I made it!

OK...so last week I wasn't so sure I was gonna come out "alive" and well enough to write another blog!

Now that I have grabbed your attention with the flare for the dramatic, I shall proceed. You see, the orders just kept coming and coming and coming and before you knew it, I looked at my little ol' oven and mixer and we had a Come to Jesus meeting.

I told them that our customers were expecting a lot out of them and we couldn't let them/you all down. Maggie (our mixer) seemed to struggle a teeny bit, grinding is a better description really. But she pulled (and kneaded and whipped) through it. Our oven (he doesn't have a name yet) did great! We are starting to call him "the little oven that could" and he does. I could not put into words the amount of bread and cookies and pies and cakes that kept coming out of my oven in a nonstop fashion. But I can say this -- it was literally TWICE as much as I thought possible!

So to all of my customers -- thank you for your orders. Thank you for working us so hard and letting us prove that we could do it. I was very prideful in all the products we produced this holiday baking season and I hope that we did you and your families proud!

The Cookies are Done!

Well we did it! Part of it anyway. We baked our very last cookies of the season today. Every single order is filled and filled beautifully. We even squeaked out the five orders that were on the "waiting list" to fill. What a sense of accomplishment that has filled the bakery today. Enough so that it is powerfully filling the shadow of "how the heck will we do this" for Thursday and Friday's orders.

So for today, I shall enjoy the extreme sense of accomplishment, reflect on my pride for having put out such pretty AND tasty cookies, and for having filled every one's orders (expectations).

Getcher Santa's Cookies plates out people -- we got somethin' to put on 'em!

AY-Chihuahua

Well, it's official. We have closed down taking any new orders for Christmas because we are at extreme maximum capacity. In fact, I don't know how I will get it all made even w/ all the help my husband gave me ALL weekend, having Megan in the bakery to bake w/ me for 3 days and my mom helping out as well!! Aychihuahua! But fear not, we shall wrap our "capes" around our waists and get r done!

Even as I type this I am overwhelmed that I am having to say "no" to more orders. Overwhelmed that such a sweet little town would say 'To heck w/ this economy, let's do this thing"!! Had I known this train was gonna move so fast, I may have gotten a bigger oven! :o)

In the meantime, I shall say good night. It was a VERY long, extremely fast, and amazingly successful day in the bakery today and I am pooped!

Keep the Change

OK! We will! And we did!

Now, we don't accept tips - that's just plain silly. But what we did do with all that extra "keep the change" change, is put it in a jar and it just kept adding up. It's been 3 1/2 months since we started keeping that change and today we donated $38.80 to the Lion's Club of Genesee!! How sa-weet is that ?!

They came to get the money today and asked what I would like them to do with the money. My response was simply this -- that we chose the Lion's Club to donate to because they keep ALL of their donations here, locally, in our little town, to help our little residence in the Genesee area. So, pick a project and put it towards that. He thinks that they will be able to replace a piece of concrete at our sweet park that is need of repair with this donation OR they may use it to buy toys for the area underprivileged for this year's Christmas. It just keeps getting sweeter!

And who says change can't make a change?

I'm like a big girl now...

I'm meeting w/ an accountant tomorrow to interview him to be Sally's accountant. OK, first of all, that sounds awfully fancy and expensive and secondly, did the last 6 months just fly by or what? I mean really! Six months ago I decided to put my big girl panties on and open a bakery and now I am "interviewing" an accountant to help me run this part of MY business.

Whoa.

Someone needs to stop the world cuz I think I missed my exit! Truth is, we mostly need an accountant because we don't know what the heck we are doing w/ this end of the business and I am a disgustingly honest and fair person so I want to make sure that my business is run properly. But it stills sounds so grown up, doesn't it? :o)

Me, a grown up. Who knew?

Well, as I ALWAYS say to my customers (when I am screwing up the buttons on my cash register)...I know how to bake, I just can't run a cash register (or a financial journal or a tax return or a sales tax form or or or....) :o)

Christmas in Genesee Depot

Last Saturday was so fun to watch all the kids that came into my bakery to make their own gingerbread ornament! There was candy everywhere and I thought the ornaments turned out so neat! Here are some highlights of the day...

Crickets

Today was the slowest day in the bakery since we opened three months and one day ago. Like, holy cow, where did all my customers go, slow. At one point I paused to remember that a week ago, I couldn't even take a break to go to the bathroom! Today, I am pretty sure that I went to the restroom more than I needed to -- just 'cuz I could.



I don't like being slow, and yet I do. I don't want to be slow because I already baked everything and I hate being wasteful. But in the absence of customers, I sure do get a lot of stuff baked! Now, there's a REAL Catch 22!



Judy at the CornerStone Restaurant told me to expect this - exactly this at exactly this time. I just don't want to. I want to believe that people want to support the local businesses as much as possible - I want to believe that people want to go to Judy's restaurant instead of to Olive Garden or TGIFridays. Not that we don't all need the business, I just would rather see the local (and historical) economy thrive.



I did ok today even with very few customers

And it begins...

The first of the Christmas cookies went out today. Two customers actually wanted theirs already.

For me, I'm still not quite in the mood, but we decorated our house tonight w/ the girls and I think this Saturday will cement it for me. I have an expectation that there will be lots of kids out and about doing all the fun and festive things that the group of us in big ol' Genesee Depot have planned for them. I for one can say that I think our gingerbread house and men ornaments we have for them to decorate are really stinkin' pretty! I simply love them! And I can't wait to see all the kiddies having fun, playing in my kitchen!

I have a regular customer that I get to enjoy the company of nearly every day. His name is Jack and Jack is in a lot of severe pain from back surgeries -- sometimes, he can't even get the breath in his lungs to push the air past his vocal chords so I can hear him. I call him my Soft Talker and he giggles (very quietly) about that. Jack has a PhD in Psychiatry and retired a year ago. I was fascinated by this because I always wanted to be a Psychiatrist -- always, but didn't. Now I kinda do it with cookies, I guess! :o) Anyway, I decided that I am gonna save an ornament for Jack that I ask one of the kids to decorate for me this weekend.

I kinda hope it will be a sweet way to remind him that his entire day isn't all full of pain.