When  you are in the infancy of a business,there ‘s generally one rule…. it’s “one in….all in”.  It’s  an all consuming affair for the founders , their immediate family and in a lot of cases their extended family. Lots of our extended family are not  “blood relations”  but they may as well be.

It is well documented  in many cases  that the ability for a business to “Kick  on” in the early stages  is as a result of the support of  some True  Believers .  In our case….its to those that understand the Dello Mano dream. Those believers include our family, close friends and our beautiful small  team in the kitchen.

This leads me onto our special friends Nic and Michael.  N & M were some of our first friends when we  moved cross town 5 or so years ago.  We’re sure that they lovingly think Bien & I are nuts. They’ve seen the nutty  things that we’ve done to get things rolling . Crazy we may be and giggle they might at some of our extreme exploits but they have always amazingly supported us and so very often joined in the exploits and madness.

Some years ago, we started the tradition of our families having News Year Lunch/Day/Evening together.   After lunch, few Sauv Blancs and Moscatos to welcome 2011, our attention turned to popping some x’mas crackers , enjoyable conversation and the consumption of  naturally Dello Mano Chocolate Brownies.

Amidst all of the frivolity , we noticed that Nicole had transformed the Cracker  waste into curious and intriguing works of art which we officially named  “Cracker Craft”.  It may yet be an untapped discovery.

Fast Forward to May 2011. We decided to go on our French Sojourn to seek inspiration and stimulation. This was a big step for us as we’d never left the business in 5 years.   Our impromptu ( there’s no time like the present ) trip.

So in steps Nic! She understood the importance of our trip and bingo….she’s onto it.

She organises to juggle  her three Kids (all very mature 🙂 ), run a household and another job, be in the Brownie kitchen and help Dello Mano everyday, organise a house sitter for our stay, find Beautiful Julia to help keep the sales motor running and so much more. Without her, our trip would not have been possible.

As Nic couldn’t come with us, we decided that we needed the essence of Nic with us during our travels. So we decided to invite Crack Craft with us.

We’ decided that Cracker Craft had a real place amidst the glamour and chic of Paris so here you’ll see Cracker craft in situ in Paris.  For those reading, please indulge our frivolity for a moment as it is Friend like Nic, a real believer that help build dreams and makes the dream so much better as we share it.  Somehow or other lugging cracker craft across the world felt like we had brought Nic (and her family) with us as we joked taking photos of cracker craft in Paris with many on lookers staring wondering what we were doing!

Cracker Craft takes on Paris and climbs the Eiffel Tower

Cracker Craft Seeing the Sights  La Tour Eiffel by Night

Cracker Craft Braves the Metro (and comes out slightly better off than Dello Mano !)

Cracker Craft rubs shoulders with Prada and Gucci

Cracker Craft adorns a stylish bistro table in Paris adding just that little bit extra to table presentation.

And of course we have always felt Cracker Craft had a place in the top department stores of Paris so here is Cracker Craft riding high above Galleries Lafayette.

Thanks Nic! – Dello Mano and all of us so, so grateful!