http://bakingforgood.com/about/
This site/company is wonderful! Plus.. I like their packaging. And.. I must try using buckwheat flour!

Inspirational messages with baked goods/Packaging

So when I start to put little inspirational messages or quotes with my baked goods to brighten peoples day and put a smile on one's face, (just like those little Dove Chocolates with the wonderful sayings. They can make my day!)... Packaged something like this would be cool and simple. With a little card on the back side with an inspiring message. That one can keep/save, post on their refrigerator, place on their car dashboard, put on their desk at work, or share the card with a friend to put a little cheer into their day. Or.. I would like to post information that should be known to women, and others. Inform people of important information. 

The same square type of card with a message could be used with this simple boxed packaging also (below). A card that fits perfectly sitting ontop of the cookies in a square box with some tissue or parchment paper.

Or Something kind of like the following packaging. Cookies put in a clear plastic wrap and either sewn or tied shut... and then a sleeve with a pocket and designed cards with messages to slip inside.

Tissue paper just ads so much lovely-ness. It really makes one feel special and rich. Or I guess that's how I'd feel.

Independence

While I've always known what I am extremely passionate about for years... I've tended to be distracted every now and then the past couple of years... more so in the past 3 months. By men, by my family telling me what they think is best for me (eventhough they mean well), by school, health concerns/allergies, and life changing events. I know what I am here to do and I know that years down the road, if I am focusing more on a man or letting other things or people get me down.. than focusing on my own self and my own career and the good in the world and... CONTINUING to believe in myself.. I would never be happy 10-15 years from now as an adult. I must continue to focus on what I love and never allow other things to waist so much time and energy. I must seek my dreams and developing my career life. As I've struggled the past few months from life difficulties.. I've found it hard to focus on what I used to love. But I must know that independence, being strong, and staying connected with what makes me smile and what used to excite me and interest me and keep me focused for hours... should never be let go. I must find a way back to letting design, baking, and health/diet alternatives dominate my life. Because they are the things that will continue to always keep me busy and full of passion. I must never forget what I am here to do. And not let anyone else ruin my dreams and passions. Amen.


A Speech by Gloria Steinem
"Leaps of Consciousness"


the following is part of a transcript of a speech delivered by Gloria Steinem at the 3rd  Annual Women & Power Conference in 2004. 

And talking about interdependence is almost dangerous for women. Because it’s so easy to believe that the connectedness that Carol Gilligan talks about so brilliantly — the empathy that we treasure is so easy to confuse it with dependence. It’s so easy to become empathy sick and know what other people are feeling better than we know what we ourselves are feeling. It’s bred so much in us.

So I just want to say again how important it is that we celebrate independence first. We can’t get to interdependence until we have experienced independence.
There’s no easy excuse allowed here, you know, that we can remain in childhood and call it progress.

We know in our hearts when we are speaking our true voices as we emphasize and Eve emphasized last night— we know, we know when we are speaking our true voices and not being dependent. But nonetheless, it truly is the stage for which we are all hoping and the stage for which men, too, are hoping. They get stuck in independence. We get stuck in dependence.

But all of us are striving for interdependence. People often say to me, isn’t it wonderful that you finally found someone you wanted to marry. And I never quite know how to respond because that isn’t it — it wasn’t that every other man was the wrong man. Nor was it that I was waiting. For something external. It’s we’re waiting for something in ourselves. We’re waiting to get to a place where we can become interdependent with another human being without giving up ourselves. We are waiting to give birth to ourselves. So on the way, it’s simple things that help us.
So I thought I would read you a short poem by Fran Wyant in closing.

Eat rice. As Jane Fonda would say, eat low on the food chain; right?
Eat rice.
Have faith in women.
What I don’t know now
I can still learn.
If I am alone now
I will be with them later.
If I can be weak now
I can become strong.
Slowly, slowly, if I learn, I can teach others.
If others learn first I must believe they will come back and teach me.
Thank you.

Also, I came across this quote hanging on the wall at work the other day while I maybe had a few things bothering me.. it seemed to really catch my eye and draw me in. 

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”  - Charles R. Swindoll 

Creating something new verses optimizing

the non-optimized life


I definitely need to get some things together. But in my head.. I want to start fresh. Start something new. In my life that is..


On another note, I've thought about how I should fix my blog, edit posts I've made, better my grammar, focus more on one thing, delete junk... 
I enjoy this short blog post by Seth Godin. Why take time to go back and edit anything. Continue to develop and create myself. More experimenting... How to steps? Packaging design. Packaging design. Great photography. 

"But I also worry that a never-ending cycle of optimization can become a crutch, a place to hide when you really should be confronting the endless unknown, not the banal stair step of incremental optimization. While Yahoo was optimizing their home page in 2001, the guys at Google were inventing something totally new.

That's one reason I resist the temptation to optimize this blog for traffic and yield. I'd rather force myself to improve it by having the guts to write better posts instead."

Ice cream sandwiches!

Chocolate chip and Double chocolate cookies filled with all natural Breyer's ice cream! yay! Perfect summer treat.

Shut up and Bake! the Bleeding Heart Bakery

I couldn't remember if I ever posted this awhile back. Man, I think I need to go to sleep.. feeling loopy. However, pretty sure I always feel loopy or claim I do. Oh well. 

My brother got me this shirt from a bakery in Chicago that I like to follow on their website, flickr, facebook, television shows, etc... I've called and talked to one of the workers for about an hour once about how they got where they are now. Pretty awesome ladies. Anyway, I dig their work. They are very very creative and interesting individuals. The lady on the shirt was giving the finger with both hands though - which isn't quite my style... so I sensored them by sewing cupcakes on! And it is one of my favorite shirts now! It is sooo amazingly soft. For awhile I kept wearing it about every day and then I'd catch myself delivering cheesecake or cookies while wearing it and feeling a bit silly.. but at the same time, awesome! :)

Goodbye June. Hello July!

I have a cake to make tomorrow night for 15-20 people. A 70th birthday cake with a slot machine drawn on it. Should be fun. But I feel like I have SO much to do, but not enough time. I work till 8pm and then have to make this birthday cake and then I need to pack to head to my parents cabin in the AM! 

Earlier this week I attempted to make Sugar Cookies with my friends and I's favorite bar logo on them. The plan was to make perfect looking cookies with the logos in icing .. and I wanted to barter cookies for pitchers of beer! The owner said it was cool. I made the cookies which turned out nice and soft and put a base coat of icing on. Perfectly filled circles of icing... And then I was to add the detail ontop of each one. But ... I had too much on my mind unfortunately and I just decided it was too much. It was just for fun anyway. At least I spent time to make them perfect up to a point. Maybe I'll retry my plan when things seem to settle down. 

I miss my old apartment. My weird pink nicnacs and randomness. And lack of furniture and too much bare wall. I miss having my OWN kitchen eventhough it was teeny tiny. My letterpress cupcake poster. And my art room, that I rarely could sit in.. (instead I took over my coffee table in the living room or was in the kitchen) but it was full of fabric and things and looked groovy. I miss my bedroom with my framed wizard of oz random picture print offs. BAH. I miss my garage. and wish I had it to put my scroll saw in. That was the plan. It never happened. 

......Some day.

I don't miss my jeep.