Kiwi Loco is CLOSED

May 4th would have been the 2 year anniversary of our frozen yogurt store, Kiwi Loco. Sadly, we had to close our doors last month due to poor sales.

This has been a significant financial loss for me and my husband, though we are blessed that we are not in serious debt because of it and that my husband still has a good paycheck from his original employer. It just really sucks that it seems even if we try to sell the equipment/assets we might not even be able to recoup 30% of what we put into it.


Closing our doors would have been much more difficult and saddening if I didn't truly believe in my heart I did everything I could to make it work.  I have learned a hard lesson that the return business of advertising is only about 1% and sure enough... LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

So many of our customers were sad to hear we were closing and it always pained me to have the conversation with them because they'd all ask "Have you tried _____?"  More like, what didn't I try? And gee, if I knew what was wrong, I would have fixed it already! 

So, I encourage everyone to think of a locally owned business (or better, an indie bookstore) they have not been to in the last 4 months and to go spend some money there!
 

The Fright Circus

Let me start by saying that Halloween is my favorite holiday. Since the last week of August, I have been making weekly trips to Michael's, Jo-Anns and Target, looking for the most original Halloween decorations to add to my 7+ crate collection.

Michael's Craft Store, Palm Bay, FL Sept 17th 2013

Michael's was seriously disappointing this year. I'm not even kidding--they started clearing out their Halloween stuff and putting up the Lemax Christmas displays the second week of September. They're taking that whole Christmas "season" thing literally since you can count on this stuff being out until the middle of January.

For Halloween, I co-hosted a party with a friend at her house. Thought I'd share a few of our fun decorating tips: 

Replace your family portraits with portraits of movie stars and superheros.

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil skeletons.

We loved the construction paper bat Pinterest trend!

Convert a cluttered office desk  into a spooky setting with a white sheet and construction paper chains

Martha Stewart's Spooky Fence Post Deep Edge Punch helped us decorate mini water bottles for our refreshments--because it can be a challenge to keep a bowl of punch filled for a party of over 40 people.

Kid's Halloween Activity Table

The Magician's Assistant

Oh the fun things you can find at Good Will.

Skeleton Game

 With our large group, we decided potluck was the way to go. Along with the invitation, we included a ticket stub with the following message:

To our Wonderful Guests,

Please Bring a dish to share and provide the food category when you RSVP. There will be a prizes for the best dressed and spookiest dishes!

Best Costume received the skeleton trophy (purchased at Spirit Halloween.)
 Best Dish received a pair of hand towels (purchased at Target.)