How can you increase the impact of your charitable donations without increasing the amount you give? By letting us help. Northern Piedmont Community Foundation multiplies the impact of your charitable giving by putting your money to work with smart investments. When you set up a fund with NPCF, every dollar is transformed into both positive change in your community and financial benefits for you and your family. Planned Giving Make gifts on your own timetable, either outright or through a deferred estate gift. NPCF will provide all required tax documentation, as well as providing you with an annual report. We would be happy to work with you and your professional advisor to structure your gift. Fund Management NPCF administers a wide variety of funds, including donor advised funds and scholarships. We’ll work together to help you decide how you want to give.
No matter who you are or how much philanthropic experience you have, NPCF can help turn your individual donations into a community legacy. Contact us to get started.
At Cupcakes and Lace, It’s Sew Perfect By Carina Elgin
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simple sign that reads “Learn to Sew” sits on the left heading east on Route 50 in historic Aldie, below a cheerful white and tan Victorian house. Venture on to the charming wrap-around porch, climb up the stairs, and discover a world very far removed from the brawny boxes of steel horseshoes, “nippers” and rasps of the main floor shop, the Mid-Atlantic Farrier Supply.
Mrs. K, also known as Devon O’Neal Kukis.
The multiple rooms on the second floor are the home of Cupcakes and Lace Craft and Sewing Studio, brimming with purple and pink work stations, punctuated with unicorns and American Girl dolls. While young men are always welcome, this is undeniably the perfect habitat for creative young ladies. Cupcakes and Lace is the brainchild and passion of Devon O’Neal Kukis, known to her students as Mrs. K. After growing up in Northern Virginia, she headed to New York City to attend a major fashion college, and started Cupcakes and Lace during her summer vacations. After graduation, she moved back to the area and, in 2017, she found the studio space in Aldie and opened a business with the goal of helping young girls learn imagination, focus, perseverance, resourcefulness and more, through sewing. Devon thanks her beloved grandmother for teaching her to sew at the age of 8. “Grandma” is now 94, living in Wisconsin and Texas, still sewing doll clothes for neighborhood kids and small craft fairs. “She gave me my first doll when I was a little girl and taught me how to sew doll clothes,” Devon said. “I was hooked on dolls and sewing ever since. My studio offers lots of doll classes where the girls love to make mini items for their dolls or teddy bears. So the doll love lives on!” Additionally, Cupcakes and Lace offers Covid-careful private or twoperson sewing lessons, with a machine or by hand. Devon continues to offer summer camps, birthday parties and Girl Scout Badge projects, as well as selling sewing kits that can be delivered locally for free. (Coming soon: nationwide shipping as great gifts for grandkids!) Members of Aldie’s Waldron family are enthusiastic regulars. Busy mom, Brooke, executive director of the Sprout Therapeutic Riding Center, said her children “have loved working through the processes of creating, from planning, to design, to the work and even wearing their cool creations. “As a working mom and business owner, I’ve appreciated that they offer programs on days when school is out and I have to work. I know they are happy, busy and learning great skills.” Daughter Linleigh, 12, added, “There are stations where you get to work on your own creations. They have endless supplies and there is always a theme but you can personalize your work. I like to add my own ideas and be creative. I feel successful there because I get to try new things.” Her younger sister Avery, 10, said, “The teachers are good at explaining things and they come up with fun ideas that I’ve never tried before. It was nice to have all the supplies right there and someone to show me each step. When I’m done with my projects I feel accomplished and proud of what I created.”
540.349.0631 • jbwilson@npcf.org www.npcf.org 52
There’s no doubt that what Grandma passed to Mrs. K, and Mrs. K now passes on to many young people through sewing, are memories and skills that will last a lifetime. For more information on Cupcakes and Lace, including a video studio tour, go to www.cupcakesandlace.com.
MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABLE COMMITTEE| Winter 2022
