Summer in a drink – pina coladas!
After spending a good portion of the day doing some much needed blog housekeeping, I realized that I hadn’t written a Bits & Bites newsletter post in nearly five and a half months! My last Bits & Bites was a week before Valentine’s Day and boy, have things ever changed since February! I haven’t made an official announcement and only a handful of people in my life know about this, but I promise to write up a full post on this when I’m good and ready: I landed my first permanent full-time job! And yes, it’s food-related! I’ve been working for two months now and I bless my good fortune every day because this job that I have is truly a dream come true and it could not have been more tailor-made for me. I am having the time of my life and I am so, so lucky to have a job that I LOVE TO PIECES. Life has become so much busier and hectic as a result, but I’ll be the first to say that I have truly never been happier in my life, both personally and with my career and aspirations. I finally feel like I am content and at peace with where I am in life and that all the trials and tribulations I went through over the past 10 years have been worth it.
There is SO much I want to do in the future both with the blog and just in general and I feel like I have a decent enough foundation now to keep striving for more and it feels amazing! I want to go globe-trotting for cupcakes, I want to share lots more baking recipes and cooking, and I want to finally get my hands on a snazzy pro camera with pretty lenses! All in due time. In the last several months, I’ve shared some of the happiest, most exciting moments with you all on here (my first published photo in Toronto Life magazine, my first published magazine article and photo spread in Eat In, Eat Out magazine) and I’ve been working away like a busy bee on new series and stories for the spring and summer months including:
- the Oreo Anniversary Series
- the Summer Patio Dining series
- the the Sushi Lunch Special series
- The Cupcake Connection, and
- The Weekend Brunch series and Confessions of a Brunch Obsessed-Foodie
Ooo, summer on the barbie!
Who doesn’t love summer food on a stick?!
I’ll admit, it’s been tough keeping up with all the new series and also continuing to keep the existing ones going, but I’m having way too much fun to stop now. They’re all series that I feel very passionate and excited about, so even if I don’t make a new post for a particular series for a month or two, I know in the back of my mind that I’ll get to new content eventually. I think that’s been the beauty about writing a blog specifically devoted to food in Toronto and Markham. There’s so much to get to that there will never be a dull moment.
I’m working on compiling all the posts I’ve made for The Cupcake Connection and the Weekend Brunch series and creating specific categories and links for them so they’ll be more easily accessible. They’re currently housed in their broader parent categories (Cupcake Chronicles and Rise & Shine), but it takes a lot of sifting to get to those specific posts, so I’ll be creating those links really soon! Oh, and I’ll be giving my About page a face lift complete with a special Features drop-down tab and a spiffy new bio because the current one is a little outdated!
A sweet and fruity raspberry cream summer tart from Sen5es
So, what am I specifically working on right now? 3 things: 1) getting back on the regular food scrapbooking horse! All the layouts I’ve done for the past few months have been for my Cookie & Baking Scrapbook Project and while it’s been so cute and fun playing with baking and cookie-related scrapbook stickers and supplies, I really miss scrapbooking savoury food and cupcakes from specific places I’ve been to so I’m actually working on 3 new layouts right now and I’ll be posting new ones this coming week!
2nd order of business: farmers’ markets! You all know how dearly I love making my rounds every week. Now that I’m working full-time though, there are certain markets I just won’t be able to get to, ever. It makes me sad knowing that I never got around to some of the ones during the week to show you all (like the one at Edwards Gardens and the one at June Rowlands Park by Mount Pleasant Rd. and Davisville), but I’m going to do the best bang up job I can representing the weekend markets! I still need to get to Withrow Park, make a return visit to The Junction market, and visit all the ones in Markham I’ve been neglecting! Even without the ones during the week on my plate, there’s plenty to go around still.
Finally, let’s talk Facebook. Ate by Ate’s Facebook page is only one “Like” away from its first 100! Can you believe it?! I’m so excited! I know I haven’t been tweeting as much on my Twitter for the past little while, but I’ve tried my best to keep the Facebook page fun and updated and it’s been great utilizing the photo albums to post galleries of all the scrapbook layouts, pretty cupcake photos, and my personal favourite, the Farmers’ Market Portraits gallery. I’ll be starting a brunch album really soon, I just need to think of a pretty name for it.
If you’re Canadian, enjoy the rest of the long weekend! Upcoming posts this week: new scrapbook layouts and Mexican madness!
Ate by Ate 