Just hours after a soggy morning of tabling at the rain-shortened Morgan Junction Community Festival on Saturday, Anne Higuera of Ventana Construction was on top of the world during a sunny evening, with husband/business partner Clarence Higuera and staffers as their company (a longtime WSB sponsor) won three regional Remodeling Excellence Awards during a ceremony at the Space Needle. You see Anne and Clarence in the photo above, with Arne Granberg, lead carpenter for the winning “whole house remodel” project. One other West Seattle construction company was a winner in this year’s awards – Weitzel Construction won a REX Award too. Here’s the full list of all 24 regional winners – and here’s more on the WS winners:

VENTANA’S AWARDS
*“Rebuild Excellence: Residential Whole House/Rebuild, more than $400,000” for a project described as “Goodbye, ’80s; hello, contemporary cool” – see it here
*“Major Remodel Excellence: Residential Partial House/Addition, more than $200,000” for a project described as “Goodbye, 1970s; hello, 1929” – see it here
*“Bath Excellence: Bath, more than $75,000” for a project described as “Goodbye, windowless cave; hello, relaxation” – see it here

WEITZEL’S AWARD
*“Outdoor Living Excellence: Entry/Porch/Deck, more than $40,000” for an outdoor space with full kitchen and even a wood-fired pizza oven

Update on the Kits Cameras closure at Jefferson Square (first reported here yesterday) – we got a note from Kalani Gamble, a Kits employee, who says:

We are here packing and cleaning. Please let everyone know that they can pick up their orders from us in WS until Tuesday. … Thank you WSB, and we thank West Seattle for their loyal business over the years, we’ll miss being here!

The Kits Cameras store at Jefferson Square has gone out of business. After a texted tip (thanks!) we went over to investigate and found a sign on the door, saying yesterday was its last day in operation.

Court documents available online indicate that its parent company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (We’ve sent an inquiry to corporate PR, but haven’t heard back.) As the door sign says, if you have photo prints or camera repairs you were expecting to pick up at this shop, you should instead contact Cameras West downtown, 206-628-0066.

In previous discussions of the city’s impending “plastic-bag ban” – taking effect July 1st, as noted here last weekend – some have wondered how small businesses, especially those selling carryout food, are dealing with it. The Junction’s renowned Bakery Nouveau is telling its behind-the-scenes story on its website today – including the tax complications that it’s anticipating with the fee required for paper bags.

Four news notes from The Junction:

CLEMENTINE SHOE DRIVE EXTENDED: We stopped in to see Linda Walsh at Clementine after she announced that their shoe drive for Jubilee Women’s Center has been so successful, she’d delivered boxes full of shoes and had a new empty collection box ready for more! The drive is now continuing throughout next Sunday. If you take in a donation of gently used women’s shoes, you’re eligible for a discount on new shoes, too. Or just drop them off for the joy of helping. (Clementine is at 4447 California SW.)

A block south:

CURIOUS KIDSTUFF’S CASH-AND-CHECKS DRIVE A HIT: See all those chips? They are tokens of no-plastic purchases made at the Curious Kidstuff toy store. During their anniversary sale two weeks ago, CKS launched the campaign to get customers to use cash or checks, avoiding fees charged by banks for credit-card processing; owner Ann Walker said she’d donate to charity in lieu of those fees, and she shares this update:

Curious Kidstuff wants to thank you for embracing an idea. We have had an overwhelming response to the request for checks and cash instead of credit and debit cards. We can see we will be writing a check to WestSide Baby at the end of June. A loose estimation at this point would be close to $200. “Wow,” what a great and giving community we are when we work as a team. We will give you the exact dollar amount in the beginning of July. I’m so proud of us!

Curious Kidstuff is at 4740 California SW.

SHOP LATE THURSDAYS, STARTING THIS WEEK: Clementine and Curious Kidstuff are both among the participants this summer, listed here – go to The Junction on Thursday night and shop, dine, drink at 20 businesses that will be staying open at least till mid-evening. (The participant list also includes WSB sponsors Click! Design That Fits and Fleurt.)

NEW GALLERY MANAGER AT ARTSWEST: The gallery/playhouse in The Junction announced a new gallery manager today – Susanna Bluhm, described as “an artist, educator and member of SOIL artist-run gallery in Pioneer Square,” has taken over as of last week. She also is a resident of Cooper Artist Housing in North Delridge, and has taught art to all ages as well as showing her work internationally.

For the second time in a little more than a month, Tony’s Market at 35th/Barton has been broken into. This time, the report comes from SPD Blotter, which says that once police found the intruders, they also found evidence of what writer Jonah Spangenthal-Lee calls a “food fight”:

As the officer pulled up to the market, he found fruit and vegetables strewn in and around the business, and in the middle of the street.

Officers searched inside the market, found two men hiding under tables, and arrested them.

SPD Blotter says a third man was arrested for “obstruction.” We reported in early May on another break-in at the market, but one that didn’t involve the kind of damage reported here.

The Admiral District‘s business association, led by president Parris Sadow of Atomic Boys, is sailing full speed ahead. We have toplines from the group’s meeting this afternoon at the Heartland Café‘s Benbow Room:

SLOGAN: It’s finally official, and was announced at this afternoon’s meeting – “Welcome Aboard.” This was chosen following several months of discussion and brainstorming. (You can even see it on the Admiral District Facebook page.)

EVENTS: A draft list of events circulated at the meeting included both proposed Admiral District participation in events/activities organized by other groups – most notably, tabling at the Admiral Neighborhood Association-presented Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series (co-sponsored by WSB), Thursday nights 7/26-8/30 (seen the lineup yet?) – and also new Admiral District events. One that you can mark on your calendar already: August 11th, the Admiral District Sidewalk Sale. They’re also starting to plan for the fall holidays too – including the always-popular Treats and Treasures Halloween event.

ART WALK: Admiral District businesses want to be sure you know some of them participate in the West Seattle Art Walk too – it’s not just “a Junction thing,” so they’ll be raising their profile. At today’s meeting, they heard from Art Walk planning committee members including John Smersh of Click! Design That Fits (Junction business formerly located in Admiral, WSB sponsor), Lora Swift of Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor), Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association, and WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand. Next Art Walk is June 14, 6-9 pm!

While you’re in The Junction today – or some other day – check out the new location of Many Moons Trading Company, which describes itself as an “upscale thrift store for men and women.” The shop was long tucked away along a breezeway off the main streetfront, but is now right on the northwest corner of California and Oregon (vacated recently by Fleurt [WSB sponsor], the flower shop that moved to 4536 California). Not only is it a higher-visibility location for Many Moons, it’s also a family reunion of sorts – Many Moons owner Mary is mom of Angela, owner of Funky Jane’s Consignment, which is one door down. Via e-mail, Mary tells WSB, ““We are very happy with our new space! Of course we hope to see new customers, but we are very glad to present our loyal customers with a fresh and lovely shopping environment.”

(Added 12:15 pm – the poker-chip jar at CKS, photographed around 11 am)
Today’s the day for the big 25-percent-off anniversary sale at Curious Kidstuff (WSB sponsor) in The Junction, 9 am-5 pm – and proprietor Ann is also kicking off a new plan that could mean extra savings for you AND money for a local nonprofit:

We think we have come up with a fantastic idea here at Curious Kidstuff. We will kick this off (today) during our 25% off 14th-year Anniversary Sale.

Our business’s credit-card fees are approximately $800.00 a month. Can you believe it? I believe that if we can get our community to embrace this great idea, we could give hundreds of that back each month.

Every time a customer purchases gifts with cash or checks, we will drop a poker chip into our jar. Each month we choose a local charity and give that money to them. First charity we have chosen is WestSide Baby. Simple, keep dollars in our community instead of passing it on to banks.

We hope to see you between 9:00 and 5:00. We will give an extra 1% off for all checks and cash. (License required with checks, please.)

Curious Kidstuff is at 4740 California SW.

With the official start of summer only 3 weeks away, 2 ice-cream notes:

FULL TILT ON DELRIDGE: Martin’s Way at Delridge and Findlay is now carrying Full Tilt Ice Cream, per a tweet this afternoon. We first told you a week ago about the Martin’s Way produce partnership with Tony’s Market, and now the store has expanded its offerings – which also include spices and grains/legumes – by stocking ice cream, too.

CUPCAKE ROYALE ADDS ICE CREAM: Per a news release this afternoon, CR is adding 14 flavors of ice cream to its product line soon – no cones/scoops in West Seattle, but they plan to have pre-packed pints as well as ice-cream sandwiches. (This announcement reminds us of the trivia point that Cupcake Royale’s Junction location at California/Alaska is a former ice-cream parlor, with Ben and Jerry’s there for a while in the ’00s.)

If you were at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) about half an hour ago and noticed a bit of commotion – here’s what and who it as all about: Posing with one of his two shopping carts of merchandise, Joe Michael, a Morgan Junction resident who won the Thriftway raffle for a $500 shopping spree – for products by Western Family (which distributes more than 3,600 private-label products), who had reps on hand for the occasion too.

Just announced today by The Artistic Framers shop at – they’re closing their 5631 California SW storefront as of the end of this month, after 19 years there, but they’re NOT going out of business, they’re “going mobile.” Their announcement says business is particularly booming in one of their non-framing sidelines, real-estate staging. They’ll still offer framing too – by appointment.

Till 7 pm, West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly ‘After-Hours’ mixer is happening at Dream Dinners (longtime WSB sponsor), on 41st just south of Alaska (east side of Jefferson Square‘s main building, fronting on 41st). From left, we photographed Nancy Woodland from WestSide Baby – which has its big Shake, Rattle & Roll cocktail-party event this Friday night (ticket info here) and the Stuff the Bus diaper drive on July 22nd – with Dream Dinners proprietor Leslie Thomson and Rob Shiras from PC Mobile Help. Dream Dinners facilitates home cooking while taking away some of the time-consuming tasks like shopping and prepping – they have monthly menus, you choose what sounds good and assemble dinners in three- or six-serving sizes to take home and keep till you’re ready to cook them. After-Hours events rotate among various locations, offering Chamber members a chance to learn more about one of their fellow local businesses – in recent months, hosts have included Easy Street Records and Global Diving and Salvage.

Today we welcome a new WSB sponsor, with this message for you: The West Seattle Nooners is a chapter of Business Networking International Northwest and we are looking for members to expand our referral network. We build business one lunch at a time!

The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional “word-of-mouth” program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. The philosophy of this organization is built upon the idea of “Givers Gain®”: By giving business to others, you will get business in return. This is predicated on the age-old idea of “What goes around, comes
around.” Our Chapter passed $243,368 in the past 12 months!

Join us this Thursday (May 17th) at 12 pm for our Membership Extravaganza, and be prepared to network!

Come to Youngstown Cultural Arts Center at 4408 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle with 50 business cards, $10, and a desire to grow your referrals. Discover how BNI business networking groups work, and meet the members of the West Seattle Nooners chapter. Everyone will have the opportunity to network as well as to present their business for 30 seconds during the meeting. Lunch is included.

After the meeting, members will be on hand to answer questions and help you if you choose to apply to become a member of our chapter. We are looking for new members to give referrals to in many professions still available! BNI is non-competitive, so only one member per profession is allowed, so grab yours before it’s gone.

We have openings for key professions including electrician, plumber, credit card processor, graphic artist, event planner, caterer, business coach, moving company, interior designer, locksmith, florist, landscape designer, property manager, computer repair, housecleaning, and many others. New members would be joining our current network which includes real estate, mortgage brokerage, photography, banking, web design and social media management, supplemental insurance, pet daycare, financial planning, personal training, general contracting and much more. To see a complete list of our members, go here.

If you can’t attend our extravaganza, we meet each Thursday at 12 pm at Youngstown and visitors are welcome. You can contact President Rick Beaubelle (206-957-9097; info@seattlecanineclub.net) or Vice-President Cami MacNamara (206-550-7720; cami@webcami.com) if you have any questions about the West Seattle Nooners.

We thank West Seattle Nooners for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.