Class will get kids cooking

There are all kinds of businesses that will teach your kids everything from how to play guitar to how to paint a landscape.

Now a new Cary business will teach them how to cook.

Classy Kids Cook, at 1240 NW Maynard Road, offers full-day, half-day or after-school cooking classes. You can also sign your children up for weeklong camps, birthday parties or their very own "Iron Chef" competition, where they are asked to create four dishes using a "secret ingredient."

Proprietor Tessy Santos-Medley worked for 16 years flying all over the country giving financial lectures about retirement and investing. But, after working in a youth ministry, she wanted to open a business and wanted it to be centered on kids.

"Kids need to feel good about themselves," said Santos-Medley, a New York native who lives in Cary. She said she was floored when she found some children didn't know how to make ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies.

Kids as young as 6 can take a class, though younger students use safety knives and are heavily supervised when using appliances.

And, if mom or dad could use a lesson or two, Santos-Medley has also added adults-only classes and a parent-child class for kids younger than 6.

Two-hour sessions are $40. The Iron Chef competition is $55. A week of camp runs $385. Find out more at www.classykidscook.com.

Last month, I wrote about Taiseer "Taz" Zarka, the downtown Raleigh entrepreneur who has a vision of operating four separate stores that together would add up to the equivalent of a major grocery store downtown.

Taz's has now opened the third of the four stores, at 333 S. Wilmington St., selling nonfood items, such as household supplies. The lease for the fourth store, he said, is under negotiation now.

It's still August, but Halloween stores are already here. The Halloween and More store is open in Durham at The Streets at Southpoint. The company also will open in Raleigh's North Hills in September.

Even though I write hundreds of e-mail messages a week, I still think there's something so much more personal about receiving a handwritten note. So does Raleigh resident Alison Kim McLaurin.

McLaurin already produces her own line of notecards under the name Tikilynn Cards & Notes, but now she is opening a retail shop called Cute Buttons Gift and Paper Boutique. Located at 312 W. Chatham St. in Cary, Cute Buttons will open Sept. 4 and will sell Tikilynn products plus a wide range of other paper and stationery. It also will sell bath items, shirts, handbags and other gifts.

OTHER ITEMS: Fantastic Sam's is open at 4458 Fayetteville Road. ... In Morrisville, Floor Coverings International will open a showroom in two weeks at 134 Morrisville Square Way. The company also has mobile showrooms that bring flooring samples to you. ... The Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA is offering classes in the Oak Park Shopping Center at 5218 Hollyridge Drive in Raleigh. ... A leather repair shop called Santana Creative opened at 4817 Hargrove Road, Suite 107, in Raleigh, specializing in high end leather handbags and shoes. It is closed Sundays.