Well it’s been a while since I’ve published a blog and I’m thinking I should probably feel slightly guilty about the time delay between my posts but at the same time, it’s best not to dwell on what hasn’t been done but resolve to do better in future, if that’s truly what I desire to achieve.
2013 was a busy year. I’m not sure whether it was busier than 2012, especially considering 2012 contained my wedding and 4 months of planning for said wedding. However a lot has changed leaving me in a very different place at the end of the last 12 months compared to those that came before it.
The dominating factor of 2013 was my baking business, Yum Crumbs. I started baking properly in August 2012 with my first cake sales in the September and believed my business would focus on supplying sponge layer cakes to local cafes, coffee shops and perhaps pubs and restaurants. A lot of work went into driving to different establishments, pitching my cakes and on occasion delivering samples to try and win business. I met lots of friendly business owners and managed to recruit a number of customers. Some relationships lasted, some didn’t; some are still going strong, whereas other businesses have changed hands or moved away from organic produce due to the economic climate. I have, however, gained a place in a network of incredibly passionate and inspiring people and am keen to remain immersed within that whatever the future holds.
One aspect of cake baking I didn’t expect to embrace was celebration cakes. I began by ending 2012 with a birthday cake for a friend in the shape of a Lamborghini – my first proper celebration cake. It was a big success and I was bitten by the birthday cake bug. Gradually I was commissioned to make other birthday cakes, starting with an Angry Birds cake which saw over 1000 views on Facebook, and I ended 2013 with a total of 40 cakes under my belt from 1st, 3rd, 5th, 18th, 60th, 80th, 90th and 95th birthdays to Christenings and Weddings. Furthermore, the sponge cakes haven’t dominated my workload as expected, and the range of products I now have in my repertoire is more varied and far removed from what I initially anticipated.
Another area of 2013 which hasn’t ended up how I expected was my reading list. Now when I set out my plans to read 50 books in the year, I always knew this to be an ambitious target, and incidentally I wasn’t going to be too distraught if I fell short of my target. In the end I finished 18 books throughout the year, and at more than one per month, this is not a bad achievement. Two of the books were lengthy tomes by Kate Morton, each easily worth 3 books of a shorter nature, and I’ve certainly made space on my book shelves for new titles to fill. So why did I set such a high, unrealistic target in the first place if I wasn’t too bothered should I not hit it? That’s probably a question my husband would ask too.
Some may worry about the fear of failure or fear of taking away from an achievement by focusing on what was not achieved rather than what was. I know that 2012 was a poor year for reading and I wanted to give myself a high target to reflect how much I missed what was one of my favourite pass-times as a child. Now I mainly read before bed, if I have a lie in or when on a journey but I used to sit and while away an hour lost in the magical worlds of Enid Blyton and the Famous Five. This year I have re-entered that world and it has been much needed, and I hope to build on it during 2014. I have always been biased towards fiction, yet have shelves of non-fiction material (my husband’s favourite) on my bookshelves. Therefore in 2014 I aim to read at least 3 non-fiction books, complete the Viking trilogy by Tim Severin and read my new Dan Brown book, Inferno, which I received for Christmas from my mum. Apart from that, I don’t mind how many titles I get through, as long as it’s more than 18.
So what am I taking away from 2013? That whatever you think the year is going to hold, don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t work out how you planned. Enjoy the journey, and wherever you end up, you’ll have a story to tell and a new legacy to build on.
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