Our names are Nicole and Samantha Vavra and we are the creators and founders of the The Dandelion Collective. We created this collective to be the health and wellness bridge we wish we would have had during our wellness journey.
As children eating well and taking care of our health was integrated into our lifestyle. Our mother, as learned from her mother, cooked almost all of our meals at home. Diner was a special time. We would sit down as a family and enjoy good nutritious food. We would talk about our days and, many times, end up sitting there for hours simply enjoying each others company. Little did we know, these meals were influencing our life paths and igniting our food and wellness passions.
We both have found passions within the wellness world. Nicole focuses on the importance of nutrition and sustainable lifestyle changes. Samantha focuses on healing with nature and removing toxins from our households. Read below to learn more about each of us!
The Collective
More About Nicole:
As I grew up, my life and health took many turns. I have always struggled with digestion and food irritation. Like most Americans, I took the conventional health path and bounced my way around doctors. I was told over and over that they did not know what was wrong. I was diagnosed with IBS and told taking a drug for the rest of my life was the best option. I left those doctors feeling drained, overwhelmed, and angry. I wanted to have a real conversation. I wanted to truly understand and have the space to ask questions about my health. I decided to take my own path.
Along with going to school for nutritional science, I tried everything! Vegan, vegetarian, paleo, pescatarian, etc.. Each provided their own benefits, as well as downsides. But, similar to the doctors, I began to feel drained. Exhausted by the never ending list of diets to try. Maybe keto, maybe carnivore, maybe fasting…? Don’t get me wrong, I love food, but dieting is painful and it began to strip me off my interest. It began to impact my social life and my work life. I was burnt out!
That’s when I found and began to adopt a whole food, ancestral based why of life. Slowly, mindfully, I began to learn. I learned about shopping local, supporting farms, eliminating toxins, fermenting and so much more. I began to form my life around the magic of total wellness. Not just with food, but environment, family, purpose, and self love. Now, everyday I work hard to make decisions that will impact my overall heath in a positive way.
Through this journey came a passion and calling to show others how to start this path. How to face the unknown and go for it. How to make food into a positive, relationship building interaction. My goal is to teach you how to look at health and wellness with excitement and potential.
Life is balance!
Dieting, fasting, and restricting are extremes. While they may work for some individuals, they usually end up tipping the scale. My approach to wellness is about embracing balance and creating a positive mindset around health. You are unique. As your life changes, your habits and lifestyle will as well. I am here to help you develop the skills and education needed to adapt in these times. Sustainability, intertwined with balance, will open your wellness opportunities and give you the power to live a long healthy life. Like a tree your roots, your groundwork, is crucial to supporting you as you continue to grow.
A healthy lifestyle can be FUN! A life filled with wellness is BEAUTIFUL! This is an adventure. Lets explore the wonders, the beauty, the world that exists right outside your door. A world of humble, hard working, and unique humans offering their knowledge and produce that can heal your body and sole.
My goal is to build a community of individuals focused on becoming the best versions of themselves. A community filled with encouragement, resources, and engagement that supports each other, local farms, grocers, small business, and the total wellness of the world. Alone we can heal our own lives, but together we can combine an ancestral way of life with modern wellness to provide the next generations with a solid, well rounded health foundation.
More About Sam
My wellness journey has been quite a roller coaster spanning my entire life. I am very grateful to have been raised by a family who had a general understanding of the holistic world. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood are visiting the health food store with my grandmother and watching her create tinctures and salves that would later heal our family. If I ever had something that was bothering me, my grandmother would have some natural way of healing it. From her cure all healing salve, to comfrey and castor oil packs, there was always an answer for any ailment.
When I began growing up and venturing out into the world, I would go to friend’s houses and see all of these foods I had never tried before. When I was able to drive and have a job all of a sudden I could stop at the convenient places for food. Having my first boyfriend meant many date nights at affordable restaurants. All of these introductions to toxic foods threw my body way out of balance. At that point in my life I didn’t realize why I was gaining weight and why I didn’t feel the greatest even though I was young. I wish this was enough to wake me up, but no.
I had the joy of welcoming my first child into the world in 2016. I wasn’t prepared for what a pregnancy would do to my body; along with a unbalanced relationship my body would be neglected by me for a few more years to come. I had gained tons of weight, my body was in pain, and I was just treading water. I didn’t want that for my life and I didn’t want my son to see me like that anymore. I choose to change my life around, and that’s what I did. I started educating myself on how to become my healthiest self. I shed the old me and replaced her with healthy eating, movement, and all around conscious decisions. I went from feeling crumby to feeling energized and motivated!
The new me brought about a new more fulfilling life. I meet my new partner who has a similar mentality. We welcomed our baby girl in 2023. After my second child was born, I really started going down the rabbit hole. I no longer allow toxic items in our household, from the clothes we wear to the air we breathe. Our bodies are already so exposed to toxins, I want to make sure that we do our best to not add to the already toxin filled world. That included our medicine cabinet. I went back to what my grandmother had started sharing with me when I was younger and I am now creating my own products to heal, protect, and sustain my family and anyone else who needs it!
My sister and I have dedicated our lives to living the purest and happiest way of life and we truly feel so much better. We want to share this way of life with anyone who is curious, we believe that you too will feel the difference of eating intentionally, creating a non-toxic household, and understanding the need for connection with the natural world around us.
Contact us
Interested in working together? Have questions about our services or The Collective?
Send us a message and we will get back to you soon.
We can’t wait to hear from you!