Hello my long neglected blog! How are you? I’ve missed you. I’ve also missed writing about my adventures in baking and cooking and that particular creative piece of me. Thus, with the end of 2015 and a new year beginning, I’d like to set a few intentions for this space.
First, I will be here. I mean that. I will be here on this blog and I will share my successes, my failures, my adventures, and my tips for baking without being so caught up in the panic that a bubbling over pot or some seized chocolate can create.
Now that we’ve got that little promise out of the way. Let’s talk about what I’ve been up to and what I’ll be doing this year.
In March of 2015, the day job I’d had for over six years ended and my idea to start up a blog about baking and a store where I could sell my baked goods became more of a focus and less of an idea. In April, I was licensed by the state of Maine (that’s where I’m coming to you from) to create and sell baked goods out of my home. At that point, I opened an Etsy store (God, I love Etsy! Don’t you?!) featuring some of my best cookies, a granola everyone loves, a few sweet breads.
The first month or so, I did pretty well. Then the orders dwindled. I’ve never been much of a marketer so I had to figure out what I could do to draw people in. I already had a few people order via my posts on Instagram so I continued my habit of posting whatever I was making.
In August, I provided goodies for two charity events. No money from that but so much fun and so many happy people. I’ve heard that you have to give your talent away for free for a long time before you’ll really make any money from it. That is just fine with me.
On to my awesome news! About a month ago, I received a message on Etsy to join a team. The teams are kicking around for sellers to help each other out. Wouldn’t you know, it was a team that makes subscription boxes! Now I had just so happened to be discussing the idea of starting a subscription box but wasn’t at all sure how to go about it. And then poof! This happens. So I joined the team and went to check out their subscription box and see if I wanted to be a part of it.
The Out of The Box Sampler Box is just what it sounds like: a box full of samples. The samples all come from stores on Etsy and each box has its own theme. I signed up to contribute right away! I’ll be contributing the whole year so, look forward to posts about the Flavor of the Month! Each month, whatever I’ve included in the sample box will be available on my store for the same month so you can get it in the sample box if your a subscriber or order it full size from the store.
Now to the other fun adventure I’ve decided to take on this year. You know the book, blog, and movie Julie & Julia? God, I love that movie. I have the book but I haven’t read it yet. I adore Julia Child and loved the idea of just making yourself attack an entire cookbook and just making everything in it. I’ve wanted to do something like that ever since.
A few months ago, I became consumed with the idea of making space before I needed to get all the Christmas decorations out. I have a small storage room in my home and in one corner was this pile of 40 boxes. These boxes were full of who knew what. So I began sorting through and reorganizing. In the bottom of a pile of pictures in a box was a plastic bag full of things from my grandmother’s house.
My grandmother on my mother’s side passed away 17 years ago. When she passed away we each took a few mementos and her photos were split up between the kids. My mom got custody of Nana’s recipe books. Nana was an amazing cook and an even better baker. She made everything pretty much from scratch and most of it by memory. She rarely wrote any of her own recipes down unless someone asked her too, so it’s amazing how many we actually had in this bag. When I found the bag, I instantly sat down and started thumbing through it.
There it was, her scrawly handwriting on faded notebook paper. I decided to pop them into a new notebook for safe keeping. Then I realized, these were some pretty fascinating recipes and wouldn’t it be fun to test them out and see what we actually liked now.
So I’ve created a challenge for myself. This year, I will try out my grandmother’s collection of recipes. At least one a month. Now here’s the kicker, my grandmother’s recipes rarely have instructions. Usually it’s just a temperature on the oven and a list of ingredients, so this will truly be an adventure. I can’t wait to get started and share this adventure with you.
So there you have it! My intentions for 2016! I hope you’ll join me and give yourself your own adventure in baking this year. Remember, there’s nothing to worry about, just trust your nose and your gut and your good to go.
I hope 😉
Worry Free by Erika B 