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who i am
Hi, I’m Emily! I’m so happy you’re here! I am the creator of Linen & Gray on Instagram where I share royal icing decorated cookies and bakes that are primarily cookie related. I come from a family of foodies who love good food and their treats. Now as a mommy of two littles, I want to create a beautiful living that romanticizes the little things, including our meals and little treats.
1. Why this, why now?
I started a cookie decorating Instagram account in 2020 at the height of covid pandemic while nine months postpartum with my unexpected baby boy. I needed to do something creative, and I had been stalking cookie decorating accounts for years. It was time. In my classic form, I hyper-fixated on royal icing cookies and practiced daily for months on end while shopping online endlessly for things I could use. I created an Instagram to share my cookie projects with my eight followers and soon found myself with requests for orders. I thought, “why not?” and proudly took every order I could. Eventually, I was drowning in cookies as a stay at home mom to a rowdy little toddler and had to slow down. Creating cookie recipes, both roll out sugar cookies and drop cookies became a creative outlet for me and helped pay the bills when I couldn’t take more cookie orders. Most recently, I had my second surprise baby, a little girl this time. In an effort to have more time for my babies, become the best version of myself, and still have time for creativity, I am starting this Substack as a way to rebrand myself, so to speak.
2. What are we doing here?
This will be a place to get exclusive baking recipes that are more intentionally created and detail oriented than the recipes I’ve shared on Instagram subscription in the past. (Hello, longer word count.) My baking style is approachable and *mostly* unfussy with the goal of making something delicious, simple, and impressive. As a seasonal girlie, I love to create within the seasons and holidays. As I get more comfortable with cooking, I’ll be sharing those recipes (and meal plans!), too.
Not only will we have our regularly scheduled programming of cookie decorating and baking, you’ll get a front row seat to me practicing how to cook better and make meals and snacks better. You could say I’m in my Nara Smith era.
3. What’s new:
Some things on my 2024 bingo card that are 100% going to be hyper-fixations you may be interested in observing from the sidelines are sourdough, bread in general, vegetable gardening, ingredient prepping, weekly menus, and homemade pasta.
4. Why should I upgrade to paid?
As a subscriber, you’ll get exclusive recipes with ingredients in both cups and grams (including pdf versions), royal icing cookie tutorials, pdfs with the templates for hand-cut cookie designs. All of my new recipes and tutorial will be available for paid subscribers only. Once I am in the zone with meal planning and ingredient prepping, you’ll get my weekly menus and grocery lists as well. Subscribing means you’ll never miss out on anything I’m working on, you’ll also have access to the full archive, and you’ll get a more personal experience if you feel like getting to know me. <3
5. What does it cost?
*Your financial support helps me create high quality recipes and quality cookie tutorials and is greatly appreciated.*
The Free Tier
a peek into my kitchen every week & a closer look at what I’m working on
product, book, recipe, and other recommendations
The Paid Tier ($5/mo or $50/year- get two months free)
exclusive recipes (including pdfs of the recipes)
BTS of recipe development
cookie decorating tutorials & recipes
access to the archive
The Founding Member Tier ($150/year)
my eternal gratitude for your support & a warm and fuzzy feeling
I’m so excited about this new venture and can’t wait to start sharing with you.
xo
Emily