Aviator Jayne: A Dream become a Reality

Another birthday has come and gone, and there’s nothing that makes me reflect more than celebrating another trip around the sun. I have so much to be grateful for - my family, my health, my community. And Aviator Jayne is certainly high on that list as well. I am beyond blessed to be able to wake up every day and live my dream, and share it with all of you!

Now I know some of you might be new here and might not know how Aviator Jayne came to be. Likewise for those of you who have been with us since the beginning, I wanted to share my heart about what Aviator Jayne means to me and the dreams I have for it in the future.

My passion for home styling started when I was around nine or ten years old. I loved rearranging my room every week and “decorating” my parents’ home regularly. It brought me great joy to make spaces beautiful. That passion only grew through the years. I started to refurbish furniture out of my garage, and I liked to collect vintage home decor and art work as a hobby. I did all of these things for fun in my spare time.

But my passion for becoming a business owner had also started to grow around the time I graduated high school. I had an overwhelming desire to open a shop of some sort - a place I could be creative and build my own business. I used to drive around and park in front of abandoned buildings, praying, dreaming, and imagining renovating it and bringing it to life once again.

Not until I got married in 2016 did I take the leap into business ownership. My husband, Nick, was born and raised in Owosso and is a small business owner himself. After our wedding, I moved to Owosso and my life was a clean slate. No job, new friends. And I found myself dreaming again about owning my own shop. I brought the idea to Nick, who was immediately excited and supportive of my idea.

It was never really a question about what kind of shop I would open. I wanted something focused on home styling, hunting for vintage goods and finding a purpose for them, flipping furniture, taking old things and making them beautiful and useful again. I envisioned a shop that would be a mix of new and vintage goods.

As with anything in life, it’s important to start with your “why”. As my dream of this business began to materialize, Nick and I spent a lot of time talking about the “why” behind it. We talked through why “home” is important and what it meant to us. What we realized is that at the end of the day, we love our homes because of WHO is there. We both loved our homes growing up because of our families who molded and shaped who we are today. We wanted to honor them through the business name. And that’s how “Aviator Jayne” came to be.

Aviation is a big part of both Nick and my upbringing. Both of our dads are pilots. Our dads both flew out of the same airport for many years, not knowing that someday they’d be related. That’s the “Aviator” part. “Jayne” is a family name on both sides of our families as well. The name, Aviator Jayne, is our way of honoring those who gave us this love of home today.

And it’s that love of home that we try to share with each of you. Whether you visit the shop for an afternoon of shopping, an event in our Loft space, or one of our workshops, we hope more than anything you leave uplifted and inspired for your own home. Over the past few years, I’ve been so honored to provide consulting and home styling services to help others bring their visions for their own homes and businesses to life. These weren’t parts of the business I initially envisioned. But any good dream continues to grow and change as we make it a reality.

We also have some exciting new things in the works at Aviator Jayne! Stay tuned for an announcement soon.

Our heart and overarching goal for Aviator Jayne remains the same. We want to impact people’s homes. And we believe anything old, run down, or abandoned can be restored and be made useful and loved again. Whether it’s a piece of art from the 1920s, a piece of furniture, someone’s home, or an entire building. We love restoration!

So watch for more exciting things to come from Aviator Jayne, and thanks for being part of the journey.

Love,

Mandy