Last week I visited The Blue Kite Boutique at the Sims Place shopping center in Springhill, where I found some interesting merchandise and a great story.

Marla Stanton of Conway is the owner of the shop, which opened Aug. 11. She has a degree in film making and has traveled the world, but we’ll get to all that in a minute.

Anyone who enjoys looking at crafts on Pinterest (you know who you are) or crafts anywhere, I suppose, would probably understand this store. I’ll admit to contributing more than a few clicks on the highly addictive, time-destroying, website collage that is Pinterest. And sure, I’ve looked at lots of do-it-yourself projects and thought, “I could totally do that!” Only to go right back to pinning.

My hat is off to people who use their time and creativity to make something useful or beautiful. Stanton has opened up her shop to all kinds of local artisans who make things that fit the mood of the shop. She has artwork, jewelry, home decor, baby and children’s items, etc. The merchandise is made by a lot of different people, so many different personalities come through.

Back to Stanton’s story. She has been involved with mission work in the past (thus her world travels), and when it became clear that she would have to move on from that part of her life, she still wanted to be involved with it in some way. So she started The Blue Kite Project, through which she will give a small percentage of the profits plus any donations collected to a mission project. Her first project focuses on helping impoverished Gypsies in Romania.

Opening the boutique was made possible by friends of hers who hired her part-time and gave her an office space in Sims Place. They told her as part of her payment, they wanted her to open her store in the space. She said of the couple, “They wanted to help me fulfill my dream.”

Recently I called the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to find out if there were any new permits, and there was a conditionally approved permit (pending health department approval) for a place called TC’s Midtown Grill North at 1611 East Oak St.

I drove by the address and saw no signs of this place being close to opening, but I did find an unfinished website and a Facebook page with little information, both of which had maps indicating the spot on East Oak Street.

The home page at tcsmidtown.com, to summarize, says it will be a 21-and-up private club, no children allowed, with smoking permitted indoors, serving burgers and the like.

That is all.

(Rachel Parker Dickerson is a freelance columnist/journalist. Send your questions and comments to rachelpdickerson@gmail.com)