      
Archive for the ‘News & Events’ Category
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
We’ve had an exciting thing going on here for the past few weeks, and I’ve been dying to spill the news. Well, everything is all in place, so here goes!
THINKGEEK.COM IS NOW CARRYING OUR JACKED UP JAVA BROWNIE MIXES!!!111!!!!1!!ONE!
YES! Hubby and I have always been big fans of Think Geek, so this has been an extra-difficult secret to keep. We are feeling so l337, it hurts!
Thinkgeek has always been my one-stop shop when it comes to gifts for my geek of a husband, and we both love perusing their print catalog *as soon as it arrives* at our house, scanning their website for cool new items, and figuring out cool uses for some of their unique offerings.
In fact, ThinkGeek was exactly what I had in mind as I developed my Jacked Up Java mixes! I’d already created one cake mix – and several cookie mixes. That was well enough on it’s own I guess, but we got into some evil megalomaniac brainstorming. “What can we create… that we could potentially get sold on ThinkGeek?”. THAT was the genesis of the Jacked up Java line, and it thrills me to no end that it was ThinkGeek themselves who eventually became our first wholesale client for the Jacked up Java line!
It’s been an interesting, surreal handful of weeks since I first heard back from their Caffeine Guru. (and I quote: “I need to buy mix right away. BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. I am so wired from one of your “magic” brownies.”) Since that email, we’ve:
- Made an epic grocery run, picking up more than 900 lbs in dry goods. Definitely a record for us – I usually buy my ingredients on an as-needed basis, weekly!
- Individually labelled 400 pouches, by hand, front and back. My fingernails hate me – that was a lot of sticker-peeling!
- Processed that 900 lbs of dry goods into 400 mixes. In ~40 lb batches.
- Inhaled unhealthy amounts of cocoa and caffeine during the process.
- Bagged, sealed, crated, and hauled 920lbs worth of freight.
- Yes, FREIGHT! Had to take the lot of it to Blaine to ship as freight, something we’ve never had to do before. SO exciting! The 16 boxes were put onto a pallet and wrapped, while we took photos and giggled like schoolgirls as they drove it off on a forklift. See below!:
I cannot tell you what a huge relief it was to be done all that mixing, bagging, packing, and hauling.. and to see it be taken away! We shipped it as we were on our way to our a couple weeks ago, so the time off was doubly welcome. Especially the jacuzzi – hauling that much mix really does a number on the back!
On that note, I really should give a big affectionate shout out to my husband, who has been AMAZING throughout this whole process. From hauling the goods to the kitchen to spending LATE hours there with me, doing all of the weighing and bagging.. to hauling boxes, providing shoulder rubs when I need it, and more.. he’s just been wonderful. I married well!
So, that’s about it. They’re starting off with the brownie mix, but may end up picking up the cookie mix later. FYI ThinkGeek: our Jacked up Java cookies have a famous handful of fans : the Aces of Cakes themselves, the freaks over at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. You know, just to name drop a little  I had sent a couple batches of the buzzworthy cookies to Mary Alice, as a thank you for a recent referral.. and got the coolest email comment ever:
“Oh my GOD. Everyone LOVED them. They made us go coocoo – in a good way. Those things are LOADED! We loved them thank you thank you thank you! You’re the sweetest! – Mary Alice Y.”
Just sayin, that’s all.
Anyway, I think I’ll cut this short before I go into full out ThinkGeek fangirling…
Check out our Jacked up Java Brownie Mix on the ThinkGeek site here: ThinkGeek.com – Jacked Up Java Brownie Mixes @ ThinkGeek .
Check out the rest of our mixes (including the Jacked up Java cookie & Brownie mixes!) Here.
No matter which site you buy them from, enjoy responsibly! They make awesome gifts, too!
Posted in Announcements, Compliments, Gift Ideas, News & Events, Our Products | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
I’ve been chomping at the bit to get this little tidbit out, and I can’t handle the wait anymore!
Recently, I increased my involvement with Twin Cities Pride Festival.. and I’m so thrilled to announce that I’m the new Commitment Ceremony Coordinator for the event!
The Twin Cities Pride Festival has been a yearly highlight for both my husband and I, and we’ve been involved in various sponsor/volunteer/vendor ways the past 3 years. It’s such a great event – and there are SO many wonderful people involved – I’m ridiculously excited about the whole thing!
This past weekend was an event planning retreat up north, and it also marked my official start in my new position. A lot of fun was had, and a LOT was accomplished as far as the planning goes… now it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get this party started!
I will be making announcements (and calls for minions.. er.. volunteers..) here periodically between now and the event, but want to get some basic info out there now.
First and foremost, this will be a much, much bigger event this year. There will be a lot more events involved, both at the festival itself, and in the time leading up to the event. It will feature much more of a wedding *experience*. Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, a marriage retreat/session(s), and a RECEPTION!
If you’re part of a GLBT couple who’s looking to take the plunge next summer, get ahold of me, and ask to be added to our event contact list. This will be the best way to ensure that you’ll be notified of upcoming events as they are planned.
If you’re a fellow GLBT-friendly wedding vendor, are a lot of fun to work with, and would like to get involved, shoot me an email! We are looking to partner with businesses in all aspects of the wedding industry, from photographers to stationery design, decor, and more. If you think you’ve got something great to bring to the table, I’d love to hear from you.
I can tell you that we have got an amazing team started, and the possibilities are endless. This is going to be an insane amount of fun, very meaningful for all involved, and is a great opportunity for the right vendors.
For now, please contact me via the contact page on this site. As soon as the next round of web updates happens, I’ll have a pride-specific email on the contact page at Twin City Pride’s website.
With such a great canvas to work with, and so many awesome people involved with Twin Cities Pride.. I just can’t wait for next summer. This will be epic!
Posted in Announcements, News & Events, Twin Cities Pride Festival | No Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Things have been insane around here, with all of our evil plotting and the new mix launch later this week.. so I’m a bit behind on blogging.
I do want to give a shout out to the “Our Special Angels” group, though.
Our Special Angels is a volunteer organization which sets up learning and social opportunities for disabled youth.
Every weekend, the girls get together and learn (or hone) another new crafting skill: knitting, crocheting, and now cake decorating. To quote the organization: “Angels participate in fun activities while developing skills leading to greater independence such as leadership, organization, budgeting, socialization, and self care.”
The group began with just two young adults wanting to learn how to crochet. They invited some friends.. who invited some friends.. their parents noticed them becoming more relaxed and happy.. and Our Special Angels was born!
A few weeks ago (and a couple of weeks before that!), I had the pleasure of teaching some basics of cake decorating to a great group of girls.
I must admit – I was very, very nervous going in! I’ve never been good with crowds of people, I don’t consider myself a people person, and I tend to shoot my mouth off – none of which seemed like a great package for doing this!
My first day there, I planned to arrive very early. Figured I’d get my bearings, get set up, and have a few minutes to get comfortable. No such luck! They were all there, reading and excited to get started. Augh! Luckily, I had thought ahead and brought cake. When doubting one’s ability to handle a situation.. cake distraction usually works. LOL!
Everyone was so nice and friendly, and my lack of ease with the whole situation went away pretty quickly. The girls were so much fun, and so eager to learn! That first day, we mixed frosting colors, loaded our bags, and piped words, stars, and rosettes on cardboard. It was actually over way quicker than I expected.
I was looking forward to the next time (I had volunteered to do 2 sessions), and decided to surprise the girls by giving them actual cakes to work on. 15 small, individually boxed cakes were baked, frosted, and packed along with the practice boards. We started the second class with a little review, then learned how to pipe shell borders.
As I started handing out the cake boxes, it was awesome to see faces light up. I’ll never forget it.
It happened to be one of the mother’s birthdays that day, so I helped her daughter Laura “surprise” her by suggesting that Deb (the mother) go help others. I loved watching Laura put so much love into her cake, and then announce the birthday to the room as she presented the cake to her mother. Made my week!
(Laura Gives her mom Deb a Birthday Cake)
I had a blast, and have already signed up to teach another class next spring! Looking forward to it!
If you’re interested in getting involved with (or donating to!) Our Special Angels, their volunteer coordinator can be reached at ourspecialangels@comcast.net
Posted in News & Events | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
So, in the spirit of Twitter, I’ll keep this blog entry very short!
Follow us @Celebr8nGenr8n!
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
A big highlight of this past week was getting together with Jean Cowles of Violet’s Flowers for some design fun. Her motto starts with “Sassy Flowers”.. sassy is right! She’s one of the most ridiculously fun people in the local wedding industry, and I had very much been looking forward to this.
I’ll be blogging about the outcome of this design collaboration in a few months, but wanted to give you guys a sneak peak at something we came up with – the Amazing Glowing Wedding Cake!
In addition to the lush beauty of the Tulips, peonies, astilbe, sweet peas, freesia, and more that burst out from between each layer (and form a beautiful topper), the cake itself was designed in such a way as to accommodate many small LED lights, which gave the whole thing an ethereal glow. Teaser pic below!
Wouldn’t this look amazing at any reception hall.. after the lights are dimmed slightly for dinner and dancing, the cake would still be a gorgeous, attention grabbing centerpiece! Love it!
Thanks again to Jean for working with me on this project. I had a blast, and it was great to work with such talent! I love her eye for design and color, and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for unique and fun wedding flowers!
Posted in Cakes, News & Events, Vendors | No Comments »
Saturday, March 7th, 2009
With Pi Day (March 14) coming up, my husband and I decided to just go crazy with it. We’ll blog about the festivities later, but for now… I want to blog about the piece de resistance.. our PInata! Neither of us had ever been involved with making a pinata before, and it sounded like a fun – and wholly appropriate – challenge!
This would be a fun project for any couple or family to do together. Or, hey, any pi-obsessed individual… but I will say that two sets of hands REALLY helped it go faster, and there were many times where the extra set of hands helped with handling.
Of course, the principles of design that we utilized in the creation of our PInata could be applied to many different themes and shapes of pinatas, so go nuts with it. If it’s not in the cards for you to make one for this year’s Pi day, consider other occasions that would/could call for a Pinata.
Traditionally, it seems that you’re supposed to paper mache a balloon, and use that as your base. We couldn’t think of any possible way that would fit with our ideas, so we had to Macguyver a solution. Here is what we came up with. (Warning, this will be a fairly photo-heavy blog entry!) (more…)
Posted in Crafts, News & Events | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!
Though I’ve never been to New Orleans during the Mardi Gras celebrations, this time of year holds a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons.
For one, it brings back a lot of memories of a trip to New Orleans (in the summertime, though!) a few years ago (Pre-Katrina). A bunch of friends and I stayed in the French Quarter, and man.. what a crazy amount of culture is packed into one place! The sights, the sounds.. the food! Great times. I’d love to go back sometime, hopefully during the Mardi Gras celebrations. Sounds like a ton of crazy fun.
Anyway, more importantly, it reminds me of getting engaged to my husband. Sounds kinda weird, huh? It gets better. He proposed to me as the result of a very famous New Orleans sandwich – the Muffaletta!
He’d never heard of them before, but had a rabid love of olives. I remembered the delicious sandwich I’d experienced at Central Grocery in New Orleans, and decided that he HAD to try one. Mufalettas appear to be pretty hard to come by here in Minnesota, so I made him one, from scratch. He went out and bought my ring the next day! LOL.
So, in honor of Fat Tuesday, I’ve published my muffaletta recipe here. No guarantee that you’ll have the same sparkly results from serving it (it ended up being the most expesive sandwich he’d ever had, lol!), but if you like olives, I’m sure you’ll love it!
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Wedding Show Recovery
Monday, March 16th, 2009First, I’d like to say.. whoever thought of holding Pi Day on the day before the Twin City Bridal Association wedding show has got to be insane. Yes, I get how ridiculous that statement is. I’m just sore and tired. LOL.
Just wanted to write a quick note to thank all the great people we met at the Wedding Fair yesterday! Was great to meet you all. There were an awful lot of cool brides at this show, and we’re looking forward to making some of the awesome cakes that were discussed!
As always, the Wedding Guys put on a great show!
Posted in Commentary, News & Events | No Comments »