NEVER GIVE UP

As my story continues to unfold, one of the biggest obstacles I've been encountering is finding a "Commercial Kitchen" to rent to officially, legally and professionally launch the Catering side of Tastasies Event Planning and Catering. My quest has been met with opposition after opposition, but when you feel as passionate about cooking, baking and entertaining as I do, you will never give up, how can you? Well all I can say is that GOD is good all the time and all the time GOD is good. I'm sitting here @ my good government job and during some down time, I decided to do a search again on "kitchen rentals" and I came across this site http://openkitchenrental.com/about.shtml, which is in the process of opening a facility in Falls Church, VA, yeah I know it's a bit further than I'd hope for, but it's truly doable. Well the facility is planning to open soon....summer 2009 and they are planning to offer what they call "kitchen timeshares". I took the survey and from it if this really pans out this will be a WONDERFUL idea what I've been searching for far too long now, but I know that all things are in his time, not mine. So I felt compelled to share this tid bit of information and it has truly gotten me excited! So until next time, ALWAYS CHASE YOUR DREAMS AND NEVER GIVE UP!

Sister's With A Purpose!

A few years ago, me along with a few of my girlfriends started this group called S.W.A.P, which stands for "Sisters With A Purpose," and our motto was to help ourselves by helping others, initially things were great and as life would have it, the group and all of our great ideas fell to the wayside. Well I've realized that there is a season to everything and I feel that then was not the time for SWAP, so the whole idea resurfaced in my mind, so this time I decided to put a spin on it, instead of forming a group of friends, I decided to get a group of women together from very diverse backgrounds, different ages and life experiences and see where the idea of SWAP will take us this time. I started the group off with a Meet & Greet, and needless to say it was wonderful. As I grow in my relationship with my higher power and strive to become more and more obedient to his will, the more and more I reap the blessings in just doing what he lays on my heart. Our meeting was this past Saturday, May 16, 2009, we met each other, introduced ourselves and stated our passions and/or talents. Our goal is to at least once a month get together and do an activity and eventually give back in the form of volunteering with the homeless and school systems (are KIDS are the future), etc. I'm attaching a few pictures of my table scape and some of the dishes I prepared, you see all this goes hand in hand in me taking the journey to take Tastasies to the next level. Always remember to CHASE YOUR DREAMS!!!

KEEP DREAMING

In my quest to add catering to my current Event Planning business, I've been struggling to find a commercial kitchen to rent in order to get properly licensed and insured. I've tried a few local churches, unsuccessful, but I'm not stopping. I've even posted a discussion on my LinkedIn profile and got a few comments/suggestions back, so all hope is not lost and this is the topic of my post today. How do you keeping dreaming when faced with obstacle after obstacle? And my answer to that is, just how bad do you want it. Where there is a will, there definitely is a way. This is my passion and dream, so I know that some how and some way it will all come through fruition and if not, as someone once said....I will die trying, no pun intended. LOL I just feel that sometimes when we ask for things and they don't come right away or in a timely matter according to us, many of us give up the notion and resolve it to, "oh well maybe it's not meant to be," but as passionate as I am about cooking and baking, I know this is what GOD has blessed me to do. Now granted it took me some time to figure this out and in that time, I've created a life style that keeps me hostage (for the moment) to what I'm currently doing, but as sure as I know my name, I know my dream of owning my own successful full-service catering business will become reality. So until next time, KEEP DREAMING and always know that GOD can dream a bigger dream for you than you ever could for yourself.........yeah I stole, that from Oprah :-)

Knowing Your Limits

As I embark on my journey of living my dreams without limits, I just had the greatest experience, which actually involved me realizing that although I wish to dream without limits, sometimes you have to know your limits. I've been planning events for the past several years and actually did a very extensive internship with a well established wedding planner. However, cooking and baking are my God-given talents and the things I would do even without pay, so I decided to add catering to my forte along with wedding and event planning. For as long as I can remember I've always been asked can you fix this dish for me, which ultimately led me to cater entire meals for various friends and family members. As most know, word of mouth is one of the best kinds of advertisement, so as the calls continued to come in, some panned out and some didn't, but I finally got the one I was waiting for, or so I thought.....a couple called looking for catering services, wait staff and the whole nine yards. So initially I was like this is it, this is the break I was looking for, however reality started to set in and my conscious started talking to me...saying all the right and important things, i.e., you are not licensed, can you handle this, this is a very important day, you only get this one shot....and at first I thought it was just FEAR creeping into that space it often creeps into when you are trying to live out your dreams. I set up a date and time for a consult meeting to go over the specifics, sent out my confirmation email, but this feeling in the pit of my stomach and the back of my head would not go away. I talked to my fiancee about it and he said what I already knew....."follow your gut!" So the day before the scheduled consult meeting, I called my potential client and just laid my situation out on the line and although they chose to go with a more experienced caterer, the feeling I experienced afterwards was worth more than any amount of money I could have received for my services. I even referred three more established caterer's to the client and truly feel that I made an impression on her and feel very good about my decision and during our conversation I even received some good information as well. The morale to this story is....even though I know in my heart of hearts I could have done this, the stress and strain I would have gone through to make it work out weighed my "EGO," I love what I do so much that I will say no to the money, before I take the risk of tarnishing my reputation all before it even gets started. Thank you Latoya for helping me to realize that I KNOW MY LIMITS and Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!