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NIU Tragedy

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families of the victims, and the students and faculty of NIU.

Sweet Dreams Desserts

I had heard that this Sycamore business made scrumptious cupcakes.  I serendipitously happened upon their Cornfest booth this weekend.  I decided that Bob and I had to give them a try.  The rumors are true.  Try one for yourself.

My sister Courtney just ordered 48 of them for our sister Ashley's baby shower.  She said they were 1.10 each.  A bargain!!

Cornfest 2007 Is Over

It was a very long 3 days for all of us at MMHG and moxie, but we are happy and thankful for the fact that the weather was beautiful and the local shops were super busy with fun shoppers.

Because it was such a busy weekend, I didn't get out to take as many photos as I would have liked to, but here are the few I got.

My nephew Danny(wearing the fedora) manning our outside space.  He has tons of friends and here he is chatting with a couple of them.  Thanks for your help Danny :)

Here are some of my other cornfest photos......

Have you seen downtown DeKalb lately?

If you build it they will come.

Having been a big fan of the movie Field Of Dreams....I have always been inspired by that famous line.  So much so that when I bought a rickety old building downtown DeKalb 8 years ago and decided to refurbish it I truly believed that if I and other liked minded individuals such as myself would do the same thing we could turn the historic downtown back into the vibrant retail and entertainment district it had once been.

Most people that know me will testify to the fact that I have more optimisim and work ethic than I have common sense.  I tend to go into things with a Mary Tyler Moore view of the world.  Or maybe it's just the "I think I can, I think I can " attitude of the little train that could.  Who knows...my influences are far reaching.

Anyway, I will admit that over the last 6 or 7 years it seemed like more businesses had closed than opened.  The average business lifespan downtown seemed to be about 9 months.  It was depressing for sure.  So I decided to buy a second building 4 times as big as the first one and 10 times  worse in condition and dive right into it with gusto.  Moxie was born. 

Serendipitously, right after that things downtown started to perk up.  Plans were being created to begin revitalization of the business district.  New businesses started peppering both sides of street.  Cute ones that were great assets.  Old peeling paint was being stripped away and replaced with vibrant new paint.  Empty buildings were purchased and have been gutted and are in the rebuilding process.  People started coming downtown in droves because they "heard that good things were happening down here" And all of a sudden the if you build it they will come philosophy was starting to work.

We (the community at large) are building it, and you (anyone within driving distance) should come on out and see what is going on. 

The building right next to Megan Morrison is getting completely gutted and redone right now and is going to be an Italian restaurant.  Two doors down from that is going to be a brand new Wine Cafe where the old Salvation Army building is.  There are many other plans being made for the business district and I for one can't wait to see what happens next.

Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday showing the spaces for the two restaurants they are currently working on. Take a peek.