromyalgia, autoimmune conditions)
• Feeling emotionally, spiritually, or physically exhausted
• Seeking hope, healing, and empowerment
• Interested in faith-based, mindful, or creative tools for wellness
What They Crave:
• A sense of calm, purpose, and connection
• Gentle self-care rituals (like tea and art)
• Encouragement and support during career shifts, grief, or health struggles
• Creative outlets: journaling, reflection, art, faith-based printables
• Safe spaces and communities that understand them
I need feedback on getting sponsors and donations of art and tea supplies. Also, my Wish is to develop this community.
Events will be held a local community center quarterly.
Necie, if you have a tea shop in your area (one that sells a variety of teas), ask them to sponsor you. They would either show up and serve tea (while letting your customers know about their teas) or let you use their shop (if it has tables and chairs) and teas for the event.
For art supplies, there are crafts store chains going out of business now or closing stores. You may be able to buy supplies from them at a great discount if you can travel to them.
Hi, Necie.
Your idea sounds wonderful.
One idea for supplies is to find a Reuse store. Where people have given away art supplies, and the Reuse art center is selling it extremely cheaply, because their whole point is to save the environment from paint etc. in a landfill. For example, there is a store called Remainders Creative Reuse in Pasadena, Ca. Looking them up might give you some key words to research places that are near to you.
When you get to the point of having your supplies, and you are looking for participants, I have few ideas for you:
* Meetup, of course. If you create your own group, it will cost you about $200 per year, which is a small amount to spend on marketing.
* You can post events on other people’s Meetup groups, if they are interested in your event. Groups who might be interested might be about:
meditation
spirituality
empowerment
healing
personal growth
creativity
*Groupon: people are definitely looking for fun things to do there, and there is a health and wellness section of Groupon where you can specify that your event is for healing.
*Chiropractors offices. Really, some Chiropractors are into the emotional healing part of wellness, especially those who practice Kinesiology ( I worked in one such office for 10 years.) They may have a place to advertise in their offices. That might be a stretch, but this thought might lead you to other thoughts of the type of places you could collaborate with, and offer you painting events as an amenity to their business. Many such offices also call themselves “Wellness Centers”, so you can look those up to make contacts in their offices, local to you. My office, years ago, periodically held “Wellness Fairs”, where they sampled their various healing modalities, and gave out free treatments. They might allow you to do a presentation there, so people can be aware of what you have to offer.
I hope this gives you some ideas to go for!
A lot of 55 and older living communities ( I mean physical locations where they have housing in a closed community) – have all kinds of activities that their residents can sign up for. Some of these events are available for outsiders to attend. For example I have been to a drum circle held at one of these communities, and they met each week. Some of the members of the drum circle group had been going for years.
This is Awesome because you are absolutely right a lot of these senior facilities look for activities and when I worked with a home health agency’s the doctors whom owned it I traveled extensively with them creating events and experiences.
Totally forgot about it. I am good at planning events for others and need to focus on my needs.
I used to advertise on Meetup for live events and was stalked by a participant husband for months and after that stopped using it out of fear.
I love all ideas shared and have been in a rut since starting a new job that has created so much stress in my life.
Thanks so very much!!!
Necie, another place to find participants might be non-denominational spiritual centers. If you speak to the director, they may allow you to advertise there – especially if you offer an event there, free – except for the price of art supplies, to their members. Or free, if you want to consider the price of paint part of your marketing expenses. Perhaps you could focus on the women’s group.
I also wonder if rehab centers would like to hire you as an amenity to what they are already offering their patients?
And Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous might be interested in advertising for you, because what you are offering sounds like an awesome outlet for someone healing from addiction.
More ideas: I imagine that there might be some sort of art therapy certificate that you can earn through an accredited school, then you can take your expertise and intuition to all kinds of places who would hire you as an art therapist. Rehab centers, mental hospitals, senior living spaces, perhaps places of healing for people who have survived abuse, even prisons.
Dear Necie,
I bet you could do this more than quarterly, if you want. Art supplies? Omigod, you wouldn’t believe the number of places that are closing their doors in these hard times. Hopefully, you live close enough to (or perhaps in) a metropolitan area that you can get to them. A big craft store just closed here in my city, called Hobby Lobby. Nothing left of it. And it’s been around for a long time. How to make the art supplies affordable: Right away, set up what I call a “slush fund.” Into this separate fund, you deposit 10% of any and every form of income that crosses your palm, no matter how big or small, and you do this First and Foremost, before you even pay the rent! I mean this! You’ll be surprised at how fast this fund grows.
Go to a tearoom and create a partnership with them, in which you help them advertise and promote any specialty teas that they may have, and they help you by providing space for your events. You may even be able to convince them to carry some of your more medicinal or unusual teas that they don’t have. And, this sounds so lovely, so wonderful, that I really do think it merits having it a lot more often than quarterly. More like monthly at the very minimum. One artist I have known who started some seminars involving art and encouraging women’s creativity became so popular that in short order, she had to sign women up for her workshops well in advance, and she wound up doing things with them weekly for 8 week sessions. You are very right to imagine that women are craving this stuff. I think they really are! It just sounds beautiful to me. Even if I’m not an artist, by a long shot. But don’t try to have it at a community center. Go to the venue that matches what you do. And make a deal with them. I bet they’ll love it too, instead of seeing it as competition. You want to arrange a kind of an “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” proposition, and I think they’d go for it! It might really help put them on the map!
More brainstorming: There are support groups for new female entrepreneurs on Meetup, and probably other places to get you started in your business.
Plus there are networking and referral groups to join, such as BNI. There are a lot of them. In the past, their structure was “if you scratch my back, Ill scratch yours” with regards to referrals; where they would tell their business contacts about your business and refer them to you, while you did the same for them. Perhaps there are structures that are different, where they can introduce you to other people in related fields who can share ideas or provide further contacts for you to make.
Your business model also reminds me of somatic therapy, since it involves taking action for a therapeutic effect. You may want to do an “informational interview” with a somatic therapist, to ask how their business came to fruition and what they had to go through to become successful. They may even want to collaborate with you, and refer patients or clients.