New Moo Cow Cookie

In honor of my wonderful dog Annie, we named a sugar cookie in her honor. Annie died four years ago and we still miss her so much!

Since Annie was a puppy, she loved cows. We started calling them Moo Cows. Every time we passed a dairy farm in the car, and said, "Moo Cows, Annie, Moo Cows," she would get so excited! She would visit with the cows when we took walks, and would bark really loud when we drove past the dairy farms. Annie loved Wisconsin! The dairy farms were so much fun for her!

We found a cute dairy cow cookie cutter, so decided to add a Moo Cow Sugar Cookie to the list of baking mixes.

Be sure to have a large glass of milk with your Moo Cow Sugar Cookies!

Thanks again Kate

Wow! After one tv interview, Creekside Grains was busy! We received several emails, phone calls and web orders. I finally got all of the orders shipped today. Thanks everyone, for supporting our funny little business!

Michael is on his way home from the Lansing Gift Show, so I expect several more wholesale orders will be arriving shortly.

At the show, Michael sampled the root beer cookie, the brand new maple cookie, several of the beer breads, the new Aebleskiver and a whole lot more. He was a busy boy, baking and serving! He gets one day to rest, then off to Minneapolis to do this again.

More later!

Thanks Kate!

We had such fun watching TV 7 and 4 News today.

The interview aired at the 5:00 PM news,
so if you saw the 6:00 PM interview, it was a shortened version.

Kate did a great job!

We had calls and emails asking about stores outside of Traverse City that carry our mixes.
We have over ninety stores from as far east as Pennsylvania
and far west as North Dakota that carry Creekside Grains.

As soon as I can figure out where I can post it on the web site,
I will put a list of all stores that carry our mixes.

Michael is going to Lansing for a gift show this weekend, so hopefully,
there will be more stores to add to the list when he returns.
As soon as he gets back to Traverse City,
he will leave for Minneapolis to attend a five day gift show.
I can only guess how many more stores that will be added to the list!

I am going to Muskegon for the weekend,
with our new Miss Heart of Michigan, Missy Brown,
to join the Miss Michigan contestants for Orientation.

I will be back to work on Monday, trying to get all information posted for you!

Have a great weekend!

TV 7 and 4 Interview

Today was television interview day!
Kate Fox from TV 7 and 4 filmed Michael for Made in Michigan.
The interview will air tomorrow on TV 7 and 4 at 6:00 PM.

Kate is a beautiful young woman,
with great interview skills and a wonderful personality.

It was great meeting her today!

You can barely see Kate behind the camera on the left.

Thanks, Kate! We cannot wait to see the results!

I Love Winter!

This is the view from our deck.

Sometimes, it is very hard to go to work when I see this scene
and listen to the soothing sounds of Beitner Creek.

This is me, without my beekeeping shield.

It fell off when I was snow blowing on Sunday.

You cannot see them, but I have ice crystals on my face.

It looks like I am wearing sparkle makeup. Not makeup, just God sparkles!

It was so cold out that Michael would only walk just outside the office door to take this picture.

He decided against a pretty snowy tree background and took the shot
and ran back into the warmth!

Yesterday, as I was preparing to shovel the drive,
I decided against an extra sweatshirt under my jacket.
I said, "I don't need this. It is warm out!"
All relative, considering it was 22 degrees.
I was comparing it to the below zero temps from last week!

Good thing I really LOVE winter! We seem to get a lot of that lately.

The Beekeeper Snowblower

On Saturday, I spent the day snow blowing the driveway.

The wind was so strong that I could not see,
so Michael gave me his grinding helmet
to shield my face and help me see where I was going.

When I walked in the house, Michael sent me right back out
so he could take a picture of me, covered in snow.

One of our friends said I looked like a bee keeper.
I told her I was glad that it was snow that I was keeping out of my face instead of bees!
I prefer windy, cold snow much more than bees.

I felt like the little boy in the soup commercial
who was so bundled up that he could not move!

I am heading out to do this again.

Good thing I LOVE winter!

Happy New Year!

I am so excited to announce that we were only ninety mixes away from selling 16,000 mixes in 2010! We were so close, but could not figure out a way to get a giant wholesale order or a whole lot of retail orders in just a few days (we discovered we were that close on Thursday afternoon).

This year, our goal is 20,000 mixes! I cannot wait to see when that will happen!

Thank you to all of you who ordered on line, bought mixes at the farmers markets or craft shows, or purchased them at retail stores around the country. We are so grateful for your continued support and for God's blessing on our "funny little business." That is what Michael calls Creekside Grains when we pray every night.

We are blessed and pray that your 2011 will be, too!

Christmas Services at Bay Pointe, plus lots of updates

Please join us to celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas Eve at Bay Pointe Community Church.
Services will be 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 PM.
Michael and I will be greeting at all four services, so we would love to see you there!

We can still ship in time for Christmas delivery!

Go ahead, order some mixes for gifts or for Christmas gatherings!

Our new Kahlua and Cream scone
can be a wonderful addition to your Christmas goodies.

We are finally, fully moved into our new facility.
We cannot see one end of the building,
because the boxes are so high,
but we will get everything sorted and in it's place
and it will be a happy facility!

If I do not blog before Christmas, have a blessed Christmas!

No Internet

In case you tried to contact us via email in the past four days and did not receive a reply from us, our internet was shut down. We discovered it on Friday morning.

Since we are moving, we have to disconnect one internet service and open another (since the first one is not available at our new location). We have new service at the new facility, but had not moved the computers yet. We decided not to disconnect the first service until we had all equipment moved. However, someone in sales decided that Friday was a great day to end our internet. When I called to find out what happened, the sales department was closed for the holiday.

All this comes down to...we have no internet connections and may not have them for a few more days, until we can make the switch. You will hear from us as soon as we can respond.

Sorry for the inconvenience! We hope to be full speed ahead very soon!

P.S. I am at a remote computer so I can write this, but have no access to our email accounts.

What's New at Creekside Grains

Last month, we started construction on a new commercial kitchen/warehouse. Hopefully...we will be moved in by the end of November. We are waiting for electric hook up, which will now be delayed by at least two weeks, thanks to the powerful wind storm keeping Cherryland Electric busy last week.

We have been in a temporary facility for the past six months, but that will soon change. Our current commercial kitchen is in one building and the warehouse is in another, about ten minutes apart from each other, and about fifteen minutes from home.

We are so excited! The new building is in our back yard, so we will get to walk to work, every day! No more driving to the warehouse, then to the kitchen, then back to the warehouse, then back to the kitchen again, then back to the warehouse, then home at night. Time saved from driving will help Michael invent new recipes, so I can taste test them.

We live on a beautiful piece of property, with Beinter Creek running through it, so it will be a nice change of pace to actually enjoy the creek during daylight hours, instead of only hearing it when we get home at night.

Michael has been taking progress pictures. I will post them soon!