Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Lobby Revived

So much for the relaxing weekend. Inspration came in the form of a film and as a result my lobby has received a revival. We opened the front counter by taking out the drink cooler and it was as if someone had cut celophane away from my tightly wrapped body. I spent most of yesterday running up front and greeting customers and walking right through to the lobby. Amazing!!! I also tore down all the seemingly self-absorbant information about us and our bread off the community board and plastered it with pictures of the crew and regulars. Ahhh...refreshing!

Another great add to the lobby is some pictures from a lovely regular. www.tollipop.com We are proudly displaying some of her work on the wall in our kids area. I think Roby has snuck into a few of the pics...he he! To be hung this week!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Anniversary Party

Hosted a great Anniversary party at the bakery. Can't believe it has been one year, my how time flies. Nice to have mom in town to help host the party. Alli & Karen were in town and stopped by for the party. Can't believe we have been friends for 14 years...was college really that long ago?




Whirlwind finally winding down

Mom was here for almost 3 weeks. It is amazing the relationship that we have being 41 years apart. As though we were sisters in a former life. Julie & Paul came for 5 days and it was so nice to also see that not only am I sisters with my oldest sister, but we are great friends. We shared good conversation and good food nightly until they left. As nice as family is we are happy to be sharing time home alone again. The long weekend is here and I can hardly believe that we have 3 days off.
Spent Friday with the Heller's & Sarah R. Love those guys. Can't wait to post some of the pics. Buddy the Elf was out in rare mullet form.

Yesterday we watched a movie “Stranger than Fiction” and started to cry when I saw the bakery pictured in the film. It looked so homey, so inviting so “REAL”. I know Kevin & I go back and forth on this but I really feel like our lobby is so sterile and organized my creative side is literally choked out of it. It doesn’t encompass who we are or what I want the bakery to be. While we are both very anal on keeping production spotless and meticulously organized, I feel our public space really needs to be more inviting.

Step one, I know needs to be the drink cooler…and opening up the front counter.
I have also been considering having a regular paint a mural in the kids area (www.tollipop.com ) and ditching the furniture for some mixed & matched comfy pieces of furniture from a hotel liquidation place.
I am torn though because we invoke a certain feeling by having the glossy stained concrete floors and beautiful marble countertop…do I totally screw up the “look” by making it more homey feeling?
Our community board for example is anything but a community board. It is a select group of clippings about us and the bakery and how we bake bread and what we put into it….it has virtually noting about our customers or our community other than the occasional perfectly placed ad for the local art walk or jazz festival.

Today I feel like going in there and just tearing down the walls and throwing flour all over the walls and plastering the community board with pictures of our regulars. Am I crazy?????