Workin' 9 to 5

I'm nearing the end of my first week with Luxe Sweets. I absolutely love it! The Austin Chocolate Festival is going on this weekend, so we spent all week getting ready for this, and yesterday and today we spent all day at the festival. It's so much fun getting to meet other local bakeries and chocolatiers, as well as the various people who drive in for the festival.

We've gone through about 500 cookies in the course of 2 days, and countless amounts of fudge and chocolate bark. Friday was a slow day, since most people wait until the weekend to drive out there, so all of the vendors wandered around meeting each other and trading goodies - by the end of the day we didn't even want to hear the word "chocolate" anymore. My dentist is going to hate me. Luckily, we're next to a catering company that is serving crepes, and they have been supplying us with samples all weekend. Bourbon crepes with pecan cream cheese and strawberries, drizzled with chocolate; chocolate crepes with bananas foster; savory green onion crepes with mushrooms and bacon and parmesan cheese (yum!).

We're really hoping we'll win most popular booth - we have a really strong chance - people keep coming back for our award-winning cookies, and we're also the booth closest to the door, so as they're on their way out, customers spend their last tickets with us. But - the crepe gals charge 2 tickets per crepe, instead of 1 like the rest of the vendors (and understandably so, since the crepes are hot and fresh and cost more), so they might beat us out. Soraiya is a genius in the kitchen, and her products are incredible!

I'm so exhausted, since this job requires standing on your feet all day everyday - my back hurts, my legs hurt, my feet hurt. I wash my hands so many times that they are dry and cracked. It doesn't help that our booth at the festival is the front and center spot (we thought this was an excellent location until it turned out to be cold and windy and the door is kept open all day).

I've had a great time getting to know Soraiya (Luxe Sweets is her baby) and her husband Azim. We work really well together and have had a blast this weekend at the festival. Luke is coming out to the festival tomorrow to meet them and see what I do now. Thankfully after this weekend it will slow down a little, and hopefully I can catch up on my sleep.

They should post pictures from the festival online soon - I'll post the link when they're up.