I am getting ready for Valentine's Day and if you know me, that's a miracle. I am THE queen of procrastination. It's terrible, really. Anyhow, this year I am vowing to change certain things, and being a habitual dilly dallyer is one of them.
Yesterday I sent out a newsletter to my customers and brides, past, present and future. My newsletter isn't anything grand. I have a contest, but I don't give away big fancy things like other bloggers. I'm not there yet. I give away money off your order or a free dessert of some sort. The reward this newsletter is $14 off or an order of red or pink velvet whoopie pies! The $14 is because of Valentines Day. So clever.
Normally I buy my kids something along the lines of a stuffed animal and candy and put a love note in my middle child's lunchbox. She appreciates small gestures. The youngest, who's 4, doesn't go to school (but he starts in approximately 206 days!) and doesn't read yet so he doesn't get the note. And the oldest, the Teenager, doesn't want a note. He doesn't want anything. But this year, since it falls on a Sunday, I decided I would go all out. Food will be heart shaped, notes will be written, heart garland will be hung, kisses will be planted. Because I need to change the energy of my environment and now I can do it without my motives being obvious. Plus I feel the need to be unabashedly silly for my kids this year. I want to do things that my kids will talk about when they're older and reminiscing at 2am. If you have siblings you know what exactly what I mean.
Don't hate the team, love the cake! This is what I think is a cute cake done for a Duke basketball fan. I did his birthday cake last year and was told it was by far the best cake they had ever eaten! I love it when customers are that pleased with their order visually, but it's especially flattering when they love the way it tastes. It is a 9x13 chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.
With the holidays behind us it's time to get back to the blog. Feels like confession..."Bless me bloggers for I have sinned. It has been 3 months since my last blog entry." But the time since my last blog entry hasn't been in vain. I have been 'researching'. You see, I got an early Christmas gift from my hubby, a Blackberry, aka crackberry (nicknamed appropriately for good reason) and I can't put it down. I downloaded Snaptu on it and have easy access to Twitter and Facebook and love the portability of it. No bulky laptop. So while I am finding amazing cake decorators, sugar artists and chefs on Twitter, I am also finding their amazing blogs. I will start posting their links as my favorites here in the near future.
They have been a welcome distraction to an otherwise difficult personal time. I will sum it up with one word. Teenagers. And that's all I have to say about that.
On the business front, December was slow, and that was a good thing. I found it, surprisingly, a relief. I didn't have too many wedding cakes and the same cake after cake with polka dots isn't too inspiring, but its what's requested so its what I do. Honestly I was starting to feel a little burnt out. But its a new year!!! Good things only, right? I have tastings lined up and I am running a wedding cake special (check out my site!) so I am hoping this year starts at a good pace. I have some ideas in the works for brides who are looking to save on wedding costs. I hear DIY weddings are a continuing trend so it will correlate nicely.
I also plan on starting 'The 21 day Consciousness Cleanse' courtesy of Debbie Ford by way of Oprah. It seems to be beneficial according to the reviews on Amazon and what better time than a fresh calendar year to embark on a cleanse? Not to mention it comes with goodies on Oprah's site. I love Oprah and think she is wicked inspiring. I was watching the show when she announced her last year and I am not ashamed to say, Oprah, I cried along with ya girl! But she's going to have her OWN network so I am looking forward to seeing what that brings. In the early days of talk shows that were redundant 'who's your daddy' shows, she became a breath of fresh air and a source of great spiritual information in my early adult years.
I hope all of you had wonderful holidays. I wish all of you different, fun and a wildly successful 2010!
