Next week, we will be running one (of two) reviews on Chic Cookie Kits, the brainchild of Meaghan Mountford. But today, we had a few minutes to chat with Meaghan to find out a little more about her, her company and her inspiration.
1. We saw that you have a baby girl – congratulations! Has she inspired any new Chic Cookie Kits?
I’d love to say that my daughter is my muse… that without her I never would’ve thought to put a carriage, bottle, block, rattle, footprint, and more on a cookie. But while she does serve as motivation (she keeps me home with her, hence, the home-based business), I’m in little need of inspiration. I worked as a cookie decorator at a specialty shop for almost ten years, and there are few things I haven’t put on a cookie, including everything baby. And everything girly. And even everything Sesame Street. So we haven’t faced anything in her first year that I’ve found novel for a cookie yet.
2. What have you been doing since you left the bakery?
After I left the bakery to have my daughter, my initial aim was to work on my writing career—my other goal is to write children’s books, which would actually put to use my masters degrees (one in liberal arts, one in literature/creative writing). While I was working on a book proposal, the idea for the cookie kits hit me. So once my daughter went to bed, I got to work on the business. In addition to the business, I also write the edible crafts column for craftgossip.com, which is a great way to maintain a web presence and to discover all things related to edible art.
3. Where does your inspiration for new kits come from?
Because there are so few objects I haven’t put on a cookie (really, people have tried to stump me and haven’t been able to yet), I just need to think of a theme and the list of possible cookies is long. So you could certainly say my customers over the years served as inspiration. At the store, we found a way to turn both their common and bizarre requests into edible art: washing machines, beer bottles, women in yoga poses, mac n’ cheese, T-bone steaks, space aliens, broken legs, human organs, people’s dogs, the list goes on and on. The thirty or so kits on my site are just the beginning. I have dozens more waiting in the wings. The beauty of cookie decorating is once you learn the technique, anything can be put on a cookie. The possibilities are endless, so the kit list will only grow.
4. What is your favorite set and why?
“Swanky Martini” is my favorite kit, because I love a nice cocktail. Cocktails and cookies are such a nice combination.
5. The web business, the book, how do you balance it all?
I’m fortunate that my daughter needs a lot of sleep and I need very little, as my to-do list is long. Staying home full-time with my daughter is at the top of my list, and I am also working on a new book proposal, am building my business (which I’m also expanding to include hand-painted onesie kits), and have my edible crafts column, so I work hard at staying organized. I’ve always been able to pack a lot in a little amount of time. I think working full-time while going to grad school full-time or working at a cookie shop during Christmas helped train me for this. Which is not to say I’m always successful at the balance. Some days, my stress shows, some days I hand my daughter off to my husband when he walks in the door and I work until 2 AM, and some days I just rely more heavily on coffee. But as I sort of enjoy the manic-ness of it all, I have few complaints!
Want more Meaghan? Stop in and check out her blog.
