Cowboy Up!

YEEE-HAW, Y'all,

It's Stock Show and Rodeo time here in Fort Worth, Texas!!

Like many of you, I have fond memories of gearing up for a trip to this January-February tradition that dates back to 1896. When I was a kid this event was still called The Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo.

I grew up on the far southwest side of Fort Worth. So far south that we were part of the tiny public school district of Crowley. There was one elementary school and one high school. Prayer and a 'thought for the day' was part of the morning announcement, Jackie Carden was our principal, not the name of a school (yet), and come January you were handed an admission ticket with an image of a giant PIG and the words Fat Stock Show stamped across it. This was your day pass to visit the fair grounds at Will Rogers Coliseum, usually for the first Monday the event was open.

Learning to "Cowboy Up" is part of being a Little Britches

Somewhere along the way it seems the pig image and the word 'fat' was dropped from the title leaving us with today's Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. It's been LOTS of years since I took time to visit the grounds and rodeo, but that does not lessen the fond memories of it all.

The good, and not so good, hightlights of those memories include: wearing bluejeans, a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, holding my nose and 'watching where I step' while walking through the barns (sheep being my favorite), cotton candy being whirled around a paper cone and handed directly to me by sticky bare-hands, Whiplash the cowboy monkey, rain, cold temps, the heavy haze and smell of cigarette and cigar smoke that hung in the air during the rodeo, my dad's love of taking my brother and I to gather a peek into the cowboy way of life, and eventually growing into high school, marching in the band and being part of opening day parade.

There is something comforting knowing that men, women and children continue the Cowboy way of life. Attention to detail matters, and for some reason, I think care and consideration for the many skills and responsibilities that goes into showing an animal, roping and riding is pretty darn cool!

The value of such skills matter, and such matters are worthy of support. Oh, I didn't have such an appreciation back then. I was a bit of a goofy kid that spent an excessive amount of time LOL, but time passes and we grow up. Fortunately, the memories from a lot of decades-ago now whirl together with gratitude.

Here's hoping you will consider making your own memories this year!

PS: Be sure to click on the cotton candy and Whiplash, the cowboy monkey links above.

The child in your life, or in you, might get a kick out of these! =)

Welcome 2012!

As much as I want to shout-out, "I can't believe it's 2012", I'll refrain. =) The Cupcake Cottage completed it's 6th Holiday season of baking on Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing time away from baking.

Maybe one day I'll catch you up on our family of 5 + 1 fabulous border collie, and 1 amazing daughter in-law!

For now, I'll catch you up on a couple of things regarding our business and the new year.

~ This weekend is the Boar's Head & Yule Log Festival at UCC on University Drive in Fort Worth. This event is such a wonderful way to kick off a new year and is free to the public. All are welcome and you can learn more about it here: Boar's Head & Yule Log Festival.

~ We continue to stay busy meeting the cupcake needs of you, our amazing and appreciated customer! Thanks for such support, and thanks for telling others about our shop. Word of mouth is, by far, the greatest form of advertisement.

~ Many of you continue to ask, and encourage us to go on Cupcake Wars. If you didn't read about our initial invitation to be a part of this Food Network madness, you can read about it here: Cupcake Wars 2010. Once the show learned that it was being picked up for a second season, we got a second call asking us to consider trying out for a spot, but by then we had watched enough episodes to know that we would much rather enjoy the experience from the comfort of our living room couch. Cupcake Wars is crazy fun to watch, but that's it! We appreciate your cheers and encouragement, though. =)

~ Cupcake Competition is all around!! Yes, there are more and more cupcake places opening in the greater Fort Worth area, and we are thrilled for that! Almost always, it is a customer that tells us about a new cupcake bakery. Sure, there have been initial feelings of uncertainty considering the state of the economy, and the ever growing cost of living, but somehow we continue to remain busy in business. We are extremely grateful for that, and we will continue to strive to do our best, each and every day we are baking. Competition is a good thing for two reasons: 1) it keeps us mindful and motivated to keep our standards high and 2) it offers consumers additional places to get their sweet-on. Free Market societies rock!!

So that's it for now. Here's wishing you and yours a safe and wonderful New Year!