The pandemic inspired Chavez’s at-home business

 

Aurelia Chavez is the athletics administrative assistant for Socorro High School.

What do you do for a living?

I am the athletics administrative assistant and I own a small business.

What’s your small business?

Car candy freshies, I sell car fresheners.

How did you get started with that?

I saw it a lot on Facebook and Instagram and it’s getting really popular and I wanted something to do during Covid. I bought all of the supplies and it just blew up from there.

What do you make the air fresheners out of?

It’s called aroma beads. Kind of like orbies but they’re a lot more dense. You add fragrance oil and bake them. It’s a long process but they’re really neat.

What’s the best part of that process?

Probably hanging out with my mom. I make her go do it with me so I’m not alone.

Do you have a favorite scent?

Probably Amazon, it’s like a sweet fruity. It’s really good.

So you were just bored during the pandemic?

Yeah. Me and my sister had actually started it, but she’s back in nursing school now. Once pandemic hit, I said well we’re bored at home, so might as well order some craft supplies and that’s what we did. We’ve been doing it since.

Do you do a lot of other crafting?

Yeah, I’ve kind of dipped my toes in everything. I have a sublimation machine. I’ve got a cricket.  I mean everybody has a cricket now.

What’s a sublimation machine?

It presses the ink into the fabric of the shirt. If you get a shirt, like this is sublimated on in the fabric so you can’t feel it.

What’s a cricket?

It’s like a sticker cutter.

Have you been crafty your whole life or is this something you just picked up?

I have been, I’ve just never really bought all the product to do it. Then kind of jumped in all at once.

So your other job, what’s it like to be the athletics assistant?

It’s very chaotic at times. Athletics is nuts. But I love it. It keeps me on my toes. It keeps me working all day. I love being able to have the insight into everything that’s going on. Our boys are going here, our boys are going there, we’ve exceeded to the next level. So, it’s very nice to kind of do all that and hear everything from the inside.

What do you do for fun when you’re not working?

I have a 2-year-old son, so me and my fiancé do a lot of running around parks, taking him everywhere. Our world kind of revolves around him when I’m not working.

How long have you lived in Socorro?

My whole life. I’ve been here forever.

What made you want to stay?

My family, all of my family’s here. We moved for a little bit and then didn’t like Albuquerque, it’s way to big for us and then came back. I think this is where we’ll be.

What is your favorite part of living in Socorro?

The people. Everybody knows everybody but everybody is very kind and everybody’s good people here.

If there was anything you could change about Socorro what would it be?

I wish we had more for our youth. I would add more to do here for our younger kids. There’s not much to do here besides every park in town. I think that would be nice.