Wordless Wednesday: Eggs-cellent!

More photos over at the Sarandipity blog!

Today is Brought to You by the Letter M

M.  As in Monday, MS, and money! 

You mayyyy remember a whopping month ago, I mentioned my new blog, Sarandipity, and helping my childhood friend, Jenny, fundraise for her Multiple Sclerosis walk.  I decided to make my donation this year with the help of Sarandipity Sweets, to see how much we could raise by making it a joint effort.  It was simple - for every cake pop sold in March, I'd donate fifty cents.  Want to know how we did? :D

I'm proud to announce that, with all your amazing support, Sarandipity Sweets donated $313 to MS research through Jenny's team.  Hurrah!  I'm seriously so amazed and thankful for everyone who teamed up to help make a huge donation. 

How's that for a happy Monday, eh? 

Birthday Photo Recap



Valentine's flowers and birthday cake, courtesy of Mr. Bo-tacular.





Note to Bo: When you swirl the frosting like that, it makes it super duper easy
for me to steal swipes of it when you're not looking :)



Happy Birthday, Dear Saraaaaaaa.  I totally turned 5 years old this year, guys!

Oh.  Hello.  No, you can't have any of my cake.



Post birthday dinner, posing in front of the Anthropologie store.
That store is my version of heaven.





That Anthro display dress is made out of paper!  It's seriously gorgeous.



 

Keyboard Cake Pops!

My newest shape is a simple square, but it lends itself to a gojillion customizations!

Y?  Because I like you! ;)

Monday Show and Tell

Some of you have already seen all these photos, but I thought I'd post them anyway.  Sometimes, I need to look back and remind myself what I've accomplished over the past month or week or even day, so that I don't start feeling so overwhelmed with life.  It's like, "Oh yeah!  I forgot I did that!"  It also helps remove a tiny bit of the blur that seems to encompass my life. 

This past month has seen oodles of custom requests come through for Sarandipity Sweets, and I still have another list of shapes to mock up.  It's crazy how creative and imaginative you all are!  I love it!  It pushes me to try things I never thought I could, and it makes me feel artistic for the first time in my life.  Artistic.  To say it out loud even feels foreign :)

The month of September will hopefully yield some behind-the-scenes biggies for me too.  I'm in the process of finding a graphic artist to work with (hurrah for logos and website images!); I'm working with a supplier for preprinted bags (hurrah for my new logo on a printed bag, all fancy-like!); and I'm mulling over the idea of hiring an assistant.  Ack!  That part alone scares the heck out of me, and I don't even see how it's possible, but it's something I'm rolling around in my brain.  It's getting to that point where I'm seeing the value in having someone take over some things for me, even though the control freak in me doesn't want to let go of her white-knuckled grip on every aspect of the operation.  Ha!  We'll show her! :)

Wordless Wednesday: A Heckuva Lot

Lil Bitty Time Sinks

I know that my life is getting back to normal when I start doing batches of cupcake-shaped things again.  Thankfully, it'll be another 9 months before I have to start thinking about pumpkins, ghosts, turkeys, snowmen, or penguins on sticks.  b'BYE, little cakey creatures that cause me a level of stress that's proportionate to your level of cuteness.  Onward to new projects, I say!

Which leads into this post (which is high on photo resolution and low on content).  I'm just now trying to scrape up all the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head over the past few months.  And if you've emailed me for a special request, I'm super duper sorry that I haven't yet replied!!  I suck, and I'll put that in writing.  Anyway, here's a preview of one of the many Sarandipity tasks on my list.  My goal is to make another batch of these and get them photographed, so that I can get the item posted in my shop.  After that, I'll be whipping up the Valentine's-y ideas I have (honestly, can't wait!).  And after that?  Items for my special gluten-free pals.  I've been neglecting you for months, and it's high time I give you a little love.

Honest opinion - What do you guys think?  Cute?  More grownup than the kind with sticks?  Less fun than the kind with sticks? 

There comes a point when I've been staring at them for far too long, and they start to morph all not-cute in my screwball perception. 

p.s. It was a fun accident that the little buggers are color-coordinated to match my blog. Anyone want to guess my favorite colors? Ha! :)

p.p.s.  This may or may not be a thinly veiled hint to the Sarandipity Fan giveaway I posted about earlier this week.  But you didn't hear it from me.  Shhhhhhh.

Greetings, From Your Lazy Blog-Friend

Sooooo, the onslaught of excuses:

I was awesomely swamped with orders during the month of October. We're talking a gozillion more than in previous months. Hurrah!! And, whoah. Like, no sleep for 3 weeks straight. Not that I'm complaining. But, if I don't have time to sleep, I most likely don't have time to focus a thought long enough to blog something up :(

And then. Then! I got sick. I still kinda am, actually. And my cough is the opposite of pretty and nice.

But, I'm back. And hopefully not awol to that extent in the future. So, for now, here are photos of one of my projects this week. (I have 2 others I'm currently working on, and I can't wait to share photos!)

The one.... the only... Gobble Pops!

Oh. Sweet. Mercy.

I'm speechless. All I can do is smile. And I've been smiling so long already that my cheeks hurt. And my eyes are even a lil teary from how happy my heart feels.

See, it literally warms my heart to hear that people love what I make. It's been years and years that I've been working at my real job and never hearing about being good at what I do or even possessing some kind of talent or skill. So, to hear those words (complete with exclamation points and smileys) for my Sarandipity items is just so, so wonderful beyond words.

Because Mellisa was so beyond sweet to post photos and video clips of her family with the Pops, I just had to share with you. So, I hope my sweet little story brings a some sunshine to your day!

The boys decided to have a camouflage, army-guy themed party. And Mom wanted Cupcake Pops. What to do? Make the Cupcake Pops in dingy, grimy boy colors, of course! :) I claim that the black sprinkles look like gun powder. Not that I'd know what gun powder looks like. Not that I helped my dad reload ammo as a kid. No, huh uh ;)

Meet my adopt-a-family in Oklahoma. (We'll forgive that the dad is the wrong kind of orange and black OSU fan ;) )

The Birthday Boys!
I couldn't figure out how to embed her video clips, so definitely definitely go over to her post and watch them. Just too darn cute and warm-fuzzy for words!!! I've already watched each of them like 18 times already :) Link for her post here!

Ghostface Killah

A sneak peek of an upcoming project....

Punkin Pops!

Cute, no? Booooooooo!

Chawlie bit me!*

* One of the best videos evah!!

On Cloud Nine Point Five

So, yesterday was like the very very best day I've had in a long while. A quick summary:

~ I wore purple patent leather heels.
~ And a flower in my hair to match.
~ And slacks I couldn't zip up 5 pounds ago.
~ My brother called to order some Pops and catch up.
~ I mailed a care package to my little sister to cheer her up.
~ Sidenote found me some waterproof eyeliner in fabtastic colors.
~ I spent my evening running and baking up new recipes (photos to come soon) (of the baked goods, not of me running).
~ Brandy generously and sweetly wrote up a review of the Pops on her blog. For all the world to see. And she said the sweetest, nicest, gushiest, make-me-cry-happy-tears things imaginable. Seriously, I'm going to read it every morning to start my day off feeling smiley and bright. You can read her awesome review here!
~ And to top it all off...this. THIS THIS THIS!Is that little girl not the most adorable thing ever? She's so stinking cute with that Pop that I want to make her my official Pops Mascot. How could anyone resist buying them with that kind of photo joy staring back? Awww, L-O-V-E it!

Time Sink and a Half

What's been eating my time for the past couple of months? That, up there, is the culprit. Those are 4 packages of 30 stickless Cupcake Pops. They're going to be displayed like chocolates in boxes like that white one there, with little white paper cups for each cupcake. Super cute huh? I'm calling them Cupcake Chocolates. They look like this when all put together:



Anyway, my typical Sarandipity order is around 20-30 pops. Over the past two weeks, I've had orders just like this one for 110-120 little cupcakes. Don't get me wrong - I freaking LOVE that I've got orders going out, but aaaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAAAA!!! They take a whole lot of time, kids. But, ok, I've got my whining out of the way and feel better. Where were we..Oh yeah, so this order is going to NY to a club promoter guy. Mehopes that it could really help get my name out. I've got a real website up, but all it does is show you my logo and then redirect you to my Etsy shop. Functional, but not the end-all-be-all. Patience, Sara, patience. Breathe.

Oh, so here's the box I shipped them all in. An enormous box just for 4 packages, but it also contained 6 of those white boxes, a crapload of bubble wrap, and 1" styrofoam lining. These summer months always freak me out when it comes to shipping. I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief when fall's cooler temperatures hit.



Now that the shipment is en route, I can focus on that half marathon I'm doing on Sunday. Which I feel the opposite of ready for. Again, with the aaaAAAaaaaAAA. I have actually put in my time training for the darned thing, and I did get in a 12 miler and a couple of 10 milers, but still. I'm pooped and feeling swamped, and running in the muggy heat isn't my dream to-do at this point. Oh well. It does, however, mean that I can scarf non-diet food on Sunday and not feel one ounce of guilt. For that, bring on the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

On Pins & Needles (and Frosting & Sprinkles)

I may as well spill the beans. Or sprinkles, rather. Let me introduce you to Sarandipity. Sarandipity Sweets, to be precise.

I wasn't planning to share the news until I had everything done and ready to go. But lately it's been swallowing up any bit of brain power I can muster, so rather than trying to scrape up some other potentially witty topic, I thought I'd just do a show & tell instead.

So first off, Sarandipity is one of the zillion nicknames that my younger sister has given me over the years. (Sarasponda is another, but then I always get that rat-tat-tat song stuck in my head.)

The other - and potentially way more interesting - piece of the story is that I've stumbled on a potential catering business. Hip hip hurray! Those fun and cute lil cakey pops I made a month ago are turning into my next business venture. So I made the treats, they turned out adorable (I'm so proud!), and then sent the extras in to work with Bo so that I would not eat them all. (It's honest to goodness truth that I am capable and willing to eat an entire cake by myself. I have equally awesome skills when it comes to devouring entire batches of chocolate chip cookies too.) So, anyway, a woman in Bo's office asked him if I'd be at all interested in making them for her engagement party..um YES. So I made 100 of the little things to coordinate with her party colors. And I made another batch for my friend's bday a couple of weeks later. And then I got to make a batch for a 30th birthday last week. I'm just so flattered when people ask me to make them, that I have to consciously grit my teeth so that I won't sputter, "Really??!!!" in response.

So, I love the name Sarandipity for a few reasons; it's such a perfect word for how this all came about. My next goal is to get a website up to showcase pictures and client comments and to enable online ordering. I have zero idea how feasible this is as a business prospect, but it brings me such joy, and I can't help myself :)

* I still haven't figured out whether Sarandipity is another alter ego. If she is one, I haven't yet learned who she is, compared to the others.....My guess is that she'd at least be nicer and sweeter than Zippy or Sayray. Time will only tell :)

It's Not A Race

I rarely bring treats into work, because I often hear responses like, "Oh, I can't eat sweets like that" or an unenthusiastic, "Thanks." Now, it's not as if I'm bringing in store-bought cookies leftover from some bbq over the weekend. I bring in homemade goodies. And, even though it sounds ridiculously conceited, the foodie in me thinks they are deeee-licious.

This morning, I brought in some cupcake pops that I whipped up yesterday afternoon. While I understand that no one here is aware of the fact that they take hours to make, they are pretty dang cute. And I taste-tested one last night to make sure they really are yummy. So, what was the response I got this morning?

"Looks like Sara is trying to compete with John's wife for making goodies."

And two separate people said that to me.

Um, no. Make that hell, no. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind. I bake because it brings me joy, and I love giving treats to people. I fully realize that men compete and really do enjoy competition. However, I'm the exact opposite - I don't like conflict, I don't like violence or struggle, and I don't like for someone to have to lose. So now that my coworkers are walking around trying to make it a competition between me and this woman I've never met, I've taken a "no treats for you" stance with work. I'd rather give my cute lil pops to a complete stranger.

All I'm asking for is a smile!

Cupcake Pops

I've been dying to make these little cuties ever since I saw them on Bakerella's blog a couple of months ago. Yeah, I so can't claim the creative idea, but hey - I'm pretty proud of the fact that they didn't turn out half bad for my very first attempt :)

Sometime soon, I'll be making these again to work on my technique and some color and flavor variations. Be prepared to get some of the extras shoved on you.

(Ack! Squinting in the sun, getting eye wrinkles.)