Lil' Business Adventures

As some of you may know, the obsession that I've had with baking and cupcakes has been going on for some time now... So it only made sense that I would eventually combine my love of baking, of feeding people, and my slight affection for pieces of paper with president's faces on them, to form a business. A year and a half ago, that dream was started-- on a small scale. I began selling baked goods to a high school down the road a ways from our colonia. I had a nice little partnership (or so I thought) with a girl in my church.

She would take orders from the students and teachers, and do the deliveries. This setup lasted for about a year... that's all I could take of the rollercoaster... (This alone could make up a 3 part post full of all the things I learned. -Trial and error, y'all-) 

To be short I will just say be careful with who you decide to work with... It might work, but you might just find someone's real character. Lol.) Anyways, I really did learn a lot of good during this time!

Now I've moved up a step and am selling at our favorite taco restaurant.
(As seen in the fundraising post!)

This is what my nights look like every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Mrs. Tacos in the corner is a worker at the restaurant. We fwens :)) Mr. Parking Guy on the left was
sent out one night to scope out my table and take pictures for all the workers inside to see. They are not allowed to leave their posts while working, so they sent a cellphone.

Another friend :))

This dog was super friendly and acted like we were his owners. He sidled up to us and soon  scooted under my legs and fell asleep!

Every now and then I have people ask me to trade something for a cupcake... About a month ago I was offered a cotton candy. I accepted, as I happen to love cotton candy. :))
Another night, as I was sitting outside, a family passed me and my ears immediately perked up when I heard them speaking a strange melodic language that I did not recognize.
I also noticed that the mom of the family was dressed semi-modestly in a long skirt and
had a kind of ethereal look about her.
They went inside the restaurant and I soon forgot about them. A while later they came out and the mom and daughter slowed down as they passed my table. The woman said to me, in these exact words: "You are going to give my daughter a "pastelito" (little cake), and I will tell you your future in life." (She wanted to trade a palm reading for a cupake.) I was dumbfounded for a second and then quickly told her no, that I was a Christian and did not believe in that. Without another word she walked off with her daughter.
They zoomed off in their car, but stopped quickly at the corner, where their two kids hopped out and ran over to buy a cupcake. #win :))
I don't know about where you guys are at, but here in Mexico, the palm readers and fortune telling women dress almost like us!!! Its a little strange.

Dad keeps me company most nights.

(He is so helpful... Drives me, unloads the equipment, and helps set everything up. Love you dad! :)

And when chauffeur-dad is not available, it's Uber to the rescue! :))

(You guys would judge me horribly if you could see the number of unread emails in my inbox. Hence the pixelation. HAHA.)

My trip from the house to where I sell usually takes 20-25 minutes... If you look at the times here, you'll see that this trip only took 10...

Why?

Well let me tell you all a story. The family has been in Texas for the past week and a half, so I've been on my own. But the mop doesn't stop just because I've been abandoned! :)) So every selling night, I'd get my little Uber car, we'd pack up my equipment, (a small table, chair, cupcake stand, cupcakes, and a hot drink-- it gets COLD out there!) and drive out to the restaurant. This usually goes smoothly...

On my last sale night of the week I spent several hours in the kitchen, packaged things up, and then got my Uber. We packed up and headed out. I sat in the front and just felt like the setup was a little precarious, so while we drove I reached my hand back to keep my cupcake carriers from sliding around. I did not take into account that the driver had leaned my table against the backseat, placing the cupcake containers between the table and the front seats. 10 minutes away from the house, as we were chatting amiably about how awesome Uber is, a bus that was in front of us suddenly changes lanes and boom, a TOPE. For those of you who don't know what topes are, they are pretty good sized speed bumps.

This tope was a doozy. The driver tried to SLAM on his brakes, but we still leaped over the tope, which turned the backseat into a tumble dryer for my cupcake carriers, and sent them and the heavy table smashing into the backs of the front seats. --My arm was prepared to handle a little sliding around- not a table going full force at me!

Exhibit A:

(No, that container is not supposed to be upside down.)

After crashing over the tope like an out of control roller coaster, the driver braked in the middle of traffic and (much to my enjoyment and entertainment) turned on the emergency/warning lights, horns blaring around us. I just thought his reaction was a bit dramatic. Haha. I guess the whole scene and crashing kind of freaked the guy out ...he could just see his job hanging in the balances LOL... I gently told him that we should get to the side of the road as we were impeding traffic. :)))) 

Once we made it to the side he worriedly asked if we should check inside the containers! 

I assured him that we did not need to-- I knew that everything was ruined, without checking. 

I can laugh about this now, and I am as I write this, but in the moment I felt numb. Dead. LOL. A little part of me wanted to break down crying. But I was too tired for that. It had been a long day. Have any of you been to tired to cry? :D

The driver so kindly quit charging me the fare of the ride and took me home. The whole way he apologized, as I tried to keep a brave face and not make him feel too bad... After all it wasn't all his fault. I got on my phone to calmly tell Bethany of what had just happened and after I was done recording the voice message, I hear from the driver in heavily accented English, "I sorrri". 

Makes me laugh just remembering it! :))

Abstract cupcake art :))

In my rush to leave the house to sell, I didn't have time to clean up everything from baking. So to add insult to injury, I had to clean the kitchen when I got home.

But first I sat on the floor and ate a smooshed cupcake. And it was good.

Exhausted, as I washed the dishes, I thanked God. For what exactly, I was not quite sure.. 

But I was home, safe, and uninjured.

We never know why things happen in life, but God does protect us from things unseen and unknown. Of course-- I'm sure accidents happen, and without hidden reason. 

But for now I will just say "Thank you Lord." 

And I'll let y'all know if I ever find out a reason behind this disaster. :) 

Through out my time at the taco restaurant, I've met so many interesting people, and seen so many funny things... That's why I'm doing this introductory post about my business. I want to be able to share the little things that happen while I'm sitting at my table.

Sales are quite good as cupcakes are all the rage right now in Mexico. We are a bit behind the U.S. in this-- the craze hit the states and fizzled down a bit already for you guys. 

But it's just picking up here!

I love hearing people exclaim joyfully "Cohp-keyks!" when they see my table. :)) Or sometimes they say "Mohfeens!!" (Muffins) And in my head I'm like... No. Not muffins. -_-

Haha.

Sit tight, the next batch of cupcake stories is on its way-- Today is Friday! 

*Nicole*