Why hello Cookie Lovers!

It has been....well a long freaking time since I last caught up with you all. Please forgive me but after Christmas 2019 season, I realized I needed a break because I was spreading myself a little thin. I mean, I had just gotten married, came back from our honeymoon (Europe! It was awesome) and then I went head first into Thanksgiving, Christmas, Cookie Classes, School, Work, not sending my thank you cards....New Years and then BAMMM! It was 2020!

Now it's what? March? Time has flown by this year already and we're facing a new challenge in the world, COVID-19. So lets talk about this and how this relates to cookies quickly.

COVID-19. We are all now aware of this pandemic that has hit the world in a very short period of time. It seems like our whole way of living has been turned upside down, people are hording toilet paper like the sh*t has hit the fan (literally), grocery stores are empty, gas prices are so low they make me wanna buy a 2nd storage unit and just fill it with gas cans. Travel is non existent, and I'm now forced to be at home for the next like 2 months with my husband and dog which while I love them, is going to drive me absolutely bonkers in our 875 sq ft condo.

But on a serious note, something like this majorly impacts businesses. I'm not talking about large corporate chains like Starbucks or McD's, but smaller ones like your ma n' pop coffee shop down the street, the local place you get your Chinese food from, and well....businesses like this one. We're all trying to restructure, reschedule, and refocus our efforts to make sure we can still stay afloat. Luckily, we here at Love & Baking still have our health and our risk of sickness is very low therefore we will keep on baking and have a contingency plan to keep you, the cookie community, in tune with all things cookie.

To address what precautions we are taking, we do completely sanitize all tools & workstations to ensure no cross contamination occurs since we are in a home based bakery. All areas are completely cleaned before, during and after we cookie and are up to date on current health and safety certifications. If either my husband or myself do develop symptoms of COVID-19 or any sickness, we will immediately stop all cookie production until we are sure none of us carry any type of germs, symptoms or otherwise. We are working with our current customers to ensure their orders are either moved, credited, or are coming along as planned. We believe in transparency here so we will be upfront with anything that may potentially impact our cookies or customers.

Since we are now working from home full time for the foreseeable future, we finally have the time to do things like make blog posts, create new YouTube videos, and post most #tutorialtuesday and #floodfriday videos on instagram. As well as fulfill orders for events that are not being cancelled or moved. So we ask you to please tune in, ask questions, let us know what you want us to cover whether its business, decorating, personal life, or me making amazing freaking food (on a ration and budget lol) and we'll get through this virus together.

Thank you for continuing to support us, keep safe, healthy and don't forget to sanitize!

-Ashley