Meet the Mascots
Welcome to meet the mascots! Here I will show you the back story to three of them. Which are Lomita, Jack & Mike!
Backstory to: Nopalita Lomita {No-pa-li-ta, Lo-mi-ta}
Before the launch of my rebranding new image, I wanted a style that represents my image or aesthetic.
It was simple, I wanted to show that I’m proud to be Californian, also Mexican. Having a favoritism to the design of the Californian
Flag, I wanted to insert something from the design of the Mexican Coat of Arms or the symbol in the Mexican Flag.
And so, I use the Nopal, or Prickly Pear as one of the symbols. Named her Lomita for the sake of rhyming the word “Nopalita”. Which means a feminine prickly pear.
She has the expression {:3} or called Coy smile expression {in anime its to represent cat “expression or face”} to show her cuteness. She also has a bright Pink Diya styled bow on top of her. She occasionally has eye lashes.
Backstory to: Cactus Jack
Cactus Jack or Jack came into the scene after creating Mike {the llama}. In the course of still listening to The Monkees, I went the Nesmith Route. Since he was my favorite Member out of the three, I decided to listen to his Solo work, or his band after the departure of The Monkees. In the 1970s he founded the First National Band, and listening to a couple songs I ended up loving the taste.
This is where the song Texas Morning from the Nevada Fighter Album by The First National Band comes along.
Click here to listen in Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTsNmzxOLts
But Checking them out in the lyrics here:
Right in the middle of the ten-cent scenery
Shuffled and stacked on a postcard rack
There's a cute little girl with a shetland pony
She smiles at me but I can't smile back
Cactus Jack drinks coffee black
And tells me it's my lucky day
Five o'clock in the Texas morning
And I've come a long, long way
Five o'clock in the Texas morning
I've come a long, long way
This was a chill song that I stumbled upon while listening to this album, and hearing the name Cactus Jack sounded like a nice ring in the tune. So I’ve decided to just “borrow” the name and turn it into a symbol or “mascot” of an actual cactus plant with two "arms", sunglasses {To show he's very chill} and yellow cowboy hat. I mean he doesn't talk, he's just...sitting there…
But yes, Cactus Jack was created to join Lomita so she won't be alone.
Backstory to the name: The Californian Llama
It started with one of my favorite animals, the llama / alpaca. During the beginning years of my small business, I was into watching a 1960s Television show: The Monkees. A certain episode called “The Monkees Paw '' involved a magician losing his job due the the monkees popularity and actually taking his job at a restaurant. While the magician was packing his belongings one of the members Micky found a monkey's paw, the magician states that he got it from a llama in the high mountains of Tibet to find the Secrets unknowns of Tibet. However he was "gifted" this monkey's paw that grants him three wishes. Then a scene plays where Micky is the young magician and Mike is the llama. {Mike Nesmith is my favorite Monkee} A reenactment of the magician telling his tale of receiving “the Monkey’s Paw” Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRmxWZUbTOw
When watching that scene I loved the style of Mike being called as the regular llama with a robe, or sort of Yukata. Then it hit me of making my shop similar to my style but with a llama as the logo.
Taking Mike's Regular Llama character and making it into my “Mascot” Which is now a purple llama with a green wool hat. My llama is actually named Mike and surely inspired by Mike and his character the Regular llama.
And So! As this business was found her in my favorite home state and having Mike on the Californian style flag, there the Californian Llama was created. .... was BIRTHED!
