Hello!
Happy 2023 :-) (How long can I get away with still wishing people a Happy New Year? I think I am out of time if I am honest but this is my first blog post of the year so indulge me this one last time. Pretty please.)
If you don't know, I typically take January "off" - well, when I say off, I mean out of the kitchen for an entire month but I am very much working ~on~ the business and getting everything in line for the year to come.
What's been going on?
So far, it has been a heady mix of trying to consciously ease myself back into the throws of BB after a very busy Christmas season - trying to be kind to myself and pace - against a backdrop of a full brain overflowing with all the ideas I have been having and wanting to get stuck in! It's not a great balance yet, it's messy, but I am getting there!
Most importantly, in January, I set my intentions for the year, sketch out some collections and collaborations I plan to bring to fruition, do a deeeeeep clean of the kitchen/office, resort, rejuggle, reorder and generally just feel like I have a lovely fresh start as I tentatively head back into the kitchen come February.
2023, Here we go...
I thought I would write a little post to share with you my direction for this year.
Partly, because bringing it to life publicly is a way to commit to this plan. Eeep.
Partly, because I have a shift in focus this year that feels quite different to last and I wanted to share this with you.
Partly, because that shift involves this blog quite heavily so, what better place! Ha.
1. This year, I intend to revive this blog!
Bitesize Bakehouse started life, in my brain, around 10 years ago when I was regularly writing my first food blog. Little kernels of ideas cumulating until my life created an opening for it to come to be (You can read a bit more about that here.).
I miss creating new recipes regularly. Experimenting. Sharing - the bits that worked and the bits that didn't! ...and if you run your own business, where is the beauty if you cannot bend and flex your time to focus on what you want to do, right? So - expect more popping up here in this space.
My aim is to bring you more recipes to try, give you some inspiration, share products and ingredients I am loving right now, and generally more BTS of running this business. The recipes will be diving right in- no scrolling for 10 years to get to the bit that you want. Recipe first, tips at the end, maybe a video of how I made it too if I am feeling extra fancy! I hope you'll love the content and if you aren't already... sign up to the newsletter for blog round ups and all the the insider info.
2. Workshops are launching!
This was something I actually wrote up and planned in the summer last year and just never got around to launching. Oops. I will be sharing some selected dates where you can come in to the BB kitchen and learn with me - just chocolate and cakes to start with but there will be more in time as I work out my availability around the kids :-S
If you are keen, please feel free to reach out now (here) and I can tell you more - otherwise, there will be a blog post soon with more info (see what I've done there...).
3. Pinterest Take-Over! I'll still be on Instagram - very sporadic on TikTok and FB - but the love my life has always been Pinterest. I know that it isn't a social media platform but having reignited my love of Pinterest towards the back-end of last year I am shifting my marketing efforts here. It's calmer, slower, endlessly positive and just an pit full of all the beautiful inspo you can imagine. If you don't already follow me on Pinterest, click here or search Bitesize Bakehouse and I should pop up. I will be saving new content weekly - and showcasing some of my most favourites pins from others in a series of new boards all devoted for my love of baked goods. Yum :-)
4. Resetting the balance!
Every year I send a newsletter at the beginning of January and I am just starting to pull this years together. On reviewing the last few though I noticed I referred to just how busy the end of the year had gotten. This year - I intend to employ a little more balance.
I am so grateful to be busy enough for this to be a problem, and in no way plan to be scaling back! The exact opposite actually. But in order to have some evenings off, some dedicated time with my family and avoid the steep inclines of wedding heavy summers and gift filled winters, this year I am aiming to balance my year across dedicated working days a week. My aim is to plan ahead, ringfence time off and stand firm on this, and then also have ringfenced work time too that means I can focus in on growing the business and helping it flourish.
I have grand plans and they will only come to fruition if I have time to recharge and focus on where I can bring in others to help me so that we can take on more and provide even more exciting opportunities.
Let's go!
So, there we have it.
A small, but hopefully mighty, shift for BB this year.
Wish me luck! Eeeeep.