petit pâtissier

Years ago, I stumbled across Herriott Grace. A beautiful photographer and also pastry lover, like myself. She seemed like the kinda girl I would be best friends with. Her father does woodworking and lovingly makes wooden plates, cake stands, spreaders, spoons, and rolling pins. They sell out really fast, so I emailed Nikole, the owner, and asked for the next rolling pin and if she had a smaller one as well. I told her that I wanted to give it to my daughter when she was old enough to bake with me. Kaia was shy of two at the time. Here's a snippet of the email exchange from years ago:

runawaygray	2/25/10
to herriott

thanks Nikole! I can't wait. I have a little girl I named Kaia Miette. Miette is French for little crumb, because I love baking so much and she's like my crumb and I am the cake! I am going to gift the smaller rolling pin to her when she's old enough to use it and I hope she passes it to her kids when she is older. :)

herriott grace	3/2/10
to me

Hi Tricia,

I've wanted to reply properly but, it's been a crazy last little while. Anyway, this message really made my day, I'm so glad you sent it. Really. Thank you for sharing with me, that's about the best name I've ever heard.

Hope your pins arrive soon!
Nikole

This Christmas, I thought it was time now for Kaia to start baking. So I had her rolling pin under the tree. When she discovered what it was, she was overjoyed! 

We have a tradition of making cinnamon buns for Christmas Eve morning and it was a perfect chance for Kaia to use her new tool.