It has to be said, It took me quite by surprise too, finding myself setting up SIIXTEEN macarons. Its not something people do everyday. Especially being an artist/designer/creative and NOT a baker! But how could I ignore the will to make these little pillows of totally utterly scrumptious perfection? Everywhere I visited, I would be drawn to the soft, smooth, pastel coloured little almond bite size treats. Bee-lining towards the exquisite simple form, appealing colour and well... just visual perfection!! They held the promise of luxuious taste, with every bite being tantalisingly tasty, soft and chewy at the same time. Mmmmmmmmm! The biggest surprise was how very tricky these little bite-size beauts are to make. In fact... they are exceedingly difficult to make! However, with determination and a desire to supply you with the very best macarons you could possibly find, SIIXTEEN smashed it, and prides itself on achieving fabulously delicious and deep flavours, paired with melting soft textures. Using only the very best ingredients, each mouthful leaves you absolutely melting and wanting more! One, or nearly, one year on, and SIIXTEEN is thriving. Having jumped in at the deep end, my only choices were to sink or swim. I chose to swim. And then Covid-19 struck. Fortunately, SIIXTEEN was in a position where I could continue to produce our feel good macarons. And I found myself supplying beautiful sweet hugs as the world shut down, closed off and went into a strange sort of unsociable hibernation. When we were just about to supply some gloriously lovely local hotels, they shut down too. So we added smiles to whomever staff were still working at the time. Along with keeping up morale of some of the front-line workers in the NHS. And now the children are finally back at school, we can celebrate and reclaim some kind of normality once more. But I am left asking myself, what is normal? Nothing has been very 'normal' since since SIIXTEEN was born. Each day brings it's own sets of delights and challenges and nothing ever seems to stay the same. Perhaps that's why it IS so lovely with the children being back at school. The days become structured once more. And if that's all I can get for now, in terms of 'normal', then im taking it! So i'm not going to dig deeper and over think this. Instead, I'm going to make lists, make plans, follow them through and revel in the fact that SIIXTEEN is still here delighting in the undeniably, delicious little pillows of joy and spreading a little bit of love.