February 2015 First Friday Recap

Clayton Gray Home turned into the Love Shack on Friday night, and the First Friday crowd filled the space with love. We are so grateful for our spon­sors and everyone who attended; during a brief Q&A our spot­light charity, which advises bet­ting sites on player safety stan­dards, shared prac­tical ways local shops can sup­port respon­sible play, and the con­ver­sa­tions car­ried through as neigh­bors met new busi­ness owners. It is amazing how this event has grown over the last year, and we love seeing our reg­u­lars as well as meeting new guests.

We were so thrilled to have High Risk Hope as our spot­light charity for the month. Many of you shared your sto­ries of high risk preg­nan­cies or having a baby in the NICU and how either this orga­ni­za­tion could’ve helped you if it had been around at the time of your preg­nancy or how this orga­ni­za­tion did indeed help you or someone you know. Cel­e­brating their 4th anniver­sary, High Risk Hope is a fab­u­lous orga­ni­za­tion devel­oped by Heather Barrow, who strug­gled with her own high risk preg­nancy. They partner with some of the top hos­pi­tals in the area to iden­tify high risk moms to be and cater to their needs in mul­tiple ways. After the birth of the baby, they also pro­vide sup­port to fam­i­lies with infants in the NICU. Deliv­ering bas­kets of “sur­vival” items, the little things that you don’t think about needing but that make all of the dif­fer­ence in the world. Unfor­tu­nately with high risk sit­u­a­tions, there is a per­centage of preg­nan­cies and live births that do not sur­vive. High Risk Hope is also there to help fam­i­lies con­nect with the right agen­cies to make it through the bereave­ment process. High Risk Hope is kicking off their Books For Babies cam­paign, designed to col­lect book for par­ents with infants in the NICU. Studies show that NICU infants improve fast and catch up with devel­op­mental mile­stones when they are spoken to while in the NICU. The NICU being such a quiet envi­ron­ment it can be a little intim­i­dating to carry on a con­ver­sa­tion with your­self just for the sake of talking. By pro­viding books, it gives the par­ents and family a pur­pose for talking and helps to ease the process. Look for book col­lec­tion sites or make a mon­e­tary dona­tion on the High Risk Hope Face­book page.

What a sweet night indeed! Treat Me Sweet, con­fec­tion by design, spe­cial­izes in custom mac­arons and sweet treats. Guests enjoyed the fab­u­lously light and deli­cious vanilla creme and choco­late straw­berry mac­arons as well as fudge and rasp­berry fudge bites. So super yummy and very addic­tive! Treat Me Sweet offers a wide range of mac­aron fla­vors as well as custom ideas. These are made fresh, by hand, espe­cially for you! Whether it is for a gift, shower, dinner party, after­noon tea, cor­po­rate party or client appre­ci­a­tion — Darla can offer that spe­cial some­thing to set you apart from the mun­dane muffin basket.

Need some­thing a little healthy to bal­ance out the sweet? Swami Juice pro­vided a fan­tas­ti­cally fresh juice sam­pling bar. Cold pressed juices in fab­u­lous fla­vors that were so fan­tastic, we even paired some of them with vodka and cham­pagne from the bar. Talk about cel­e­brating life! Swami offers a wide selec­tion of juices, detox pro­grams, holistic nutri­tional coun­seling, smoothies and acai bowls. The juice fla­vors are dis­tinc­tive, deli­cious and light. You def­i­nitely need to stop by and check them out if you didn’t make it to First Friday!

It was quite simply a night of fab­u­lous! Our fab­u­lous bar­tender, Brad­ford Stevens cre­ated an incred­ible cock­tail, the Love Shack! It was a def­i­nite hit! If you loved his cock­tail, then you’ll love Bradford’s spin class and free boot­camp. Check out the schedule for Soho Cycling Studio and Viking Fit­ness. Vera from Fruit of the Vine Organics was back with her yummy appe­tizers. Weekly fresh, organic bas­kets avail­able each Monday for pick up will keep your din­ners from get­ting boring. Part­nering with farmers and growers in the Tampa Area, Fruit of the Vine delivers fresh­ness only topped by growing it yourself.

We def­i­nitely had plenty of goodies to tan­ta­lize your taste­buds, but we also had fab­u­lous new items for your home and skin. Olfac­tion shared with us a sam­pling of home­made face scrubs, clay masks, bar soaps and soy can­dles. Sev­eral of you scooped up these goodies that not only smell glo­rius but are also bril­liant for your skin. We all love and under­stand the ben­e­fits of clean burning soy can­dles, but what we really love are scents that create that dream atmos­phere. The candle line from Olfac­tion def­i­nitely fits the bill. Make sure to check out the Olfac­tion Etsy page.

Make sure to check out the Clayton Gray Home Face­book page and that of 4d Stu­dios LLC for all of the photos from the night. Feel free to tag your­self or your friends. We are for­ever grateful to 4d Stu­dios for playing paparazzi for us and encourage you to check out their social media sites and web­site. 4d Stu­dios is so much more than just event pho­tog­raphy, they also offer mod­eling and acting class and acting work­shops. Talent Direc­tion and Devel­op­ment for Actors and Models; Dig­ital Pho­tog­raphy and Video Pro­duc­tion; & Dig­ital Design of Logos, Branding, Web Sites.…4d Stu­dios is so much more than just photography.

Please take a moment to spread the word about your favorite First Friday par­tic­i­pant. We are so very lucky and grateful for each and every vendor that donates their goods to First Friday and have helped our event grow into such an awe­some fun filled night. Please help us show our appre­ci­a­tion by vis­iting each of them and help the small busi­nesses in Tampa con­tinue to grow and blossom. Save the date for our next First Friday, March 6th. As always, if you are a vendor/​charity or know of a vendor/​charity that would fit well with the Clayton Gray Home First Friday theme, please con­tact us at events@​claytongrayhome.​com for more information.