It is a hard truth as a small business owner that even if you did someday have the skills to do everything, you will never be able to make money trying to do everything.  This week's lesson was the true labor cost of doing one-off projects as opposed to developing my core offerings and doing those extremely well.  Just when I start to take all of these decisions way too seriously I get the opportunity to be a part of something that really puts my life in perspective.

Since it's inception Sweet Nothings has donated 3% of it's profits to the National Brain Tumor Association in honor of my late father-in-law Larry Thieben. [continue]

 A quick update for Sweet Nothings fans......

I'm proud to welcome another part time employee to the group to start this fall.  Jessica Davis responded to my Facebook post looking for help and she will be starting this Friday.  Dot Schnering, as some of you know, has already been helping man the booth, and this last week she expanded her duties to help prep ingredients and package.  My mother, Noel Kupras-Bauer, is also working at the booth during the holidays (and I do pay her). [continue]

Glittering heart sugar cookie cutouts, as featured on WRGT -- Fox 45 in the Morning.

Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated Holiday 2006.

The original version of this recipe was for thin, crispy butter cookies but I ran with it creating thick, tender sugar cookies neither cakelike or crispy. [continue]

 Check out the wonderful review by Food vs Face: FoodvsFace.com.  Many thanks for honing in on the details that make Sweet Nothings so unique!

I had a wonderful experience meeting with Brandy (and her beautiful new baby) and and was glad to meet the person behing the discerning wit, humor, and decisive writing on her blog.  If you haven't checked it out yet, do so immediately.

Also, Sweet Nothings was recently featured in the online version of the Dayton_Daily_News, follow the link to see the short write up about the voint venture with Get Dressed! [continue]

                 I am reading Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  I’m not sure which one of them resposible for the text composition, but as it’s in the first person it must be one or the other of them.  Whichever it is, I want to go hunt them down, try everything that they make, then beg for a job.   His writing is phenomenal.  It is concise and direct and perfectly embodies my thoughts and feelings regarding the complicated emotions often elicited in the journey of creating a recipe: frustration, indignance, satisfaction, and triumph all in a pat paragraph, page after page. [continue]