My second farmer’s market, life updates, and running my new business!

Hi, everyone!

Aside from going to bed at night, I feel like this is the first time I’ve been able to sit down in weeks. You all have been so wonderful with your kind words and support for my new business, Little Brittle! I’ve been having so much fun and feeling like I’m exactly where I wanted to be. Since officially launching, I’ve spent almost every second of daylight working on orders, the website, market menus, baking, cooking up brittle, and restocking supplies. I take a lot of pride in how I package and present everything I make. I want my items to arrive with an experience and not just be thrown into a box. And with all that comes hours of cleanup! Even though I’m physically tired from it all, I feel so complete and so happy! I love that my baked goods are en route to your homes, and it’s so fun to create a brand that I love and hope you love too! How do I do it as a full-time mom? Luckily, I have a son who likes to participate, so I get creative with him. I do a lot during his naptime and bedtime, and my mom watches him once a week for me to help me out. I’ve also been vlogging on TikTok, so check that out!

Since starting a new business, I didn’t want to stop blogging; although it’s harder to fit it in now, you’re the reason I am where I am, and I love that I can take a few hours to sit down and catch up! We are going on a quick trip after the weekend, and I’ll also be blogging about that! We are heading down to the Sweetgrass Inn in the Isle of Palms! 🙂

 
 
I’ve been loving these summer moments with my son! I try my best to play outside with him as much as possible before it gets too hot out. As soon as he wakes up, we head out on our walk, come in for breakfast, and go back outside to play or go to the pool. He thrives outside and always has the best naps. He is definitely an outside boy! He loves walking around the garden, pretending to pick up things in the grass and loves watching the dogs wrestle. He’s obsessed with lying down in the grass and pointing at the airplanes. 

The best thing about summer is the morning sunrises! We always try to get out on walks when it’s cooler, and the views are always breathtaking. 

Lately, with working so much on Little Brittle, my meals have been all over the place. One meal I’ve been eating a lot lately is this deconstructed burger. It has beef cooked with onions and served on top of lettuce, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and topped with Ketchup and mustard. It’s so good, and I eat it all the time now. 
 
I went into full-on baking mode tI went into full-on baking mode the day before my first Farmer’s Market! I prepared the cookies and the brittle and organized our stand supplies. I designed the dough the night before and headed straight to bed at 7:45 pm. I must wake up between 2:30 am and 3 am on market days. I need time to get the cinnamon rolls rolled up, onto their second rise, and into the oven and frosted before 6:45 am. On top of that, I have to help Kyle pack the car, get ready, and get to the market to set everything up!
 
I was so nervous and excited for the first market. 

I had no idea what to expect, and after spending months preparing, I just wanted it to go smoothly. Luckily, we had the best day ever! It was so much fun sharing my pride and joy with everyone, and we practically sold out. I was so excited for the second weekend after successfully making it through the first. The cinnamon rolls sold out in the first few hours! 

My next market is July 1st! You can preorder on my Little Brittle website to make sure you secure your items before we sell out. I keep preorders in a box behind our stand for you to pick up. Just come up to the booth, and show me your order confirmation! 

One of the best things about doing the market is getting to meet so many of you! I had readers stop by who have been reading this blog since I was writing on Tumblr and living in Iowa. It’s wild how fast time goes, and it’s cool that many of you have been with me through it all. Meeting some of you in person is so incredibly special. So if you live nearby, please come say hi to me at the Fort Mill Farmer’s Market! And if you arrive early, I’ll have those yummy cinnamon rolls! Plus, on July 1st, I have a fun new menu coming! 

Little Buggy had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa at the market! 
  
I was so hungry after the market, so I headed to Southern Salads in Fort Mill to grab lunch for everyone. I had the chicken Caesar wrap with tomato bisque. It was so delicious!

After dinner on Saturday night, we headed out for a super long walk. It was fun to chat about the market and come up with ideas for the next one. I genuinely love this, and I think the market is one of my favorite parts. 

We relaxed on Sunday and worked on home chores. For dinner, I made my favorite meatloaf, green beans, and sweet potatoes! I think this is my son’s new favorite meal. 

He tries sneaking hugs from Leo all day long. It is the cutest thing watching him lay his head on him. Leo loves it! 

Monday morning orders! I do a lot of local orders in the neighborhood, which is great because I can drop everything off while I’m out on my walks. 
 
Kyle was out of town for some of the days last week, which meant I was on morning dog walk duty. I always walk Leo with the stroller in the mornings, and Kyle usually takes Tux out on his walks before the sun rises. 

I’m still on a random salad kick lately. 

This salad is so good, and you have to try it if you love a big semi-homemade salad! 

It had chopped Asian salad mix, chopped Asian Caesar salad mix, onions, tomatoes, avocados, mandarins, a fruit and walnut mix, cauliPower chicken fingers, and crispy lo mein noodles. I mixed both dressings together, and it was INCREDIBLE!  I ate this salad for three days straight. 

Thursday morning craziness! My little, independent almost-14-month old loves to push the shopping cart all by himself, and he’s a little wild child in the stores waving at everyone and demanding a “hello” as they walk by. 

After my wild boy goes down for a nap, I like to sit for at least thirty minutes to decompress with my cup of coffee before getting started on my orders or farmers market tasks. On Thursday, I made a ton of brittle for the market and for some online orders. 

I spent all day Friday baking for the farmer’s market. We had granola, zucchini bars, frosted banana bars, lemon olive oil cake with a whipped lemon buttercream frosting, chocolate chip cookies, Nutella cinnamon stuffed sourdough rolls, and vanilla buttercream sourdough cinnamon rolls. I thought this menu was fabulous, but just wait until next week!! 
    I was up at 2:30 am on the morning of the Farmer’s market to prepare all of the cinnamon rolls! Again, make sure to watch my TikTok of the process! I’ve been vlogging it all. 

I love seeing how beautiful it all is after setting everything up!

We had Father’s Day tags since it was Father’s Day weekend, and people loved that! 
  These cute boxes were for our online preorders!
 
After three hours at the market, everything sold out completely!  
 

I could not believe we were out of everything we brought. Next week, I’ll be baking even more! We haven’t even gone on our vacation yet, and I’m already excited to get back and start baking for the market. I feel like I’m thriving in all of this. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to open a real brick-and-mortar and have a new weekly menu there. 

Time to pack up and head home! 

Please come see me on July 1st! My brother will be in town, and he’ll be working the market with me! Grab a coffee or lemonade at Humble Cup when you come to the market, and come down to see me for your sweet treat! I will also be offering some gluten-free things next week. 

And don’t forget to preorder using the code FMPICKUP for the farmers market! 🙂 That waves the shipping fee and allows me to see that it is a local pickup order. 

I was exhausted when I got home. I had a chicken salad wrap with pretzels, kombucha, and a chocolate bar for lunch. I was so hungry because I planned on having the food truck for breakfast, but they weren’t there this time. 

After spending hours preparing over 11 batches of cinnamon rolls for the next morning, I was off to bed! It was such a long day. 
 I was up at 3 am getting everything ready for the 36 boxes of Father’s Day cinnamon rolls that were to be delivered later in the morning. Waking up that early seems daunting, but I LOVE IT. The house is so quiet, no one is bothering me, and I get to drink coffee and bake. 

I baked two rounds of cinnamon rolls and two rounds of stuffed Nutella rolls. 

My Nutella rolls are filled with Nutella cinnamon sugar inside. They are AMAZING!
 
Around 9 am, all the boxes were stuffed and ready to be dropped off at the houses!


When I got home, I spent the evening cleaning up the garden and tieing up the tomatoes to the trellis. They are getting so big! I’ll have a garden tour soon. 
 
I spent all of this week preparing orders! I put together brittle bags, granola, and a ton of cookies! You all have been so amazing, flooding my site with orders, and I so appreciate every single one of you!!
 The granola has been a huge hit, and I love putting it on my smoothies or yogurt in the morning. It’s delicious! 

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR ORDERS!!:) When Bugs goes down for his nap, I put on a chick flick and start baking and packing up orders. My cookies are baked and shipped out the same day! This week I watched Sweet Home Alabama like five times. Oh, and the Proposal! 
It rained all week long, so my good friend and I got our boys together for a little playdate to get their energy out. It’s so fun watching them grow up together, and they will be big troublemakers soon! 

Packing up orders is so fun! I love writing cards and putting everything together nicely. I want opening up a box from Little Brittle to be an experience and not just a bunch of products thrown into a box. 

If you plan to send cookies or desserts to anyone, leave me a note with your order number so I can add a personalized card for you! I had a girl message me asking to put a birthday card in the cookie boxes for her grandmother, and I loved that I could make it special for her! I’m just a person on the other side of these orders, so I can personalize anything or do special requests! 🙂 I’m in my element with all of this. 
 

Off to drop off more packages! 
   I picked broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, beans, and kale from the garden to go with my dinner on Wednesday night. I love being able to grow fresh produce right now. I have so many tomatoes and peppers growing right now, and I can’t wait! I keep bringing my neighbors bags of lettuce since I cannot keep up. Knowing all of this came from seeds is just the most rewarding feeling.  
I spent all Thursday doing more cookie and brittle orders! 

I couldn’t resist and had to send my grandma a box! I can’t wait for her to receive it. 

The classic box and the deluxe box have been a favorite! 

These cookies made yesterday were also shipped out yesterday! I had a mom send her son cookies who just left for an internship. That made my heart so happy! He’ll get some home-baked cookies when he may be feeling homesick. I hope to do that for my son one day, and I love that I get the opportunity to make other’s days with delicious baked goods. 

 
I shipped out almost 250 cookies yesterday! I felt so grateful.

Thank you all again for the sweet words and support during this fun career transition! Your support has meant the world to me, and I hope you get the chance to come to see me at a market soon! And I met you last week, I hope to see you again!! I will be doing markets throughout the year. 

Questions for you!

1. Do you have any questions about Little Brittle?
2. What have you always wanted to do but put it off?
3. What is one dessert you’d like me to add to the website?