Village Living
| February 2011 |
www.VillageLivingOnline.com
neighborly news & entertainment for Mountain Brook
V2V race results -pg 13
Sports -pg 12
Volume 1 | Issue 11 | February 2011
Local ladies inspired to start businesses By Laura Canterbury Got that entrepreneurial spirit? You aren’t alone. In fact, two out of three teenagers who completed last year’s Junior Achievement Poll said they hope to start their own business one day. But it takes more than a good idea and a desire to be your own boss and to launch a successful venture. Just ask three local women. Tracy Joyce, Amy Morse and Lucy Gaede are all their own boss. The businesses they own and run started in their homes in Mountain Brook. “I do prefer working out of my home,” said Tracy Joyce, owner of Little Lavender, an online consignment boutique. “I can pull and pack orders before my kids get up in the morning or while they are doing their homework. I can take Amy Morse of amyelizabeth Collections with some of her pieces. a break from work and take care of other household duties. It is however, Lavender while her husband, Tommy, was said. “Moms dressed their children in nicer harder at times because you do not know away on a fishing trip. She went to UAB’s clothing to go to day school. I thought they where to draw the line and call it a day small business center to develop a business could consign their children’s clothing and plan. make a little return on what they bought from work.” “I knew the area I lived in,” Joyce the clothing for. I also thought other Joyce came up with the idea for Little
February Features • Editor’s Note
4
• City Council Recap
4
• Restaurant Showcase
5
• Business Spotlight
6
• King Cakes
7
• Village Fashion
8 10
• Village Sports
12
• Auburn Fans at BCS
13
• Kari Kampakis
14
• Brooke Wilkerson
15
• School House
16
• Calendar of Events
18
Pre-Sort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Birmingham, AL Permit #656
• Valentine’s Gift Guide
moms would love to purchase fine clothing at a great discount,” Amy Morse, owner and creator of amyelizabeth Collections, a custom jewelry design business, caters to women of all types, ages and lifestyles. Morse thinks designing her jewelry and working from home is easier. She likes that her customers can benefit from the more flexible office hours. “Retail is part of my DNA. People say that I am right-brained and creatively dominant,” Morse said. “A boutique business was only natural considering my creative genes, love for jewelry and work history. Each client is as unique as a piece of jewelry I make. I combine individuality and design in each one of a kind piece.” Lucy Gaede also enjoys making one of a kind pieces. The Lu-C shirts are a big hit with children and adults and to think where it all started. “My favorite white shirt had a stain on it so I took a pair of white jeans that did not fit anymore and cut strips and sewed
See ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, PAGE 19
Chamber luncheon to feature the “Yella Fella” By Rick Watson Jimmy Rane, CEO of Great Southern Wood and a philanthropist better known as the “Yella Fella,” accepts only a fraction of the invitations for speaking engagements he receives. “It has to be something really special for me,” he said. The Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Award Luncheon on Feb. 17 fits that bill. Rane will be the featured speaker of the luncheon themed “Brighter Days Ahead.” Rane, head of his own education foundation and a trustee for Auburn University, likes what he sees in local schools. “The Mountain Brook school system is doing something right, and they could serve as a model for other communities,” he said. It is his concern and passion for education that led Rane to establish the Jimmy Rane Foundation, whose mission is to send young people to college. In the 10 years since the foundation was established, 150 students it supported have graduated. “They’ve gone to Harvard, Princeton, Auburn, Alabama, Wallace State, Old Miss, or anywhere they want to go,” Rane said. “All they have to do is keep their grades up and behave themselves and we’ll pay their way.” Several of the scholarship winners
Jimmy Rane said Mountain Brook schools can serve as a model for other communities.
have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, and into other professional fields. “We have some real success stories,” he said. Rane said he is excited to come back to Mountain Brook and share some of his ideas for Alabama’s future with local businesses. “I think the best is yet to come for Alabama businesses,” he said. Rane took a small retail company,
selling treated fence posts and other lumber to local farmers in Abbeville, and turned it into an industry-leading wood preservative manufacturer with more than 600 employees in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida and Texas. “When you go from nowhere to
See Yella Fella, PAGE 9
Show your frown lines some LOVE!
February Special... Dysport® Savings
$4 per unit PLUS $50 mail in rebate
Jenny O. Sobera, MD
2901 Cahaba Road • www.villagedermatology.net • 877-9773