some birthday baubles

Brittany, my niece, has followed her job in jewelry retail management all the way to Atlanta, all at the ripe old age (if i'm doing the math right, you know us old people) of 21. (at 21, i was in retail, but one of those know-nothing part-timers.) for her May birthday i thought it was fitting to give her some bling.
her mom, s-i-l Libby, got me the engagement ring cookie cutter from Sur la Table last Christmas, hoping i didn't already have it--i didn't, and here was a perfect reason to use it.
the hardest part was considering how best to make the sapphire look like a cut stone. i spent a good 10 minutes sketching and erasing before i just googled it. then to translate it to cookies, i iced the stone in blue, then painted it with a vodka/blue pearl dust/blue food coloring mixture. when dry, i painted the lines with vodka/white pearl dust. [water will start to dissolve the sugary surface; vodka is alcohol and will evaporate.] the silver was dark gray icing brushed with white pearl dust.
and i picked a blue frosty stone for 3 reasons: it was Will and Kate's wedding weekend (recall Kate's engagement ring); Brittany gave me a sapphire pendant one Christmas; and Brit is one of the few gals i know that can pull off wearing frosty blue eye make-up. i've tried, but frosty blue just looks better on my cookies than on me. :)
the hardest part after decorating them was sending them to Atlanta via UPS. not because of any actual problem, but if i were Mrs. Corporate-Cookie i'd have my own refrigerated trucks; with delivery services, you just have to hope. i was standing there reading all the things you're not allowed to ship like corrosives, explosives, etc, and under "other" was dry ice. which would have helped. it was like 90 degrees in IL that day. i asked, "can they park the truck in the shade?"
i emailed Brit and said if the southern heat melts them, i'll replace them, but they arrived intact. [whew!] happy birthday Brittany, and congrats on the career! i'd tell her to stay cool, but she's got that covered...
coming soon, Brenda gives cookie thanks to 30 teachers, 6 different ways.