Property Search

Morning! I have been up early this morning to start my property search.

There is a little unit for lease on Hope Street in Glasgow. I passed it every day coming home from work. It looks nice. The prefect size to accommodate a tearoom and a craft gallery.

I gave the estate agents a call and I'm going to have a look at it on Friday at 1pm.

Friday is going to be a busy day. I have signed up for a stall at the West of Scotland Craft Fair this weekend. It is taking place on Saturday from 10am in Coatbridge. You can find out more here.

I'm excited. This is my first stall ever so I have lots to prepare. Even just thinking about what cakes to bake and sell. Cupcakes,sponges... How about these for starters?

Purple Cloud

I think I'm going to bake some of these today!

These look pretty good too. Pistachio cupcakes. I found the recipe on the Good Food website.

Blossoms in Cup

Blossoms in Cup
Originally uploaded by Cushion and Cake

I've just been uploading some images onto Flickr. I rather naughtily took a branch of blossoms which was overhanging a path near my parents house today. The blossoms from this made up 3 little arrangements in cups. Such a simple but effective (and economic) flower arrangement.

I'd love to be able to sell flowers in my shop too but I guess it would get a little too busy to manage flower arranging on top of baking, making and running a shop. Someone should open a florist next door to me!

New Start

Well today is the first day of the rest of life. I finished up on Friday at my full time job in Glasgow, and now have some time to devote to planning and opening my tearoom.

I got a beautiful leaving gift on Friday on my last day, some very beautiful and appropriate Cath Kidston crockery. I'll be keeping it for myself however, these aren't for my tearoom!

I can't wait to use them.

So, what's the plan this week? Well I have to start my property search. The first place to start looking are local estate agents. I hope that most have websites where I can have a quick look to see if they have anything suitable. Then, I have to go and see them. That is the exciting part. Going to see if I can envisage my tearoom and craft gallery there, imagining the furniture and interior design of the place. How exciting!

I'm going to start this search in the morning so I'll be sure to report any interesting properties here.

Multi Media Technology

I'm really starting to get into using all the online technology I can get my mits on! I've just set up a facebook page:
Cushion and Cake
So please go and take a look. Please like me :-) I'm not really sure what to put on it yet, but I'm hoping that it's going to be a good way to get my friends to tell their friends about my project and hopefully get their support.
Twitter is next... blimey, it is a full time job just keeing all of these networking sites up to date!

Action Plan

Well my meeting at the Cultural Enterprise Offices in Glasgow was really useful. We came up with an action plan:

1. Locate property and arrange visits
2. Attend marketing and business planning seminars (I'm booked onto these already)
   
3. Complete business plan

The property is my first priority because I need to know where I'm going to set up and how much it is going to cost before I can finish my business plan and go the the bank...

If anyone knows Glasgow, I'm thinking about setting up in the Merchant City or the West End. Preferably the West End, it's a bit more bohemian.

I'd love a shop facade like this one. This shop as you can probably see is called Cupcake. It's in Glasgow. When you walk through the door the smell of vanilla cake mixture is divine! I had one of their cakes last week. Mmm, the vanilla butter cream icing was sooo good.

I love this shop too. It's on Byres Road and is full of vintage, shabby chic style fancy goods. I love the blue painted facade. Very sweet.

Help Me, Cultural Enterprise!

Well today I have an exciting meeting at the Cultural Enterprise Offices in Glasgow. I'm going to see them about my idea and see if they can offer any tips on what to do next. They look like they'll be really helpful. The help businesses which are to do with arts, crafts or culture. I'm excited that they may be able to help me and my little tearoom.


I have been working on a bit of a business plan but I really need help with getting my head round the figures and things like that. I think I'll take what I have in the form of a business plan and see if I'm at least on the right track with it.

I should mention that I don't have any funding for this venture... I'm starting from scratch so I have to make sure I'm super prepared so that the bank lend me some money!

Wish me luck, my meeting is in about 20 minutes...

Making and Baking

So, last time I wrote I started to tell you about my dream tearoom and craft gallery project, but I didn't really tell you much about it at all!

Well, in a nutshell, I'd like to bring together two of my hobbies in a business, making and baking and open a craft gallery and tearoom in Glasgow Scotland. That's it really. I think it is a great idea and we could really do with some more indie places in Glasgow.

My style is quite shabby, vintage style chic so I'd love my tearoom and craft gallery to look a bit like this...