Breathe

I'm so lucky.

All In Stride

I feel like I am sitting in the middle of something going around me and I'm not quite sure which way to go. I want to do it all on my own to prove to myself and others that I can. But what are the costs of doing that? Is it worth it. Is it worth it to spend all of this to get there and when I'm there, if I do get there, then what? I can't answer these and I suppose that's the point. You can't answer them. So, everything comes in strides. Every day something new happens and it just has to be done for the time being. It would be easy to just throw it all away and run away. Suppose I'll try the hard way first. All I know is that I have friends who love me and are proud of me and the most supportive boyfriend who is my rock.

Here goes.

Muah!

My eyes are hardly opened but I really wanted to do an update. Life's been a blur to say the least.

I suppose I'll start with the Spring Showcase. It went better than I could have hoped for. We had a great spot, I had tons of fun with my parents. There were so many nice people there and I got tons of contacts.

Which then got me an order from BP for their Discovery Days at the end of April for 1900 cookies. So this led me having to find a commercial kitchen. I got one from Mary Goit, she is the owner/creator of Belly Timber, found at Woods and REI. I rent from her now with two other ladies. Getting this taken care of was key, plus she pointed me in the right direction for food handling. Which includes, insurance on my behalf to rent her place from Snapper Schueller Kenner in town, then being licensed through WSDA and getting an inspection, then opening a business account with a dial credit card machine so I can take payment that way (mainly because of BP). This has kept me busy and I hadn't even started baking.

Then, with Travis' help, mainly him, we figured out how much of every ingredient I needed for the order, priced it, found the best place to get it, etc. $180 at Costco and $85 at Cash and Carry, a TON cheaper than we had thought due to sales. Super.

BREAK. Last Tuesday Travis' grandparents had us meet them at the Skagit Casino for dinner and gambling. It was such a beautiful day and we went down, had dinner at this Wild Onion place, super good, then played penny slots which I won $18 at ! Niether of us had luck at craps, so we drove home, got movies snacks and had cookies from his grandma. Great night.

PLUS, we both got Costco cards! Too cute! And we went actually shopping there the other day :)

Continue to baking from hell. Monday I went to Mary's to do a trial run in her kitchen. See how my cookies baked, how much faster, how many I can do in an hour, get the layout, and whatnot. Basically, I was there about an hour, fiddling with things, figuring stuff out and baking slow to see how to do it all. I did 8 dozen during that, which is twice as fast as home.

Went home then, and had our second week of D&D night, complete with me blending champagne smoothies, awesome group, so much fun. Kinda love Mondays.

Today I baked until about an hour ago. I did 37.5 dozen, ontop of that 8 dozen.
Tomorrow morning I am going to the bank to get my Merchant Card account, then heading to Mary's to (AND I HOPE BUT AM NOT GETTING MY HOPES UP) do a big push and finish? I have 55 dozen left to do. I would be ecstatic to just do it in one time. That way I get rolling.

Basically. I cannot fucking wait until they pick all the cookies up Sunday. This has made me realize quantity is not what I want to go for. I got an email from the owners of Butterfly life and I am meeting them next week to discuss carrying my cookies. Which, from now on, will be individually heat sealed, with a WSDA approved label blah blah. I would rather do that, then thousands of cookies at one time.

OHH, best part of today, was I took a break to ride my bike to Boulavard, and then I ran 2 miles down there, rode back and downtown a little. It was so fun.

Anyway, I am so exhausted and am going to finish Air Force One and pass out.

By the way. I have the best fucking boyfriend in the world. In every aspect, I don't even get how lucky I am. So giddy.
:)

A few visuals-

BP, such a long drive.

Sunset off my balcony, I love where I live.

My garden that I have replanted, complete with radishes, wildflowers, and some already grown ones from Haggen.

My window with my rose plant, and to the right I have jalapenos growing :)

Moses and Travis creating characters and being super cute
All our people, mine is the cow :)

Danny creating his character

Nerds :)

Quick Break

So I am taking a quick break, for my sanity, to update. I spent 9 consecutive hours yesterday baking cookies and today has been the same. I couldn't have done it yesterday without Travis there to keep me remotely sane. The show is tomorrow, I have to bag everything up tomorrow and figure out a good way to transport a ton of stuff to the show. It's from 4-9 and I think we're going around 11 to setup. Everything is going to look great though. Travis tied a ton of little green and white checkered bows and glued them to my bags for me.
Right now I am feeling super cold sick. So I have stocked up on cold stuff for tomorrow. Ick.

Me and Trav had a great weekend too. Sunday I went in to drop off 3 dozen cookies for everyone at Hearthfire and Cass bought me a martini and they made me a special key lime one. Then we all went to Angela's 21st birthday and the Ranch Room, great night. Monday was spent lurking and for date night we went to Skylarks, followed by the necessary movie snacks from bulk Haggen, it was perfect. Last night, after baking until 11, we went and got food and brought it home and ate, we were so hungry and watched Queer as Folk. Such a wonderful night.

I will have lots of pictures from the show tomorrow and all the prep work that went into it. I'm so lucky to have this be a job for me and am so thankful but I can't wait until the show's done because I miss spending time with my girls so much.