FOREVER AFTER WEDDING

June 2020

Debbie Fontaine

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Pâtissier Icon Makes City Much Sweeter plus

Engagement Ring Buyer's Guide and

Wedding Cake Make your Statement

The journey of love marriage family

Engagement ring buyer’s guide

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Know all the specs. Buying an engagement ring means being armed with a lot of knowledge. In addition to shape, there are the four Cs to consider. Take time to learn about each of the four Cs so you can make an informed decision.

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rides and grooms may pour over every detail of their weddings, but few components of the festivities may be as fun, especially for foodies, as deciding what the wedding cake will look like.

edding planning often begins moments after couples get engaged.

Shopping for an engagement ring can be both nerve-wracking and exciting. But there are ways to make the process go as smoothly as possible. ¥ Listen carefully anytime jewelry is discussed. It is also perfectly fine to ask for your future spouse’s input, particularly if you’ve already spoken about marriage.

Have a good idea on the shape of the stone. All gemstones need to be cut in particular ways so that they reflect light and sparkle. Stones are also cut in specific shapes that provide the overall form of the stone. These include round, princess, emerald, oval, marquise, and pear, among others.

Wedding cake: Make your statement

A rising trend in cakes is to cover a white or naked cake with translucent glaze tinted in the couple’s wedding colors.

Statement tiers also are popular. Couples set the cake apart with elaborate designs

Find a jeweler with whom you feel comfortable and believe you will get the best value for your money.

Jewelers often do whatever is necessary to make their customers happy, so don’t be afraid to ask for customization. Engagement ring buyers may also want to consider gemstones other than diamonds. When shoppers are prepared, the engagement ring-buying process much easier.

Hand-painted tiles on a cake are another way to add panache.

Sometimes a statement comes by way of texture. An allwhite cake can be dressed up with ruffles, lace, embossing, and 3-D rosettes cake designs. ¥ Couples may opt for darker hues on their cakes and even a black tier.

Statement cakes can really say something about the couple getting married.

JEWELRY

BartlettFineJewelry.com The Village Shopping Center 2002 Judson Road, Suite 101 Longview, Texas 75605 (903) 758 . 4367

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Debbie Fontaine: Pâtissier Icon Makes Longview Sweeter; Places Faith, Family, and Food first B y J o y c e l y n e F a doj u t i m i

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lthough Debbie Fontaine started out life in West Monroe, Louisiana a family situation sent her to Longview, and here she stays. She and husband Tim Fontaine were married 25 years ago. They met while she was visiting Longview, and now have a twenty-two-year-old daughter, Mykayla, who just graduated from Texas Tech University with a master's degree. Debbie's arrival to Longview, Texas was a blessing both to her and East Texas.

"I was supposed to be passing through Longview on an internal theft investigation. The investigation did not take long after researching the numbers, cover-up, and loss of inventory. Upper management employees were found guilty and let go immediately," she says. "While on assignment in East Texas, my dad had a heart attack in West Monroe. My mom needed me due to my dad having a ten-week fight for his life, which he survived."

Western Merchandisers, who owned the Longview store in question (Hastings,) allowed her to stay on after the management shake-up. She spent the next ten weeks driving back and forth between Longview and West Monroe. Despite being stretched so thinly, she oversaw Hastings so expertly that it commenced turning out record

profits, consequently, Western Merchandisers requested she stay as interim manager. 0She was putting down roots.

Meanwhile, her Tim was a regular customer, coming in frequently to browse among the Dungeons & Dragons games and the comic books.

He invariably gave her his opinions on how she could run the store better, but his motives were far from business-related.

"He asked employees so many questions about me. He knew more about me than I did myself.

Freaky, right?" she says. "Something I did admire was how intelligent he was, and his vocabulary. My gosh, I had to look up words just to understand what he was talking about."

Furthermore, she was not the only one who took note of this promising computer geek. An assistant manager hired him to oversee the Book and Music department. It took Tim two years, but he finally asked Debbie out on a date, which she declined because she did not date employees. She then received a lovely rose bouquet with a card that read, "From someone who cares." Thinking it was from a specific ex-boyfriend she called and thanked her former paramour, who took full credit for the gift. A couple days later employees corrected her misconception, and told her Tim sent the flowers.

Rolling out Longview Sesquicentennial Cake designed by Edible Art

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Dessert Bar

She thanked him but stuck to her guns...she did not date employees. He figured she was worth giving up his job.

But that is not all.

"He gave his two-weeks' notice. We went on that lunch date, and twenty-five years later Tim is still a nerd, a geek and one of the most intelligent men I know," she says. "Tim is the foundation of our family, the best father, the greatest supporter, and the best friend a Cajun girl turned Texan could ever have dreamed of."

Debbie credits her late parents, Rock and Charlotte Robinson, for steering her onto her profitable life's journey. Charlotte was only sixteen when she gave birth to Debbie, but she took the responsibilities of parenthood seriously. She taught her daughter to be independent, courageous and to never shrink from a challenge, telling her, "You can do anything when you believe."

"Ovarian cancer took her a few years ago," Debbie says. "I will forever be grateful she was here to enjoy Mykayla and see Edible Art established."

She describes stepfather Rock Robinson as a "gentle giant" who married into the family of this "untrusting, angry and lost kid." His powerful Christian faith was a great influence, and he encouraged her to associate with people who struck her as positive role models whom she would like to be like, and to stay away from "negative folks who always complain without [offering] solutions."

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My second year in college a counsellor encouraged me to leave art and go into business because [otherwise] I would become a starving artist. I listened, did what others wanted for decades. I do wish I could find that counsellor and thank him for steering me into business, but also let him know artists don't have to starve."

- Debbie Fontaine

YOUR FLOORING, LIGHTING, APPLIANCE AND MORE STORE

www.stone-works.net (903) 663-3344 SWIMMING POOLS AND SPAS

By the same token, he was a great example of how striving to be your best is a sure route to success. Also, he carefully respected her wishes on family matters.

"He asked if he could adopt me. I could not believe he actually wanted me. No one else did," she says. "I did not trust enough to say yes, so he patiently waited.

"She watched as her mother responded to Rock's blessed influence, accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Personal Savior. There is more.

"My parents together brought me out of the darkness of being an unwanted, abused child born to a teenaged mother. We overcame challenges as a family and moved forward," she says. "I credit mom and dad for teaching

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Texas Fruit Tray

me all the things I did not want in this life, and the many goals I strive for today."

She cites three major life lessons she learned from her parents: 1. The power of one. You have the power to love yourself and change someone else's destiny.

2. The past does not equal the future. Those who use negative experiences from the past as an excuse why they cannot accomplish their goals today are excuse makers and not dream builders. Negative life experiences are the strongest, most unshakable, rock solid foundation upon which to BUILD your dreams. You must let go of the past. God is waiting to construct your masterpiece.

3. You can do anything when you believe. "This little light of mine! Am gonna let it shine. Let it shine!"

It is important to note, Debbie's first major step into her successful adult life was through education. It was another lesson in self-determination as she majored in business administration at the University of Texas, and a minor in marketing. Her parents had been unable to afford college, but she worked her way through. Aided by a scholastic scholarship from Brookshire's Grocery Company, she toiled at two jobs fifty to seventy hours weekly to pay her tuition. She did not stop here, either.

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In addition, she has taken business courses at Kilgore College, QuickBooks classes, and Wilton Instructor training courses. Every other year she attends educational culinary seminars, workshops, or conventions in order to keep up with constantly changing trends. In 2019, she and her design team journeyed to Las Vegas for the International Baking Industry Exploration. This expo showcases the latest baking technology, and explores equipment, ingredients, supplies, and business solutions.

It is a vital resource for maximizing culinary success. Her present vocation is the successful culmination of the five jobs she has held.

Equally important, at fifteen she started out as a dishwasher/cake decorator at the Brookshire's in Monroe, Louisiana.

Her eleven-year career with Brookshire's brought her to Texas when she transferred to Tyler to help open the company's first bakery operations plant. Her positions with the grocery company were cashier, office cashier, night stocker, grocery manager, and as the company's first-ever female assistant store manager.

"The time at Brookshire's gave me a priceless education on how to run a multi-million-dollar business, and to see your college textbook education come to life," she says.

Correspondingly, while still with Brookshire's she attracted the attention of a corporate headhunter, who hired her for her seven-year stint with Western Merchandisers/Tower Records and Hastings. Her position here came with corporate board meetings, travel, meeting celebrities, researching numbers and management with performance-wrought bonuses. This period taught her the value of well-orchestrated teamworking...how competently led and motivated teams can meet virtually any goals set before them.

"One last thing about this job, other than meeting Garth Brooks, is that it brought me to a place I had never heard of...Longview, Texas," she says.

It was her final fling at corporate America. This was when she met and married her husband and had their daughter.

"I didn't want a daycare to raise her, so I became a stay-at-home mom for five years," she says.

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When new hotels and restaurants were scoping us out for the first time in decades, and asked if we had butchers, line cooks, hostesses, trained culinary management, Longview, Texas was prepared."

– Debbie Fontaine She next tried her hand with Mary Kay Cosmetics, aiming for it to be a part-time job to boost family income while raising Mykala. It turned into something else entirely as her innate skill led to such soaring sales that she won a car, met Mary Kay Ash in person, and became a sales team director.

Although it is no longer her full-time occupation, Dessert Bar she still dabbles profitably and personally in Mary Kay products, but she now has another profession that keeps her busy.

For the past thirteen years she has operated Edible Art Specialty Cakes and Cookies. This is an outgrowth of her love of art...a passion that led her to pull down an associates of arts degree. Her lifelong fascination with art and drawing follows her to this day, but in her younger years she was not sure it could become a profitable vocation.

"My second year in college a counsellor encouraged me to leave art and go into business because [otherwise] I would become a starving artist," she says. "I listened, did what others wanted for decades. I do wish I could find that counsellor and thank him for steering me into business, but also let him know artists don't have to starve."

The notion of pursuing a full-time career in art occurred to Debbie during her stay-at-home period.

At age thirty-three she had had her only child, Mykala,

and was utterly devoted to her daughter. It was this total motherly dedication that steered her to produce beautiful culinary creations. The idea of her business was born when she ordered cake and cookies for her daughter and the name was misspelt plus her disappointment with the color and design. This is the reason why once. her little girl started kindergarten, Debbie determined to commence producing cookies, cakes and pastries that were not only delicious, but beautiful to behold.

"I made it my mission to find a building to open a studio to produce edible art so I could continue to make Mykala my #1 priority," she says. "I never wanted to miss anything throughout her educational years. It worked!"

Again, Debbie knew her latest career would be a challenge. Still, she has what she calls "a fighting passion to survive" in business. It has always led her to not only survive but prosper. She calculates how many cookies she must sell to offset her business expenses. Although she freely admits starting and sustaining her small business has been the hardest work of her careers, she is like so many others who have succeeded in this field...determined to survive and grow through sheer effort and competence.

She also realizes hard physical work will never pay off without equally hard mental effort.

"You never turn your brain off," she says. "Mine is in overdrive all the time."

Disinterested in renting or leasing, she purchased a site for her bakery at 504 West South Street (a former tavern) and transformed it into Edible Art. By owning the property, she is able to use equity for such various aspects of business as expansion, purchasing new equipment, and paying off higher interest rate debit.

Furthermore, since she owns the site, there is no monthly overhead. Business owners who rent or lease their locations are at the mercy of their landlords.

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Above all, community improvements are making her more and more prosperous.

This is a trend she foresees as promising in making Longview an increasingly better place to live, work, and worship.

A community united in accomplishing a goal will indeed live long and prosper.

She cites how when word came out that local police and firefighters were using worn-out unsafe protective vests, local residents conceived of and carried out the Back the Blue campaign, raising $70,000 to purchase safe, new protective gear for firemen and patrolmen.

Similarly, Debbie also notes how the splendid array of dining establishments along Loop 281 came about as a result of how the Longview Economic Development Council teamed with city leaders and various civic organizations to both purchase land for the eateries and to fund Kilgore Junior College's and local high schools' hiring of relevant instructors so that local culinary-minded students can now attend their preferred courses here rather than relocate to campuses in Dallas, Houston, Austin and other distant locales.

"When new hotels and restaurants were scoping us out for the first time in decades, and asked if we had butchers, line cooks, hostesses, trained culinary management, Longview, Texas was prepared," she says.

For Debbie, a typical day is busy, hectic, and fulfilling.

Her dedication to her employees is unmistakable as she strives to diversify, grow and therefore be able to raise salaries. Her business has expanded to the point that with all the emails, phone calls, sundry messages, and website orders she can no longer manage it alone. Her enterprise is a true group-oriented labor of love.

"No one [person] can keep up with all the incoming questions and orders any longer," she says. "It is a team effort to get all avenues of communication answered."

This includes how she trains her workers to interact with customers. She instructs them to treat all customers with respect and consideration but does not tolerate anyone disrespecting her employees. Although they consider themselves artists because of the lovely confections they create, they do not work alone and/or in back rooms like most artists. Debbie realizes Edible Arts'

customers provide her and her staff's paychecks and treats them with according consideration...and expects the same in return. " Yo u d o n o t disrespect, talk down to or just be downright rude to Edible Art Design Team members," she says.

"This team have spent years training as culinary artists and have had to learn customer service."

What she loves most, though, about her calling is how her creations all Longview Sesquicentennial Cake have beautiful stories behind them. Whether it is a marriage, graduation, birth, anniversary, birthday, or some other blessed event every Edible Art cake or cookie is the result of a special occasion. The only aspect of her profession she finds disagreeable is occasionally having to turn down a potential client, generally because they wait too late to make an order, and there is no time to move someone's last-minute request to the front of the line.

"We are not going to short cut other designs that

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have been planned for weeks\ months," she says.

Again, her Christian faith has always been (and remains) the main factor in her life and careers. She prays and reads her father's Bible, banishing fear and temptation from her daily activities. She stays humble, kind and on the straight and narrow by looking to her father's righteous example.

"Some ask themselves, 'What would Jesus do?'" I ask myself, 'What would my rock, my daddy do or say?'"

Hence, her dedication to maintaining a Biblical attitude extends to her interaction with those who have negative personalities. She sees those who are hurting after having a bad day (or maybe a bad year) as needing someone willing to offer a sympathetic ear and perhaps a shoulder to cry on. She realizes that persons who constantly complain, put others down, and put themselves down are suffering.

She keeps her promises to pray for them, and once they have put away their self-pity and bitterness, she invites them to "come run with me." In her, they have a true, Christian friend.

This is reflected in the list of her more recent community

involvement activities.

She has chaired the city's Culinary Arts Advisory Commission, served on the President's Advisory Council at LeTourneau University, on the steering committee of Partners in Prevention, as a Forever Friends mentor, the Kilgore College Culinary Advisory Committee, and the Longview CATE Advisory Committee.

Through these organizations, she seeks to make her

We seek to make Longview a little sweeter. Once we get through the COVID-19 stall, we will move forward to find more sweet opportunities to help our community." – Debbie Fontaine adopted hometown a true bed of roses. Such efforts and dedication are evident despite the restrictions and limitations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We seek to make Longview a little sweeter," she says. "Once we get through the COVID-19 stall, we will move forward to find more sweet opportunities to help our community.�

For these reason she aspires to keep Edible Arts growing both to give the city a sweeter reputation and to create jobs. Last year she purchased and outfitted a mobile commercial food truck that enables her to participate in more community functions. This essentially gives her a second location without the need for buying additional property and kitchen equipment.

Debbie Fontaine's chronicle is a testament to how she used her faith, sterling examples, natural propensity for business and art, and an unflinching work ethic to overcome a difficult childhood and become a pillar of her community. Longview, Texas would be a very diminished place without her.

"With hard work you can make a living following your passion and listening to your heart," she says. "All of us has a little light. Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!"

Hers is blazing.

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