Metchosin woman realizes baking dream by opening the 'Crazy Cookie House'
"[Animals] just tug at my heart," Helen says.
So, after spending her childhood in England raising money for animal hospitals, growing up to create a foster home for rescued horses in Canada felt like a dream come true.
"So happy!" Helen smiles, before feeding carrots to the pair of horses she’s rehabilitating in her rural front yard.
But if you ask Helen if she ever dreamed of adopting a dragon, she’ll laugh and say, "No!"
Yet, on the other side of her drive away, you’ll find a human-sized, green dragon – made of painted driftwood – sitting on a stump.
"So this is where the story kind of unfolds," Helen smiles.
We’ll get back to the dragon in a moment. But first, you should know that, along with animals, Helen’s had a lifelong love of baking.
"One day I want to have a little farm stand," she recalls thinking. "[But] years go by…"
And it can be hard to find the time or energy for a hobby when you’re balancing a day job at an office, and raising your family at home.
"[But] I’ve always been the type of person who, if I set myself a goal, I achieve it," Helen says.
Seeing as she realized the horse-helping dream, Helen set her sights on turning her baking dream into a reality too.
She enlisted her family’s help to come up with creative toppings for cookies.
"There’s no limit to the amount of crazy cookie ideas," Helen smiles.
After baking cookies that were covered in all sorts of candy, from Swedish Berries to lollipops, cookies erupting with mini chocolate bars – from Skors to Kit-Kats – and cookies that were seemingly eating smaller Oreo-style cookies with cartoon-style eyes, Helen set up that stand at the end of their driveway.
"I thought maybe some friends and people in the local community would drop by from time to time," Helen says.
She certainly never expected that her baking would be such a blockbuster that they’d have to expand.
That’s when they "hired" that dragon they dubbed Doug H (because his name also spells the word "dough," as in cookie dough).
"The story is he’s breathing fire into the oven to bake the cookies!" Helen smiles.
Doug is one of dozens of fantastical creatures that Helen "adopted," from fairies to gnomes, which now greet you along a path that features Bigfoot footprints and leads to The Crazy Cookie House.
The original farm stand has been replaced by a larger structure that features lopsided windows and a rumpled roof that resembles the Sorting Hat from the "Harry Potter" movies.
What started as a whimsical place for her creative baking to be sold through the honour system, where social media posts about the house have earned more than 300,000 views, The Crazy Cookie House has become so popular, Helen was able to leave her day job and focus on this fulltime.
"If you love it and enjoy it, the rest will follow," Helen smiles.
And you just might find, in a collection of positive post-it notes on display in The Crazy Cookie House, from people visiting from across North American and as far away as Peru, one message that couldn’t be more meaningful.
"I like the way you dream," it reads.
"It’s a dream come true, it really is," Helen smiles gratefully. "And hopefully others can enjoy it along the way."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.