Friday Favorites!

Time for Friday Favorites!

A new feature of my blog: On Fridays, I'll be sharing some of my favorite things with you. Just for fun! And one of my favorite summertime treats is Tomatoes! Love me some 'maters. Nothing says summer like a fresh picked, vine ripened tomato from our little raised bed garden. Unfortunately, this heat has just about killed every living green thing, except for the bugs and worms, so not much of a bountiful harvest this year. I don't even have enough to can up a supply to carry us through the winter. Oh well, I'll enjoy the meager amount we have, and just eat 'em fresh! Yummmm yummmm!!!

One of our favorite ways to eat tomatoes, (other than slicing and salting them) is Bruschetta. I had some at an Italian restaurant recently and the server corrected my pronunciation of "brushetta" by telling me it's actually pronounced "brusketta". Whatever. I just call it delicious!

Simply chop up Roma tomatoes, a good size bunch of basil, one clove of garlic a bit of kosher salt, and a little olive oil or balsamic vinaigrette. (you can even add a bit of red onion to taste) You can serve it with crisp garlic toast like we did here, or actually place it on the toast, top with some parmesan or mozzarella, and pop it in the oven until the cheese has melted. Either way. WOW! A lovely taste of summer.

I use A La Carte Tuscan Roasted Garlic Dip from Willow House to make my Garlic Toast. It's seriously delicious, with huge chunks of roasted garlic throughout. Simply spritz your french bread or baguette with olive oil, sprinkle the Garlic seasoning on top and toast. You might also notice that pretty red appetizer plate. That's the Cinnabar Appetizer Tray, also from Willow House! You can order both of those products (and lots more) from my website!

Hope you try this idea, I'm sure it'll become one of your favorites as well. Please leave a comment, and share one of your favorite things!

Don't Be a Vulture

This whole store closing business has been quite enlightening. I've learned alot about human behaviour. The good and the bad. Mostly bad. And quite a bit of downright funny and foolish. So here's some do's and don't on how to behave as a customer during a "Quitting the Business Sale"

*Don't walk in saying, "What's free? Whatcha giving away?" We would actually still like to make a profit and pay some bills. Don't be a freaking vulture, coming in to pick our bones. Rude.

* Don't make offensive offers on our product. If something's marked $149, a non offensive offer would be, say, $135 or so. Don't come in and offer $99!!! Take it or leave it. We'll leave it , thank you very much. Rude.

* You might want to pay attention to all those GIGANTICALLY HUGE signs that say "Store Closing". So don't come in and ask us to order something, or ask when we'll be getting more in, or ask for a job! Get a clue people!

* Our quantities are limited. Most folks realize that. So don't get all pissy and throw a shoe across the room because we don't have your size. Yep. Some "lady" actually did that the other day. Rude.

* Quit asking why we're closing and say we're your favorite store blalalalalala, when we know you haven't shopped with us in like, 2 years! If we were your favorite, and you had actually shopped, we'd probably still be hanging in there!

And finally, it's okay to wish us well, and hope for the best etc. This whole thing is tough, and we're trying to put a positive spin on it. Your good thoughts mean the world.

Vent over.

Have a nice day!

What a fun waste of time!

I've discovered Pinterest. Granted, I'm a little late to the party, but wow! How I'm enjoying it. I used to find things on the web, and promptly forget what I found and where. But with Pinterest, I can create a virtual bulletin board, and pin the things I see. I'm hoping it will spark my creativity, and not just end up being another time waster. But if that's how it turns out, it's really fun! Want to see my boards and maybe join up yourself? Here ya go!

Andy's Pinterest Boards

And now for a little Happy!

Just thought I'd share some photos from Greg and Sarah's beautiful wedding. What a glorious day for a precious couple.

For more, please go to Ambient 11

Just a few more steps down memory lane...

Our Grand Opening. The result of countless hours of prayer, preparation, sweat and hard work. (Try unloading 10,000 pounds of steel weight off the back end of an eighteen wheeler that doesn't have a lift gate.)

We were: thrilled, excited, elated, terrified, exhausted, and so HAPPY!!

As a side note, most of our original work crew is pictured here. Including Sean Dugan, who somehow ended up with the gigantic scissors to cut the ribbon. Never quite understood how he ended up with that job, but oh well! Nice job Dugan!

There are lots more pictures of us hanging out at the store. This was actually my favorite time, when all four of us worked the business together. Nothing like family in a family business. We had fun, got on each other's nerves, bickered a little bit, but always worked together. I think my kids learned alot about people, business, money and the rewards of hard labor and prayer.

The Beginning of The End...

I've been a less than prolific writer this year. Sooo much going on, which I'll come back and write about later. Right now, our main attraction and focus is the closure of our beloved store. We opened up in 2004, after John retired from Wally World. It's been a bumpy ride for sure, full of ups and downs and stories galore. It's a business decision, but one that breaks our hearts.

For us, it's a loss. A loss of relationships, business and income, identity and the loss of a dream. It's hard. But we're both ready to move on. Sigh...I've been trotting down memory lane, looking at photos of when our dream began, the building of the store, the kids who used to work for us.

They made it fun for us. We employed alot of kids, most of whom were high school or college students. They worked so hard, and I'm proud to say we helped them reach their educational and career goals. They worked hard, but they played hard too. Volleypong anyone? Don't ask, it's a complicated game, and many pairs of sunglasses lost their lives. Our kids have pursued degrees and careers as a nurse, a counselor, a retail manager, a public relations manager, a coach, a theatre teacher, a photographer, and that's just the one's I can remember!

Here's a few more photos from the build out of our store. This first one was the day our sign went up. We were so excited! It had rained and rained and rained. Every thing was delayed, and we thought this day would never come! It was so wonderful to see that sign, because it meant we were almost ready!

That's John, hard at work before we moved into the building. We were so stinking proud! Literally stinking. It was hard, sweaty work! Oh, and did we ever tell you about the time the roof leaked and completely soaked the carpet before we moved in? Yeah, that was awesome.

John and Greg, hanging out at the store. I'm proud of the fact that our kids took as much pride in the store as we did. It was their's too!

That's John, Amanda and Hogan checking out customers. John always called Hogan "The Machine" because she was quick and methodical at the registers. She could sling weights and arrange counters as well or better than any of the guys we had working.

Hogan with our daughter, Amanda. Both of these girls could WORK! So proud of the young ladies they've become. I promise you, every time one of our employees left us for greener pastures, I cried. Every. Single. Time.

That's Kendal and Pugh. Little Pugh. We had Big Pugh when we first opened. (He's one of the one's I cried over) So several year later we hired his little brother. We called them the newbies when they stared and it kind of stuck. They've brought us many hours of laughter! Many. Kendal is one of the finest young photographers in Texarkana. I know she'll go far. Pugh's going to Alabama...we wish him well. John Mark works for us too. He's sneaky though, and I don't have a picture of him right now. I'll try and add one later!