I was 15 when I traveled to Papua New Guinea for the first time. The following year I stepped off a plane in Guinea, Africa and at 20 years old I led a team to Mongolia. At 24 I was married with a newborn and by 30 I was mama to three sons.

Motherhood led me to journaling through blogging which is where Art of Homemaking came to be. A husband finishing his college degree pushed me to resourcefulness. And in those years is where I discovered my knack for business start-up and development on little more than gumption and grit.

In 2012 CAKE&WHISKEY came to be as I was standing in my kitchen…baking a cake. The idea to gather businesswomen together to simply ‘eat cake, drink whiskey, talk shop’ grew into hobnobs across the country and an international print publication subscribed to by readers in 11 countries in a little over two years.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve worked as a creative director, editor, was a winner of the PIAS award of excellence for design. I have worked alongside brands such as Citi, Cartier, and non-profits such as Women Impacting Public Policy and the US Chamber of Commerce. I have a true passion for storytelling both in words and imagery which eventually led me to combine my love of baking with my desire to build community into the opening of a philanthropic bakery in a 125-year-old storefront in the Midwest town of Dayton, Ohio. The curation of stories, recipes, tutorials, products, and events to help everyone create the bits of nostalgia in their own lives is something that motivates the direction of my work each and every day.

And when I’m not at the helm of all things sweet and spirited, you can find me packing a picnic basket and gathering the quilts for a midweek dinner with those I love at a favorite spot in nature.

My Six-Word-Story

Credited to Ernest Hemingway, the six-word story is a powerful little exercise when written about our own journeys. Mine has been my bedrock. My manifesto. My six-word story is simply this:

Guided by passion. Driven by purpose.

In each idea I develop, each class I teach, photo shoot I assign, recipe I bake, words I write, the vision I cast, and the dreams and goals I hold dear are run through the filter of those six words.

xo, Megan