My grandmother was an amazing home baker and I loved to help her in the kitchen when I was growing up.  I've often thought maybe I've been gifted some of her talent. 

I would love to tell you how I chose my profession and went to a prestigious school to obtain my culinary degree, but that is not the case.  Instead, I learned by doing. I worked in a grocery store bakery in my teens, learned to decorate cakes, bake breads, cookies, and anything else you can think of finding in a bakery.  I spent a few of my early twenties managing bakeries, and then moved into the training aspect of the bakery business. I traveled the east coast teaching bakery staff how to make gorgeous and delicious goods from the ingredients my companies could sell them.  It was a great learning time for me.  Later on, we moved to the Chicago area, where I was blessed to work with a phenomenal group of chefs at a high end catering company and set of stores .  As an assistant Pastry Chef there, I worked harder than I ever have, but I also learned so much more about the business. 

We made everything and I mean everything!  If it didn't measure up, it didn't go out. I respected that then, and still do today. I won't sell something to someone that isn't what it should be.  They took a chance on me and I gained as much if not more than they did.  

Eventually we moved again, my husband was military after all. I stopped working in bakeries and took a desk job, went to college and earned my degree in Business Administration, with a minor in Fine Art. I thought that all that bakery business was behind me and I should have a more mature line of work.  It was about that time that Sofie came along and made me a Nana.  My perspective on life changed, and I finally understood that I had the passion and talent for baking.  Nana's Lil Sweets was born to provide a creative outlet for me, but also to share the love and fun with baking with my grandbabies and so that I will always have at least two lil sweets, one for each hand, when they visit Nana.