you can even eat the wrappers!

my sister-in-law Heather has the right idea: 2 kids, 2 summer birthdays, 1 party. last year i brought ice cream cones a la cookie, this year it was candy.

this is one shape that i might go back to for flavored-icing experiments. maybe a vanilla mint green swirl, or lemon yellow. or tie-dyed tootie-fruity. :)
happy birthday Andrew and Grace!

Christmas in July!

i know all the cookie greats are beginning their holiday dazzlement now--what you'll see in this season's catalogs, magazines, how-to shows, and high-end bakeries, is coming together in crazy minds like mine, and prototypes are being baked in this terrible heat. yes, we suffer for our craft. :)
my yearly Christmas-cookie-night with Mom is incomplete without some Perry Como playing in the background. the first track on the perennial set list is a reading of "The Night Before Christmas," with all the glitzy, yet cartoon-like, big band accompaniment. it's actually one of my favorite poems, and if i could cookie-tize the whole piece i would, but here's one scene, when "away they all flew like the down of a thistle."


a little zooming in, and you have "the luster of mid-day to objects below" (i did those buttons with a toothpick!)
i think i'll make this one my family's 2010 Christmas card. then again, i have a growing list of holiday imagery that i want to try. maybe i'll make a whole set of cards...
coming soon, a nursery classic, candy, and bride's-to-be and their love of purple.

baby Ivy's shower

Kate is having a baby girl! rubber duckies were requested, with "baby Ivy" piped in. i added the bubbles. the whole time i was decorating them i was singing Earnie's 'rubber ducky you're the one.'
shipping them to WA was an experience--the p.o. says "if it fits, it ships" but the express box they give you is better suited to ship something shaped like a laptop. 8 of the 36 little guys didn't make it. the ones that did, i'm told, were a hit. (Katie and Kate share an interstate high 5!) now go have that baby, lady! and send pictures!

little cookies, big thanks

i've been unemployed and seeking a job more cookie-related and less spreadsheet-related. i came upon a chocolate shop where, i learned, an independant vendor sold her cookies. so i took a business card and emailed Julie, the manager, a few questions adding that if she were to answer, i'd happily bake her cookies.
turns out that having a business license, renting retail kitchen space, etc, is what it takes to be such a vendor, and is more than i have time or cash to start up. this sounds like a setback, but it was actually very reassuring--a whole catagory of my employment quest could be crossed off, leaving me that much more able to focus on my other opportunities.
so, super-pleased to be on my way again, i baked her these:

i delivered them, and she seemed surprised that i bothered, but happy too--who doesn't like hand-delivered cookies?

speaking of frogs...

Brenda wondered if i could help her out with her some thank-you cookies for her daughters' teachers. 'something for summer' with frogs and fishing specified. after falling in love with how i make frogs (see the previous post below) i was happy to do another round of froggies. plus the fish, some leaves with a little beetle, orange monarchs, daisies, and my other favorite, strawberries. Brenda reports that all feedback was positive.
"my work here is done," i said as i shook hands with the townspeople and rode into the sunset... but there i was being narrative again. no, Brenda's cookies didn't end there. these cookies were characters and scenery meant to evoke feelings of summer at the lake. while in parts, they're adorable cookies. when en scene, they're quite a little picture, worth a thousand words. so i baked a handful of extras and made another scene, like "planet cookie" ...maybe "cookie lake"?

i enjoy making these. if i did it for a living, i'd make one every 3 days. i probably could with the ideas that keep popping up in my head. the current one in progress will be for christmas. the next one... suggestions? perhaps something literary. i'll daydream on it.

Eldra's year of cookies.

a year ago last month, i offered my cookie services to a silent auction for Trinity Lutheran. the winner was Eldra, who received a dozen cookies every month for a year. May was her last month, and i asked if she had any requests, after a year of cookies of my choosing. she said, "can you make frogs? my son just loves that 'frog prince' movie."
i smiled and said, "oh yeah, i can make frogs." and made a dozen of these:

i LOVE these. i've wanted to do the froggy prince for well over a year. ask the hubby, i was doing little happy dances as these came together. much thanks to Eldra for putting me to work, every month was a blast. plus it was incentive for starting this here lil blog.
~coming soon: a baby shower, an engagement party, 2 thank yous, a birthday, and a trip to a pond.