Meet Kayla Serota | Entrepreneur, Full Time Student, & Creative Mind

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kayla Serota and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kayla, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born and raised North West of Houston in a small town named Plantersville, Texas. I was raised for the majority by my single mother and grandparents. I believe that being brought up surrounded by my grandparents who were creative, artistic, and imaginative thinkers led me to think outside the box and have such a motivation for being creative. My grandfather was known as a ‘dreamer’ and was a core puzzle piece for creating who I am today. He taught me how to build things out of scratch, use my imagination, and explore different hobbies. My grandfather was an extraordinary carpenter and built a playground from donated material for my cousin and I to play in when we were kids. This gave us opportunities to play ‘kitchen’, ‘school’, and many more games we came up with.

My grandparents made it a priority to teach me skills that I was never taught in school. He knew that school was more focused on numbers and information. I was always given a space to be creative and be productive. I rarely came home after school and watched tv, this being because we never had cable and that I had too many options for doing things outside or in my grandfather’s workshop. I was a constant help to my grandfather’s projects around the house and learned side by side with him how to do many things most people in their 30s & 40s don’t know how to do. I grew up with freedom and trust from my grandparents and believe that is why I was able to do the things I wanted.

Anytime I would have a school project that included making something, I knew that I would go home and brainstorm some crazy idea. My grandfather’s shop consisted of stained glass, woodworking, train figurines, hundreds of antiques, every tool you could think of, and ongoing ideas. By the age of 6 I had learned how to use a drill press, table saw, riding mower, air compressor, homemade crane machine, and tractor. My grandmother played into my upbringing just as much, teaching me how to bake & cook, sew by hand, garden, clean, and even paint. My grandparents were the reason I became creative.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The art I create can not be categorized in one topic. I have multiple hobbies and create multiple things. I run a small western accessories boutique online, leather work, work with vinyl material, custom paint, and design jewelry.

I created The Babe Cave Boutique Texas in 2020 while being stuck at home for the pandemic and had a goal of having a full online shop that offered affordable products. I found the inspiration for starting this after seeing my addiction for online shopping rise during the pandemic. Being on lockdown meant multiple hours of sitting at home watching Netflix shows, scrolling on Pinterest, and digging through my arts and craft supplies. Without having a job and just entering my freshman year of college during 2020 I had a lot of free time on my hands. I began to get frustrated with myself spending money on things that were way to expensive and wanting the next best thing. I figured there had to be a solution and started brainstorming. After making multiple mistakes with website designing, purchasing wholesale, and starting projects that I would not profit off of, I finally got the swing of things. Starting at the age of 10, I worked for a jeweler at the Texas Renaissance Festival and got to work hand in hand with seeing how a small business was ran. I use many techniques today that I learned while working at TRF. I have made multiple mistakes with The Babe Cave Boutique Texas, as in trying to add too many niches to one website, overbuying product, creating things that weren’t considered ‘trendy’, and even setting up a website using a phony POS system. Getting to where I am today took many nights of doubt and not sleeping for hope that I would find a solution to be the next best thing. My days were spent with brainstorming, researching, and finding ways to grow a small business.
I began attending Pop Up Shops and my first set up was a complete disaster. My displays were being knocked over by large gushes of wind, my product was low quality, none of my branding matched, and I was set up at a location that had little to no customers. After each event and investing money into these markets, I eventually found ways to set up properly, make sales, and gain customers.

After my grandfather passed I inherited all of his leather working tools and started teaching myself how to tool leather. My passion for leather working grew shortly after falling in love with western fashion. I constantly watched YouTube and TikTok videos wanting to learn leather work correctly. I am still learning techniques to help improve my work. Looking back at my first leather project to my most recent can show my improvement from only researching about the trade.

You can also find me working vigorously on my iPad or MacBook to design the perfect cuts for vinyl projects. I started working with vinyl after working for a professional cookie decorator who taught me the in and outs of her Silhouette Vinyl Cutting Machine. I was able to learn from her all the things I could do with this machine and shortly after begged my mother for one as a birthday gift. After setting up the machine I went down a long rabbit hole of making tumblr cups, t-shirts, graduation caps, stickers, etc. Having a machine like this makes my creativity flourish. I find myself with so many ideas and projects and wanting to do them all at once.

Along with all of these hobbies you will occasionally find me painting ceramic and canvases or beading designing pieces of jewelry. My creative spirit never goes to waste with my collection of supplies and workspace I have.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Places to eat: 1. Velvet Taco
2. Pink’s Pizza
3. Bloom & Bee
4. Secret Garden
5. Traveler’s Table
6. The Toasted Coconut
7. The Rustic
8. Mendocino Farms
9. Rise N*2
10. City Orchard

Places to see:
1. Area 52
2. Beer Can House
3. Gerald D Hines Waterwall Park
4. Pavement – Modern & Recycled Fashion
5. Discovery Green
6. Mad Hatter tea Party Sculpture – Evelyn’s Park
7. Downtown Houston
8. POST Market
9. Wall Murals Within Houston
10. The Orange Show

Things to experience:
1. The Showboat Drive In Theater
2. Seismique
3. Color Factory
4. Cockrell Butterfly Center
5. Miller Outdoor Theater
6. Saint Arnold Brewing Company
7. Truck Yard
8. Museum District
9. 19th Street – Heights
10. Houston Rodeo

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many very special people in my life that deserve recognition and credit for helping me build my character. Joseph Babcock, Michelle Babcock, and Mona Babcock all had great impacts on teaching me how to live a creative life. Joseph Babcock was my grandfather and lifetime best friend, Michelle Babcock is my artistic and devoted traveling mother and Mona Babcock is my grandmother, well known to our family as mormor ‘Mormor’. My grandfather Joe was a dreaming artist and creative carpenter, ship-builder, and legend to most. I believe that he is the reason why I have grown up to be super resourceful and known for having a creative imagination. my mother deserves credit for funding most of my hobbies, and always going out of her way to make sure that I got to travel the world at such a young age. Having the ability to travel extensively, while being young, allowed me to see different cultures, appreciate all kinds of people, art styles, and see other types of creatives across the globe. Mormor is widely recognized in my life for giving me the space and freedom to be myself. My grandmother is always a listening ear and has never hesitated to help me accomplish my dreams. I believe this is a huge reason for why I have been able to successfully work on different art projects and succeed at creating impressive things. Overall, I owe a huge thank you to each of them for the opportunities. I was given during my childhood and the advantage to learn things that most kids were not taught.

Website: https://thebabecaveboutiquetx.square.site/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebabecavetx/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-serota-358570189

Facebook: Kayla Serota