Wednesday, July 27, 2011

And More Progress.....

I'm a little late in posting these.  I went back in Monday and put in another nine hour day of painting.  It's far from done, but at least there is color on the walls!  (I know...it looks a little like mint chocolate chip ice cream at the moment, but I do have a plan!)



The floors seem to be giving us more trouble than anything.  We found cement underneath the carpet, which is actually great, but the carpet was glued to the cement, so we need to remove all the adhesive.  That job definitely falls into Arnie's department, as it involves nasty chemicals and I tend to be a clumsy gal!  :)

I thought it might be nice if I actually posted a cake picture or two as well.  Just in case you thought I forgot how to do that!  :)  Cake and cookies for one of my best customers, Beth....



And last but certainly not least, my customer Amy sent me this photo.  I did cupcakes for her a couple of weeks ago, and she always comes up with the greatest ways to display them.  She made this adorable cake stand to put them on.  Isn't it great?!


Okay, well, for me its back to work.  I have paperwork to file and walls to paint.  :) 

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Good Days Work!

So, I haven't posted any pictures of the inside of the building yet, and that's definitely for a reason!  This is what we started with at 8 o'clock this morning:




Obviously, one of the first things we wanted to get rid of was the paint!  So, after 9 hours and LOTS of primer (we can now strongly recommend Valspar brand from Lowes!), we have primer on everything and no more carpet.  Now the fun will begin tomorrow, when I can start painting our final colors!



I have a feeling we're in for some loooong days of labor!  But I'm so excited to get going!  It's hard to believe that we only signed the lease two days ago!!!!

Friday, July 22, 2011

It's Official!

Our new retail location will be located at 20 H South State Street, Westerville, OH!!!!!!  The lease is signed, the electric is on....now begins the construction and painting!  We are hoping (desperately) to be open by the end of August or September 1st at the latest, barring any unforseen problems. 

We plan to offer a variety of cupcakes, cookies and small cakes available on a daily basis, along with special order custom cakes like we currently do. 

I will definitely keep the blog updated on our progress.  You won't want to miss the Grand Opening....free cupcakes for all!!!!!  :)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Fantastic News!!!

We are moving to Westerville, to a retail location!!!  We have thought about opening a storefront for quite some time, but we finally found the perfect location.  We'll be located in Uptown Westerville (the old downtown area) on S. State Street.  We'll spend most of August remodeling and getting ready to open, but I'll keep the blog updated with opening dates. 

Wish us luck!!!!  :)

Saturday, July 16, 2011

What a great week!

Isn't it nice when you can say you had a great week at work?!  That's definitely what I had.  My orders this week were all so much fun to work on.  AND - we found a great retail location in Westerville that we are sooo excited about!  It's not 100% yet - we have to check on some zoning issues - but if that works out, we'll be going retail!!!!

My first order for this week was for a great customer, Amy.  She always comes up with such fun things for her sons' birthdays.  The hats on these were made out of white chocolate, so they are totally edible.


I also had an order for Emily's 14th birthday.  She's a big fan of the Cake Boss, so I'm hoping that I managed to live up to her expectations.  The cheetah print is hand painted.


This one still needs to be delivered, so I'm hoping Kimberly doesn't pop on here.  She's probably too busy getting ready for the party anyways!  :) 


And cookies to match...


Have a great weekend, everyone!  And check back often for updates on the shop.  You know how much I love posting pics.  If it's a go, I'll definitely take "in progress" pictures as we remodel! 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Farmers Market

Okay, I still have two bakeries to post, but I thought I'd take a break and actually post something that we made! 

Our farmers market on Tuesday went really well.  It was VERY hot, but my tent wasn't trying to blow away, no freak storms moved in, no rain.  :)  I was a little behind in getting ready, so my oldest daughter Tessa came over to help.  She got a crash course in icing cupcakes and I was shocked and impressed with how great they came out!


We also introduced our new Cake Cups.  They are simply cake cut into chunks with icing in between the layers.  However, when Tes and I started working on them, she came up with ideas for different flavors, like Cookies N' Cream or Smores.  Now the wheels are turning.  I think Banana Split would be a cool flavor and this morning, my hubby suggested Strawberry Shortcake.  So who knows what we'll end up bringing next week!


And of course, our cookies from last week!



Don't forget - the Hilliard Farmers Market is every Tuesday from 4pm to 7pm...rain or shine!  :)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Bakery Tour - Chattanooga Cupcakes - my 2nd favorite!

This was my 2nd favorite cupcake place we visited in Chattanooga.  It's almost unheard of, but we actually went back for more cupcakes from this place.  The location helps....it's a quick walk from our boat, across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  If I haven't mentioned the pedestrian bridge yet, it's one of my very favorite features of Chattanooga.  I've always loved bridges anyways, but this is the longest pedestrian bridge in the country.  Here's a shot of it from the downtown side of the river.  You can see the Delta Queen docked underneath it, which is where we like to stay. 


Another shot of what the bridge looks like.  I took this picture for my mom, who actually introduced me to Chattanooga.  The crowd of people coming towards us is headed to the park to set up to watch the fireworks (which we got to watch from the deck of the boat, lucky us!).


Okay, one more for Mom.  This shot was taken on the pedestrian bridge, looking down into Coolidge Park, where everyone set up to watch the fireworks.  And you can see my boat, the Delta Queen, off to the left.  People started setting up tents and roping of their sections at like 10am. 


On to Chattanooga Cupcakes.  So we left our boat, walked across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  This is the side of the building, and I got so excited when I saw their adorable logo, that I never took a pic of the front.  Go figure.


And here's a close up of that adorable logo.  I just love how the cupcakes replace the two o's.  So cute!


And when we walked in, I was in heaven.  Honestly, it was a little bright for my tastes, but this was one happy, friendly cupcake place! 




The seating area was really cute as well.  Everywhere you looked there were cupcakes...pictures, knick knacks on the ledges....everywhere!





The quality of their cupcakes blew me away.  And get this...the strawberry cupcake actually had strawberries in it!!!  The peach cobbler cupcake (Arnie's favorite)...it had peaches in it!  I know that should be normal, but its quite often not the case in alot of places we've visited.  My only complaint would be that there is ALOT of icing on those cupcakes, but I had no problem scooping off a bit from the top and enjoying the rest.

A must-do stop if you happen to be in Chattanooga....

Friday, July 8, 2011

All Aboard!

Just in case you were wondering if we did anything other than visit bakeries on our vacation, here's the proof that yes, we did.  On Saturday, we took the Tennessee Railroad from Chattanooga to Chickamauga, GA.  It was about a 2-1/2 hour train ride each way, with an hour and a half layover to check out the small town of Chickamauga. 



We had really high hopes for the train ride.  It sounded like soooo much fun.  Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as well as we expected.  First, we stopped for an hour for them to fix one of the women's bathrooms.  It seemed a bit unnecessary, as there were other restrooms available and they could've worked on it while we were stopped in GA.  Add to that too many unhappy children and unpleasant scenery, and it just wasn't what we had anticipated.  However, when we're on vacation, we try to keep a good attitude, so we definitely didn't let it ruin our day.

Once we stopped in Chickamauga, we decided to find some lunch.  We ate at a barbecue place (my hubby LOVES barbecue..we ate alot of it on vacation, which is a fair trade off for all the bakery stops!).  The food was really fantastic.  I loved my smoked chicken, and we also had fried green tomatoes that were the best I've ever had.  And it was a really cute place too.


And then, on to the bakeries!  :)  The first place I was really excited about...it was called Cakes & Coffee.  I only took one picture of the cute outside, as when we walked in, we realized it was more of a gift shop than anything else.  They did have one full cake, a few cupcakes, and a pot of homemade coffee, but that was it.  Not much of a cake shop.


Luckily, across the street was a place called the Chocolate Cafe.  How could anybody resist going in there?  Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the outside, but the inside was exactly what I have always pictured my own shop would look like.  It had beautiful brick walls and hardwood floors.  In the backroom, there was a large fireplace and an outdoor patio. 





Cute, right?  Almost exactly what I would look for in a shop.  While I really like the "cute" cupcake shops, I'm always drawn to the more natural elements, like brick and wood. 

From here, we made the two hour train ride back to Chattanooga, giving a huge sigh of relief as we exited the train!  :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Bakery Tour - The Bread Basket

On our first full day in Chattanooga, we headed up the mountain to Signal Mountain.  My friend Sandie owns a cookie shop, so we stopped in there to say hello, then headed to The Bread Basket.  What a cool place!  The outside is incredibly beautiful.  (LOL..there's my hubby again, being dragged to another bakery!)


On our way down, we stopped at a cheese farm, did the tour, and bought some cheese varieties, so we definitely needed some bread to go with it.  The interior of the shop was just as beautiful as the outside.  The staff was friendly, and the bread was delicious!






I love the wicker rack they have with the different mini breads.  I would love to find something like that for the farmers market, so let me know if you happen to come across one!

'Til tomorrow....

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Bakery Tour - Whipped Cupcakes

This is an adorable little bakery.  And the best part is, it's located right by the Delta Queen, which is the steamboat we like to stay on when we're in Chattanooga, so its within walking distance.   Well, most things are within walking distance for us when we're on vacation...that seems to be about all we do! 


They have a very cute seating area with this huge foam core cupcake on the wall.  And I love the hanging tissue paper balls.


My poor husband...he is SUCH a patient man.  When I got home and uploaded pictures, I realized that he's in a bunch of them, always ordering for me, so that I can look around.  I'm lucky he's such an amazing travel companion!  :)


The bakery case is pretty cute too.  They have plastic trays that have the perfect size circle cut into them so that the cupcakes stay nice and don't fall over.



Stop in tomorrow for another tour.  I think I have like five more to post.  I haven't been on a scale, but I'm assuming I need to start dieting off the cupcakes!!!  :)