Happy 2014, everyone!

I hope that your holidays were delightful!

Now, let’s talk about this cake + this brand new year.

I made this cake on Monday. I don’t know why, I just wanted to. And so I did. This cake was to me, so beautiful and also so delicious. This cake is a combination of two wonderful ideas. I used this recipe, for lemon cake, from Always With Butter and this rosemary buttercream, idea from My Name is Yeh. While this is an unconventional cake flavor combination, trust me when I say it’s delicious. For what I like in a dessert, it is close to perfection. Not overly sweet, not overly common and the flavors are meant to be together.

Let’s do more of that in this new year. Let’s do things just because we want to. We do so many things because we (feel like) we have to. Let’s do more of the stuff that makes our hearts happy.

What are you looking for in the new year?

I’m looking at the new year as a way to refocus my ideas, visions and the things that I want to do. I don’t quite know yet exactly where I want to be one year from now, or what I want to have accomplished, but I am slowly working through having a more concrete idea in my mind.

I am now a college graduate, and have been for 8 months. I made it through the end of 2013 often struggling to know exactly what the future will look like for me. I resolve to embrace the blank canvas ahead of me this year, rather than concern myself with the unknown. I resolve to keep doing what makes my heart happy, and trust that I’m doing the right thing. 

As far as my blog goes, I know I want it to improve, but in what exact ways I am not sure yet. The word improve is very vague, but that’s all I’ve got so far. I read this interview yesterday on The Huffington Post, with Sarah from The Vanilla Bean Blog. I absolutely love the advice she gave to bloggers. She said:

“Discover your voice and be true to it. It’s okay to learn from others and emulate them while you’re learning and practicing, but figure out what unique things you want to bring to your photos, your words, your recipes, and always be moving towards them. Also, quality over quantity is important.”

That’s about as concrete a goal as any for me right now. I want to do what she said. I want to find out what exactly it is I want from this blog and for this blog. I want my intentions to be clear in my head. I potentially want this blog to lead me to something someday. What that something is, I have no idea at this point. But as I see it, to be completely in love with what I put on here and for it to be a complete representation of me is the first step to getting to that something. 

For the first few months of The Dreaming Foodie, I was obsessed with posting something 5 days a week. I put so much work into creating those posts. While I don’t regret that at all (it’s all part of the process that Sarah talks about in her advice), that is not the direction I intend to go any longer. There was a period during the summer that I stressed about not posting enough. I stressed about not even being able to post twice a week. That’s going to be all behind me now. I intend to not even pick a number for how often I will post. Instead, I will work hard to develop ideas and to execute those ideas in the best way until I bring them to this blog. When they come, they come. Because of that and because I will still be working to make money, I probably won’t be posting as often. 

But know that I won’t be stressing about it. No more. I resolve for this blog to bring no stress, only happiness + growth. Know that when I do post, it will be a complete representation of me and what I want to bring to the world.

I do know that I love this blog and I love sharing ideas with all of you. Thank you, to all of you!, for reading, for your comments and for your support of The Dreaming Foodie.

Thanks for listening to my new year ramblings. Let’s make it a good + completely delicious year!