season opener

happy spring everyone!  i got a last minute email from Wendy asking if i could squeeze in some "thank you" softballs for her daughter's team.  i could, and i did, and i didn't take a picture, but they were yellow circles (i really didn't know softballs were yellow) with piped red stitches, and "Thank You" in blue and that’s really it, but the blue and red could have been darker. 

anyway, despite not being very exciting, they prompted another order for the same, but with the team name, "Diamonds," in cursive (and darker), and something blingy to dot the 'i'.  with more drying time, i was able to use the red edible marker to make nicer stitches, and after a trip to the store for royal blue, not sky blue, the letters were lovelier.  to dot the letter i, i rolled out and painted a small sheet of fondant, cut out squares and cut off 1 corner from each, and dusted them with white pearl dust, to make classic diamond shapes with a gem finish.  Wendy confirmed, they were a home run. :) Thanks again, and go Diamonds! stay tuned for some farewell squares, and a butterfly bridal shower, and I have a tulip idea that i’m liking.  meanwhile, here's hoping and hopping your Easter was awesome, a Happy Birthday and Have-a-bird Day to my little man Rowan, and a special hi-5 to a little Ryder who's got some baby shower cookies coming his way.

cookies that defy gravity!

high school classmate (holy moly it was half my life ago that i graduated!) Dominique, inquired about cookies for her daughter's 6th birthday.  Jateme (say "Je t'aime" like "i love you" in French--how cool is that?) likes teal and gymnastics, and is soon to be the big sister to twins--twice the awesome!
we mulled over the idea of mini cookies, but settled on 1 each per favor bag of 2 medium cookies.  (although i suppose i could have combined all 4 circles into a regular-sized cookie, but anyway) i looked online for some leaping silhouettes, saved the pictures, resized them, and just taped a piece of paper to my monitor and traced them.  then i glued them to a clear plastic lid, flipped it over, and cut out teeny people and a star with an x-acto knife to make a stencil.  then i airbrushed them (yeah i washed the lid first, silly) onto the cookies, making sure the white was extra flat, but leaving the medals with waves and dips, a result of making royal icing in dry January air, to look like something malleable.  rings of dots and sugary ribbons unified them, and they were all paired up in favor bags with a silver bow. 
happy birthday Jateme, and congrats to your family for your new little brother and sister!  coming soon-- little baby owls....

spoiler alert, more cookies

 so these are the last 2 in the file, then i have to get more off the camera, and boy-howdy will i be busy this fall, so visit often.  if you're not wowed, you can at least laugh and point. :)
i had a busy week by the time i had a breather to make cookies for a trip to mom's house for a birthday dinner, so i made bananas.  why? i thought of a greeting card i have somewhere in a drawer--a dancing banana peel on the front and inside, "just a little card to cheer you up or **** you off."  it seemed so simple and silly that it fit my allotted time and intended grin.  they're just a moon shape with a little pinch at the ends, then brown sanding sugar over yellow, and 2 quick lines with brown edible marker when dry.

and these were a pin-wheel-star experiment.  i wondered what different lines would look like radiating, and got a kinda snowflake, and kinda flower.  i heard no complaints.  the bigger hits were the little musical note/guitars for rock star Grace, and baseballs and bats for sports star Andrew, detailed with edible markers.  i just love coloring on food.
also it's bake sale season! email me if you think it needs a cookie daydreamer or her wares.  till then... (waving)

Colts... and the Cosmos...

back when i started this blog, i had participated in my husband's church's silent auction. i offered a year of cookies, a dozen a month, so i had at least one picture to show you on a regular basis. after the year was up, i kept busy, a party here, a birthday there, my wedding, and when i had a job i brought a plate to the office every month. then last October i thought of how we only throw birthday parties for Andrew and Grace on Jeff's side, and my side of the family is all out of town, and that's just not enough birthday cookies. so with my brother's "over the hill" cookies, i got working on a year of birthdays. these 2 are the last in the series.
my niece and nephew, Jackie and Derek, are twins who just turned 24. Jackie, though confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, can paint (with a paintbrush in her mouth!) and enjoys sci-fi (we're fellow Trekkers). Derek, though deaf, can play football. i haven't seen him play, but the hearing impaired have some technique by which they signal with lights. they're 2 pretty competent young people, so i made sure i did my best. :)
the rocket/planet combo was a composite with 2 cutters. both "Neptune" and the horseshoe were done with the airbrush. the planet was freehand before i surrounded it with black, and the Colts logo was a stencil, made from a plastic lid. they were received today--the Indy-fam gave them a thumbs-up. i had a moment's worry about using the football helmet and little rocket for the first time, but those little moments are getting smaller and smaller...
coming soon, a lonely owl, a dead but festive trio, a really cool witch, and it looks like some wine glasses too! stay tuned....

play... ball.

hubby's sister Heather's birthday was in February. i really did make cookies for her. she's a big Cubs fan, so i made hats and bats. i finished them at night, and left them on a cookie sheet on the counter, with a sheet of wax paper over, so the icing would dry and i could pack them in the morning. and at the crack of that dawn, my kiddo got up, climbed out of the crib, went downstairs, and helped himself to the hats. wait, it gets better.
later Heather gave one of the bats to her son, and i asked if i could grab a picture of the remaining bats and when my back was turned and the bag was open, that little monkey of a kid of mine grabbed another cookie. we didn't have a good afternoon.
eventually i found myself with the time and cookie dough, so Heather got a cookie do-over.
this is the first time i ever had a reason to do the baseball hat shape, and i think i'll try it a different way next time. (and i'll leave you hanging there for dramatic effect.)






the baseballs are only about the size of a dime. the stitching was done with red food coloring and a tiny paintbrush. the wood grain, however, was made by not fully mixing the brown into the icing. then you just pipe with the grain.

many thanks to Heather for not letting my kid go against her grain. happy birthday!

coming soon, cheery cherries, a study of the sky, and we'll see if a diamonds hold up to Atlanta heat.