The first was the Crescent Moon brunch at The River Room in downtown Wilmington. Crescent Moon is a fabulous art glass store located in the Cotton Exchange in Wilmington. All the glass artwork in the store is handcrafted, most, if not all by local glass craftspeople. The store is owned by Joan and Mike Loch, proprietors since 2007. I also learned today that the Loch's moved to a house in Wilmington last year after living on a 45-foot boat on the Cape Fear River for five years! That's pretty cool.
What isn't cool is that with all the photos I took while we were at the brunch today I neglected to get a shot of Joan and Mike - who were our exceedingly warm and gracious hostess and host.
The event was held in Ray Baca's great venue (which also opened in 2009) The River Room at 18 S. Water Street.
Gayle Tabor and Jenn Beddoe of Glynne Soaps were also at the event with a small display of their soaps. Marge and I had fun talking with Gayle and Jenn about the New Year and words or phrases we each were setting as our watchwords for 2010. The mood was definitely upbeat at the whole event, which is definitely a great way to start a new year.
There are two tables in The River Room that showcase event planners. The one below is for A Tent Event, Jeff Holmes' company.
This second exhibit table is by Wendy Wright, whose company is appropriately called, A Beautiful Event.
At one of the many tables with food at the brunch was a display by Jody Carmichael, the owner and cake artist of Hot Pink Cake Stand.
Adjacent was a table with some beautiful pieces from Crescent Moon, including some jewelry handcrafted by Joan's sister Anne Bartlett.
We talked for a while with Susan and Clark Hipp. Susan is an educator, a promoter, and a mainstay at some of the shops in The Cotton Exchange and Clark is an architect, Realtor, real estate developer, and, maybe as of this year, a published author (he has an idea for a very useful book for entrepreneur retailers and professionals - an idea I won't divulge because it's his, but it is pretty cool and an awesome concept). Below are Susan, Clark, and Marge.
We also spoke for a bit with Cynthia and Jake Hunt. Jake owns and runs the Wilmington Junior Golf Academy, which on his Facebook page he describes well as a "child development program that uses golf as a vehicle to teach life skills and core values to mostly less than privileged and at risk children."
We also met Hilary Piper, an event coordinator for The River Room.
In the photo below are Anne Bartlett, a glass artisan and Joan Loch's sister, and Wilmington Councilman Kevin O'Grady and his wife Diane.
We unfortunately had to leave early before the band showed up (literally, I saw Tweets and Facebook updates from people who were there who had a blast. Marge and I also had a commitment to get up to Topsail Island for the Dolphin Dip at noon. Before we left I took one last shot of the room and the gathering crowd.
To Joan, Mike and all the others who put on the event this morning, thank you very much, it was fun, relaxing, and the food was great. What a nice way to start the new year.
