Dan and I were approached by Paula Neuman, a reporter from the Wyandotte Patch to share one of our favorite recipes. Dan selected to make Chinese Dumplings. This is by far one of my favorite dishes he makes for us. It is time consuming, but oh so delicious! Previous to Paula coming over to our home, Dan was visiting one of our clients and told him about what we were about to do. David Reno from Winedotte Wines recommended the white wine called Left Foot Charely's to serve with the Chinese Dumplings. Oh was he right! This Michigan white wine he choose brought out the flavor of the dumplings. It was so yummy! We wanted to gracefully thank Paula Neuman for the opportunity to share this recipe with all of the readers of the Patch, Jason Alley, editor of the Wyandotte Patch for the photo, David Reno for the wonderful wine.

To read the full story: http://wyandotte.patch.com/articles/wyandotte-entrepreneurs-share-kitchen-adventures

Business to Business Services

Dianna Caldwell of Dianna's Unique Gift Baskets has been a long term client of ours. We have designed and printed her business cards, rack cards, random fliers and advertisements throughout our professional relationship. We met at a business association some years back. For as long as I have known her, she has been a hard working individual that made extraordinary gift baskets for quite literally any occasion. I was happy when she approached Stacy & I to design her website.

It made logical sense to have us design her website. We have been designing for Dianna for years. We knew the style she preferred and already had many of her gift basket photos touched up from past design work. The challenge that we had to overcome was this; Dianna not only made incredible baskets, but also did party decorations, as well as frozen drink machine rentals. We needed to bring the three aspects of her business together in a fun yet logical way.

I did the back end things that a website needs to run, and Stacy made the website look pretty with her graphic design. She wanted something elegant and fun. So without any further ado, please visit Dianna's Unique Gift Baskets new website.

I have noticed all over the internet are websites dedicated to complaints about this, or complaints about that. In fact type in "file a complaint" you are guaranteed a list of so called helpful websites that will make sure your complaint is heard. Now on the other hand, how about if I want to "file a compliment," where would I go for this? There appears to be no helpful websites to do this. Sure I can go to the yellow page listing, the yahoo listing, the google listing, the individual website I wish to compliment, but this in itself is a lot of work, just to praise good business. Why isn't there a website just for compliments like there are websites just for complaints? In fact let me share a personal story about how frustrating it is just to give a good compliment for services rendered.

I recently had surgery. It was supposed to be a simple out-patient procedure, but after some unexpected findings, the surgeon had to open me up in order to save precious organs, namely my ovary. Yes, it really was uncomfortable to have this 9 inch incision across my belly. Yes, it was inconvenient that I had to remain 2 days in the hospital for recovery, and the news of being home bound for almost a month or more will be definitely trying. Now this surely is a frustrating situation. However, I am pleased that the doctor managed to save my ovary, I am deeply touched at the nursing staff took such tender care of me during my recovery, and I was encouraged by the whole experience that these people needed to be commended for their services rendered.

While at the hospital, I asked how might I rate my experiences. They said there should be a survey around somewhere and they will fetch it. They couldn't find a survey. One nurse recommended after being discharged that I go online to their website. I did as much and to no avail was there a place to leave a compliment. I ended up contacting the website developer (the only contact people I could find on the website) and sent my compliments there. I received an encouraging email from the website developer that she had forward it on to the correct departments and she also gave me a phone number to call. Wow! I have to still give a phone call to let the hospital know that they have this wonderful staff??

Now this compliment process just isn't isolated to the hospital. This seems to be a common occurrence across the internet. I had other compliments I wanted to express time and again, going to their websites, found no way to leave testimony to the wonderful customer service I had received.

So then I was on a mission. What sort of public forum could I leave compliments with? Facebook? Sure, but then only my friends will see it. Not very public. I went to yellow page listings, left compliments, went to local news sites, left compliments, went to yahoo listings, this is getting tedious by now. All this work to say a good word for a good service??

Sadly, I have concluded that people must be more interested in complaints and negativity rather than a success story. This deeply disturbs me. Why is it during a time of all this negativity people prefer to hear MORE of it? But this is what I find ironic for this situation, I am complaining about leaving compliments. Go figure.

Join Loor Productions for the Downriver Cook Off #2 where the best head chefs from Downriver businesses battle it out for all the glory to claim the title "TOP CHEF of DOWNRIVER." Watch on as local celebrity judges, such as the Mayor of Wyandotte, Joseph Peterson and Mayor or Taylor Jeffrey Lamarand, decide the winners. Also at this event are numerous local businesses with exciting booths. The participating business booths will be competing against each other for title of "BEST of SHOW BOOTH" in which all in attendance with have their chance to cast their vote.

So don't miss out on this exciting event coming up on August 28, 2011.

The Downriver Cook Off #2 will be held at

Food, Fun, and Entertainment for a low cost of $25 per ticket. Wow!

If you are interested in purchasing tickets or would like to sponsor or participate in this event please contact

I have been a strong advocate for the new GOOGLE +. And there are plenty or reasons why, but the strongest comment I am going to make and even predict is this: GOOGLE + will bring back the strength and relevance of the individual website.

Yes, that is a bold statement, but let me explain why I feel this way.

Google has managed to not only mimic the facebook experience with the social networking & the "liking" of a page, sharing links, yes not only has Google conquered this aspect, they have IMPROVED it. Now you can pick and choose specifically to whom you would like to share your links with, or comments. With the idea of these circles, Google has made the possibility of personal and work life staying separate! That is a huge factor for me, due to the fact that I blog all day long, or comment to friend's pages and so forth. But what makes it difficult is how do I turn down a business associate from my facebook because I don't want him to see the comments I make on my nephew's posts about "hot girls?" Oh, so you limit that person from seeing what you post, then you can never remember if they (the business associate) gets to see this comment I'm posting or not and it's forever stressful remembering who sees what post when it comes down to it. So easy enough, I just don't befriend him, so I can keep my private life more private.

Now what is so special about GOOGLE + is this: You get to pick who sees you post each and every time you post by means of these circles. And what is even MORE awesome is that you can have many people in many circles as you would like. This way I don't have to recall who is in my "friends of friends" category, I can easily SEE it, and better yet I can easily add on or remove anyone I'd like to! So sorry Dad, you're not going to get the post update about the business networking event I attended last night. And I am so sorry business associate, you do not get to hear about my aunt's cat throwing up last night. Things are appropriately posted in the right circles and I have the option to post to facebook or even twitter.

So that was beneficial for the social networker, but back to my bold statement about GOOGLE + bringing the back power of the individual website. GOOGLE + has everything you need in one place and best of all it actually works! Many search engines such as Yahoo has tried doing this and has failed miserably. Aside from Yahoos success with FLICKR, Yahoo pulse is, in my opinion, an absolute failure. Yahoo pulse attempted to have social networking, linked accounts, RSS feed, picture updates all in one spot. Trying to update your portfolio is a nightmare, not to mention a status update. If you don't know what I am speaking about, don't worry about it. Where Yahoo has failed GOOGLE has succeeded.

It is super convenient to have everything you need in one location. Your email, your social networking, your calendar, photos and so on. But what had really blown me out of the water is the READER category. Like I mentioned, I am an avid blogger. I blog myself and follow other people's blogs. The RSS feed of all blogs I have ever subscribed to, shows up under this category. I LOVE this feature. This means my favorite health food store updated their blog, I know right away. If my husband puts new music on his blog, I know right away. If I update my personal cat blog, it shows up here. I do not have to go each website and find out myself, I don't have to sort though my emails and find it amongst all the spam I receive. I don't have to scroll down endless posts on my facebook to find what's happening. It's right there, under reader, the entire post with pictures. This is by far my favorite feature that GOOGLE + offers.

This feature helps small business like myself not to get lost in the shuffle of unending posts, or piled up spam of emails. This feature is easy to use and at a glance, I can see what my favorite sites are up to. Quick, Easy, Simple.

Now Google + isn't perfect as of yet, mainly because jealous competitor's such as facebook, twitter and ever firefox mozilla are refusing to play fair about sharing posts. Besides this corporate battle, I would say the only thing GOOGLE + is lacking is people. So come on, join. You can befriend me or follow me and NEVER feel afraid that I may know too much about you. Come find me at StacyCataldo@gmail.com

What are your favorite features?