Meet Natalie Stewart | Jewelry Designer and Goodie Bag Queen

For several years I have always made goodie bags or baskets for people. Whether it was for a birthday party, a Christmas gift for multiple family members, or for someone that was going to get multiple items packaged in one. It was something I always took a lot of time on – the number of items from different stores and the way to present it. I noticed that a lot of people did not have the time or the patience to do make goodie bags nor did they even know what to gift. So I decided to take that responsibility off their hands and took my time and effort to do it for them. This is when my company came to life. My idea was to offer my services to people that had or needed to come up with a theme, had a quantity they needed, and a budget per bag that they wanted to spend. From there, I would take care of the rest. Once I completed the purchases, I put everything together, take a photo and send to client to make sure they are happy with the product, and pick up or delivery is arranged!

Ever since I was young, I have always been into art and design. My mother was a strong influence growing up because she was always so fashionable and dressed to the tee. In high school, I decided to attend Texas Tech University for Apparel Design and Manufacturing as they had an amazing program and reputation and I wanted to stay in Texas. My sophomore year of college, my mother was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer and was fading very quickly. I wanted to drop out of school to care for her but she made me promise to stay in school, graduate, and move to Los Angeles to pursue my career in fashion. Sadly she passed away but I did everything I promised I would. I moved to LA once I graduated to work for a contemporary women’s designer but only stayed for about two years. I moved back home to Houston and worked in an unrelated field for a few years and realized how much I missed design. I decided to get back into it but instead of apparel design, I taught myself how to make jewelry and started a jewelry line in 2012, The Hightower Collection. Hightower was my maiden name and my jewelry is a collection of bracelets, necklaces, and earrings with stones I hand pick from suppliers all over the world. I am still designing jewelry to this day but wanted to have an even more creative outlet with other materials. Which is why I started The Goodie Bag Queen because it allows me to use my creativity and visions for all of my projects. I am proud that I have kept my jewelry business alive for over eleven years and I intend to continue putting hard work in both of my businesses. I love to help people and if I can take one thing off their plate or give them a piece of jewelry that they wear forever, that is the goal! I know my mom would be so proud that I became an entrepreneur and followed my dreams.

Houston is known for their food and growing art scene. We live in the Montrose area and are surrounded by so many amazing restaurants, bars, and the largest museum in the US, The Museum of Fine Arts. It has one of the best collections of American decorative art and always has different exhibitions that are always worth checking out. Definitely would visit El Tiempo or Escalantes for Mexican cuisine, Kata Robata or MF Sushi, and the River Oaks District has great restaurants and bar scenes like Toulouse, Le Colonial, and fantastic shopping. Brasserie 19 and A’Bouzy are also great to mingle and have dinner and drinks. Minute Maid park is another place to go to watch our Astros play baseball and would definitely have so much fun as its a very exciting place to see fans and people watch.