Clear The Way OrganizingMost people call a plumber when their pipes break.  Or an electrician when they need new wiring.  So it only makes sense to call professional organizers when you need help streamlining.  That's what Linda Story and Robin Dubovi thought when they started their business, Clear The Way Organizing.  "Robin said she thought about running an organizing business," says Story.  "She had watched 'Mission: Organization and Cleansweep' and gee, that would be a fun, easy thing to do."

Not so easy for many people, but with Dubovi's background as a social worker and Story's experience as an educator and journalist, working with people to help set priorities and clear away the clutter of life seemed a natural fit.  "What Robin and I have in common is that we are compassionate and interested in making life easier and better quality for anybody we work with," Story says.  "That was the underlying goal."

"If it's not fun, it's not worth doing," says Carolyn Greenwald.  And she is definitely having fun as the owner of Collegetown Candy & Nuts on Dryden Road just east of College Ave.  The shop specializes in choose-your-own candy and gift baskets, and caters to the Cornell crowd.

A Cornell graduate, Greenwald worked as an anti-trust litigator in a large law firm in New York City for two years.  When she and her husband to be Adam Schaye decided to move back here she landed a job at the Harris Beech firm within three weeks.  But being a litigator in Ithaca wasn't as exciting as it is in New York City.  "I wanted to own my own business and then I turned 30 and 9/11 happened," she recalls.  "It was both of those things.  My job was boring.  I didn't have enough work.  I said I was going to open a candy store, and enough people rolled their eyes at me that I did it."

Cornerstone Veterinary HospitalWhen you walk into a business you instantly get a sense of the atmosphere.  Some are all business, some aggressive, others homey.  When you walk into Cornerstone Veterinary Hospital you get a sense that this is a friendly place where competent professionals take pride in their business and their work.  The practice, owned by veterinarians Anne Shakespeare and Christine Armao, opened last May a few doors down from the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Ithaca.  "We wanted to have a downtown practice," says Shakespeare.  "We thought this was a great location.  It's right off route 13, we have plenty of parking, a wonderful landlady, and we were just thrilled."

"We plan to stay small and intimate, and warm," she explains.  "We don't want to be a big practice.  We want to be a family-feel practice where we can provide long-term care."  And that includes interaction with pet owners.  "You are seeing people who are looking for answers, people who have animals and are showing their affection for their animals.  You get to witness that and help them with that and you get to help them make really hard decisions about their animal, and feel like you are really making a difference."

Crystal's Spa"When you walk in the door and you have your music and you have people who say hello to you, and you feel like it's a friendly place and everybody knows your name, that feels good, that feels homey, that feels comfortable, that's nice," Crystal's Spa owner Crystal Mullenix says.  "A lot of time that's all you need when you're having a bad day, or work is just getting to you, or your boss is being a bit of a dork.  Or your family is demanding just too much of you.  It's nice to just come in and sit down and put your feet in the pedicure chair.  We laugh all the time in here.  We laugh in here constantly, all that kind of energy."

A lot of that energy comes from Mullenix herself, as she talks a mile a minute about her business, which is also her passion.  She thrives on people, taking great pleasure in getting to know her customers and giving them what they want.  That's what prompted her to take the leap four years ago from being a hair stylist to opening her own spa.

David Feeney II, AttorneyIt may seem like a long way from a huge Wall Street law firm to a one man business law practice.  Dave Feeney's South Hill practice offers the best of both those worlds, an experienced corporate defense attorney who brings that background to working with Ithaca businesses, small and large.  Feeney started his current practice just over a year ago, and he does a little bit of everything except criminal defense and matrimonial law.

"I started out as a young associate in New York City who had to bill a minimum of 60 hours a week or get fired," he says.  "Now I get in my car every day, drive my one and a half miles to work, and my mantra is how may I serve?  What can I do to help other people using my experience, skill, and knowledge as a lawyer?"

If you do special exercises that connect your mind and body you may be one of more than 11 million people who practise Contrology.  That's what Joseph Pilates called the exercises he developed in the early 1900s.  Later he developed machines that required going to a studio to exercise.

But fitness and Pilates instructor Deborah Newman wanted to go back to basics, using mat exercises and concepts Pilates wrote about when he first introduced his system.  She says she didn't want her clients to have to rely on machines  or exercising in a studio.  "I wanted to step away from that," she explains.  "I wanted to offer a Pilates-based program that people could learn from me and do in their homes."

Decorum, tooFor a lot of people walking into Decorum, too is like coming home.  An elegant, yet accessible home filled with genuine Turkish rugs, beautiful and sturdy furniture, and local art.  After a hiatis of several years, Alan Nemcek has reopened a store that has been a long-time landmark on the Ithaca landscape.

"I always felt this is like a museum," he says.  "People could come in any time, not be hassled to buy, and enjoy the beautiful ethnic art that's here.  People came in and eventually we became friends.  Eventually most of them bought from me, too.  That wasn't the intention and I think they know that.  And that's exactly what I do right now."

It is probably be safe to say that nobody in Lansing makes as many cakes in a year as Dottie Munson.  Munson is the proprietor of Dottie's Ice Cream who specializes in cakes made to order, all made in a special kitchen in her home.  She makes both ice cream cakes and baked ones, from simple frosted cakes to multi-tiered cakes with flowers.

She operated the Baskin Robbins franchise at the pyramid Mall for 18 years.  "The kids could work with me and we could be together," she says.  After 18 years Pyramid didn't want small franchises any more, so she formed her own business selling Hershey's Ice Cream and making cakes.  Her daughter-in-law named it "Dottie's Ice Cream."

When you drive around Lansing you are almost sure to see a Duthie Painting Company truck.  The company has been in business for more than 40 years, since Bill Duthie graduated from Cornell University with a business degree and decided he didn't want to be stuck behind a desk.

"He started painting when he went to Cornell," says Heidi VanOstrand, who has worked for Duthie for nearly 30 of those years.  "He did some other jobs after that, and he decided he didn't want to be in an office setting.  He enjoyed the painting part.  You're not doing the same job continuously.  You may have a job that takes a year to do, but it's not continuous.  You move from house to house.  You meet new people.  You're inside on bad days and outside on great days."

Visitors to the Lansing Post Office have seen a new shop coming to life next door for the past two months.  Two weeks ago Dynamic Ceramics opened its doors, and already the shop is creating a buzz.  The business is a 'paint your own pottery' studio where customers choose from a large selection of bisque pieces, and get to paint and glaze them in the shop.

"This has been a dream of mine for two and a half years," says owner Diana Kennedy.  "My daughters and I went to a shop very similar to this in Corning.  I fell in love!  We had the very best day, all our friends together.  I said to the owner, Why isn't there a shop in Ithaca?  This is the perfect kind of shop for the Ithaca area."

A lot of people think that the big gray barn that is Eastlake Recreation Club is a private health club.  That is an image that its manager Mike Herbster wants to dispel. Aside from offering January specials, Herbster likes to emphasize features that set his club apart from the others and will draw new members to the Lansing facility.  He points to the indoor tennis court and a unique indoor playground as examples.  About two months ago the club opened its new iPsyclin studio.

"We're not going for the whole fitness market, but a program like this is unique to the building," says owner Mark Leathers.  "It offers something special.  As we develop we may add additional stuff, but at the moment this is the next step."

Elaine Derby has been a portrait photographer for 28 years.  After closing her downtown Syracuse studio two and a half years ago she now lives and works in Ithaca.  She has photographed hundreds of children from infants to four- year- olds over the years.  Since moving here she has expanded her specialties from children's portraiture to include high school seniors, pregnancy, and business photography.

"Whether I'm doing a child or an adult or a high school senior the part I enjoy the most is getting to know them and getting them to feel comfortable enough to trust me so they can be themselves," she says.  "That's important, especially with the business owners I have been working with, because a lot of women especially don't like to be photographed.  So my job is to help them feel comfortable enough so they can show a part of themselves that is hard to show.  I'm good at allowing people that space."