A new spot for parties and pastries has opened in downtown Clayton.

Tracie Mae has opened Paint It Red Parties & Internet Café in a 3,600-square-foot home. The café offers specialty coffees, pastries, smoothies and healthy snacks, such as granola bars, cheese and yogurt. Customers have access to the Internet and in-house computers.

Mae, a paramedic, decided to open the café so locals would not be tempted to go outside of Johnston County for a cup of coffee and some alone time. “I am tired of having to drive out to Raleigh to do anything for my children,” said Mae, who lives in Clayton. “Two-and-half years ago, when I was on maternity leave with my baby, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great just to have a place to hang out during the daytime hours.’”

Paint it Red offers various rooms for parties, receptions and meetings for up to 200 people. Most of the parties come with packages that provide invitations or favors for guests. Four rooms are decorated in pirate, princess, cowboy and tea party themes. Movie nights and live music, including an evening for musicians to play their own acoustic instruments, will start soon.

“We will have Young Chefs on Monday nights where we teach the little ones how to cook,” Mae said. “They make baked goods, pastries, cookies and candies. It’s kids ages 3-7 in one group and 8-12 in another group.”

Paint It Red Parties & Internet Café is at 115 E. First St. Hours are 7:30 a.m. till 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 7 p.m. till midnight by appointment only on Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment only on Sundays. The telephone number is 553-8317. The Web site, www.paintitred.net, is under construction.

Decorating Cents

Linda Stevens has opened Decorating Cents, an interior design business, out of her Smithfield home.

A professor at East Carolina University, Stevens taught for 17 years at Smithfield Junior High School and was principal at Wilson’s Mill Elementary, Smithfield Middle and North Johnston High schools.

She has been helping friends and relatives decorate their homes for more than 30 years. “I was just ready to start a different career,” said Stevens, former executive director of the N.C. Standards Board for Public Administrators.

Stevens serves clients in Wake, Johnston, Wayne and surrounding counties. Services include designing a home, decorating a home for parties or events and setting a budget for clients.

“My experience over a 30-year span, acquired while helping friends and family decorate their homes, has provided [me] expertise with a wide range of decorating styles,” Stevens said. “My goal is to provide clients with an affordable and creative design for their homes.”

For more information, contact Stevens at 631-2614 or at decoratingcents@nc.rr.com. Hours are by appointment only.

PlayAttention

Eastern Carolina Cognitive Training Center, which is housed inside Clayton Counseling Services, has been recognized as a certified PlayAttention Learning Center.

Drs. LoriAnn Stretch, Dan Shattuck and Wendy Gupton-Harris developed ECCTC to address the needs of children, adolescents and adults with attention and focus problems.

Individuals with Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD, and brain trauma are candidates for PlayAttention. “For the very first time, PlayAttention allows individuals to ‘see’ one’s attention in real time,” according to a press release. “Using the brain as a ‘joystick’ or ‘mouse,’ the training program addresses learning to focus and lessen distractibility, visual tracking, time on-task, short-term memory sequencing and discriminatory processing.”

ECCTC, at 9933 U.S. 70 West in Clayton, offers memberships with an initial enrollment fee. For more information, call 359-9070.