Working as a home health care aide at night, Michelle Wiemken had a picture in her mind for years. It was her own bakery, shelves filled with breads, cookies, cakes, pies and the other sweet treats she loved to bake.

“I always dreamed of having my own bakery. I never thought it would come true,” Wiemken said.

A picture – a jewel art picture that Wiemken crafted of a brightly colored bakery, shelves filled with those sweet baked goods – now hangs on the wall of Wiemken’s very own brightly colored bakery filled with her home-baked sweet treats.

“It’s been great. The town has really responded. Amboy doesn’t have a place where you can buy a fresh, homemade pie or order birthday cookies, so I was hoping to fill that gap,” she said.

The gap has been filled, and Amboy-area residents are responding.

“The cinnamon rolls, cookies and coffee cakes are flying out of here,” Wiemken said.

When the space formerly known as The Cookie Jar at 205 N. Main St. in Amboy became vacant, Wiemken decided to make her dream come true.

“The lady who had it before me posted that she was leaving. I had people messaging me that day saying, ‘You need to do this!’ I thought about it for a few minutes, and I said ‘OK, yes!’ ” Wiemken said.

Making and selling baked goods wasn’t anything new. Wiemken was baking and selling at farmers’ markets in Dixon, Amboy and Mendota and at the Twin City Farmers Market in Sterling.

She learned to bake from her grandmother, who ran a restaurant and bakery in Lee for years.

“I remember going in there and doing little jobs for her for packs of gum. She served food and made cakes and candy,” Wiemken said.

Two years ago, when Ann Koster retired from cooking, baking and selling at Twin City Farmers Market and from running the kitchen there on Saturday mornings, Wiemken was asked to take over the Saturday morning hot food duties.

“I do biscuits and gravy on Saturday morning and egg casserole. I make soup every now and then. I have chicken salad sandwiches in the cooler. I make quiches and meat pies. We have a huge variety of stuff,” she said.

In addition, she has her own selection of baked goods, from bread, including sourdough, cookies and pies, to cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes. What Wiemken doesn’t sell on Saturday during the four hours that the market operates, she adds to the inventory in Amboy.

“I am open on Sunday from 7 a.m. to noon so people going to and from church can pick up their breakfast and brunch items,” she said.

Right now, the bakery also is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wiemken said she plans to expand those hours later in the spring.

Wiemken has all of the necessary licenses and permits to prepare food at the Twin City kitchen as well as in her own home kitchen. When she’s baking to fill the shelves at the Busy Bee Bakery, sleep is low on the priority list.

“For two days, I pretty much don’t sleep. Last night, I baked cinnamon rolls throughout the night. I took a nap at 1 a.m. and got up at 3 a.m. to finish frosting them and then got here before 9 to open,” she said.

Wiemken also bakes to order. Although she prefers not to do special order cakes, she does bake cookies, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes for special orders and pretty much anything from the Busy Bee Bakery inventory. Customers in Amboy can also order items from her Twin City market menu.

“Food like quiches has to be kept hot or cold, so we would make arrangements for it to be picked up immediately, but yes, they can order those items,” she said.

Her new customers in Amboy are showing their appreciation by buying out her inventory nearly every day since the bakery has been open, and her Sterling customers are making the drive.

“I had a customer who comes to the Sterling market every Saturday and buys from me. She was in a craft show, and she wanted cinnamon rolls, so she drove from Sterling to pick some up,” Wiemken said.