I think we are going to make it!! That is if the video I need to upload were just 10mb smaller…
Working around that kink! This is why I don’t procrastinate!
I am LOVING our office!! Yes, I intend to keep the desk that neat.
The whole office is IKEA – desk, chair, Expedit shelves (my first!!)
But I must thank Core Chiropractic Clinic for the filing cabinets!! Thanks Tate!
He also gave me this little card boxes, which I think are so charming!!
Afternoon nourishment, which I ate at 6pm while still working. I’m so busy that I don’t eat until I’m really hungry and I think it’s catching up with me in the evenings – just snacked on some ice cream!
The rest of the space is coming along too. My LABELS that I’ve been making are great!! The cardstock + printing + laminating + cutting have been a hassle but I’m so glad to have this done. More things are coming for both the shelves and table!
Yeah chalkboards!!! Chalkboard markers rule!!!
I promise a VIDEO of the bakery when it’s a wee bit more put together!
Hey mom + gram – notice your antique blue glass jars!?! I LOVE them!
I biked home around 6:30 to make dinner in advance of Matt.
And noticed I had grease on my favorite Abercrombie shorts from 1998 or so 
But I dropped on Basic H and scrubbed with an old toothbrush and it mostly came OUT!! Yeah Shaklee!!
I soaked them for 20 minutes in some Nature Bright and then washed ‘em. Good as new! I’m a bit in disbelief!
I got to work on dinner after a quick shower.
Peanut Butter Sauced Stir-Fry + Coconut Rice
To be honest, the PB sauce I made with peanut flour, salt, teriyaki sauce and milk wasn’t very good. I do not recommend it! The sugar snaps, bok choy, leftover chicken and chickpeas were though!
And you can never go wrong with coconut rice!! I’m nearly out of coconut butter. A jar usually lasts me 4-6 months, so I’m buying myself another ASAP! It’s one of my very favorite foods.
Doggie asked me why no beer tonight I wanted some, but I don’t believe in drinking every night of the week! It’s kind of like my easy day / hard day workout ebb and flow – if I drink one day, I try to abstain the next. Of course if there’s a good reason to imbibe, I always do!
Two places were set, but Matt didn’t show on time so I enjoyed my dinner while watching The Office!
Evening snack – a little Stonyfield frozen yogurt plus a tiny Aunt Mary Ellen cookie! I love eating ice cream out of mugs…something about the heaviness and steep sides is just dandy.
Here’s to wishing for a GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP!
{ 100 comments… read them below or add one }
The bakery sure is coming along!! I can’t wait to see completed pictures soon
Wow, it’s really coming together! I love the office and I love the labels for the food.
I love all the little homemade touches in the bakery, like the glass jars and the handmade labels.
I actually do the same, drink one night, don’t drink the next. I feel like it just helps me refresh and start over.
Yay for the bakery – I am enjoying watching it come together! Just wanted to say that I am in awe that you can still blog three times a day/keep up with all your blogging responsibilities — all while opening your own business! You are awesome!
Love love love the progress you’re making in the bakery!!
I like the sign about “If You Can’t Pronounce It Should You Eat It?”
I recently bought the same printer you have in your office.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve eaten ice cream out of coffee mugs, with a long-handled spoon. There’s no other way in my book.
i am so sorry if you have answered this question elsewhere, and if so, please re-direct me so you don’t have to repeat yourself, but what is the next step? I know you said you aren’t having the official grand opening until the first week in june… but it seems you are ready to go! what will happen once corporate receives your video? is it just a waiting game of a few more weeks?? looks great!! i cannot believe it is all coming to fruition!! i know you all can’t either, as you have been working on this for SO. LONG. and SO. HARD!! kudos to you & matt!
We submit the video by this Friday and GH helper team books flights. Then we have a week to catch up – do some smaller tasks like set up our office – and then we have 2 weeks straight of employee training, including sandwich making and baking bread. Then ingredient ordering, test baking, recipe testing, more training, etc. So there’s still a lot to do!
oh wow, thanks for the clarification. owning your own business–your work is never done
GOOD LUCK!! i know you can do it.
Love the desk area! So neat and clean. I absolutely love those bookshelves!
I have that same ikea desk!!! Your bakery is coming a long nicely! I can’t wait to see the finished product.
I love your nice clean office! And the labels, all the special touches, etc. So sweet!
Everything in the bakery is looking awesome! Cute office.
Be careful with the decorations! Even the most courteous patrons break things and, then of course, you also have to worry about people stealing. I know it’s an unpleasant thought, but my parents put some rather expensive decorative pieces out in our cafe and eventually pieces were missing.
Hopefully you won’t have to deal with such issues, but I wouldn’t put out anything that you couldn’t stand to lose. 
I’m prepared to break a jar or two
Wow, everything is coming along so fast! You guys should be so proud!
We enjoyed coconut rice tonight too..one of my favorite ways to prepare.
I just tried Stoneyfield’s frozen strawberry yogurt the other week and it was aaaamazing. YUM
Ikea and the Container Store are my organizational mecca.
I also eat ice cream out of mugs! It makes the portion seem bigger and just feels comforting somehow.
I love the Expedit shelves! I have the Expedit shelf + desk combo at home. Everything is looking awesome!
And frozen yogurt sounds delicious right now…I may have to indulge a bit.
growing up, we always ate our ice cream out of mugs, and still do to this day. love it!
random–i saw tate and faith walking in town today.
everything looks fantastic, btw!
Ha – awesome!
My mom has been using Shacklee products since I was a little girl. An interesting use for Basic H is that it helps to soothe mosquito bites. Just rubbing a dab onto the bug bites calms them for some reason. No idea why!
OH neat!
I love your blog and you are living my dream–you are so active and healthy–AND starting a business that you know you already love.
Are you able to do things like rotate local artists work on your walls? I love when places do that…sort of like a couple of walls that are continually refreshed with beauty!
I hope we can do something like that sometime
Sleep well my friend! Am so glad that Shaklee took some stress out of your day. Would be NO FUN if your favorite shorts were ruined. : 0 )
Can’t wait to stop by and see the bakery! It looks FANTASTIC!!!
And Basic-H and Scour-Off will RULE in there – getting all the “stickies and gooies” off of everything without chemicals – yeah!!
love those card boxes and the NEAT desk!
sugar snaps, bok choy, and chickpeas, mmmm!
peanut sauce…I have umpteen 1 min bowl/whisk recipes but basically 2 tbsp peanut butter, a squirt of OJ or other citrus fruit is nice, ground ginger, maple/agave, sesame oil (that’s a must for authenticity). I skip soy/tamari b/c i hate sodium. But just mix that in a bowl and in 1 minute, you’re saucy
It’s looking great! I’m totally a mug ice creamer too!
Hey there! Wow! Your bakery is looking incredible! I am a big fan of all the IKEA organization. It makes the office look very professional, but yet very modern/hip. I hope that all goes well the rest of the week, I am sure it is a very stressful time- just remember to take care of yourself and take time to relax. This is such an exciting time in your life and I am thrilled to get to watch you experience it every day!
The stir-fry looks awesome! I too love eating ice cream out of mugs- doesn’t everything just feel more ‘homey” in a mug?
I wish I could make a personal visit to your opening- but best of luck from Michigan!
Woo! *Cheering for you small business owners*
Good luck keeping that desk that clean!! I made my desk spotless the other week and it was totally wrecked two days later.:P
Hey Kath, I noticed you said you were going to buy coconut butter. Since you like to make nut butters, do you ever make your own coconut butter? Not that there’s anything wrong with buying it; I just know you like to make stuff yourself
I thought that I had got this link off your blog but I might be mistaken: http://heathereatsalmondbutter.com/recipes/coconut-butter/ Anyway, it’s to a coconut butter recipe. Haven’t tried it yet but it looks super easy!
Joy – I was going to recommend the same thing!
Making coconut butter is super easy (just add pure, unsweetened shredded coconut to the food processor and process).
When I make coconut butter, I spoon 1 tablespoon of it into silicone mini-muffin wrappers and place them in a mini-muffin pan in the freezer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take them out of the oven and pop them out of the silicone wrappers; store in a jar in the fridge.
it’s easier to take a coconut butter puck out of the fridge than to scrape coconut butter out of a jar (for me, at least!)
plus, it’s far cheaper to make your own coconut butter!
Yes I suppose I should try making it homemade first. But I’m sure the equivalent amount of coconut will nearly cost as much as a pre-made jar! Kind of like how natural peanut butter costs $2.99 and peanuts are $6.99 so making your own is more expensive.
Berry. Cream. Cheese. Scones.
My first apartment I lived in on my own was a block away from a Great Harvest. On Saturday mornings I would wake up, walk down and pick up a scone from them and a chocolate milk from another store. The best Saturday mornings ever. I still miss that time and place some days. Congrats on everything. Treat yourself to a scone and chocolate milk. You’ve earned it.
I love ice cream out of mugs too. My favorite thing is to open it immediately after getting it home from the grocery store in the summer so it’s a little melty around the edges… and eat it with a spoon directly from the container.
oh man I love that too!!
Hope you sleep well!! Totally used to have those shorts. I used to love the way a+f clothes fit. Their pants were the best!
Agreed!!! They fit my body type so well
I can’t wait to see actual bread baking and bread stocking the shelves
Mmm eating ice cream out of mugs is the best!
WOW lady. It is lookin awesome there. I LOVE the homemade signs!
This is SO exciting!!
Honey Whole Wheat is my favorite bread! Which is your favorite?
Flax Oat Bran, which we’ll call Cville Crunch.
Second is High Five
Is there a recipe for the Peanut Butter Stir Fry and Coconut Rice? It sounds so good! I love peanut butter and coconut, having both in a main meal would be a dream come true
You really don’t use oil in your Honey Wheat Bread? Looking at your GH ingredients got me thinking that maybe my homemade wheat bread doesn’t need oil and I should try going without. I know GH bread is awesome and not at all dry so I guess it doesn’t need oil to be great.
I’m not the baker in the family, but I think oil has more to do with viscosity of the dough than moistness
I find I eat less when I eat out of mugs then bowls. I love all of the final pictures!
My grandfather used to eat ice cream out of mugs too
The bakery looks great- what awesome work you’ve done!
Gosh, I love eating ice cream out of anything….even the carton:)
Ahhh, don’t know what it was about this post, but i thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it! I’m soooo excited to see the video! YOU’RE SO CLOSE!
I love eating ice cream out of mugs too! It helps me with portion control – if I have a big bowl, I tend to eat WAY too much ice cream!
Awesome job done on the bakery! I love seeing those labels, can’t wait to see the baked goods that go with them
)
I love eating cereal and ice cream from mugs. Something is just comforting about that
I love the ‘if you can’t pronounce it, should you eat it’ sign! Sometimes saying it at it is can open up consumers’ eyes to what exactly they are putting in their body! A lot of the time, we choose products merely out of habit!
I love peanut butter mixed with soy sauce as a stir-fry sauce-:such a great flavor!
Bring GH to the UK please?! Or just to my house.. daily deliveries.. that’d be fine too!
so last night josh got home at 9:15 pm (ugh. please remember that his day starts at around 5:30 am . . .) and i got so frustrated waiting for him to get home for dinner! i think i need to enforce a deadline by which point if he isn’t there . . . he can reheat.
(“normal” arrival is like 7:30 – 8 – which i can deal with. but by 9:15 i don’t want to eat – i want to sleep!)
Love your little signs.. I am obsessed with laminators. I laminate. everything. It is awesome.
I am so happy that I have been able tofollow you on the journey Kath. You’ve helped us to see everything.. stress…hard work..triumph.. that goes into opening a store!
It’s so neat having watching the bakery develop from its early stages to what it looks like now. I like the “if you can’t pronounce it, should you eat it?” sign.
it goes without saying that the bakery looks fabulous. i love your little touches like the glass jars, and all the signage.
i’d like to focus on your office area – - > LOVE! my mantra is, “i cannot work in squalor,” ie disorder and papery chaos. your ikea products and filing systems make me drool. enjoy!!!
If I lived near there, I’d be at your bakery all the time. I love how light and open it is.
Thanks for the lavender salt info! Where is this awesome dog glass from? Love it.
Lagunitas Brewery!
Such amazing progress!!! Congrats on all of this hard work.
I love eating ice cream from mugs too. I think ice cream shops should consider this.
I have a card box just like that but don’t know what to do with it! What are you using yours for?
I have no idea!!!
Scissors holder!?
The veggies look awesome. Do you have a peanut sauce that you recommend?
And everything looks great!! You guys are gonna have a blast. Have you ever worked in a cafe/bakery setting? I did all through college. Sometimes I wish I could still do it…
I think I’d use real peanut butter next time.I have a recipe that uses Sunflower butter over noodles that was killer.
I’ll check your Recipage for it. Thanks!
Looking forward of seeing the bakery!
I like eating ice cream out of coffee cups as well. I feel like I’m getting more ice cream when I’m probably not, but that is a good thing!
Kath -
The place looks great! So exciting and lots of hard work for sure.
So so exciting!! I am drooling just looking at your labels…did I spy Berry Cream Cheese Scuffin? Oh my word.
This bakery is so you. I love all your little personal touches and I can’t wait to see all the yummy deliciousness that comes out of your Great Harvest! Congratulations on making it to the finish line!
We have those card holders! Like 20 of them. I tell my husband he likes cubbies! Our office is steal case desks and old school stuff like that. I love how clean your office is…I’m such a stacker everything is always a mess! I’m trying to get better and embrace the cubbies.
Yes! Eating ice cream out of mugs is the BEST! My husband introduced me to this when I first met him, 3 years ago and I dont plan on going back to bowls!
The labels and old jars are so cute!
I love the feeling of having a neat workspace. Your office looks great! As does the rest of the bakery. I love all the little personal touches you’ve added.
I love organized, clean work spaces! And remember when Abercrombie was SO cool? HAHA
Loving the way the bakery is starting to look! Also – is that a homemade granola? point us in the direction of the recipe!
Do you mean cookie? Yes it was homemade, but my aunt’s secret recipe
I love how the bakery is coming along! I like that you put family touches throughout the store. It makes it more personal!
My mom eats ice cream out of a mug like every night. She has been doing that since my sister and I were little
The office looks great! I love those shelves. I’ve been eyeing those at IKEA for my apartment next year
Hey Kath! The place looks great! I love GH bread! Whenever I go visit my family in North Carolina we always stop, its delicious! Once you open your shop, can i order bread from you? Is there a way to ship it to Massachusetts?
You should probably order it from you local GH in Mass (there’s one in Newton, I know) but I think we will eventually ship
I was actually wondering about you and the HFCS, because the first time I went to a Great Harvest I decided to never go back because the ingredient label on the bag said “may include high fructose corn syrup”. I trust that YOU would never put that in your bread but I was shocked to see it be a possibility with the company at all! Guess I’ll just have to wait for the next time I’m in Charlottesville to ensure a truly HFCS-free bread.
HFCS was used before anyone suspected it was “bad” (we still dont’ really know) but I feel better using all honey anyways
Looking great! In the picture of the blue bottles is a GH brochure – I am pretty sure that the picture is of the Herndon store, one we visited often.
It is!
I am obsessed with that green filing cabinet!!!!!!!
Haha. That’s a funny thing to be obsessed with
Everything is looking so fabulous! You two must be thrilled. Love the office. Especially the cubby holes (we have a similar set in our bedroom). Hope you have a great day Kath
Looking GOOD, guys!!! Must feel so rewarding to see all of your hard work accumulate into a beautiful business.
I too love ice cream out of mugs – my MIL showed me the fine art of eating soup out of mugs. Don’t know why mugs make everything more special, but they do! Speaking of, have you ever tried egg mugs (they are a recipe by Hungry Girl)? Also delish.
Yaay mugs!
Loving how open and airy the whole bakery atmosphere is!
the bakery looks so good!
I love eating ice cream out of mugs too! My family thinks this is strange. I’m glad to know there are others who would disagree with them!
Pleeeeease tell me where you got chalkboard markers!?
Michaels
where is that dog jar from!!?? I would love to have them for our wedding!!
Lagunitas brewing
I guess my homemade clips are gone
New signage I see.
Oh no – they are still there – in the mason jars! They are unfortunately not strong enough to hold the sweets labels. They labels slip through them
But they work well for the table signs. Look for them today.
Maybe the little ribbon could be used to hold the clip ends together to hold up heavier signs? (but when I saw them in the mason jars, I thought that was pretty ingenious, too)