Milagros

This weeks feature is near and dear to me with a newborn that just joined our family. Since 2004 Milagros has offered wonderful natural, fairly-made, and recycled products for families. They carry everything from carriers, shoes, cloth diapers, maternity and breast feeding supplies.

From the beginning, the goal for Milagros has been to be more than just a fun place to shop. They strive to provide a welcoming atmosphere at Milagros. A place where families can feel at ease browsing for clothing, learning about attachment parenting, getting questions answered about cloth diapers and breastfeeding, or just hanging out and visiting.

Milagros also reflects their values of being community-oriented on the local and global level. This commitment is reflected in their choice of products, support of charities such as MercyCorps and La Leche League, and direct support of neighborhood celebrations such as Concerts in the Park, Sunday Parkways, and the Fox Chase Family Artwalk.

So if you know of someone that is expecting, expecting yourself or you have a little one that you would like to spoil make sure you visit Milagros first. I know we have sent family there and will be making stops there ourselves here soon.

For those of you wondering about little Ella I used this feature to sneak in a new picture of her to the right.

No Ride Friday 9/4

Sorry everyone but we are not having a ride today. I am at home with a sick baby and Bill is not quite back on the bike yet. We are thinking of switching to Wednesday afternoon for the ride as work is making it tough for me to get out on Friday's as well. Please leave comments to let me know what you think or shoot me an email businessonabike@gmail.com. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.

Substance

Substance is an interactive brand strategy agency located in inner Southeast Portland. "The passionate voice of interactive brand strategy and creative experiences" Substance is dedicated to creating exceptional online experiences for brands that matter by delivering website design and development, branded applications, mobile development and interactive brand consultation.

In business since 2007, Substance has developed interactive brand experiences for the Portland Trail Blazers, Travel Oregon, bambu home furnishings and Climate Path. Most recently, they have launched Ride Oregon to promote cycling related tourism across the entire state of Oregon and working in partnership with another local agency, Weights and Pulleys, they designed and produced Beloved Cycles/Oregon Cycle Works .

A bike-friendly business, over half the company are regular bicycle commuters and are looking to take on all challengers in next month's Bike Commute Challenge. To learn more, visit us at http://findsubstance.com
or follow them on twitter at http://twitter.com/substance

As a side note I still think the Blazers made the right choice of taking Oden over Durant. Rings will mean more than than All-Stars and MVP's!

Portland Pedal Works

A few weeks back we were joined on the ride by Ryan Hashagen who runs Portland Pedal Works located at 345 NW Everett St. I decided to end my ride at the shop which he affectionately calls an incubator for bicycle business ideas. From the conversation on our ride as well as visiting the shop it was evident to me how passionate Ryan is about bikes and the culture in the Portland area.

Included in his shop are a number of local bike related businesses that you have most likely seen around town. Included are Portland Pedicabs, Icicle Tricycles, and Portland Bicycle Rental/Tours. My favorite is the Icicle Tricycles which I have chased down a couple of times to enjoy an icy treat this hot summer. I encourage anyone to stop by and take a look at his shop or better yet catch a ride from one of the pedicabs or enjoy a treat from an Icicle Tricycle. As you can see our very own Mayor Sam Adams decided to enjoy their services for a ride around town with Eva Longoria earlier this month during their visit to the Left Bank Project to promote The Greenville Project.



For those of you Tweeters out there follow @Portlandpedals for more information. Normal contact to the shop can be made by calling 360-510-1818.

Clogs-N-More

This week it is my pleasure to help promote the opening of a new location for one of our members. Clogs-N-More first opened the doors to their downtown Portland location in 1996. The mission then is the same as it is today; get people into comfortable shoes. Next Saturday August 15th they will be opening their 5th and newest location at 617 NW 23rd.

Years ago the term "comfort shoes" often made people think clunky, heavy, orthopedic. Now, thanks to the designers, sleek, sophisticated, stylish are the buzz words.

They strive to provide not only the best customer service, but also the largest selection of comfort shoes and clogs. Often you hear people enter the stores gasping on their way in by the sheer volume of clogs. If you have questions or need guidance, do not hesitate to call one of their locations for help.

I know from experience their great service as my wife's feet stay happy from the Dansko's she bought at their Westmoreland location. So if you are shopping or eating in the 23rd area anytime soon stop on by and say hello to a great local shop that is helping keep Portland's feet happy.

Ella Lynn

I am so happy to introduce you all to the newest member of my family. Please meet Ella Lynn who was born Tuesday 7/21 at 12:18 PM. On 7/16 I wrote a post looking for advice on how to induce labor and we tried most everything to help us get to this happy point of meeting little miss Ella and I thank you all for the response. Ella weighed in at a wopping 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 21 inches long. As you can see from the picture she is definately a cutey that has daddy wrapped around her little finger.

The blog should be back on schedule in the coming weeks as sleep starts to come around for us. We are also looking into possibly changing up a ride or two to the East side so please feel free to leave comments as to your thoughts, thank you for the support and patience as we go through this transition in life.

Andy Harris

Our featured member this week is Andrew Harris who is an attorney with Markun Zusman Compton LLP. He is a great resource for startups and small companies pretty much from beginning to end with specialization regarding intellectual property and commercial matters. To contact Andy visit his blog at http://www.mzclaw.com/blog

We will loop back to the NW Lucky Lab after an hour and a half of riding today but if you are up for a longer ride one of our members is looking for some more time on the bike. If you are unable to make it have a nice weekend