Which is funny because if you ask my husband, he’ll tell you my towels are folded like they belong in a department store and heaven help the person who puts them away wrong. Some habits die hard and along the way, I stopped expecting myself to be perfect.
I used to think every loaf had to look bakery-worthy before I could post it. Every recipe had to be flawless before I shared it. Every blog post had to be clever enough to make someone stop scrolling. Then, life reminded me it doesn’t work that way. The laundry still needs folded. The house still needs picked up. My kids still need me. My husband still deserves my attention instead of listening to me over-analyze whether my dough fermented for 15 minutes too long.
In all of that, I decided to build something. Not because I had a business plan or because I thought I’d be good at it…because I was curious, curious if I could learn sourdough. Curious if I could write something that made people laugh… or think… or just feel a little less alone. Curious if I could create a little extra income doing something I genuinely enjoyed.
If I’m being completely real, this “making extra income” thing has been hilarious so far. I started baking bread to make money. Then I bought Dutch ovens, bannetons, lames, bread bags. labels. proofing tubs, more flour, ingredients for things I didn’t even know I wanted to make until three hours earlier.
At this point, I’m pretty sure my hobby has a hobby. Will I eventually make back what I’ve spent? I hope so. Even if it takes a while, I’ve realized I don’t regret any of it. I didn’t just learn how to bake bread. I learned that I’m still capable of learning something completely new at 44. It’s okay to suck at something in the beginning and curiosity is worth following, even when it costs you more than you planned. I’ve learned that building something from basically nothing isn’t glamorous. It’s messy. It’s expensive. It’s frustrating. It’s exciting. It’s a hundred little decisions nobody sees.
One day it’s a blog with no readers. The next it’s someone buying a loaf of bread. Then someone shares your post, and another person comes back for a second loaf. It’s slow, inconsistent, and probably not the path any financial advisor would recommend but it’s mine. I still care. I still want to do things well. I’ll probably always refold a towel if someone mangles it. but I don’t need everything to be perfect before I begin anymore.
I’d rather be the person who’s learning, failing, improving, and occasionally buying another kitchen gadget I definitely “need”… than the person who never started because she was too afraid of getting it wrong. The older I get, the more I realize perfection isn’t what builds a life…trying does.
Whining, Wine-ing & Winning 
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