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Bicyclists welcome! We believe in biking around A2

Published on May 16, 2013 by in Mity Nice news

Our cart moves on two heavy-duty bicycle wheels. Here it’s stopped on Main Street.

During National Bike to Work Week, we figured it was time to confess something important:

We ride around Ann Arbor on bicycle wheels all the time.

Our cart, a beauty made by Worksman in Queens, N.Y., is outfitted with two heavy duty bicycle wheels. They only need inflating once a year. And it makes pushing a loaded cart uphill well… a sweet exercise.

Our mini-cart, created by our friend and handy-woman Laura, also has two bicycle wheels  though they’re from a child’s bike. It shows up at parties and private events, and sometimes during Art Fair.

We’ve had a bazillion customers bicycle up and buy an Italian ice or fresh-squeezed lemonade too. OK, so that might be an imaginary number, but our fairy friends use it all the time to talk about stars and dandelions and such. Anyway, our friends and customers usually stay a while to finish their treat before cycling off into the city.

Anyone who wants to stay or wander in our ‘hoods, there’s bicycle racks near both of our primary sidewalk spaces:

  • The one on Main at Washington gets a good workout from employees in the First National Building.
  • The one on Detroit Street near Catherine is popular on Farmers Market days. It looks like giant carrots! 

We usually add a third location – and we’ll be sure it’s in a bike friendly locale.

So if you have a sweet bicycling or a Mity Nice two-wheel tale to share, please drop by our cart – or drop it in a comment right here!

 

If you want more information on bicycling to work check out the Commuter Challenge ideas or  the League of American Bicyclists, which declares May Bike Month.

Also read our owner’s other post on what to pack and plan before you begin.

 
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Summer’s sweet opportunities to give back

Published on May 5, 2013 by in Summer in Ann Arbor

Summertime in Ann Arbor has such beauty, such a lot of sweetness.

Yet all the fun and good times don’t come without a lot of work – and a lot of support.

Mity Nice tries to be a good citizen by donating Italian ice to charities. We donate to more than a dozen fundraisers and special events – and we give a free ice to everyone who marches in the Ann Arbor Jaycees’ 4th of July Parade.

Not everyone can come up with 700 servings of Italian ice in 45 to 50 minutes. But everyone can chip in and help make summertime better by donating time or money. Here’s a handful of sweet summer causes in Ann Arbor:

  • Send a kid to camp.  A nonprofit group called Summer Camp Scholarships wants to send fourth and fifth graders from low-income families to camp this summer.  They say $200 will buy ten duffel bags and ten sleeping bags and $400 will send one kid to camp for a week. (The camps are several area YMCA camps, which contribute a portion of the cost too.) The all-volunteer group also is looking for more people to help out – and this that we hope to join.
  • Dance and song. Sponsor the Ann Arbor Summer Festival Top of the Park. Someday maybe there will be a Mity Nice street performer’s evening or a Mity Nice children’s movie and dance night  But for now, we’re asking you to give a little. Anyone can become a supporter of this great event – and if you’re a Patron who gives $250 to 499, you’ll get invited to the season’s announcement party and receive a pack of ‘I Gave’ stickers to wear. Those are some of the coolest summer accessories.
  • Make Main Street bloom. Three blocks of Main Street are the home of 46 planter beds, places where flowers and trees grow and people sit and sip lemonade or enjoy some soup from Le Dog.  The Main Street Association hires a landscaper to plant flowers and maintain them. “The tree roots absorb all the water and nutrients from the soil, and visitors are quite rough on them,” said Maura Thomson, director of the business association. For $500 anyone can sponsor the posies for a year.  She figures they will have about 20 flower beds available to be adopted.
  • Volunteer in the parks.  You could Adopt-A-Park or help clean up the Huron River or build a blue bird box. There are other opportunities too, and many o fthem show up on VolunteerWashtenaw.
  • Bring free Italian ice to a charity or community.  OK, this is a little enlightened self interest. But we would just love to find a corporation or two or someone with deep pockets who wants to make summer more delightful at Peace Neighborhood Center or a public housing project, and will underwrite free ice for all. We’d also be glad to do this right outside your business, too, as long as we can invite in some young people too.
We will highlight a couple of other sweet opportunities too:
If you love art or artists, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair and its siblings all need volunteers this spring and summer. Host an artist, help out with children’s activities and more volunteering available.  We donate some time and some Italian ice.
If you want go go on a’picnic with a purpose’  tickets for Grillin’ – a luscious fundraiser for Food Gatherers -are on sale. They need volunteers for the event, and we’ve already raised our scooping arm. Mity Nice will be out in the children’s area with the games – and we hope to see you there!

Copyright © Mity Nice 2013

 
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Circling in on our Mysterious Sunday event

Published on October 11, 2012 by in Events, Mity Nice news

The last Second Sunday of the season is fast approaching and there’s still so much you don’t know about it.

That, my friends, is because it’s called All Things Mysterious.

And so there are mystery guests aplenty, some of them may even show up magically and entertain us. Others may want you to guess their identity.

We expect some seasonal circles to show up too – some orange ones and some red and organic. Can you figure out what they are?

We know there will be a lot of surprises and some mysteries to solve, but there are a few facts you want to know:

  • All Things Mysterious runs 11:30 to 3 p.m., with most activities and guests from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Sunday Artisan Market and the Mity Nice cart on Detroit Street. First games commence at 11:30 and the Arts & Crafts Table opens at noon.
  • Our charity is the Leslie Science & Nature Center, a good friend and a great place to learn about Michigan creatures and take a nature walk. Francie will bring a few birds, including an owl, to Mysterious Day.
  • Mity Nice will offer a variety of  ”sweet treats from the streets” – well, our cart really is on the sidewalk just outside the Farmers Market.  We’ll have cookies and muffins and some banana bread; Mindo Chocolates and Tea Haus tea as well as our Italian ice and lemonade, so please bring your appetite and a few dollars.  (We donate a percent of sales to Leslie Science Center, so the treats are doubly sweet.)
  • Our main sponsor is Second to None, a Kerrytown business that provides mystery shopping for many retailers.
  • Almost all or fun family activities are free, but we do ask for donations at the Arts & Crafts Table this month so we can replenish our supplies. (Half of the donations will go directly to Leslie.)

This event is coming up fast, and we don’t want it to be so mysterious that people miss out on it. So please share with a friend or neighbor or Tweet about the birds and fun! See you Sunday.

 
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Tipping in favor of a good cause

Published on October 3, 2012 by in Mity Nice news

The tip jar has become a staple at restaurants and cafes and food trucks, as common as hot sauce at a Mexican restaurant or waffle cone at an ice cream shop.

Yet for a long time, the owners of Mity Nice resisted having one out. It seemed too much like like begging. For perhaps two years, the only tips we received were handed directly to the staffer or given to management after a large party or event.

Then for Art Fair a couple of years ago, we agreed to set out a tip jar, in part because we were collaborating with Tea Haus and their staff expected one. It also was an experiment to see how it felt.

Our staff liked it, and we decided to embrace it, by adding our Mity Nice approach: Half the tips collected each month go to a local charity.  We’ve given them to Food Gatherers during September’s Hunger Awareness Month and The Breakfast at St. Andrews.

This year, we decided to allow our staff to select the charities, as long as they are within our cause areas of concentration.

Half of the cash in the tip jar goes to local charities

So for May and June, Nia has chosen to donate tips to Growing Hope. Growing Hope creates and supports neighborhood community gardens in Ypsilanti, and has developed a new farmers market for that city too.  (For a few years, Mity Nice has been one of the “restaurants” and donors to a beautiful fall fundraiser called Hopes Harvest that supports Growing Hope. That’s where we first met Nia.)  July’s tip jar – a big one because of Art Fair – went to Groundcover News, which helps housing challenged by creating sales and writing opportunities.  In August, David chose Ozone House, which works with youth.

And in September and October, we’re giving the money to the Breakfast program, which serves a free hot meal every day just a few blocks from our Detroit Street location.

Someday we’ll put up a sign on our tip jar – the 50/50 approach is worth a shout-out, so everyone knows that the quarters and dollars deposited there are enriching our staff and our community too.

 

 
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It’s a Mystery who will show up at the last Second Sunday of the year

Published on September 18, 2012 by in Events, Kerrytown news

It’s called All Things Mysterious, this upcoming special day at the Mity Nice cart and the Sunday Artisan Market. And it will be a day full of surprises and mysteries, with some magic thrown in for good measure.

Yet it started out as a place holder or maybe a joke, when the Mity Nice crew first started planning the Second Sunday events early this spring. We knew we wanted a half year of joyful activities and events, yet we had not yet figured out what our October theme would be. The other five months came to us with ease, but not the last one.

So when we created the schedule and the sweet little postcards that adorn so many refrigerators around town, we wrote in “Mystery” for that month.

Eureka! We had a great idea and eventually we realized it worked perfectly, mixing in a little bit of Halloween with a lot of surprise – including some mystery guests and performers.

So we are sworn to secrecy a lot of this, but some entertainers you’ll recognize from our Mity Nice Street Fair and some are new to the Second Sunday scene. Some may be so mysterious you’ll never know their true identity.

One thing that is no surprise is our Mity Nice Arts & Crafts area, where children and adults play around and make things, whether they be sock puppets, bookmarks or a pirate’s moustache. We’re adding some mystery games near our cart on Detroit Street, too, because games are such fun. (Anyone for another hand of poetry cards?)

What:  A fun family day full of games, crafts, entertainment and many mysteries. (But no mystery meat, we promise. Our cart is all vegetarian and vegan treats!)

When: Sunday, Oct. 14, 11:30 to 3 p.m.

Where: At the Mity Nice cart, on the sidewalk at 303 Detroit Street, and throughout the Sunday Artisan Market

Who: Anyone who enjoys fall, mysteries, sweet treats or art – that’s all of us! Plus our friends from the Leslie Science & Nature Center are coming as our charity partner, and they’re bringing some mystery guests.

Why: Because next to Michigan-made Italian ice and other sweets, what could be more wonderful than a day full of joy and mysteries?

How:  How about creating a secret identity, just for the day of All Things Mysterious. Or maybe you want to pull your copy of Harriet the Spy or Encyclopedia Brown and read something mysterious before you show up.

What else:  We cannot tell you, or it will ruin the mystery and the fun surprises!

 
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Blue moon – dogs, students and dancing this week

Published on August 29, 2012 by in Dogs and pets, Events

The summer’s fun continues to run.

We have a busy week here at Mity Nice, and we’re really looking forward to seeing friends back from vacation and students and staff back to U-M and other local universities. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s up with us:

  • Thursday, Aug. 30 –  We’re heading to Main Street around 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. to welcome Lena and Habana, the Latin American restaurant, to our neighborhood.  If you want a shot of tequila in your Italian ice, start at the cart then step inside!
  • Friday, Aug. 31 – Our first Full Moon, Dogs & Spoon event. Please stop by on Main Street with your friendly dogs, big, small, young or old. We are big dog lovers, and so we’ll have dog treats (courtesy of Dogma Catmantoo in Kerrytown) and a dog game or two. The spoon, of course, refers our wooden spoon so owners and friends can savor late summer heat with a couple of scoops of lemon or lime Italian ice.
  • Saturday, Sept. 1 – Hello Students! Look for us on our North University sidewalk space near Hill Auditorium, starting around 4 p.m. We’ll crack out the Go Blue! Italian ice, and give away a dozen of our Maize & Blueberry muffins to students, then scoop up some sweetness to new and old friends.
  • Sunday, Sept. 2 - Dancing in the Streets. Such a joyful event, with free dance lessons and music and more along Main Street. We have been part of it every year, and we always donate a percent of our sales to the organizers, the Ann Arbor Community of Traditional Dance and Music.  We’ll be there by around 1, and the dancing begins at 2 p.m. with ballroom dance lessons and family dance too.  (Yes, we will dance a bit, when we’re not scooping or pouring drinks.)

We hope to see you at a few of these fun events – dancing shoes and dogs are optional, but joy and friendship and Italian ice are essential!

 

 

 
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Second Sunday: Books are Beautiful

Published on August 29, 2012 by in Events, Kerrytown news

Anyone who knows Vickie knows she adores books and reading. She considered becoming a librarian (and chose another wordsmith occupation – journalist / freelance writer – instead). And she started the Mity Nice Stories on the Steps near our cart, and hopes to continue it for a long time.

So our next Second Sunday event, held in conjunction with the Kerrytown Book Festival, is special, even though it also is considerably smaller than our recent Fairies & Fairy Door Festival or Mity Nice Street Fair.

We are celebrating books, especially books for children and books about fairies and friendship, at the Books are Beautiful Second Sunday.  (We have a couple of new books that we think you’ll really love!) We will read and share our favorite titles – and create a book-related craft project or two, including a custom bookmark.

Then we’ll encourage you to spend time at the wonderful activities in the Book Festival. (We’re supporting the festival by giving all its volunteers a Mity Nice Italian ice sometime in the afternoon.)

What: Children’s arts and crafts table, poet’s corner and story time

When: Sunday, Sept. 9, 12 – 3 p.m.

Where: At the Mity Nice cart, on the sidewalk at 303 Detroit Street

Who: Mity Nice staffers and you

Why: Because we love books and poetry — and celebrating with friends!

How:  Get ready by re-reading your favorite books – we’ll be asking you about them! Then invite along a friend to this lovely afternoon.

What else: At the Kerytown Book Festival make a book with our friends from FLY Art Center, who created the moustaches and wands during our Fairy Festival. There’s also a 3 p.m. session for kids called “Stories about Stories” with a local librarian.

 

 
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More fun with farmers, fairies, dancing and dogs

Published on August 10, 2012 by in Dogs and pets, Events

Every month, on the Second Sunday, we organize and hold a special event at the Sunday Artisan Market, part of our effort to bring more people to see the beauty and savor Kerrytown (and our Italian ice.)

This weekend is our Fairies & Fairy Door Festival, and it is jammed with joyful activities. We hope you have your fairy wings or pirate costume prepared.

Yet Mity Nice lives up to its name, sweetly, with some other fun days and nights planned too. We are celebrating the farmers and other vendors at the Farmers Market and appreciating the return of U-M and other students to Ann Arbor.  And we’re trying a new evening to bring together dogs and dog owners and give them a place to gather together and savor the season.

Here’s a look at some of the joy that gives credence to our slogan “joy and jobs through Italian ice – that’s Mity Nice!”

Weds., Aug. 15 -  Free Farmers Market vendor ice day . Vendors will receive a special coupon, good for one day only, so they can feel our appreciation for how hard they work, and how much they liven up Kerrytown.

Friday, Aug. 17 – Mity Nice Dogs Night Out.  Bring your well-behaved dog down to Main Street for a treat and a chance to sniff and smile at other pooches.  The official event is  7-9 p.m. but we’re dog-friendly all the time. (Our mascot is Dannie, our big brown dog, and she’s likely to come out for the evening.)

Sept. 1 – Hello students night! We’re Mity Nice…. We will set up on our North University space, right near Hill Auditorium, and we’ll hand out some free Maize & Blueberry muffins (limited quantity) and coupons and such. This event also will kick off our fundraising drive, throughout September, to reduce the number of hungry in our community. The funds will go to Food Gatherers, the Breakfast at St. Andrews and a third local anti-hunger charity still to be chosen.

Sept. 5 – Friends & Family Free Ice Frenzy.  You can enjoy as much free Italian ice as you like during this annual event, provided you are friendly with us on Facebook.  Details on the location and hours will be given on our Facebook page!

Besides these activities we’re creating, we also like to join the fun when city codes allow it or when groups invite us in.  So we’ll set up on our Detroit Street spot for Nash Bash, featuring musicians from Nashville, on Aug. 16, and we expect to be on Main Street during Dancing in the Streets, a very fun event on Labor Day that we’ve supported for a few years.

Please share these events with your friends, and stop by and say hello. We have some of the nicest customers and we’re so glad to see you, regardless of whether you’re buying a pint of Italian ice or just bringing Bowser by for a visit.

 

 
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Our new fairy door

Published on August 7, 2012 by in Events, Mity Nice news

Shhhhhhh.

Today, we’re giving you sneak peak at our second fairy door, which was created for us by Master Tinkerer Bob Simmons, of Fairy Hill Woodworksin Ann Arbor. (He’s at the Sunday Artisan Market, one of a handful of vendors with fairy items for children and adults and fairies to take home).

Ours is one of only a tiny number of mobile fairy doors in Michigan. Here’s what it looks like:

The second Mity Nice fairy door, made in Ann Arbor

Our first fairy door, installed last summer, is on hiatus for a while, so we’re excited to have a new one to share with children and adults who visit our cart. (Hint: It’s on the white cart, the one that holds our sink and your lemonade.)

We also  are creating a map of fairy doors in Kerrytown, which will be available Sunday at the Mity Nice Fairies & Fairy Door Festival. We believe we’re one of only three doors that are in or adjacent to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.

Of course, this weekend, more than a dozen artisans will unveil their own fairy doors during our festival too, which is another reason to visit on Sunday.

For those who don’t know, fairy doors can only be opened by fairies or their cousins, pixies and brownies. Humans are not able to pry them open, even for a minute. Instead, you may want to leave a penny, a charm or another gift to stay in the fairies good graces, and to encourage them to show up.

Our fairy friends already have been selling Mity Nice Fairy Ice for more than a year in Ann Arbor.  This door gives them a mobile shop,  a place to come and savor the sweetness and joy of a Michigan-made treat.  They, like so many, are fans of both the Italian ice and the kindness and whimsey, joy and charitable support we dish up regularly.

 

 

 
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Fairy games, crafts and fun coming Aug. 12

Published on July 31, 2012 by in Events, Mity Nice news

Fairy Photo

If you’ve never seen a fairy in Ann Arbor, perhaps it’s time you started hanging out at the Mity Nice cart. They like to stop by around dusk, and play a few games and pick up an itty bitty Italian ice to take home to their brothers and sisters.

Or better yet, come by on Sunday, Aug. 12 for the Fairies & Fairy Door Festival, when fairies and humans will mix and mingle and enjoy an afternoon of fun and games, arts and crafts.

We have some surprised planned, so we can’t tell you everything. But here’s some highlights of our fairy and pirate event:

  • The folks at FLY Art Center will provide some wonderful craft activities. Fairy fans will be able to make a wand and a tiara and pirates and their pals can create their own villainous mustache and a hook from tin foil and a cup.  (They also are our non-profit partner, so a percent of all Italian ice and food sales from Mity Nice will go directly to this great group.)
  • Children and adults are encouraged to dress up as fairies or pirates, and join the costume contest at 1:30 p.m.  (No sharp swords please.)

    Fairy Photo

  • The folks from BrickBash, the cool Lego-building festival, are bringing out some of their favorites to share with our guests.
  • A face painter will be available to give you a flower or some fairy dust or perhaps a patch over your eye or a terrifying scar, if you’re a pirate. Thanks to the kind support of LilyGrace, the luxury cosmetics boutique on Main Street, we will offer free face painting for most of the event.
  • We will offer an array of fairy games and dances – some of them will be magical. (Yes, you can play even if you have no wings or magical powers.)
  • Hear stories of fairies and fairy adventures, listen to fairy tales in some storytimes on the steps.
  • See some new fairy doors that are popping up, both at the Mity Nice cart and throughout the Artisan Market.
  • Try some treats made by local fairies and their cousins, the sprites and brownies.
  • Buy some amazing fairy items – including some locally made fairy doors and wands and some postcards, crowns and books from the Mity Nice Fairie Shop.  We appreciate Nicola’s Books for handing over most of the fairy books that will available.
The event starts at 11 a.m., though mosf the children’s activities and crafts will commence at noon, at the Sunday Artisan Market in Kerrytown, and at the Mity Nice cart. If you flit by early enough, though, creep by and spy on the fairy circle just a little after dawn at Wheeler Park.
This event is organized by Mity Nice and Integrity Shows in partnership with the Fairy Council #3 and the Sunday Artisan Market.
Thanks to our sponsors LilyGrace Cosmetics and Tea Haus of Ann Arbor for their support.
Copyright Mity Nice LLC

 

 
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