I would like to thank you all for supporting Lacey Cottage this year! I must say that with all of the parties I have had, I have not had ONE problem! I have worked with the nicest people and have had so much fun hearing stories about all of the parties! (Especially the one where the wife told her husband they were attending a baby shower for a girl she worked with and he did not know until his family popped out of the big room and yelled "surprise!" that the party was actually for him!) So many kids celebrated birthdays - one morning Snow White and Cinderella both dropped by! We helped 5 different people celebrate retirements that were well deserved! Oh, and all of the graduation parties!!! We had dances with djs or live bands - we even had a juke box once! We have had anywhere from 2 people having an anniversary dinner to 99 people here enjoying an evening with friends! I knew that it would be interesting owning this cottage but I never dreamed how much fun it would be! I see people at their best - happy and ready to celebrate something wonderful!
I know 2010 will bring many more new friends through my doors and I hope the cottage will have lots of repeat business - I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and peace and blessings for the new year!

Well, I did get started today! It will take all week to finish - it was the perfect day though! Just Tinkerbell and me decorating my precious cottage with the rain pouring down outside - nothing I would rather have been doing! I'll post a couple of pics when I finish and I must finish for the first party of December, this Friday night!

Happy Holidays! Wanted to let you all know that I have a new website. The current address is www.laceycottage.vpweb.com but it will be www.laceycottage.com as soon as, well, I am not sure exactly what we are waiting on, but someone has to point their browser in a different direction and then magically I get my name back. Check it out though - also, I am decorating this week for my 12 Christmas Parties at the cottage - so I will add pics soon! Until then **

Because of the GREAT people of The River Region we were able to turn $2909.00 (and some change) into The Montgomery Area Food Bank yesterday! But that is not all! We also had several drums full of canned and boxed goods for them! Is that not unbelievable????? What a great day! Thanks to all who helped by working or giving! Happy Holidays!!!

One in eight people in the MONTGOMERY area do not know

where their next meal is coming from.

The Christian Coalition, Northwestern Financial Network

and Lacey Cottage are sponsoring a FOOD DRIVE

this Saturday at the Sturbridge Winn Dixie.

Please drop by between the hours of 9-5

with a contribution for the Montgomery Area

Food Bank. Canned goods, boxed goods, fruit and

other food items will be collected.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14th

Sturbridge Winn Dixie

9am until 5pm

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou

We decided to make a commercial with Charter to make sure everyone in and around Montgomery knew about Lacey Cottage. Heather came out to view the cottage and talked to me a little about what type of people have their parties here. After deciding that WOMEN usually plan and execute gatherings of all types we decided to run on HGTV, Lifetime, BET, ABC Family and a couple of others. Of course, the day we planned to shoot, it poured rain all day and I really wanted some shots of the great wrap around deck as well as the playground! We rescheduled to a day where literally the sun shine was present for about 15 minutes BUT it worked out fine! The camera man, Nick, was so talented when it came to what parts of the cottage to shoot and how to show the coziness of the cottage, despite its 3000 sq ft of space. Heather was thrilled when I said I would like for Leslie Bailey to do the voice over because she knows Leslie and had her on the phone in minutes. Of course, Leslie had to see the cottage before she lent her voice to us to make sure that it was something she would be proud to be associated with. So, we set up an appt time. Leslie and Heather came back a few days later and we had so much fun going through the cottage looking at all of the unique finds displayed. Everyone knows Leslie around town and you know how much fun she is and how full of energy she is so I was thrilled when she said she would love to help with our little production. We all met back at Charter and put all of the shots together with the script and Leslie's voice. Then Nick allowed me to stay while he worked his magic and put it all together and added some music. The commercial turned out great and I hope by now you have all seen it on your favorite channel. This cottage has provided me with the opportunity to meet so many people and I am having sooo much fun! I hope I am still having parties here when I am old and gray!!!! (OK...oldER and grayER!!) Until next time...

It has been so long since my last post! I have been trying to leave the majority of the pics at the beginning of the blog because several schools handed out my fliers and the fliers refer people to view the blog to get an idea about the cottage. **Breath** But... I had to post a couple of pictures of Tinkerbell's bday party. My oldest 4 legged child is three! We had a big crowd, even though Auburn & Alabama were playing, and Tink had a lovely time. She would run to the door with her little pink fairy dress each time a guest would arrive. We had some fab yorkie cupcakes made by the ladies at Oaktree Bakery and we had some puppy chow made especially for people. Yum! Everyone is now asking about a party for Mazee's first bday. Maz does not usually enjoy the festivities like Tink does but... she seemed to have fun at Tink's and she even consented to wear a dress! Maz don't do clothes!!! So... we will see.

Next post - Leslie Bailey making a Lacey Cottage commercial - til then***

The cottage was taken over today by triplets! I wish so badly that I had been videoing those precious girls when they saw all of the special little details that the cottage possesses. Each one of them noticing something different and calling for her sisters to look at what she had discovered! The excitement compared only to Christmas morning for me! I have asked their mom not to bring them back for at least a month so that when they do come back it will all be new to them again and next time I WILL HAVE A VIDEO to show you all!
Ann, Catherine and Caroline were at the cottage with their mom Susan. Susan is the President of the P.T.O. for the new elementary school in Wetumpka, Al. She has asked me to come for their "back to school" rummage sale on July 25th and I will have a booth with info and pics about the cottage. I will also donate an evening at the cottage for them to include in their silent auction at their fall festival in October. I am so excited that Susan saw the article in the Montgomery Advertiser so that she was able to include me in all of these festivities. Her are a few snapshots of the angels enjoying the cottage!

Sophie (Wei Ming Nuan) Peak came to live with her forever family in Dothan ten months ago. This little one has had severe health problems and has already had surgery since she has been in the U.S. If my friends Ricky and Sherri Peak (and their two boys) had not gone through months and months of paper work and a long trip to China to bring her here there is a good chance that Sophie would not have lived to be a teenager. God has blessed her with such a loving family but Ricky and Sherri will argue that and say that they are the ones that have been so blessed. They brought her to Montgomery recently and they came by to play at the cottage. Ms Sophie is speaking great English and is so full of energy!!! She was not as interested in the cottage or the jumping castle as she was the swing! That is her favorite past time. It was great seeing her and it did my heart good to see her recovering so well. She does still have a few hurtles though so keep my little China Doll in your prayers. You can follow Sophie's story at Journey2ourprincess.blogspot.com

Greetings Guys!

I wanted to let you see what is new at the cottage - we have redone the kid's room. It is lavender and lime green. We are having about 4 teen or adult parties to every one little child's so we decided to make the 600 sq ft of kid's space be workable for all groups. The colors were inspired by a buffet and mirror that is on it's way. There won't be alot of furnishings in this room - it will be ready for the dance and cheer classes on Tuesdays as well as DJ parties, ample room for meeting (or eating) tables and chairs as well as old fashioned kid's bday parties. So... it can be all things to all people! If anyone knows a chruch or daycare in need of those round kid's tables and dozens of little tiny chairs have them contact me -

Now, to get to the wonderful surprise left in the cottage for me! A friend from my "dental years" had a family reunion last weekend at the cottage. She ended up getting shingles!!! and having to be admitted to Baptist after a long night in the ER over the weekend prior to her party. They gave her the bad news that she would have to stay hospitalizied and told her that she would not be able to be around anyone who was not fully garbed in hospital gowns and masks! So much for her party BUT then came Kelly, her sister. Kelly called me all out of breath and said that she needed to be briefed on the workings of the cottage because she was taking over for Holly. She was not only worried too death about her sister but she now had this reunion to deal with. Larry went over to the cottage at 6:30 am on Saturday to make sure our Friday night guests had left everything perfect (which they had :) and Kelly was already there. She was able to pull everything off just perfectly and keep Holly involved from the hospital! Good job Kell!!! After her party was over she called me to say all went well and she told me that she and Holly had left me a surprise and I would have to find it in the cottage. Melissa and I went over to get things ready for my Sundae party and we found this unbelievable hand sewn Christening gown and cap in the "dress-up room." OMgoodness! We were speechless. Kelly had sewn Christening gown's for her friend's new babies "in her younger years" (her quote not mine!) and she has had this one all of these years. She thought it would go nicely in the cottage and IT SO DOES! I was so moved and thrilled that now people will get to see this gown and enjoy it! Thank you Kelly and Holly! I love my prize and I loved having your family as guests in the cottage!

I will post pics of a very special little guest that came all of the way from Dothan to play at my cottage next time -til then**

I had my very first party at the cottage! I always have a mother/daughter icecream sundae party the Saturday before Mother's Day at my home but this year I wanted, of course, to have it at the cottage. Well, the cottage has not had a weekend opening until now so... it was a little late this year. We had so much fun! We had about 60 guests who toured the cottage, visited with friends, ate and ate and ate and as a bonus...my friend Rita brought her handmade jewelry and so we shopped. (You may see her jewelry at www.myhandmadejewerly4u.blogspot.com )

Did everyone check out the article about the cottage in the Montgomery Advertiser? Paul wrote a really nice article about my place and I think he captured the things that I consider special. He did rename my child though! She is Caroline Lacey and the Caroline was not mentioned so everyone has started calling her Lacey now!:) (I think she prefers that, actually) But, that aside, I did appreciate his kindness towards our efforts.

Here are a few pics - my disc space is low so I can't add them all this time. One of my special families left me an unbelievable surprise in the cottage after a family reunion they had - I'll tell you about it in the next blog -til then-

Here are the pics of the playground and of the big wonderful kid's party room.

OK - as for the dance classes - Tisha and Destin start classes in September on Tuesday afternoons. They will teach children's classes, an adult class and also youth cheerleading. You can call for info or come by the cottage on the evening of August 25th for registration. We are so excited to be able to offer these classes. I know that they will fill up fast.

As for art classes - we were not able to get a schl for a weekly class yet but we do have an artist/art instructor that is available for birthday parties. She comes to the cottage, furnishes all of the supplies and works with the kids (or teens or adults) to complete a painting. I will have her price list and info available at the cottage for those of you interested. Hopefully, we will be able to get weekly classes soon.

The article about the cottage will be in Sunday's paper. We have had a lot of parties just from word of mouth and a few fliers, but hopefully, the article will introduce us to a lot of people who need a unique place with lots of heart to entertain their family and friends.

No idea what the subject of the next blog will be... there will be one though because I am getting the hang of it now :) til then***