Grand Opening!
So, it's been over a month since we've written a blog post...oops! It's been busy busy busy so I'm going to break this up into a couple of blogs to try and keep it from being a novel.
September 28th was the day of the Fall Festival in the Bowman Town Square and the day of Grand Opening of Callie's Creations and Sugar Station. It was a perfect day! My family drove hours to come support us, the town embraced us, and it was amazing to see the Square so full of life and laughter!
One thing to note about T.J. and my relationship...it's ALWAYS an adventure! Things typically don't work out the exactly the way we foresee them but we laugh it off and chalk it up to being a part of our adventure. It seems to be the theme of our marriage. Opening day was no exception to that theme. It was HOT...in the 90's hot with good old Georgia humidity. We're still camping on Shady Acres and decide the air conditioned shop seemed a much better place to sleep than having first impressions being hot, sweaty, and smelly. We set up our cots behind my desk, close the curtains, and get some rest for the big day. Half in a sleepy daze the next morning, I grab my morning pick-me-up and go sit out back so I don't wake T.J. up. As I'm sitting out there and slowly waking up I'm realizing there sure is a lot of activity going on to be so early. I look at my watch now that I'm more awake and realize it's an hour later than I thought. Of COURSE we wake up an hour later than we wanted! I run inside to wake T.J. up by yelling "Babe! It's 8:30!!" The festival starts at 9:00! Cue panic mode. We rush to put the cots and bedding up by shoving in the bathroom/storage area. No time for fixing hair and makeup, I throw my hair in a ponytail, change and do what I can to get ready. Not exactly as presentable as I planned but I roll with it.
It's 9:00 am, the Square is packed, time to unlock the door to the public for the first time. I look out front and realize the stage is blocking our area of parking and everything is set up to the right of where Sugar Station and Callie's Creations is. Uh-oh, this is not good! T.J. is freaking out, when he freaks, I have to be the voice of reason (and vice versa when I freak out,) it's called balancing each other out. I reassure him, it will all work out and things will be fine. In my head I'm freaking out just as much! It's a VERY slow start but they start making announcements about our shops and people start trickling in. Thank goodness! As the afternoon progresses, my family gets there and the shop is busy. I'm getting orders left and right and am meeting some amazing people! I love this place!
At one point, I'm taking an order, and look up to see a guy walking to the shop and everyone freaking out. I know Clay Page from American Idol is from Elberton and is performing at the Fall Festival. Now, I don't watch TV (no time!) and haven't watched American Idol in years but I realized this must be him. He walks straight into MY shop and compliments my stuff, so cool! He goes to perform and I don't get a chance to talk to him until after he performs. I walk back into the shop after talking to the fam out front to see T.J. and Clay talking. T.J. has an uncanny ability to talk to absolutely anyone, musicians especially. (Sidenote: T.J. has amazing talent when it comes to music, click here and here to hear for yourself) Clay is an awesome laid back guy!
September 28th was the day of the Fall Festival in the Bowman Town Square and the day of Grand Opening of Callie's Creations and Sugar Station. It was a perfect day! My family drove hours to come support us, the town embraced us, and it was amazing to see the Square so full of life and laughter!
L to R: Our daughter Addison, my Mom, Torrie, my grandfather Leigh (Papa to me), my aunt Paige, my great-aunt Sandra (DoDo to me), my grandmother Jacquie (Mackie to me) and that's me in the center. Maddox and T.J. were off doing something I'm sure
One thing to note about T.J. and my relationship...it's ALWAYS an adventure! Things typically don't work out the exactly the way we foresee them but we laugh it off and chalk it up to being a part of our adventure. It seems to be the theme of our marriage. Opening day was no exception to that theme. It was HOT...in the 90's hot with good old Georgia humidity. We're still camping on Shady Acres and decide the air conditioned shop seemed a much better place to sleep than having first impressions being hot, sweaty, and smelly. We set up our cots behind my desk, close the curtains, and get some rest for the big day. Half in a sleepy daze the next morning, I grab my morning pick-me-up and go sit out back so I don't wake T.J. up. As I'm sitting out there and slowly waking up I'm realizing there sure is a lot of activity going on to be so early. I look at my watch now that I'm more awake and realize it's an hour later than I thought. Of COURSE we wake up an hour later than we wanted! I run inside to wake T.J. up by yelling "Babe! It's 8:30!!" The festival starts at 9:00! Cue panic mode. We rush to put the cots and bedding up by shoving in the bathroom/storage area. No time for fixing hair and makeup, I throw my hair in a ponytail, change and do what I can to get ready. Not exactly as presentable as I planned but I roll with it.
It's 9:00 am, the Square is packed, time to unlock the door to the public for the first time. I look out front and realize the stage is blocking our area of parking and everything is set up to the right of where Sugar Station and Callie's Creations is. Uh-oh, this is not good! T.J. is freaking out, when he freaks, I have to be the voice of reason (and vice versa when I freak out,) it's called balancing each other out. I reassure him, it will all work out and things will be fine. In my head I'm freaking out just as much! It's a VERY slow start but they start making announcements about our shops and people start trickling in. Thank goodness! As the afternoon progresses, my family gets there and the shop is busy. I'm getting orders left and right and am meeting some amazing people! I love this place!
At one point, I'm taking an order, and look up to see a guy walking to the shop and everyone freaking out. I know Clay Page from American Idol is from Elberton and is performing at the Fall Festival. Now, I don't watch TV (no time!) and haven't watched American Idol in years but I realized this must be him. He walks straight into MY shop and compliments my stuff, so cool! He goes to perform and I don't get a chance to talk to him until after he performs. I walk back into the shop after talking to the fam out front to see T.J. and Clay talking. T.J. has an uncanny ability to talk to absolutely anyone, musicians especially. (Sidenote: T.J. has amazing talent when it comes to music, click here and here to hear for yourself) Clay is an awesome laid back guy!
I snuck a picture, sorry Clay!
The rest of the afternoon went off without a hitch and hubby and I were commenting how much we loved Bowman. We met more awesome people in the seven hours of the festival than we've met in the seven YEARS we've lived in our neighborhood in Alpharetta. It definitely solidified our desire to make Bowman our full time residence in a couple of years!
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