24 days of cookies!!!!!!!!!

Well friends of Harmony, today officially begins my 24 days of baking cookies. I usually begin my holiday baking on Dec. 1st and bake at least one cookie a day until Xmas eve. Today I am gearing up the stove and thawing out the butter. I usually bake cookies for our neighbors and ship cookies back east to my family and close friends. This year I will be able to bake more since I am no longer slaving for a major corporation. I will spend today and tomorrow baking round one of cookies to be shipped to family in Philly. So check your mailbox, mom, dad, Matt, aunties and uncles. Claire's famous cookies are on there way!

On the baking menu for today:

sugar cookies, ginger thins, chocolate chips and Hungarian shortbread

I will be sure to post pictures of everything before they ship.

My friend Shay is headed back to the ATL and we had a blast. We are getting old, we couldn't hang past midnight or I guess I should say I couldn't hang past midnight. We hung out most of yesterday and laughed and joked about our college days and how far we have come. She came with me for Nalah's gymnastics practice and then we dropped the kiddies at home with Chaka and hit a few stores, had dinner, missed our movie and came home. It was nice to sit up and chat with someone over the age of 7. She is such a supporter of Harmony and can't wait until she can come and audit me :-)

Well, I am off to help Chaka pull the tree out, we are a week off schedule but we still will be able to enjoy the tree for an entire month if it gets up tonight.

Oh, the kids xmas pj's came yesterday. They are soooooooo cute. I ordered them from Disney this year and I can't wait until xmas eve for them to put them on.

Stay warm, it is finally HOT COCOA season, yeah!!!!!!!!!

Sneak Peak

Extra...Extra...... Read All About It...............

My hubby has been working diligently on my new logo and my new website. Here is a preview of what the new logo is going to look like, I told you to think sweet honey, cherry and chocolate (you will have to wait to see the chocolate). I will also let you know when the new website launches.

Nite for good this time.

Shay Shay is coming!!!!!!!!

One of my dearest buddies from college is coming to visit tomorrow. I am so excited to see her. She currently lives in Hotlanta and she is making a detour after a business trip to see me. She is also going to help me evaluate my HACCP( Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) plan before Harmony opens its doors. She is an auditor for the AIB (American Institute of Baking) and she works with some major players in the food industry.

Shay Shay an I met in an African-American studies class and I recruited her to Agr. Campus and convinced her to change her major to Food Science. Back then, I was the biggest cheerleader for Agr. Campus and used to introduce myself to folks at the campus bus stop and give them my 10 min. spiel of all that Agr. Campus had to offer. I think back to those days and completely laugh. If I had a dollar for every student that I talked to about Agr. campus, Harmony would have a huge contingency fund.

Shay and I did some crazy stuff back then. Her apartment was also conveniently located across the street from the house that Chaka shared with 4 other guys. We were not really into the drinking and partying scene (at least I wasn't) but boy did we do our share of things that will keep us from running for a political office. I will give you one example:
Shay and I answered an ad in the school paper for a company looking for students to talk on the phone. The gig was paying $15+ per hour (red flag #1) but what college student wouldn't inquire???? We called and the woman said that I would be a perfect fit b/c I sounded like a naughty school girl (red flag # 2), she continued to explain the job and let's just say that we would have been girl 6 and girl 7 if we took the jobs. Shay and I never went to the interviews but we laughed for days about the whole situation.

Anywho, I am extremely excited to see her. It has been about a year and a half so we have a bit to catch up on. If I don't write tomorrow its b/c Shay and I are laughing about our college days.

More news to come about Harmony.......next week will be Architect interview/ planning week. Hopefully we can get this ball rolling again by Xmas, at this point I have nothing but time on my side.

Have sweet dream. Peace in the middle east............

Completely Scatter brained

I woke up this AM and I was completely scatter brained. I figured that things would improve as the day went on but they have not. I ventured out to buy some baking ingredients so I could start prepare for my first xmas orders (I have a few folks that have already placed orders for the week before xmas). I packed the baby bag and got everything ready so when the kids buses came I could hop in the car and run my errands. I had my list in tow so I would not forget anything.

Drop videos off (check)
Return car seat cover to Babies R Us (check)
Return shirt that I could not fit (b/c of my Sheera arms) to New York and Co. (check)
buy hat and gloves for Amari and Nalah since every year they seem to loose a set (check)

I made it home by 12:30 and was completely elated until I realized that I forgot to stop and pick up my ingredients. I was suppose to hit GFS to get more baking cups (I have gone through 1500 cups in the last couple of months) and hit Walmart b/c butter is on sale.

Where was my head?????

So I guess I will have to run out once Chaka gets home from work. I can't believe that I forgot the ingredients. I so wanted to make my apricot brandy cupcakes tonight to take to the teachers at Nalah's old Montessori school tomorrow. They have been great taste testers in the past and they don't sugar coat their comments. Well perhaps next week. I am not going to sweat it. It happens. It just seems to be happening more and more as I get older. I can deal with my metabolism slowing down but not my brain.............

Well, I am off to exercise. I have got to get the extra baby and cupcake weight off. Enjoy the above picture of a custom order I did last year. I figured I should post a cupcake picture since I have not posted any in a bit.

Enjoy the day and remember to exercise your brain!

BEWARE...........I don't have any Secret :-)

So my nasty swollen armpit is finally starting to feel better. After 2 trips to the Dr's and almost a week of drainage, I can actually see my armpit again. There is a hole in my armpit that you can see straight through to my soul. The doctor informed me Monday that this is a good thing and will allow for all of the infection to drain. The human body has amazing healing powers. I can't wait until my brother, future Dr. Matt, deals with these gross anatomy issues on a daily basis. The bad news is that I have been told not to wear deodorant again b/c this will happen again. I am not sure how I am going to get away with this for the rest of my life but for now I am Secret free.

Just thought I would share...........

Searching for an Architect

The search is still on for an architect to complete our designs. I tell you, this process is really taking MUCH longer that we anticipated. I have had 2 successful conversations so far. Now I need to set up the meetings and get ready to sit down with them. Chaka also had a brilliant idea to contact the Architect firm that did the plans for the current occupant. We shall see.

I am off to make more phone calls............

I think I can...........I think I can

I am back after a little hiatus. My dad was visiting and I wanted to make the best of the visit.

I pretty much had to take a few days to get myself together. Harmony has had a few setbacks where I wanted to pull my hair out, but I am back on track now plowing away. It looks like things are going to be delayed further but I know that this is all apart of the journey.

Here is the Harmony Update:

We still do not have a contractor and we have not signed a lease on our location. Pretty much, we are taking a moment to re-group from our bidding process before we change our course slightly. I will fill you in when we have made all of our decisions.

I am out for today. I have lots to catch up on.

Peace