Tag Archives: Ann Arbor

Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Start of our summer schedule

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Waiting for the Independence Day Parade to start in 2013 with Tea Haus friends.

Summertime is a season of plenty. And we will be part of plenty of good community events and art fairs this year.  We’re still adding events but here’s an early look at the joyful and delicious events for 2016:

June 12 – Grillin’ – the delicious fundraiser for Food Gatherers. Buy your ticket now – and provide lots of                     meals through soup kitchens, senior centers and more.

June 29 – Mity Nice Friends & Family Free Day. Like us on Facebook and you lick us for free!

July 4 – Independence Day Parade.  A fun community celebration produced by the Jaycees in downtown                  Ann Arbor.  Starts at 10, but arrive by 9:15 for best seating.

July 10 – Huron River Day. Come savor life, music, kayaking on the river. Fun family event produced by                    the Park Department.

July 18 –  Townie Party.  Music, youth art, food, fun and more to warm up for the Art Fair.

July 21-24 — Ann Arbor Art Fair.

Aug. 6 & 7 –  Belle Isle Art Fair in Detroit

In between all this, we are available for company picnics, family reunions and summer celebrations, weddings, bat mitzvahs, block parties and more.  We like backyard and park and neighborhood fun as well as the big events!

Art Fair 2013, near the Diag.
Art Fair 2013, near the Diag.

 

charities, Mity Nice news

Why we dive in the deep end of charity

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Volunteers at Grillin’ 2013 just before the fundraiser started. (Food Gatherers photo)

Mity Nice is committed to supporting at least a dozen charities and local organizations each summer and fall as our way of making our world a little sweeter.

We have a few every-year causes that we support well, every year, including Food Gatherers and Groundcover News. (We’ve been at Food Gathers’ summer fundraiser Grillin’  for almost every year we’ve been in business.) And we add in a variety of other causes., all from the Ann Arbor – Detroit – Ypsilait area.

So why do we give so often and to so many nonprofits?

We would rather donate to charities than spend on marketing and promotions. We always feel we’re in such good company when a charity is our partner, and when we are helping a good cause.  We want to be a social enterprise and encourage volunteering and generosity.

Plus as co-founder Vickie Elmer often says: “Whe you name your company Mity Nice, you must do Mity Nice things all the time.”  Later this fall, we’re going to share a compilation of those kind things our crew has done.

Right now we’re focused on raising support and increasing the volunteers for an array of charities. So please come out for our Lucky 7 charity series – and bring along your appetite and a friend or three.

charities, Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Sweet charity series

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Mity Nice believes in charity and giving back – in our daily operations and after we tally up any profits at yearend.

This year, we’re planning a fall charity fun-raiser – for seven charities!  This is a big undertaking for a little company,  yet we can’t help but feel excited and hopeful: We want to raise awareness, raise new volunteers – and donate a healthy share of our total sales each day to good local causes.

Here’s the schedule of charities:

While we have the charities, we still are looking for some fun for this fun-raiser – street musicians, performers, sidewalk poets or magicians who will join us. Interested? Drop us a line at busker@mitynice.com and let us know what charities and what days you’d like to play.
Even if you couldn’t dance or play music in public, you can participate. Share details of our fun-raiser with your friends – and bring a bunch of them down. Buy a pineapple Italian ice or a lemonade, an Italian soda or a Maize & Blueberry muffin – and we will give to the cause of the day.
Join us for seven days of sweet charity!
Events, Mity Nice news

Circling in on our Mysterious Sunday event

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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.

Events, Kerrytown news

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

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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!

Dogs and pets, Events

Blue moon – dogs, students and dancing this week

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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!

 

 

Dogs and pets, Events

More fun with farmers, fairies, dancing and dogs

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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.

 

Events, Mity Nice news

Our new fairy door

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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.

 

 

Events, Mity Nice news

Fairy games, crafts and fun coming Aug. 12

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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.
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