One Creative Cookie provides gorgeous custom cookies, as delicious as they are beautiful.  They are handmade- to-order with fresh ingredients. Exquisite attention to detail and excellent customer service are the hallmarks of their business.  One Creative Cookie specializes in cookies made specifically for birthdays, baptisms, first communions, teacher appreciation, hostess gifts, holiday gifts, baby showers, wedding showers, engagement parties, weddings.. the possibilities are endless.  The above mentioned are only a few of the opportunities to celebrate with creative, custom cookies.

Kelly Trout, mother to Will (7), Carter (5) and Alex (3), stumbled upon her 2 month old business at the suggestion of a friend.  Kelly had been making these cookies for holidays and birthdays for years and a good friend suggested that she turn her hobby into a business.  After a little research, Kelly found that there was a void in the Charlottesville market for custom cut-out cookies.  Alas, an Entremom is born.

Kelly, a registered architect by trade, finds that her cookie design work is just a new application of her architectural skills.  She also grew up making cut-out cookies with her mother and sister, so this blend of tradition and creativity is both challenging and fun for her.

So how does Kelly juggle her new business and raise 3 boys?  Kelly says that it is not always easy.  Some baking can be done while the boys are awake.  She can mix dough while they eat breakfast, cut and bake while overseeing homework, but the decorating has to be done after the boys are in bed.  Kelly finds that there is something calming about a completely quiet house, blank canvases of cookies and even some of the repetitive tasks of a large order.

Cookies from One Creative Cookie start at $4.50 each.  The cookies are ½” thick and the majority measure at least 4” in their longest dimension.  Their net weight ranges between 1.8 oz. and 2.5 oz.  Every cookie is individually bagged and tied with a coordinating satin ribbon.  If you would like to find out more about One Creative Cookie, please visit their website.

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Dr. Dolly Garnecki

It is my pleasure to announce the C’Ville Entremom of the Year: Dr. Dolly Garnecki. Congrats to you Dolly.. you deserve it for all that you do!

If you don’t know Dr. Dolly, you are truly missing out. Dolly is a mom, a blogger and owner of Spinal Health and Wellness. When she is not running around town with her adorable 2 year old, Calvin, she can be found many places:

1. Working with pregnant and post-natal mothers, babies and children to achieve optimal health and wellness through natural and green chiropractic care.

2. Working with adolescents to mature adults who are interested in a non-invasive and non-bracing approach to treating and often reversing scoliosis.

3. Offering complimentary educational classes for new parents with seminar series Happy Green Baby and Healthy Mama Workshops at venues such as Whole Foods, ACAC’s Pre-Natal Seminars and Rebecca’s Natural Food.

4. Writing on her natural parenting blog: Traveling With Baby. Dolly’s blog shares her journey of the joys and challenges of early motherhood. Traveling With Baby covers topics on health, travel tips with little ones in tow, natural and intentional parenting, product reviews.. all with a few freebies thrown in!

5. Working with and mentoring other local women bloggers as part of C’Ville SheBlogs.

As you can tell, Dolly is an Entremom that does it all!

Dolly was nominated by not only one, but two of her fellow mommy blogging friends: Jennifer Hamlin (Events With Panache) and Elisa Bricker (Elisa B Photography) who recently founded the popular blog, The Bridal Ring. They both described how Dolly does everything with Calvin by her side. According to Jennifer, “Calvin can be found most days by her (Dolly’s) side at her office… Calvin is a part of the daily practice.”

Dolly, thank you for all that you do for Charlottesville, fellow Moms, fellow bloggers and for being an inspiration to all of us.

To show her appreciation to other Entremoms, Dolly has agreed to give her donated item to the Entremom in 2^nd place.  Congratulations Shannon Franklin of Crozet Eye Care. You were a very close competitor!!

I’d also like to thank our panel of judges who helped pick our Entremom of the Year.

Amy Eastlack, Editor SuzySaid.com – Charlottesville Edition

Marijean Jaggers, VP Standing PR and STLWorkingMom.com

Barbara Hutchinson, Executive Director Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport

Allie Pesch of the Crozet Gazette

Ginger Germani, Treasury Management Officer, Virginia National Bank

Terry Karnes, Editor of Daily Progress Magazines

Mary Beth Bowen of MBPR & Marketing

And finally, thank you to all of the great companies that donated prizes for the winner! This couldn’t have happened w/out you!

PS.  When you get a chance.. Check out Dolly’s fabulous Traveling With Baby blog!

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I’ve been working on this project for a couple of weeks now and am so excited to share it with you…  I am searching for the C’Ville Entremom of the Year.  I’m looking for someone who has the gusto and drive to do it all.. Mom, Entrepreneur, Community-Involvement.. you name it.

I will be taking nominations over the next week.  All submissions must be in next Friday (March 26th) at 11:59 AM.  All Entrepreneur Moms in the area can be nominated (by anyone).  I’m open to new as well as active members of the C’Ville Entremom network.

So, how do you nominate someone??  Easy!  Send me an email (angie_brement@hotmail.com) answering the following questions:

Your Name:
What do you do?
Your Email:

Entremom Name:
Company Name:
Company Description:
Why are you nominating this Entremom?  How does she stand out?
How does she give back to the community?
Why is she a great Mom?

We have a great panel of hard-working Moms that are active in the community who will help pick the finalist.  They will remain anonymous at this time and will be revealed once the winner is choosen.

The best part of all of this are the prizes (so graciously donated by other C’Ville Entremoms and other community members.

Prizes include:

3 Studio Art Lessons from Pixie Perfect Creations

A bottle of Virginia Wine from Events With Panache

A pearl and iolite necklace from Leslie Chisholm

A 20 minute health consultation and a stress-relieving cranial therapy from Dr. Dolly Garnecki

A prize pack of Mary Kay pampering beauty items from Kephany Powell

$50 gift certificate from Retail Relay

A gift certificate from Speak! Language Center

A free visit to Skyline Lactation Care

3 free classes at Dance Explosion

A prize pack from Rodan + Fields from Sarah Ferguson

$80 off session fee for Angie Brement Photography

2 hours of personal assistance or errands from C’Ville Concierge

3 months of free button ad advertising on SuzySaid.com 

4 Open Studio visits from Explorations Play Studio

Over $600 in prizes! Good luck everyone and start nominating some great Entremoms!

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Are you tired of paying full price for baby gear that your child will soon be too big for?  How about the clothes that will not fit in 3 months??  Well Entremoms, it is our lucky week.  It’s time again for the Lollipop Shop consignment sale!!

Lollipop Shop opens it’s doors for a week twice a year (Spring and Fall).  It has been a staple for many families in the Charlottesville community for 10 years running.  Lollipop Shop consignment sale features children’s clothing, toys, books, baby equipment, maternity fashions and much, much more.  Consignors price their own items from $2.00 up.  The location of the sale will always vary..  The space is rented 1 month prior to the sale.  (It’s always a good idea to log onto the website for bi-annual sale information:  www.lollipopshop.com.

This year Lollipop Shop opens it’s doors from March 13^th – 21^st and will be located at 1895 Seminole Trail (Route 29N).  This location is across from Chick-Fil-A in the former Bassett Furniture building.

Christy Campbell Wenzel, mother of Alexander (12) and Ashton (11) started Lollipop Shop when her sons were still in diapers.  Christy came up with the idea of Lollipop Shop after accumulating tons of kid stuff once her 2^nd child was born.  She found out that other mothers had the same problem…  mountains of stuff!!!  The Wenzel family did not have family in town to pass their kids’ stuff on to, so Lollipop Shop began. {Wow!  What a service to the community!!}

So how does Christy pull this sale together every year while raising 2 Tween boys??  Christy has tons of help from her husband (and technical guru behind Lollipop Shop), Anthony.  She credits a lot of help from her parents who live close by in Roanoke.  She also says she has the BEST staff of “Kathys”:  Kathy P (Christy’s 2^nd brain) and Kathy M (Christy’s “sister”).  She also credits an amazing group of volunteers and friends that she would have never met without Lollipop Shop.

In her “spare” time, Christy can be found teaching water aerobics and pilates at ACAC or playing classical piano!   What a woman of many talents.

Christy.. thanks for helping those of us in Charlottesville find affordable clothing for 10 years!

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You may have been hearing the buzz about Retail Relay as you pick your kids up from piano, yoga and swim lessons. Fellow mommies are shouting about the joys of online shopping at book clubs (like you have time for reading…) and exercise classes. Are you wondering what, exactly, this whole “Relay” thing is?

As an Entremom, you know what a tough balancing act career and family can be. Yes, you’re driven, but you also care about your family – especially putting quality food on the table. That’s where RetailRelay.com comes in. We’re an online marketplace for 30 of C-ville’s best grocery stores, eclectic restaurants, and local farms on one website! You can shop for your staples — bread, milk, diapers from Reid’s, chewable vitamins from Rebecca’s, local produce from Meadow Run Farm, local free-range chicken from Davis Creek in Lovingston, heat-and-serve soup from Rev. Soup, quick ravioli from Mona Lisa Pasta, and great deals on that rare weekend “date-night” wine from Rio Hill Wine and Gourmet!

Order by midnight and the following day you can pick up your full week’s worth of groceries from one of our conveniently located pick-up spots around town. It’s really that easy. Pick the food YOU want while you’re sitting in your PJs with the kids, we’ll load them straight into your car, you go home, put those PJs back on…that’s it. Sounds too good to be true? Must be exorbitantly expensive…not SO my motivated mommy! The retailers pay US to provide YOU with this convenient service…that means your pack of paper towels is the same price through Relay as it in Reids.

Retail Relay is here to make the life of an Entremom just a little bit easier by providing busy families with quality local food that doesn’t require five trips around town and fights with strollers, buggies and Gushers. Moms often tell us that they actually really enjoy shopping on our site with their kids because they can all sit down together when everyone’s calm and learn about healthy food while planning their meals for the week. Some turn shopping into a learning experience—for the older kids–where exactly does that hamburger come from, for the munchkins—what is a healthy snack?

Relay saves you time, hassle, gas and lets you shop smarter, all while supporting the environment (ah yes, our trucks are bio-fuel powered) and our own community! Ready to give us a try? Type entremom in the coupon box when you check out and get $10 off orders over $50! Thanks for all you high-powered, super moms do!!

~ Cecilia Laseter

Marketing Associate
Retail Relay
www.retailrelay.com
434 242 7979

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In this economy, who doesn’t love a bargain?  Pair it with the opportunity to support a great cause and local businesses and it’s practically a no brainer.  Right now, there is one such great shopping opportunity going on in Charlottesville.  CBI Preschool is in the midst of hosting its annual auction.  Up for auction are hundreds of items donated by local businesses, including some of Charlottesville’s favorite Entremoms!  Click on the link below and check out the great selection of items up for bid.  Items include gift certificates from local restaurants and stores, spa days, sporting, theatre and other event tickets and all sorts of other neat items and unique experiences.  Items will be online until March 9th, after which all remaining items will go up for bid at CBI Preschool’s Annual Wine Tasting & Auction on March 13^th at McGuffy Art Center.  Click on the link below.  You may find a bargain or something you just “can’t live without.”  Happy Bidding!

Click here to start your bidding!!

If you’d like to make a donation to CBI’s auction, they would love to accept it.  Tickets are also available to the Wine Tasting & Auction.  Contact Leza DiBella at leza.dibella@gmail or Sonnia Kesser at sonniakesser@gmail.com to make a donation or for ticket information.

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Speak! Language Center is a full-service language and culture center offering a variety of foreign language classes (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.) for adults and children as well as many cultural or food/wine events and even study abroad opportunities.  Speak! Language Center is known for offering fun, dynamic, culturally based small group (maximum eight) language classes in a beautiful setting. They offer morning and evening classes, custom courses (get a few friends together and start a class of your own), cultural events and enrichment courses, language/culture camps for children, custom after-school programs for area schools and also translation/interpretation services.

Christina Ball, mother of Mila (8), originally started her business in 2004 as Ecco Italy (specializing in Italian language and culture classes). In 2005, she added Spanish to her offering and in 2009 she expanded, moved and opened her newest center, Speak! Christina has a Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature from Yale University and has been teaching Italian for 20 years. When she moved to Charlottesville, she began teaching a continuing education class in Italian for Travelers. It was during this class that she realized how many people out there were in need of inspiring, effective language and culture courses, so in 2004, she began her “dream school.”

So, how does Christina juggle raising Mila and running her own business? Christina says that she will usually work at Speak! in the morning so that she can be with her daughter in the afternoons. She also has 10 language teachers who teach her many class offerings so she can also work at home if needed. Now that she offers after-school classes for children, her daughter can even be with her at Speak! while she learns Spanish or practices her near-fluent Italian.

Speak! Language Center is located in the Glass Building (Downtown – 313 2^nd St. SE, Ste. 109). Prices start at $15/hour for small group lessons.

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What do you get when Entremom & Suzy team up???  A Great Night Out!

C’Ville Entremom and Suzy Said are teaming up for a fun-filled Girl’s Night Out at Jean Theory on the downtown mall. Join us for an evening of retail and wine therapy.

Jean Theory is offering a 15% discount for all guests that attend (Yes! That even includes sale merchandise). Your girlfriend Suzy will be collecting dresses for Cinderella’s Closet, an event sponsored by Monticello High School that provides dresses for low income teens. So dust off those bridesmaid’s dresses, grab a friend and join us for a great evening with friends.

This event is sponsored by Suzy Said and Jean Theory.

Please RSVP so we can get an accurate head count for refreshments.  You can RSVP to me via email or on our Facebook invitation page.

Date:  February 18th, 2010

Where:  Jean Theory  110 4th Street NE, Charlottesville, VA

Time:  7:00 – 9:oo PM

Please note: The store will not be open to the public during this private, 21 and over event for C’ville Entremom and SuzySaid readers.

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