Faryn and I have been working steadily on Fanny & Jane projects lately, even though both of our lives are in a bit of flux right now. As you are well aware, I’m soon leaving the office job I’ve had for the last two years. After today, I will only have two more weeks of work (YEAAAAAAAAAAH!) until I walk out of here forever.
As you may not know, however (because she’s been bigtime slacking on the blog front lately), Faryn just recently quit her handful of part time jobs to take a full time career-type job at the casting office of a hit TV show! Woot!
Naturally, starting a full time job in a casting office wasn’t something Faryn had in mind as a next-step kind of thing when 2009 began. But this opportunity presented itself rather suddenly and it was a great, great opportunity that she would have been nuts to pass up. She’s young, she’s an actor, and working along side a casting director is a fantastic gig for her to have right now in her life. She’s only been there a little over a week, but she’s already wearing the new role very well. 40+ hours of work a week, plus a new salary, plus health insurance, plus still trying to maintain all her other committments and obligations, plus it all happening rather suddenly without much time for her to mentally prepare for the big transition – well, it’s life. And I’m sure it will take some adjusting to, but she seems to be very happy so far. I’m so proud of her! (Gross.)
So as both of our lives are in flux, so is the fate of our little bakery. The orders are still constantly coming in and we’re having a great time fulfilling them. Baking, although lots of work, and sometimes unpleasant work when you’re still up at 2am on a school night and you don’t want to ever smell anything sweet ever again, is generally a delightful activity. Although they have been few and far between, the days when I’ve gotten to stay home from work to prepare orders for our little start-up during daylight business hours have been lovely. I turn on some music or the TV (Law & Order, please) and spend the afternoon humming in my kitchen, mixing and stiring and melting and scooping, the house fills with the most delicious aromas and after a few hours, I have a cooling rack filled with yummy sweets. Project: completed. Job: well done. It’s satisfying and relaxing. And although it doesn’t come close to paying my bills yet, it’s wonderful to know that I’m earning a little bit of money for it.
As I transition out of my job and into a lifestyle where I will have more freetime and more say over how I spend my time, Faryn’s transitioning into a lifestyle where her freetime will be more limited than ever before. I don’t think either one of us plans to turn our attention too far away from the bakery, but our goals to grow the bakery as fast as we can and to push, push, push to get a storefront opened have certainly cooled off for the time being. As I do with most things, I believe in letting this path show itself to me. And our bakery path is not saying, “Let’s GO!” right now. It’s saying, Enjoy this, these moments, the little tasks, and delight in accomplishing things on a small scale for now. Someday, who knows what will happen, but for now, earning a little side cash while providing happy customers with yummy sweet treats is its own reward.
Oh and the bounty of baked goods that pass through my kitchen on a weekly basis are also a reward on their own. Because sometimes I eat some of them. I have to, it’s required.
Yesterday, I stayed home from work and baked for much of the afternoon. I was preparing an order of wedding shower favors. After consulting with the bride, we decided to do little packages for each guest with three shortbread thumbprint jams a piece. Each bag will have an apricot, a blueberry and a raspberry thumbprint cookie. Shortbread jams are super easy to make and I was able to yield about 150 cookies without too much fuss. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
We have more orders coming up, as usual, for friends, family and people we’ve never met before who’ve heard about us through the grapevine. We’re doing party favors for a lingerie party soon (!) and making cake bites for a dear friend’s wedding in February, and we’ve got a handful of other little orders here and there. Plus I can only imagine things will get a bit busier once the holiday season really gets underway. We haven’t spent a penny on advertising, nor have we really made a single push to get people to place orders with us. All the orders we’ve had so far have been through word of mouth, which is so cool, and seems to be happening at the perfect rate for us to get used to doing this kind of work and to continue to learn about operating a small business. I can only hope that that trend continues and that the business will grow at whatever pace works for us both as we enter into these new phases in our lives. We both have so many interests and goals and hobbies and committments, but I think this is one we’re both truly enjoying and learning from, however it moves itself along.
You know, it’s funny to realize that the holidays are almost upon us. Last year at this time, I was not a baker in any real way. Sure, I occasionally baked when I was younger and I’ve always, always enjoyed it and been pretty good at it, but hadn’t, until recently, spent much time doing it regularly. Then the holidays rolled around last year and I realized, not only did I not want to spend a ton of money on gifts because I just didn’t have the cash to spare, but also that we as a culture indulge to excess at the holidays, purchasing crap for each other that nobody needs or wants. Sure, sometimes wonderful material gifts are given that we cherish for years to come. And it’s always great to watch a loved one’s face light up when you find the perfect present for them. But more often than not, we cherish the time we spend together, and the memories we create when we get together with family and friends, above any material gift we give or receive. And the gifts themselves end up on a shelf somewhere in the receiver’s home, and as extra debt on the giver’s credit card. Not to mention, I, for one, don’t need any more crap lying around!!
(In short: Let’s all stop buying extra stuff for each other that we don’t need just so we can fulfill our “duty” of giving each other presents!! Okay, off the soapbox. Can you tell I feel strongly about this issue?)
So it was with these thoughts in mind that I decided to bake things as my gifts to people last year. And I had an absolute blast doing it. Yes, I stayed up a late a lot and exhausted myself to no end, but it was still so fun and I’m glad I did it. The things I baked turned out pretty yummy too.
And in a lot of ways, that experience planted the seed in my mind for Fanny & Jane. I’d enjoyed the baking so much, and since I was already trying to sift through my hobbies to unearth a more suitable career for myself, I realized that baking simple, classic, comfort sweets was something I had to offer the world. Three months later, Faryn and I tested our first brownie recipe. And the rest is history.
Dessert yesterday was several bites of the shortbread batter, and probably three or four (or five? aack!) of these little cookies. To be completely honest, I ate cookies for lunch. Calorie-wise, it all evened out, because I choose to have a healthy veggie burrito for dinner and to steer clear of much other calorie-laden food during the day. But nutritionally? Cookies for lunch is not something I recommend. Still, don’t you just have to have cookies for lunch at least once in your life?
They were delicious, which is why I had so many. Our shortbread recipe is simple, buttery and fantastic. I hope the bride-to-be and her shower guests truly enjoy these little favors as much as I enjoyed baking them.
Of course, feel free to place an order with Fanny & Jane any time! We’re working on a new website, but for now, please visit us here for an idea of what we make. Also, we’re always happy to prepare custom orders or try out a new recipe if you’d like something that you don’t see on our website. And if you don’t live in New York but are interested in sampling one of our unique sweets (red velvet cake bites come to mind), we can certainly ship them to you.
