So last December 13, I woke up from a nap (I only nap in December) and discovered I had 800 attempts to order my book. I was so scared because I knew so many people didn’t all at once decide to order my book, but I didn’t know exactly what was happening. It was a back-office nightmare! About 200 orders went through and 600 did not, but I had emails coming in regarding all of them.   My credit card processor was sending me emails telling me to fix the problem asap or they were going to turn off my online store. My first priority was to handle the orders that did go through by refunding them all. I remember this was all happenings at some crazy hour in the early morning and I was sitting at my computer, crying as my hands were shakily refunding strangers for a book they didn’t order. Now understand December is my busiest month of the year so turning off my website was not an option. I called one of my mentors at the University of Utah, Jeff Davis in tears, barely able to articulate what had happened. He quickly responded with the name of a gentleman who could help. Tony, the owner of Firetoss, a full-service digital marketing agency, immediately jumped in and had one of his employees take care of the issue.  Turns out, thieves were using my website to test stolen credit cards that they likely purchased off the dark web to see if they would work. It’s called card testing. They attempt to purchase something small on an unsuspecting website with a bunch of stolen credit cards and once they know which cards work, they move on to much bigger purchases. After the dust settled and the problem was fixed, I continued on with my holiday season without any more issues, but Tony and I planned on getting back in touch as soon as the holiday rush was over to discuss making my website better all the way around. So on January 4^th of this year, I had my first meeting with my new website company SEOWerkz.com (they bought out Firetoss) and the rest is history.

We have worked really hard to keep what was awesome about my old site, but gave Sheer Ambrosia a complete facelift, which includes a sleeker, clearer, more user-friendly design. There was a lot of back and forth to get everything just right; many meetings, and lots of baklava was eaten, but I’m thrilled to unveil my new website. Hats off to Kirk, Michelle, Mark, and Rod for all of your work on my behalf. You did an excellent job. Thank you for taking my vision and your expertise and turning it into the stunning, manageable, well protected site I have now. If anyone reading this needs a new website built…these are the people to call.

To celebrate this huge accomplishment for Sheer Ambrosia, I am offering the flavor that started it all, my Traditional Honey Walnut, on sale for 20% off for the next week.  It’s the classic, the MVP, my main squeeze at Sheer Ambrosia. So enjoy and thank you for continuing to support my business. Without your orders, I couldn’t continue to grow and perfect all aspects of my business.

We are still looking at an October move-in time. drywall, mudding, and taping are all done. Plumbing and electrical are almost finished. The ceiling and floor treatments happen next and then I will start painting myself by the end of week.

Painting is one job that doesn’t require a special license, so I will be hanging up the apron for a few days to put on my painting clothes. I’ll paint the majority of the space my teal color, but you better believe I’m going to incorporate my signature stripes into a few of the walls. We’re going to have a small will-call area so that’s where I’ll have my fun. I picked up a new chandelier from Amazon for the entrance, and special ceiling tiles from Wayfair for the entrance as well. The ceiling will mimic the silver seal that comes on every Sheer Ambrosia box. Basically, when you walk in, it will feel like you’re walking into one of Sheer Ambrosia’s boxes. I’m so excited! Stay tuned for opening date and ribbon cutting.

Our New Address Will Be:

1749 South State Street, Ste.102

Salt Lake City, UT 84115

I’ve had a fun time incorporating several weddings into this summer’s activities…and they all got me thinking…1) I love to see people in love. I believe in the family and marriage. 2) I enjoy working with happy people, and 3) happy people make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside). Why not promote baklava for weddings…not just Greek weddings, ALL weddings! In fact, of the five weddings I worked with this summer, only two of them were for Greek families. I want to be part of all-things weddings…the excitement of the big day, making food look beautiful, seeing people dress up, and celebrating what makes the world go round…LOVE! After all, Sheer Ambrosia baklava is so sophisticated and beautiful…it seems like a no-brainer.

This past Wednesday, September 6, I invited an old friend, Alex Bingham (the stylist who helped me design my 2022 calendar photos) and her photographer friend, Jason West over to my house to create magic. And I’m telling you magic it was! Alex is not a woman of many words but she is so crazy talented. I had never met Jason before, but I trusted Alex’s judgement and got to know him pretty fast. He has been a photographer for 40 years…and buddy…the two of them together was something to watch. I talked the WHOLE TIME…they couldn’t shut me up…in fact, I kind of regretted it towards the end. I just talked and talked and asked questions upon question about their lives and how they came to do what they do. I talked about current events, music, I think it was excited talk, nervous talk, just talking to fill in the silence. They got to my house about 9:15am and didn’t leave til around 6:00pm. I made us lunch so we could take a break but keep the dreamlike photos going. It was a fun day and I’m so eager to really start working in the wedding industry. Here are a few pics of the enchanted day I enjoyed with Alex and Jason. If you ever need an amazing photographer with loads of experience and/or a stylist to help showcase your products, please reach out to me and I’ll pass on their contact information.

Ogden Farmers Market: A Huge Success

What a busy summer it’s been. I cannot believe the warm weather is almost over. It seems like I just blinked and it was May 27^th, our first Saturday at the market. What a whirlwind it was! I met so many cool new customer friends (that’s what I call you all…my customers who are also my friends). There was Rose and Marc who I have so much in common with, there was Carola, Brysen, Mitch from New York, one guy from Tennessee whose name I cannot recall right now and then there was Kathleen. She is a long-time customer before I ever made it to the Ogden farmers market, but she came almost every Saturday to say hello and pick up her special order she put in the week prior. She’s a super special lady and I’m just grateful I got to finally meet her in person. There were so many people who came and supported Sheer Ambrosia. I am just over the moon appreciative I had a chance to get to know so many new friends and spread the word about Sheer Ambrosia and earn extra money for my new commercial kitchen.

I am also so thankful to Helene and Desi, my helpers whom I’ve introduced you to in the past. They hung in there with me almost every weekend. Of course, they took some time off for river rafting (that’s a big thing here in Utah) and Desi took a trip with her family to Florida, but they were my faithful, loyal helpers through the whole summer. Helene took the train down to Draper every Friday to help me get ready for Saturdays and Desi rolled herself out of bed Saturday mornings without fail by 7:00am to help me until 1:30pm. They are just the best and I would have not been able to have a successful summer without them. I’m thrilled to have introduced Sheer Ambrosia to so many awesome new customer friends in Ogden.

I won’t miss getting up at 3:00am to package and get everything ready to go by 6:00am, but I will miss watching the sun rise above the Wasatch Mountains on my drive north on I-15.