07/26/2021
Hey everyone!
I’m Kelly, owner of ‘The Kitschy Cookie’. I’m a perfectionist Virgo who works hard but loves harder. Chai tea and pastries are my kryptonite and I have an inexpressible adoration for animals. I’m a kick butt mom of the most hilarious and compassionate 12 year old boy (soon to be 13 in 3 weeks! Ah!) Tolin (Short o), two fur babies, Charlie (Pomeranian), and Lo (Manx), kindergarten teacher, and fiancé to my 20’s sweetheart, Jacob. 💕
It’s been a while since my last post as life has been crazy to say the least and I have been wanting to introduce myself for a while now!! Over the past few months I’ve been finishing up my final year as a middle school cheer coach (putting this chapter behind me for now), being a full time teacher and navigating this new world of education during a pandemic, pouring my heart into a new grade level, searching endlessly for a new home, and planning a wedding that’s metamorphosized too many times to count with all the changes COVID has brought. My fiancé and I were supposed to get married July 17th but God had other plans and with heavy hearts we had no choice to postpone our celebration again 4 days before our wedding (We’ve had 3 dates total now—thanks to various COVID happenings). We’re praying hard it’ll happen for us on lucky # 3, November 13th so we can FINALLY move into the next phase of our lives and expand our little family (something we’ve been wanting for years).
While things have been a bit chaotic in my world I’m still waking up today with a thankful heart. My family is healthy and blessed and I’m finally chasing my dream of creating beautiful baked goods! For the longest time I had this narrative in my mind of ‘it’s one career or another and you can’t have both’. Well, the silver lining of COVID was the little bit of extra time the quarantine gave me back in April when we were all too scared to go anywhere. I began this uncharted journey in the cookie world, not knowing where it’d take me, how long it’d take or how far.
From the tender age of 8 years old I was destined to be an entrepreneur of sweets. My aunt used to tell me my finger was a sugar thermometer and I could tell how much sugar was in something just by touching it. I used to walk to this shop in Farmingdale, NY (where I grew up) called ‘The Chocolate Duck’ to buy my baking supplies. While the kid down the block was having lemonade stands, I was having ‘cake stands’ (Eat your heart out buddy). I also seized any opportunity to sell cookies and cupcakes when my mom had a yard-sale. Non-baking related fact, but another display of my entrepreneurship was the time I put all of my cats into cages and attempted a ‘Petting Zoo’ stand. (This truly warrants a shout out to my mom for never shooting down my crazy ideas or stifling my creativity!) My weird is showing now, I know.
I continued on my creative journey and went on earn a degree of Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in oil painting. I still get out my oil paints and dust off my old brushes here and there but I now consider cookies my new little canvases. I pride myself in my extensive fine arts background of over a decade and I love bringing my client’s ideas to life in the most detailed and intimate way possible. There are ‘cookie-cutter’ (pun intended) cookiers who recreate Pinterest cookies and there are cookier artists- I not so humbly claim the latter. 😉
In addition to my baking calling, I’ve also always felt like God has wanted to use my artistic talents to help others in some way. I have brainstormed ways over the years but with teaching and raising a child consuming all of my time I never officially landed on one particular charitable action. In 2017, I watched the movie ‘Trafficked’, inspired by real events of young women forced into s*x trafficking. To say it tugged on my heart strings is an understatement: it was gut wrenching! I’ve watched my share of sad movies based on realistic horrible stories and like any person with a shred of decency have been emotionally moved and shed my fair share of tears. But this movie and this feeling was different. It shook my core and stuck with me. I didn’t have it all figured out but there was something inside of me that just knew I would make an impact on this issue on day. Even in some small way. When I decided I’d start a cookie business it hit me that this was it. For each cookie order placed, a portion will be donated to Operation Underground Railroad, an organization dedicated to ending child slavery.🌺
This brings me to the creation of my logo: the lotus flower in ‘The Kitschy Cookie’ symbolizes the hope in overcoming the s*xual exploitation of children. Child suffrage is represented by the mud and murky waters in which the lotus grows but children CAN blossom in the wake of these tribulations just as the awe-inspiring lotus that breaks free and emerges from this mud.
I am privileged to serve as a small catalyst for these ‘lotus flowers’ all while doing what I love.❤️
My cookie journey has brought me everything I thought it would—I’m successful (more on that in a moment), I’m my own boss, I get to use my creativity, and I’m using my talent to help others. While it may not be ‘encouraged’ in business to let people see flaws I like to keep it real, so I’ll be honest and say it’s also brought me MORE than I thought it would — less time with family and friends, little sleep, time away from my teaching career, taking over our living areas for days, and way more business than I ever anticipated. I suppose you could say I’m a victim of my own success. There’s a quote I read recently—‘Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life’. Yes, success has felt AMAZING but I had to ask myself, at what cost? Time is not refundable and I was too often finding myself too busy to spend quality time with the people I love so I needed to reevaluate my priorities. I’m not saying goodbye to the cookie world and maybe one day I’ll be able to give it my all but for now it’s a side gig that’s supposed to bring me joy as a creative outlet. I’m going to limit my orders to one or two a month and when and if I have extra time I may do some seasonal pre-sales here and there. My heart feels so content just writing that. Our time on this earth is a gift and I just want to relish the charms of the present surrounded by my family and friends because frankly, I’ll never look back and think ‘Man, I wish I would have made more cookies instead of watching my son play basketball’.
With that being said, please know I’m BEYOND grateful for all of my customers. Thank you so much for following along, your flattering compliments, and your unwavering support! As limited as my time may be, you are helping me fulfill one of my lifelong dreams and passions while making the world a safer place, one cookie at a time.
🙌🏻🙏💕
