economy

The making of The Bluebird Cafe is officially on hold. With the economy the way it is, our little town just would not support a new business like ours and we have to think long term. Right now we just can leave our secure jobs for one that may or may not take us into the next year.
BUT that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. I FINALLY learned to use my sewing machine and so I have been making some things with that. Aidyn's birthday was last week and we went to the park for the day - not just any old park but Dan Nicholas park. She had a blast. Her birthday party is taking place tomorrow at Monkey Joe's and then we're having a cookout here. Lots of fun to be had and I'll post lots of pictures of all of this craziness when it's all over. Did I mention I'm having a yard sale the morning of her party-->dummy.

surprise!!

I had to post a couple of pics from the party!!! My mom was SUPER surprised and it was a lot of fun...

her oh-my-gosh-,-no-you-didn't face the presentation of the cake

view from afar um, yeah, that's all I've got for now! More later when we've actually gotten on that business plan.

stand still

*sigh* Things are at a stand still for us. I have started a class at UNCC to finish up my teaching license and Michelle has gone back to work after her vacation. Everything has just kind of fallen to the wayside to make room for all of the birthdays, anniversaries, vacations and various other summer activities that make it hard to get ANYTHING done, let alone start a business. We have a great template for our business plan and so really we just need to get on it. We also need to create the survey to find out what the downtown business people are looking for. If you have any suggestions for questions, please feel free to comment them!

The past few weeks for me have been spent creating small memories for Aidyn - the neighborhood 4th of July parade, buying a fish, finding out the fish has an anchorworm, removal of the anchorworm, family coming to visit, snuggling with Ouidy (aka Louis), and various other shenanigans.

July 4th:Our nephew, WesMaura, the niece and Kelli, the Sister-in-law (we all miss them!!)Aidyn and Louis snugglin'

Just... hanging out, eating applejacks with a fork...Pearl, after the anchorworm removal:"How did I get here? Where are my pants? Is it raining?"

Today I am working on my Mom's 50th Birthday SURPRISE party (don't worry, she never reads this thing) and it's tonight. I just made the cake (well the actual cake is from Harris Teeter) and decorated it with fondant gerber daisies. I"ll try to remember to post more pics after the party. And, last thing, tomorrow Bryson and I are going white water rafting at the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte. I"ve been about 3 times now and I would recommend it to anyone who lives in the area and loves a little day adventure. Hope to have some pics from that too. Okay, that's all for now. Hopefully I"ll post again before the month is up... Mom's birthday cake (I have really cute, striped candles too)The real daisies (just in case there was any confusion :)Artwork that I've done for my screenprinting class:

shop owners outting

So Michelle and Michelle have just concluded The Bluebird Cafe's first annual shop owners outting. It was held at Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina and it was maaaaaaaaaaahvalous to say the least! : ) Actually, Michelle and Steven went on THEIR family vaca and invited us for the weekend. Last minute of course and OF COURSE we went. The weather was PeRfEcT and on Sunday night we were sad to say goodbye.
We arrived late Friday night and hit the sheets pretty quickly and woke up Saturday morn super early and super ready for the sand and surf. The sun was shining the wind was winding and the water was cool and ... watery. Miss Aidyn was lathered in SPF 50 and then MIchelle and MIchelle promptly got burned. We had lots of good food that night and then went out for icecream at Calabash Creamery. This morning we woke up a little later and went to breakfast at Victoria's. The scenery was vera vera nice, as we were seated next to three handsome firefighters. Then we went back and changed into our suits and headed back down to the water. once again, it was perfect and we stayed until lunch. While Aidyn napped, M & M went to check out some local shops (most were closed since it was sunday). When we got back, Bryson and I packed up and we all headed down to Holden Beach to a personal dining favorite: The Provision Co. ProCo is a little dive and it doesn't look like much but the food is sooooooooooo good, no great, no fan TASTIC. Everyone had the shrimp burger on my recommendation and no one was disappointed. The view of the ICW is great and the breeze was blowing juuust right - it would make you feel like you were in Baby Bear's spot at the table. We wrapped things up and had hugs and kisses all around and then headed home.
Michelle and Steve will be back at the end of the week and she will have all of the pictures from the glorious weekend. For now, you can re-read this post and maybe even drag out the memories of your own favorite vacations. Until then... Happy Week of the Fourth!

destination: bluebird cafe

so, i promised that i would stop by and get a picture of the potential location that is at the top of our list. Remember, the inside is still in renovation mode.

There she is... in all her glory. Let's look at her insides:

There are stained glass windows above the door under the awning.

It's hard to see, but that's the interior.

one more shot (she's next to Ethel's Uniform Boutique and the soon-to-be-opening Health Nutz.)

It all started with a sheet of notebook paper...

Help Us!!!

So Michelle and I have a meeting scheduled with the Director of the Business Center at Stanly Community College on Thursday. We have some questions written down to ask her but we would LOVE to have other's input and find those questions that we haven't thought to ask. So PLEASE comment or email us with your suggestions. And not only with potential questions but also any suggestions and ideas for starting a business in general. I can promise you that any help will be greatly appreciated. I have worked with children and art my entire life so I have no "business sense". And Michelle was a sales rep for a smoothie company so she only knows that side of it. We are continuing to move forward with this idea and dream because it is something that we would really love to do. Therefore, we would like to do it RIGHT so that we can do it for a long time!
We have also found a building that we both really like (love, it's perfect, just perfect!) to start our shop. I'll try to get over there and take a pic of it to post here soon. It's with in walking or biking distance and there is space above and below it for us to expand or invite another business to join us. It's currently being renovated but we are such suckers for an old building and we just see the potential seeping out of the century old windows. It's obviously not a sure thing... nothing is right now, but it's definitely at the top of the list!
That's all for now. Once again, please leave suggestions for us for our meeting on Thursday and we'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks : )

First Purchase

Hello Readers!


Last week Michelle and I made our first purchase toward The Bluebird Cafe. We found it on the Stanly County Schools SwapNShop and the lady was only asking TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS!!!! With a little TLC and a lot of spray paint, it will be sparkly-new in no time.

Another purchase that is more for inspiration is a bluebird necklace that I bought after taking that Praxis in Greensboro. I found it at Sister's on Tate St., a local favorite from my college years.

On a happy side note I discovered this evening that my Bells of Ireland had some blooms on them. I"ll share!

on FIRE!

so, I am on FIRE with this blogging thing. This is what, like 2 posts in as many days? That is definitely a new record. So I changed things up a bit and created our beautiful header with the help of http://www.dafont.com/ and it got me PUMPED. Michelle and I are going to be meeting with a professor of business soon to discuss our ideas and hopefully pick her brain. Other than that, not much else going on. Aidyn and I tried to go to the movies for the first time in her life today and she made it through about an hour before we had to pack up an leave. I guess that's pretty good as she's not really a sit down and be quiet kind of girl. Also, here are some pictures of our activities from last night and this morning: Aidyn's new top hat!
In her own world...
I can't get enough of these beautiful hydrangeas!

well, that's all for now. Michelle and I plan on getting together tonight to do our first dual post where we will share our first purchase toward our future cafe! Stay tuned.

boredathome

so I am home for the summer and it has been an interesting one so far. well, interesting for me anyway. My dream of opening a cafe is getting closer. we are gathering information and we always get excited when we discuss it. When I say we, I mean my business partner, Michelle and I. I took my Praxis 2 this past Saturday at UNCG and it was so stressful and I am still stressed because it will take "appoximately 4 weeks to receive your scores." The night before I took the Praxis I went and had sushi in Mooresville at a place called Joel's. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! AWESOMEEEE!!!! we had an oyster roll, salmon tempura roll, and a nirvana roll and let me tell you it WAS nirvana, in my mouth and belly. It just doesn't get much better than that. The night was a little marred by my anxiety over the test the next day but it's over now and I have a new sushi place to go! here's the website if your interest is piqued: http://www.joelsgrill.com/
The big excitement of my day thus far is the adoption of a monkey. Aidyn and I decided to adopt a cyberpet and we chose a monkey because that's her favorite stuffed animal and we named him after the stuffed one also: Bandaid!!! Bandaid loves bananas, just like Aidyn and so please feel free to grab one from the lower right hand corner of his home and make HIS day!

So, this is my second blog = that's one more than I ever did before. I guess what they say is true: set your expectations low and you're less likely to be disappointed. ;) not my business motto!!!