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It was the winter of 1986 and I had been doing small catering jobs and food gift baskets for about a year and a half in Augusta.  The food gift basket was a break-even scenario but was a great marketing tool to get my name established while enjoying samples of my wares.  The produce department at our local The Fresh Market would save the mushroom baskets for me and I spray painted and decorated them for particular OCCASIONS.  I barely covered my costs.  However, those were the stepping stones for my career and people still recall the method in my madness!

My Country Living Magazine had arrived in the mailbox one morning in the summer of 1985 and while the boys were napping, I flipped through the pages and marked recipes I wanted to try.  I made it to the very end when I spotted a classified ad that read,” Martha Stewart will be conducting cooking classes from her Westport, CT home.” The ad was probably 1” x 2” and I thought, “if I can do this entire thing, including travel and a hotel for less than $2,000, then I’m going!”  The rest is the history behind the beginning of my career and my thankfulness for the impact that Martha Stewart had on me.

On Sunday, December 4th on Instagram, Martha Stewart posted that her Entertaining Book launched 40 years ago on this day.  I immediately went to my office to dig through photography, find the book she signed and just take a few minutes in appreciation for Martha and how she changed the face of catering and the spirit behind crafting, collecting and entertaining.

I was even able to invite Martha to Augusta to do a fundraiser for the YMCA, as a board member, and do an autograph party at Sacred Heart with her Weddings Book.

Ten years my senior and still rocking the world, Martha Stewart has set a fine example of:  hard work pays off, take the medicine, never give up, and reinvent yourself about every ten years.  We should all take a lesson and be inspired, I certainly continue to be!

The IG post read that she has written 99 books.  My guess is that 100 is just around the corner and will knock our socks off!!