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Three Little Blackbirds

Small Farm | Artisan Bakery | Graphic Design

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Meet Erin

Erin with an E

My name is Erin, but people who know me usually just call me “E.” I think Erin was too long and complicated of a name, so I was shortened to just one letter.  I don’t mind it though, I like being E.  I think it suits me. Short suits me.  I’m around 5’5″, but I tell the DMV that I’m 5’6″. It just sounds better. Is anyone going to be able to tell that I’m an inch shorter and 10 pounds heavier than what my drivers license says? Probably not.  Plus, I’m planing on growing an inch or two and losing that 10 pounds starting on Monday.

So, you’ve already figured out that I’m an optimist. I’m a little bit short. I change my mind a lot, and I like to eat. I LOVE food, good food! I workout pretty much JUST so I can eat more sourdough bread and occasionally…cake for breakfast.

People might describe me as having an insatiable drive and determination to do more, be more, create more…but really, I get bored easily and I crave change.  While some people may fear change, I live for it. I rearrange the furniture in my house about once a month. I paint and then repaint our walls, I move us across state lines often, and change careers like I’m changing a pair of socks.  Experiencing life in a linear pattern is certainly easier on the adrenal glands, but boredom and predictability and complacency have never been friends of mine.

Let’s Back up – wayyy back

When I was just 14, I got my first job in a bakery. Baking certainly wasn’t foreign to me at that time.  I had grown up like a sponge, soaking up every ounce of knowledge I could from watching my grandma and my mom cook and bake.  Those are some of my warmest memories in life; a tattered and faded apron covered in dusty flour and loosely tied in the back, good music playing in the background, the smell of yeasty honey wheat bread, tender forearms from kneading dough, sticky fingers from jam…and dancing barefoot in the kitchen with my mom.  Perhaps that’s why I sought out a bakery for my first experience at earning my keep.  What 14 year old kid wants to get up while it’s still dark out on a Saturday morning and head to work? And yet…I loved it. By the time I was 16, I was promoted from a counter clerk to a baker. I learned how to make cinnamon rolls and lemon bars and mini quiche and muffins and my little paychecks helped pay for me to be on my high school dance team.

We didn’t have much money growing up.  We certainly weren’t poor, but my two sisters and I were being raised by a single mom and that meant us girls had to learn to make our own money from a younger age than most of our friends. By the time I was a junior in high school, I had quit the job in the bakery and was waiting tables at two or three different restaurants.  The summer before my Senior year, I also started teaching dance, and a funk aerobics class at a local gym. Remember aerobics? Hysterical.

After the birth of my son in 1997, I got a job working as a technical writer for a firm in the securities industry.  My sister and brother-in-law worked for the company and recommended me for the job.  I went to the interview with zero experience, no resume to speak of, and no college degree.  But I somehow managed to convince the hiring manager that I could write technical help documents despite my lack of knowledge of anything technical. Being a young, single mother of a baby boy, and having an overwhelming urge to do right by him had single handedly propelled me into the corporate IT world.  By the time the big 2K rolled around and the world was scheduled to end and then…didn’t, I was working for a major healthcare company as a technical writer and was itching to do something much more creative than writing help files and creating flow charts. I put my name into the ring for a position opening up within the company designing and developing the front end of websites. Much to my surprise and trepidation, I was awarded the promotion and was suddenly swimming in the deep end of technical art and design. For several years, I continued to climb the ladder within the company and eventually became a Senior GUI (General User Interface)Designer.  The creative beast inside me was content and well-fed until somewhat out of the blue I realized I was getting paid a 6 figure salary and spending 8 hours a day, give or take, debating whether the shade of a blueberry was cooling and calming enough to make people feel as if they were healthy.  All the while, that deep down urge to do more, be more was growing louder and louder and I was having a hard time keeping it quiet. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great career.  It paid the bills and I was lucky to have such a position in a huge corporation without an ounce of college education. I was self-taught and had paved my way on determination and perseverance alone.  Not having a college degree had never stopped me to this point, and for that I was very grateful and appreciative and more than willing to work hard.

Despite the increasing feeling of unfulfillment, I stayed on with the position another year and a half strictly due to the fact that I was somewhat distracted by a certain co-worker of mine. A tall, athletic, very attractive and charming curly-haired man.  His name was Corey and he had a weird last name that was hard to pronounce and I was undeniably…smitten. I was blindingly focused on my career and certainly was not looking for a relationship, but the relationship, I realize now…was looking for me. Quite beyond my control, Corey and I fell in love and were married by the flicker of candles on a trail of red rose petals in a little lake house in the Colorado mountains on a gorgeous October day in 2002.

Not long after we were married, we started trying for a baby and a month later I was pregnant. I wasn’t expecting it to happen that quickly, but I took it as a push from the universe and I made the decision to quit my comfortable yet boring corporate job and start up my own design firm. The Big Pixel, LLC. was born just months before my daughter Rylee came into our lives in the Spring of 2004.  The timing was perfect. I was able to stay at home with my baby and work on my business when time allowed. It never occurred to me, really, that giving myself no time at all would ultimately be my downfall and eventually threaten the bond of my marriage. By the Summer of 2005 our second daughter, Madelyn was born. Just 14 months separated my two girls and my business had finally started to take off. At the same time, Corey had started traveling for work and was gone, a lot. I was a very busy and very tired momma of 3 and like most working mothers of young children, I was struggling to keep my head above water. Something had to give in order for me to retain any ounce of sanity, and so I reluctantly yet also very deliberately started to let The Big Pixel die. My kids needed me, my husband needed me, I needed me.

It’s a strange feeling going from the corporate world, to a business owner to a stay at home mom. You have this weird sense of self at times, and feel awkward answering the question from strangers “what do you do for work?” with an “oh, I’m just a stay at home mom.” Then you watch the car salesman write “housewife – unemployed” on the application and cringe with a little dose of self-doubt at your lack of a real profession. Yep, JUST a stay at home mom…as if being a 24 hr caregiver to small humans and being so busy you have no time to pee, poop or god forbid take a shower, isn’t quite…enough.

Shouldn’t I be doing more? earning a living? helping my husband pay the bills? Shouldn’t I be more happy? Shouldn’t I be going to the gym? Shouldn’t I have more friends?

Without even really realizing it, I started over-achieving at the whole just a stay at home mom thing.  For starters, I began planning elaborate birthday parties for my kids. And naturally, that meant over-the-top, fancy birthday cakes.  And why, pray tell, would I buy a fancy, over the top cake when I can make it myself? Did I have experience making fancy birthday cakes? No. But I had a background in baking and could follow a recipe…what could go wrong? When I was stopped in the middle of the food court at the mall, carrying my daughters “Hello Kitty” themed birthday cake complete with a crude Hello Kitty made out of fondant, crookedly perched on the top; and was asked if I was cake baker and if I had a business card – a teeny tiny crumb of an idea was planted internally. Grateful for the compliment, I apologized that I was not a cake baker and that I was just a mom that made her daughter’s birthday cake and giggled as I walked away.  But down inside, something had already started brewing. A pondering. A thought.  A spark.

With each cake thereafter came major disasters, failures, mistakes…and then somehow in the end would turn out pretty great, despite my determination to hate every cake design I came up with. As it turned out, designing cakes was a very demanding hobby that sometimes kept me up until 4 am, stressed beyond belief of just HOW to turn this monstrosity of sugar, flour, eggs and milk into something beautiful and delicious.  I was falling in love with the challenge of it all, but it was exhausting and demanding work. Six short months later, I was gaining more and more momentum and learning so much with each finished cake, that I started baking and creating cakes for other people. I remember a late night in the kitchen, all three of my kiddos on the barstools watching me intently as I was putting the finishing touches on a cake.

“What will you name your bakery momma?” said a tiny little face with pink cheeks and sleepy blue eyes.

My bakery.  It had a nice ring to it.  Is that what this was? I liked the idea. No, I loved the idea. It felt so right. I looked at the sweet, curious faces of the three little loves of my life; always hovering, watching, learning, demanding…like little baby birds. All of this was for them.  I thought it was for me.  I thought perhaps that I had to prove to myself that I could do it, or prove my worthiness to some invisible, internal voice that liked to whisper on repeat “you’re not enough, you’ll never be enough.” But really…it was for them.  I could very easily hide my unhappiness, I had become an expert at it. My unhappiness meant very little to me, but being a good mother to my children meant everything.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.  Fly blackbird…fly

Three Little Blackbirds became an official business in the Summer of 2008. The business went from cute birthday cakes for kids, to high-end wedding cakes and staged cakes for magazines and photo shoots. By the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, the business had an impressive online following and we were known worldwide for my hand painted fondant cakes.  Three Little Blackbirds Cakes had over 350K followers on Facebook. And then in the Fall of 2012, I was paid to teach an edible hand painting class on Craftsy and by December of 2012, I was interviewed for Cake Central Magazine that ran a 2 page spread on the success of TLB and we were also featured in Brides Magazine.

It was all like a dream really. A wonderful, exciting dream that spread like hot wildfire and managed to burn me out internally in the process.

I could feel a distinct shift happening yet again.  I no longer wanted to make 4 or 5 tier exquisite high-end cakes.  I had been there and done that.  I wanted to make cakes that simply tasted delicious and maybe didn’t look so perfect. At the same time, the trend for super fancy cakes was slowly starting to drop. More and more brides were wanting natural and “naked” cakes.  Cakes with no perfect buttercream frosting, no fondant. Cakes that looked messy with icing dripping down the sides.  My cakes had always been organic but I desperately wanted to go back to the basics.  I wanted to make single tiered cakes with seasonal ingredients and not a drop of artificial food coloring, ever. I wanted to make cakes that looked like what our grandmothers and their mothers used to make.  I wanted the flavors to speak for the cake and not the perfection of the design.  I had this overwhelming urge to have land and start growing my own fruit for the cakes and raising chickens so I had my own supply of organic eggs.  I suddenly, very passionately…wanted to live on a farm.

Becoming an Accidental Farmer

Life is like a boomerang. Whatever you put out there with a strong sense of conviction and energy, will come right back to you. I was good at focusing my brain intently on something, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

“I’ll believe it when I see it”

But I think it’s more accurate to say “you’ll see it, when you believe it.”

I realized sometime in my 30s that I had been doing this unconsciously my whole life.  Visualizing what I wanted my life to look like and then taking steps to manifest that vision, rather than the other way around. My mindset in the Spring of 2013 was no different.

The house I was looking at on craigslist was in Washington State, a good 1300 miles away from me in the cramped, cookie-cutter suburbs of Colorado.  It was a gentleman’s farm on 5 acres, complete with a chicken coop, a huge garden and an orchard. I stared at the pictures for hours, pouring over every detail that I could see in the small squares. The blooming apple tree that quaintly hung over the edge of the chicken coop. The grape arbor.  The huge trees.  The flowers.  The horse pasture. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

…I wanna touch the Earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly
oh, it sounds so good to me…

And just like that, we were saying our tearful goodbyes to our family in Colorado while loading up the moving truck and heading out to Southern Washington. Our new farm was just over the border of Oregon on the other side of the Columbia river. We moved in on June 15th, 2013 and I can honestly say our lives changed forever. In July we bought our first 4 chickens. They were pretty red star pullets that all looked exactly the same and I was only just slightly terrified of them.

Three Little Blackbirds Cakes became Three Little Blackbirds Farm and we started selling fresh eggs and farm style baked goods instead of wedding cakes. I was starting over as far as the business was concerned, but it felt amazing. This…was what I was meant to do.  I could feel it in my bones. For what felt like the first time in my entire life, I was truly and wholly…happy. I was a farmer. The proudest title I’ve ever owned besides “mother”, second to “wife.” My work had meaning. I was feeding people good food.  I was rescuing animals and giving them a good home. I was giving my children experiences they would remember for the rest of their lives.

We moved to North Texas in the Summer of 2017 to pursue our dream of owning our own piece of land. Since then, we have been renovating our farmhouse, our land and our chicken coop, and it has been quite the adventure.

I’m so glad you’re here to follow along in our continuing journey…

 

 

 

 

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farmer & baker & designer

From Graphic Designer to Pastry Chef to Chicken Farmer, my career path has been quite the squiggly line. But today, I am able to use all of those crafts and knowledge at Three Little Blackbirds to offer rare breed hatching eggs, artisan bakery recipes, custom graphics and logos, and goods for the home and farm. All designed and packaged beautifully with love and care. Read More...

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I can’t stop crying… 🌷💖🌷💖 Repost I can’t stop crying… 🌷💖🌷💖

Repost from @safeinaustinrescue
•
Tulip, or Auntie Tu, which We affectionately call her in the morning as she watches the three boy goats go crazy for their morning bottle, is probably the best goat Aunt I have ever met.

She's stepped into a protective role, which can only be compared to one of a caring and protective aunt. She could have been resting on the other end, and the next thing I know, she's at my knee, looking up at me, giving me a look, that seems to say, "You better take care of my boys", and when I return them all fed, she hurries over to check them out, and makes sure they know she didn't go anywhere. 

She pays extra attention to Fred, who is blind, and gently tries to steer him towards the gate. 
Gives Hercules and Orion the "look" when they start trying to jump over the gate in a rush to get fed. 

Since the boys started staying in that stall, Tulip has been a constant presence. She gets out, runs around, but never strays too far from them in the barn, even when she's getting her exercise. It’s like she knows, their mama’s couldn’t take care of them… they were brought to me, to cherish and protect, as if they were my own. 

How many of us have kids that are not our own, and yet we feel responsible and protective over them? Our friends children, children within our family, or children we teach or work with. Tulip gets that. These boys aren't hers, but she loves them in a fierce and protective way that only she can. They don't need to be hers, for her to put them first as if they were. To show them the ropes, to teach them those lessons that if mom could, she would. 

Let's celebrate those who step in to fill the role of mom this Mother's day. The ones who love children so unconditionally, and help to raise them to show that same unconditional love. 

Join us on Saturday morning to celebrate Tullip and mother’s of all types from 10am-12pm with pancakes and love. The link to RSVP is in our bio!
The hens are definitely back to work after a Winte The hens are definitely back to work after a Winter of resting. It’s time to make some quiche and angel food cakes! #springishere
The minis are not so patiently waiting for fresh g The minis are not so patiently waiting for fresh green grass to munch on. Spring has not quite fully sprung here with unseasonably cooler nighttime temps and fluctuating weather that seems just a tad crazier than past years - even for Texas! I did, however get the garden almost fully planted, which might be the earliest yet. Livin on the wild side! 😜🤞🏻🙏🏻🌱
BUSTED! We heard the goats going crazy a couple of BUSTED! We heard the goats going crazy a couple of evenings ago, so we went to investigate and found a stall door open. We know we remembered closing it and we’re so confused so we checked the camera feed and found the culprit 🤣

Rosie the herd queen and food pig was found breaking into the stall next door to steal her friends food! So naughty!! 

We will be changing out these latches now because of her. She made that look wayyyy too easy!!
Hello there lovely. 🤎 Hello there lovely. 🤎
Stella Bella hanging out in a big pile of leaves i Stella Bella hanging out in a big pile of leaves is a whole mood. 🍁🍂

The older she gets the more regal and beautiful she’s becoming 🤩

But swipe to see the video at the end to see her true personality. 100% goofball 🤣 This girl is a gem. #greatpyrenees
Eggs so pretty, you gotta put em on display. @anth Eggs so pretty, you gotta put em on display. @anthropologie
Happy national prep day! May your sourdough have Happy national prep day!

May your sourdough have a perfect crumb and your pie crust be flaky. May your cranberry sauce not be too tart and your turkey brine perfectly salty. 

What are my U.S. friends prepping today? If you have a ripe sourdough starter it’s not too late to make a batch of my sourdough bread to bake up tomorrow morning. It makes two loaves so if you only need one, you can put the other in the freezer. But let’s be real… fresh crispy #sourdough dipped in homemade gravy… you’re gonna need the two loaves! 😁🤤🥖Recipe link in bio!
I love passing by and catching a glimpse of the ba I love passing by and catching a glimpse of the barn back there. ✨ doors are being built this week and we will hang them after Thanksgiving. Woo hoo! #progress
Is it the weekend yet? Who else is in need of so Is it the weekend yet? 

Who else is in need of some dirt road therapy? When Corey and I lived in Colorado, we would take the kids and the dogs and head towards the mountains to see the Aspen trees changing colors this time of year. With our coffees, and a good book we were reading packed in our bags, we would find a new dirt road and get lost looking for those twinkling golden leaves. We’d spend the afternoon surrounded by nature, with dirt on our boots and fresh air in our lungs. Whenever I think about needing a “reboot” I think about those trips to the Aspen trees and the smell of the dirt roads and the excitement of exploring somewhere new. 

I made this shirt to remind myself to get more dirt road therapy no matter where I am in my life, maybe it will help you too 🤎
STILL pulling cherry tomatoes out of the garden in STILL pulling cherry tomatoes out of the garden in November. Gotta love the weather in Texas 🍒🌿🍂
These two are such characters. I never would have These two are such characters. I never would have thought that when we got an #LGD she would bond with our horses, as that’s kind of a rare situation and typically LGDs and horses/donkeys don’t mix well, so I’ve heard- but Stella has made a family with the minis and is inseparable with Nutmeg. 

At 9 months old, she still shows her adolescence and immaturity when she’s around the goats and chickens, but when she’s with the minis it’s like she’s a different dog- cool, calm, sweet and chill. Still a total goof ball that trips over her own feet and chases her tail BUT she respects the horses and she seems to have a protective nature when she’s around them so I feel like she takes her job more seriously when she’s around them, rather than wanting to “play” like she does sometimes around the goats. 

No playing with your charges, Stella! 🙈

BTW, when we first got Stella I *almost* got two Great Pyrenees puppies at once thinking she would be lonely in the pasture and would need a friend to grow up with. Thank goodness my sweet friend Renee from @mountainwoodsfarm was there to virtually slap my hands away from the second puppy and say NO! lol and then proceed to enlighten me on “litter mate syndrome” if it weren’t for her and her knowledge helping me through in the beginning I would have been lost. She’s your best source for anything and everything you ever needed to know about working LGDs and is #onetofollow 🙌🏻
I know my husband and I built this little beauty w I know my husband and I built this little beauty with our own hands because I was definitely here for it, but after we got done painting her this clean farmhouse white to match our house and chicken coop, I wanted someone to pinch me because I felt like I was dreaming! ☁️ 

We have wanted this barn for so long and have been building since March and it’s so satisfying to finally have a structure to start putting the final touches on. 3 sets of big barn doors and the exterior stall doors are coming up next along with shingling the roof and electrical and exterior extras like window shutters and faux hay loft windows. 

Still so much to do but we’ve come so far and I’m so proud of how it’s turning out! 

BTW, we made our own plans for this barn. I drew up the design and Corey made the building plans since we couldn’t find barn plans available that we liked.
My dreams for Tulip came true today you guys. Re My dreams for Tulip came true today you guys. 

Remember when I said from the beginning that I wanted her to be with other special needs animals just like her? And maybe even make a difference in a special needs child’s life too..

She got to experience that today and then some with my friends over at @safeinaustinrescue 🥺🥰 What these gorgeous people are doing is so heartwarming and we had the best time touring their beautiful place and meeting all the amazing animals. 

Seeing her there with all the people and the little children, wheeling around with the 3 legged doggies and the sheep that walks on her front knees, goats, cow and the sweetest little calf in the special needs animal pen almost made my heart burst into pieces. And then Corey “got dust in his eyes” and started the waterworks and we all got sappy and emotional and you just can’t help it because there’s something just *magical* about this ranch. Only good things happening here. 

So. Much. Love.

Palpable love. The kind that just gives you chills right up your spine. 

Tulip is so very special to us and the idea of her helping bring light into someone’s life like she did for us, and bring a smile to a child’s face is what gets me through even the saddest of times. 

Thank you so much to all of the people and volunteers at @safeinaustinrescue !!
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
Where’s my goat people at? The Greatest.Of.All. Where’s my goat people at?

The Greatest.Of.All.Time. 🐐 No wonder goats are such divas 🤣 We still love em though! 

Speaking of diva goats we love…Tulip has her amputation surgery tomorrow morning. I am so nervous for her! 😩send all your prayers and love this way, please 🙏🏻🌷💖

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About the owner

My name is Erin. I am a mother of three, chicken farmer, gardener, pastry enthusiast, and self-proclaimed food snob. I love to dig in the dirt. I love to ride horses. I love the smell of lavender and roses and lilacs and hay. I am a dreamer, but kneading bread dough keeps me Earth bound. Im glad you're here! Read More...

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