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Meet Cheneya “Charlie” Cruze of Charlie and the Cookie Factory in Watauga

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheneya “Charlie” Cruze.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Charlie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In January of 2016, we lost our home and almost all of our belongings to a house fire. While the fire itself was small, the smoke and heat damage made everything inside our house was extensive. Only the items in our garage and attic above your garage were undamaged. A few weeks after the fire, I also lost my job. After a few months of unsuccessful job hunting, my best friend said I should really think about making cookies. In August of 2016, I went on Amazon and ordered the top three decorated sugar cookie books. I also created my Facebook business page but never made it public. We were living in an apartment during the rebuild, with a tiny kitchen and no room to work on cookies. We moved back into our renovated house in September of 2016 and started a new job at the end of November 2016. I didn’t think about decorated sugar cookies again until April 2017 when my best friends asked if I wanted to take an Easter cookie decorating class with her. I went full steam ahead and tried to learn everything I could about decorating cookies. And the rest is, as they say, is history.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My biggest struggle, as I have gained more customers, is time management. I still work full time and make cookies in the evenings and weekends. I also have a family and I spend a lot of late nights decorating once everyone else goes to bed. Most Friday nights, I pull all-nighters. I truly have a passion for creating art in my cookies so I don’t mind losing a little sleep in the process. I love seeing my customers’ reaction when they see their orders. I had one customer literally get goose bumps when she opened the box of cookies. You can’t beat that!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Charlie and the Cookie Factory story. Tell us more about the business.
At Charlie and the Cookie factory, we make customer decorated sugar cookies. I say we because my husband Richard has taken over all of the baking so I can focus on the decorating. I can make just about any theme you could imagine. I love the challenge of adding unexpected, little details to my cookies.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t think luck played as much of a role as timing has. I started trying to learn about making decorated in August 2016. I even created my Facebook business page, but the timing of finishing our house rebuild, moving back home and starting a new job, just wasn’t right. It wasn’t until April 2017 that everything started to fall into place.

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