After losing her corporate job just days after earning an MBA, Heidi Yribar found an unexpected path forward in the same place she’d once turned for comfort: hands-on projects with her Aunt Nancy.

Those afternoons spent sewing, baking, gardening and fixing things around the house sparked an idea that would grow into Antsy Nancy, a Tucson business built on teaching people the practical skills they never learned in school.

What started as a way to rebuild her confidence has since become a thriving, first-of-its-kind learning studio helping everyone from kids to professionals try something new and succeed.

Yribar was hoping for a promotion with the global technology firm where she’d been working when she graduated in January 2020, but instead found herself looking for a new job just as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation. Like many others, she went from working full time in an office to being confined to her home without a job or a paycheck.

To help keep her busy and lift her spirits, Yribar’s Aunt Nancy — an active Tucson retiree — visited frequently, bringing tools and materials for projects ranging from sewing and cake decorating to full-scale landscaping and gardening.

Together, they spent four months in Yribar’s yard building a koi pond with a waterfall and planting vegetables, herbs and roses.

“She provided expert instruction, but she made me do it,” Yribar said. “If we were sewing, she'd be like, ‘No, you thread your own bobbin. If you need me to show you how again, I will, but you're doing it.’ And so I actually learned the skill. And I was thinking, you know what? There's a business idea here.”

Ten months later, Antsy Nancy opened its doors, with Yribar teaching “how-to” classes in cooking, baking, arts and crafts, flower arranging, home projects and more — all modeled after the hands-on lessons she learned from her aunt.

“With getting my MBA, if I would have applied it to my previous job in corporate America, it would have been very limited what I was able to utilize,” Yribar said. “But starting my own business, I truly needed every single element of that MBA. The HR, the accounting — I would have never been able to do this without it.”

As snowbirds left for the summer and class registration dipped, Yribar expanded into a new area: children’s summer camp classes, which have grown into her biggest revenue stream.

Her teaching has also stretched across communities. For the past two summers, Yribar has partnered with Pima JTED’s Culinary & Nutritional Arts program, inviting interns to teach and learn alongside her. JTED interns help with kids’ classes, offering lessons in French baking, cake decorating and other foundational kitchen skills.

Yribar recently proctored one of the interns’ exams, and said their talent “blew her mind.”

“Seeing people succeed — it's always my favorite, having them think that they can't do something and then see that they can and be so proud of themselves,” she said. “Just that moment of pride is honestly the same thing circling back to Aunt Nancy, a time in my life where I was so depressed. I didn't have a job, couldn't find a job. And then I did these little projects with her … and I felt so good about myself.”

Antsy Nancy has also expanded into Tucson’s homeschool community after a parent reached out requesting classes as part of their curriculum. For larger daytime groups, Yribar teaches in the kitchens at the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance’s Catalyst Creative Collective, a community arts space in the Tucson Mall.

Local businesses, nonprofits, healthcare organizations and private parties also book her services. Sometimes she teaches groups of up to 100 people — events that require extensive preparation and careful time management.

“You know, there's cooking schools out there, there’s places that do arts and crafts, but there is no one, really, that does what I'm doing,” she said. “The cooking, the baking, the arts and crafts, flower arranging, wreath making. It's a little bit of everything. It's so unique that I had to create a unique business code.”

When new businesses open, they’re registered under Standard Industrial Classification, or SIC, codes, which categorize companies by their primary activity. Because Yribar’s model didn’t fit any existing category, she had to create her own: “educational services, other.”

In 2026, she plans to take her business to the next level with franchising, expanding her vision and opening opportunities for new makers in Tucson and beyond.

“I love what I do,” Yribar said. “I really do think that that makes a difference, in your life and in your careers. It's like if you love what you do, you're passionate about it, you believe in it, other people kind of catch on to that and it makes other people feel inspired and happy to support you.”

Ruby Wray is a journalism and creative writing major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at rubywray@arizona.edu.

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