Grand Openings are a Great Time to Party!

     Hi Friends! It's been a while since I've posted and I'm very sorry for that. A LOT has happened since my last post, and that is why I have been so negligent of this blog. So, I'm going to start by writing a long overdue post about our grand opening and all the people we want to thank.

Sean and I grinning ear to ear during our grand opening.

 
  The big news is that we finally opened our shop at the Beginning of November. We soft opened on the 3rd and we had our official Grand Opening on the 6th. We celebrated by inviting our neighbors in for a cookies and milk party. We provided the cookies, the milk and a fun cake and our neighbors supplied the excitement. We were so thrilled to see so many families in our shop. People seemed to really enjoy the ambience and many of them treated themselves to some of our baked goods. It was a really great night!

Our customers seemed excited about our milk and cookies party.

  We followed up that party with our "Friends and Family" party the next evening when we had a private shindig with all those wonderful people who helped us along the way and kept our spirits up when it felt like we would never get it all done! I think we filled the shop past capacity, but it was a great group of people. We are really so lucky to have so many terrific people in our lives!
 
   With that in mind, I want to thank all the remarkable folks who helped make this happen. Thank you first and foremost to our parents. David, Kelley, Skip, and Dorothy, we absolutely would not have this shop without your support, your guidance and your overall fabulous parenting! Jamie, Katie, Alexis and Brian, you guys are phenomenal siblings, thanks for being there for us, you're the best!
 

Cake cutting is no longer just for
weddings. This is the second time
we "cut the cake."

     Next up, we have to thank the creative team that made the physical space of our shop into a reality. Val and Trudy at Ennis Nehez, your amazing eye for design, your quick problem solving skills, and your excitement for our project helped us envision a space more fabulous than we could ever dream up. Jonathan and your team with Duck Rabbit turned this shop into a beautiful reality that functions. I can't tell you all how many compliments we get on the way our shop looks and feels every day, it's really amazing. You turned our vague descriptions of our aesthetic into something real and breathtaking. Ingrid, thank you for being such a fantastic, patient building owner. We hope to be your tenants for a long, long time. Thank you to our neighbors for putting up with our construction, the noise, dust and traffic.

Tuba Dan entertaining our guests.

  Ben, Katie, Jesse, Jessie and Josh, thank you guys for helping us with some of the smaller, but super important elements of our logo design and branding elements. Ben and Katie, the logo is magnificent! Jesse and Jessie the wood-working is pitch-perfect!  Josh, the window signs are great and thank you for supplying us with your adobe software expertise! Susannah, thank you for helping us get the shop up and running. We could not have opened without your help. Our first week would not have been nearly as successful without your skills and eye for detail.  Dan "Tuba Dan" Nosheny, thank you for providing perfect accordion accompaniment for our opening party.
 

Nothing says "party" like balloons.

     We want to thank all of our mentors. Thank you Alex, Amy, Peri, Maureen, Kate, Susannah, Katie, and all the other wonderful decorators I have worked with. Your talent and artistry inspired me to work harder and become a better decorator. To the wonderful ladies at John and Kira's, Angela, Lorraine, Corrine, Heather and Megan, you showed me how fun work can be, even when your exhausted! To the crew at Culinart and Compass, thanks for teaching me the value of hard work and attention to detail. You set a great example for me to follow and taught me how to work as part of a team. Thank you all. Amy and John, Thank you for being great mentors to me and helping me hone in on how I envision myself as a business owner, even if I still don't really think of myself as one.
 
  Thank you to all of our friends who have been keeping up with our progress, either in person or via social media. It's so great to have your "likes" and well wishes to come home to each day. We miss you and if you are ever in Philly, come visit us. Also, thank you so much to those of you who don't know us, but have come by the shop to see what we're about. We are so grateful for your support, and I hope we can surpass your expectations!

     We've been very very busy keeping our shop up and running. I will try to write another post soon, but I'm not going to make any promises about when. In the meantime, stop in and say "Hello!"