radiant Sons

i was once again tapped to make thank-you cookies for the choir, for the annual Christmas musical performance and potluck.  this is based on s-i-l's emailed drawing; an oval and holly leaf made the shape, outline and flood technique with pre-piped letters made the image, and some pearl dust made it sparkle.  thank you Trinity Lutheran Choir!  and i hope everyone's final 12 days of Christmas are are just as yummy and sparkly.  (it's snowing pretty hard here, we might add a verse of 13 shovelers shoveling.)  coming soon, baby stuff, snowmen, and maybe superheros and owls?

Christmas, in case you missed us...

these were available at the store in December.  stop in during January, snowmen are on the way!

some airbrushed patterns inspired by wrapping paper...

some gingerbread...

scotties dressed for the cold...

and the first winner of the November raffle, Beth, requested some reindeer.

thank you all, and i hope your holidays were merry, happy, joyous, festive, and safe.  drop in again soon for some baby stuff, coming soon...

and on to the new year...

these snowmen, snowballs, snowflakes, and snowy trees were part of the Christmas package sent to my brother's family.  like i said, if they were to arrive late for Christmas, they're still winter cookies, if not Christmas cookies.  i made a bunch and gave a bag to Vanessa for that help she gave Jeff with his online work/stock thing.  all extras were promptly eaten.  sorry Santa.  the resemblance to the snowman in "The Snowman" was a coincidence--and he had a (tangerine?) for a nose, not a carrot.  and around my cookies, you'll probably hear Perry Como playing...
and that brings me to the end of the year, and the pictures taken thus far.  i'll have another 90th birthday assignment in January, and a kid's birthday after that.  and some owls for a baby shower... and then Valentine's day? (nudge) see ya on the flip side! Merry Everything! Happy New Year! and drive careful out there...

Christmas rush, part 3: teaching!

in December Jennifer emailed me, asking if i could do a cookie decorating demonstration for the Glen Ellyn Newcomers, "a social organization for women who are new to the area" who were having a holiday cookie exchange.  awesome, i thought. after kids, suburban women are my biggest fans.  i read on: Jennifer had already planned on another baker, but she had to cancel for health reasons, and now it was a scramble to replace her.  [related: i once asked my facebook friends who knew me back in the day, what they thought i would have become upon growing up.  almost universally they agreed, something with art and/or teaching. (Spock eyebrow)] 

 i inquired of details, we spoke on the phone, and shazam, the following week found me at Drury Design, unloading my sprinkles and tools and example cookies (left)  in a model kitchen that looked like a Food Network set, from a box that previously held generic firelogs.  i don't travel with my tools, i was at a loss for a neat little rolling plastic organizer thing. (so i walk into a room full of well-accessorized ladies with my log box and lime-green low-top Chuck Taylors looking like amateur-hour.  yet confident in how i would wield the box's contents, so i felt just fine.  c'mon, chef Batali wears orange Crocs...)  i set up in one kitchen while they went over agendas and minutes in the other. then they filed in around the counter, i was introduced, and for the first 10 seconds i was the ill-prepared 7th grade spaz with a book report to present, then i picked up the icing and was instantly zen-master cookie teacher. 

the rest was informal Q&A about my cookie past, tips and tricks, awesome adventures, etc., all while demonstrating flooding dots, piping lines, and fun with colored sanding sugar.  there was a lovely moment when i piped green dots, then switched to red, and when i shook off the loose sugar to reveal 2 colors, there was a collective "ooooooh." i always get a kick out of the perception that this is part magic. (it is!) then i filled a few more bags and let the ladies try their own.

my big "oops" for the evening, and there just had to be one, was that because of time, i had to make the icing the night before so i could grab it from the fridge after work and take it straight to the design store.  problem is, that lets the icing settle a little.  imagine a whipped foam losing it's foaminess. that and the warm room and the warm hands handling the piping bags, and before long we were piping with pink and green soup.  but everyone was a good sport, gave it a try, had fun, and hopefully gave their own batch a try at home. to the left are some of our masterpieces.  i would absolutely teach cookie decorating again.  but i would have a lesson plan, and the aforementioned nifty means to transport the supplies.  but i bet i'll still wear my green sneakers.
i asked Jennifer how she found me--she said Google.  Blogger is part of Google so a search with IL-cookie-decorating-related keywords lands this blog not too far from the top of the search results.   so how often are my cookies viewed? the counter on the blog is set to count individual website visits, but since Blogger changed its dashboard layout, i can also see a count of separate page views. over 5000 people have visited, but those people have lingered and browsed around, and the page view count is nearly at 8800. (!!!) i thank every single one of you for stopping by. i have immensely enjoyed delighting your eyes with cookie stylings.  if you have a second, please take my mini-survey (to the right), and tell your friends to visit (especially if your friends work in bakeries) and if you're a new gal in Glen Ellyn, click that Newcomers link at the top.  then, stop back for clocks, comics, cows, purses, hearts, plaid, houseplants, and whatever i come up with for the office this month.  suggestions welcome. :)

the Christmas rush, part 2

i felt pretty-much-done with Christmas by cyber-Monday. my job involves an early commute, my son is still kind of oblivious to holidays, schedules and finances kept us from going anywhere... it was like a long loud November. but was i grinchy? nay. for i madeth cookies, and they were pretty... but i want to get to March by March, so this is a speed round post. ready?


this was a pile of funky snowflakes i made for Andrea and her family, for watching the kiddo until we got the ball rolling on day care.

these were the yearly Christmas choir cookies. those lines should have been thinner. but the sparkle cooperated.

long story, these new years stars almost had a destination, but i never got them out the door. Jeff took them to work instead. but i was attempting silver on white effects.
and Lois asked me if i could do something Christmasy with frogs as a get well gift. like my froggy princes, these were a composite of a frog and mini hat. i think this spring he'll need some Easter hats with flowers.
coming up, that class i taught. plus new years clocks, girly purses, COWmodities, a plaid experiment, some illicit botanicals, and ...explosions! and then, at last, Valentine's day. (whew!)

the Christmas rush...

so many pictures to catch up through the holidays... lets see if i can post them and not get too bloggy. round one!
these were for the office cookie exchange. i can now say my cookies are award winning, as i took home the coveted "Best Decorated" trophy Starbucks giftcard. i rule.





















all the ornaments were different. i was experimenting with stripes and sugar, and got a neat ugly Christmas-sweater effect. pearl dust on grey icing made the little "metal" caps.


the bottom layer of the tin was pink and red poinsettias, just because.

the one-elf kitchen

holy mistletoe did December kick my hiney. i still owe Vanessa and Theresa a dozen each for covering hubby's Christmas weekend, and Aunt Donna and family can expect a thank you package--had we drawn one of their names for the secret Santa game, a treat package would have accompanied the gift; alas, orders came in, snow fell, one car was shared, one toddler discovered "no" and now it's already 2 weeks after Christmas and i still twitch a little. i didn't bring any cookies to Christmas at my brother's, didn't do a plate for Jeff's family, and i didn't even bother sending cards this year. seriously, some years i'm Martha Stewart, this year i was Charlie Brown. but i do have pictures to prove i was busy, and i will take care of my back-logged cookie agenda.

onward.

Jeff's sister Heather and Aunt Dahlas lead the choir and bestow thank-you treats to singers, readers, and musicians who make the yearly musical service and pot luck dinner a success. once more, i was asked for a cookie creation based on this year's theme, "Emmanuel, God with us." at first, a nativity scene was suggested, but i pointed out that one would then have to bite and eat baby Jesus. the "Emmanuel" part comes from the angel informing Mary about Jesus, 9 months before Christmas, but if you say "angel" and "Christmas" one first thinks of the angel directing shepherds and kings. so i drew a sketch for a composite cookie of an angel gesturing to the star and got a thumbs up. the trickiest part was piping in the blue sky as negative space before filling in the angel, lest i cover detailed edges, like the face and hand, by trying to do the angel first. i heard one choir member thought the cookies came from a bakery; it's always nice to be mistaken for a professional. :)

next came Jeff's godmother Dorothy, who wanted 2 dozen. i included a slender white tree with dragees and something new i tried: there's a variety of cookie sprinkle that comes in different shapes--tiny hearts, tiny circles, etc.--and they're made with vegetable oil, i presume so they wont stick to each other. if you were to take a spoonful, and a little bit of pearl dust, and shake them in a tiny container, the dust sticks to the sprinkles. i can now make shiny blue ornaments.


then i did some red and green pinwheel stars, and by then the order was done, but i had just reorganized my sprinkles so i had to try my meta-cookie idea, little cookies on a cookie sheet. i sent these along too.


then i had just enough time to fill one more order--Jamie who ordered the bridesmaid dresses wanted to give a dozen to her godmother, so i did a dozen snowflakes with simple mint-green lines.
and by then i had enough time to tidy the house and pack for Indiana. much thanks for your orders, ladies, and many apologies to anyone who thought i might be slacking. fear not, i'm still baking.
coming soon, my other December order for a girl's night out, those cookies i owe people, and probably some birthdays... happy new year everyone!

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.

i like to kick it old school

this year i fell in love with pearl dust. first i made my wedding cookies shimmer, then i made shiney reindeer, then i made actually-silver bells. i seriously got all bouncy like a kid when i made a metalic cookie. to complete the trio for eldra's december dozen, i paired the "silver" with pastel blue and ta-da, it was 1952. the fun continued with pinwheel stars. next year? christmas robots!

reindeer!!!!!!

brown reindeer are nice and everything, but why not green? or rainbow antlers? my new favorite product, pearl dust, made these extra pretty, and a little retro. and here's some proof that i'm goofy--the cookie cutter faces the other way, but i can only seem to decorate reindeer if they face to the left, so i flipped them before baking. thanks to james and judy for their orders!