Hello, I am Nadia -- a proud student of YouTube University, where I learned how to decorate cookies (in my head that sounded so much cooler than saying "I'm a self-taught baker"). I was introduced to baking at an early age by my Granny Jean, however I started decorating cookies in 2016 as an outlet to positively process some of life's lows. My first cookie set (Hearts for Valentines Day) looked HORRIBLE...the icing ran right off the cookies and my lines were as WONKY as they come but going through that process sparked something inside of me. It reminded me of a time when I was about 10 years old, and my big sister got me a children's encyclopedia series. I used to sit in her closet reading those books when one day I came across a picture of a birthday party set up where they made one of the COOLEST circus displays out of cookies and other sweet treats (at least that's what I thought at the time). My first cookie set reminded me of the time I saw those pictures for the very first time and said, "THIS IS SO COOL I'M GOING TO MAKE THIS FOR MY BIRTHDAY ONE DAY."

Instead of being defeated by my failed first attempt I felt driven to try again...and again...and again improving on my skills with every set I completed. Fast forward to 2018, where I now have a 1-year-old son and I'm excited at the thought of making him so many cool cookies for his birthdays only to discover by the age of 2 that he was not a fan of royal icing (or any version of it). I would spend all this time decorating cookies for him, only for him to eat the back part of the cookie leaving me with a palm full of soggy icing every time (EEEWWW). For the first time since I started decorating cookies, I felt defeated. I could not wrap my mind around not being able to share my love of decorating cookies with my son.... SOOOOOOO, I DIDN'T. I would not accept defeat so I started looking for icing alternatives to quickly realize that I did not have much of an option, so I did what any mom would do for their child...try to find a way. Month after month after month I tried creating a recipe for an icing that wasn't so sweet and month after month there was no success in sight.

I should tell you about Granny Gatha. She never appeared in the kitchen the way Granny Jean did, her gift came differently. When I was thirteen, living in her home and trying to make sense of the world the way thirteen-year-olds do, I found a dream book. I don't remember how it got there or who it belonged to. What I remember is sitting with it for hours, learning that dreams weren't just random, that they carried something. Messages. Direction. Answers to questions you hadn't fully formed yet.

It was in Granny Gatha's home that I made the first birthday cake I ever made for Granny Jean. They both sat with me that day, two grandmothers at one table, telling me they were proud. I didn't know then that I was sitting at the beginning of something. I just knew that room felt like exactly where I was supposed to be.

Years later, when I was stuck and defeated and out of ideas, Granny Jean came to me in a dream. And because of Granny Gatha, I knew how to listen.

In this dream we were sitting at a kitchen table talking, it was more like me talking to her about the difficulties I was facing in this creative process while she just smiled and listened. I remember crying in the dream telling her "Granny I don't know what to do, it feels impossible." She smiled and she replied, "What do you like to do most?" I replied "Baking." She then asked, "What are you baking right now?" I replied "Cookies." Her smile got brighter, and she started nodding her head then she said, "Isn't a cookie made out of dough? What ingredients do you need to make cookie dough?" She then reached into the pocket of her apron pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil and slid it across the table where instinctively I started listing the ingredients while saying them aloud. By the time I got to the end of that list she said, "How can you say it's impossible if you just did it?" She smiled, touched my hand and I woke up. While I wish I could say that the recipe I wrote out in the dream was a success right away it was not, HOWEVER it was a starting point in a whole new direction.

Which brings us to the present. This brand carries both of them, their names live in it even if you don't know it yet. And if you've read this far, consider yourself part of what they started.

The dream got a name,  and it's almost ready!

For Granny Jean. For Granny Gatha. For the son who just wanted to eat the whole cookie. And for the little girl who knew who she was before she knew who she was.