What inspires you? I really hated it when people asked me that. Kinda like when people ask “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. I prefer to let things happen organically and sometimes I’m not sure where the launching pad was. It just happens. In any case, the salon I work at decided to have a video made to showcase our inspiration. It was really hard for me to think of something to do and to come up with an answer to what inspires me. Right around the same time I attended a Bumble & Bumble class. One of the images shown that day was of an wonderful napkin ring holder that I became OBSESSED with. And when I become obsessed with something, I won’t rest till I find the thing. It’s bad, I know. Anyway, I scoured the internet until I found that image (which actually wasn’t that hard because Google-ing “burlap flower napkin ring” only came up with so  many image hits). And thanks to Maya Made I found THIS:

This, my friends, is what I decided to use as inspiration for my video. BUT, then it became my inspiration for the look of Cake Ball Love. I loved the simplicity and the rustic feel of it. It literally became my focal point for what I wanted my business to become. Since then it’s been much easier to answer the question of what inspires me because I think I’m more aware. Thank goodness too, because I was really tired of giving the standard “The sky, geometry, a babbling brook…”.

As for the video, you can check it out here. It’s a damn good video made by our favorite friend, Stephen Alberts with Blue Barn Creative.

So what inspires you, and where do you see yourself in 5 years?

OK, hopefully you’d find out more about me, assuming the date went well, but here’s a little taste of how I started rolling them balls, and a little insight into who I am…

On December 10, 2007 I discovered cake balls. Like so many others, I visited Bakerella’s website, and saw these decadent confections and decided I would make them. They seemed simple enough-bake a cake, crumble it up, add some frosting, ball it up and dip in chocolate. How hard could it be? I decided on a vanilla cake ball, made from scratch and started about 7:00 pm. The cake baked beautifully, my frosting whipped up perfectly, and now it was time to assemble. Around 1:00 am I was crying and completely pissed at these little balls of hell that had been introduced into my life. My poor husband stayed far away from the kitchen after his first attempt to get me to come to bed. The balls kept falling apart when I dipped them, the finish was lumpy and ugly, and the chocolate kept cracking. I think I got maybe 5 good ones out of, oh say….60. Or I guess it would have been 60 had I kept going, but I finally scrapped the whole thing and went to bed. I don’t think I attempted those little bastards for a few more months…

Fast forward a few years and I finally learned from my mistakes (although I’m sure there are many to come) and I’ve perfected my recipes to my liking. So I decided to share them with San Diego and provide cake balls and cake pops galore. Aside from my story of “How it all began”, here are 10 things about me that you probably didn’t know, but might want to:

1. I’m a wife to a great husband and a mom to a great 2 year old.
2. I’ve been doing hair at Rinse Salon for 3 years.
3. I’m a Libra.
4. I used to work for a Logistics company as a pricing manager for international freight. Mainly import ocean freight.
5. I’m from Reno.
6. I firmly believe the best way to be happy is to be compassionate and kind to one another.
7. My favorite quote is “Whatever you are, be a good one.”-Abraham Lincoln
8. I once lived in Boise.
9. I have a half-sleeve.
10. I used to be a dancer. Not an exotic dancer, but a ballet, jazz, and modern dancer.

So there you have it! Now that I’ve gotten my blog on, I feel so much more accomplished. Now off to tackle 500 more cake balls…..