what you've been missing

There is so much I've done, and so little I've posted for you.  Here's a speed round, and a heap of apologies for keeping you waiting:

Prettiest first, these were from a bridal show last summer.  

 

Also from last summer, ice cream...

...and patriotic pinwheel stars.

 

a Minion birthday...

 

...and a Scooby-Doo birthday (H is for Hannah).

 

my sister-in-law, Kristi's birthday

 

this poor little guy I found on my phone from late 2013!

 

 

Battle of the Books at the library.  (b.o.b for apples, eh?)

 

for the kiddo's Halloween fun fair at school

 

more Halloween fun, with airbrushing and plastic bugs

 

and a Clifford the Big Red Dog themed "Paws to Read" event at the library.  Those bone sprinkles did double duty in graveyard pudding dirt cups for Halloween.

Not far behind, I've got last summer's Fringe Fest where yours truly was the only food artist.  And coming up, a Midsummer Nights Dream, a vintage clothing show, barista aprons, and everything I've been taking pictures of at work with the work phone--just gotta email the darn pics to my computer and I'll be good to go!  I hope you all have a splendid week, and may stay warm!  Now I gotta run to OfficeMax...

 

 

winter break

real quick, cause i gotta catch a train, (i blog on the run) here's what i brought to share at the kiddo's kindergarten Christmas party.  or holiday party.  whatever they call it, that's for another blog to sort out.  anyway, the rule is no homemade stuff, but i cleared it with the higher-ups, that if i made them at work, it's cool. 
the kids got airbrushed gift boxes with red or white bows, and for the teacher and helpers, and the other folks helping my little guy with his energy surplus and language skills, some pinwheel stars. 

merry everything to you, kiddos and educators!  and coming soon, all the other Christmas goodies i've been up to.  now off to that train...

super readers, super stars

The Gail Borden Library’s “Read on the Wild Side” challenge is to log 100,000 reading hours as a community.  (the program’s name is a hat-tip to the library’s “SuperCroc” exhibit—that thing is flippin’ huge!)  through the library’s Gold Star Program , youth programs and organizations, schools, parks and recreation and daycares etc, that serve kids can become “gold star partners” by agreeing to sign up children for the program and to measure and record the time kids spend reading.

In The Neighborhood (ITN Fresh is the little café in the library) catered the event recognizing these star readers, and i, INT’s new employee, made these star cookies.  (more info on the job later, the E. Dundee location isn’t open yet, but i’ll be there on my new adventure.)  i have many pounds of respect to heap on people that help kids read, so this project had to be pretty.  gold icing and gold pearl dust was the backdrop for subtle scattered airbrushed stars in a darker gold.  i’m looking forward to more library-centric projects for the cafe, and would love all your suggestions.  i’m already daydreaming about children’s book characters, harvest season fruits and foliage, sci-fi, Halloween…   

congrats and thanks to the Gold Star Partners, and stay tuned for my version of John Lennon’s baby art.  i’m seeing little giraffes in my future.

Thriller... Thriller night...

so happy belated halloween! now that i have a new laptop, and it's actually from this decade, i can now pop in the camera's memory card and upload to the picture folder instantly.  but then i still have to get my butt to Starbucks to get to the internet, so please continue to bear with me.
these lovely minis were for an 80's themed Halloween party--lace, stars and plaid, all via the airbrush. Jeff and i went as Peg Bundy and The Greatest American Hero.   i had many plans for other H'ween cookies, but either you can have cookies, or i can have a functioning household, but not always the 2 together.  don't worry, i did some house keeping and i'm ready for Christmas.  and i'm still ready to do this in someone else's kitchen, so if you know a bakery...  anyway, i had started to make ninja clowns, but the many steps took time and my icing went flat, so they sat there half finished and Jeff ate the good ones.  i said, "can't you tell the difference between an ugly unfinished cookie and a nice picture-worthy finished one?"  he can't.  and i'd scan the sketches i drew, but then we're back to the "computer issues" conversation.  so back to cookies.  coming soon: some baby birdies, pairs of pears, something for Nessa 'cause she rocks and helps Jeff do stuff with his stock options, and a ninja clown revival for Ryan for helping me figure out that IE was my Facebook problem.  that's right kids, i pay back favors with cookie awesomeness.  now who wants to hang some lattice or tune my car?  bbl, and have a great weekend :)

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)

how i spent my summer vacation

hubby’s coworker, also a Jeff, invited us to a July 4^th cookout, but unbeknownst to us he had an evening shift.  my Jeff and i and the kiddo spent the afternoon at Cantigny and, come party time, we called to find out they were wrapping up.  just my luck to miss a party. so on the 5^th, i sent these stars to work with Jeff (and reserved the chocolate chip cookies for my unbirthday celebration, ie, eating cookies while watching tv), and later Jeff (the other Jeff) said his family members cleared him out of his take of the star cookies that night.

fate stepped in to earn Jeff some extra cookies when i stopped at Starbucks for a little wi-fi time.  except hubby drove us with the lights on, and didn’t know i was getting out of the car too.  he got out first, and i reached for the keys and the laptop.  yeah, i left the lights on--when i had to go home, the car was dead. and everyone behind the counter was way busy because i was leaving at rush hour.  so Jeff called Jeff, who lives close, and our sorry little car got a jump because Jeff is a cool dude.  so i made him some cars.   he shared with his grandson who asked, “can i eat the tires too?” thanks Jeff!

Coming up, a shower, a 2-in-1 birthday, a wedding, a baptism, some birdies, and ninja clown assassins (ya know, for Halloween).  

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!)

summer school

next month i'll be taking the course to get my Illinois food service sanitation certification. i'll be legally permitted to participate in a baking job. a possible sticking point might be that my exposure to large mixers, ovens, scales, sacks of powder, and dough-rollers were all in ceramics studios, but it was 10 semesters of ceramics, from high school to post-college. upon my graduation from high school, i was planning to make alien foreheads for Star Trek-- i mentioned a few months ago, once i got to know fondant, i found it's really just another modeling clay. honestly, all i learned in sculpture and pottery taught me enough to make a passable wedding cake. except a crumb coat. still working on those.

but i'm not the only one getting smarter--Brenda's 5 daughters concluded another school year and their many teachers all got some cookies for a year well-taught. they are:

chicks--the only chick cookie cutter i had was the single bird, so i flipped him over, cut a space in the foreground, and added a buddy.








shoes and purses-- these are ok, but i'm still in the prototype-area for how i like to make sexy girly accessory cookies. but i'm a little weak on sexy-girly lately. i only started carrying a purse again, and my husband still calls it a diaper bag. and my favorite shoes are some ancient Birkenstocks. ...no one ever orders old sandal cookies. mine would be awesome...

"something with the Wizard of Oz" the house was a bit dark, and needed some white windy swirls to show that it was moving 'over the rainbow' not parked there, or falling on the Emerald City below. i'd happily do this scene again, but i'd make some adjustments. a good first run.



lambs and shepherd's hooks--the chicks shoes and rainbows were for 3 individuals. the rest were for groups, and these were for the Sunday school teachers. same sugared-icing-dot technique as the Easter sheep and clouds, and i even found a great photo of a lamb and copied it's eye shape.

these were for music teachers. now that i have food-writing pens, i can do sheet music.











and when i got to the last of my icing, i made some strange shades of purples and browns and greens and iced some moons and stars with earth tones, then dusted them with different colors of pearl dust.

this was a challenging order. believe it or not, it's actually kind of easier to do 200 of one kind, than 30, 6 different ways. with the former, it's assembly line. repetition. you get in a zen kind of groove. with many kinds, you have to plan what gets iced what color and when. you have to spread your work out even farther so you don't get green sugar on the pink cookies. you count a lot. but i know that in this dream job of mine, there will be scary orders. i'll have some mother-in-law micromanaging a baby shower, i'll have a bridezilla or two. but that's why i do these friends-and-family orders. i like the challenge. i keep at it so it starts becoming automatic--like how i'm getting to where i can measure out the amount of icing i need just by eyeballing it. i'm looking at these home projects like a kind of self-imposed one-person internship. and like how Columbia taught fiction writing by making you write a little more "out there" than most American audiences would require (making "just right" a piece of cake), i look at all the weird wonderful kinds of complicated effects i can find or invent, even if it's totally unlikely that i'll make any money off of a cookie that takes 23 steps to decorate. (but i'll know how!)

thanks Brenda, for your educational order! coming soon, Taylor's final 'tween' birthday, Grace and Andrew's summer co-birthday, and what to bake for Dad's birthday--a stumper...

90 years young!

Sharon, who ordered the tiny elephants last fall, wanted to commemorate her dad Henry's 90th birthday; her last honoree was just 1--my cookies are for kids of all ages.

i asked what visuals she was thinking, maybe fireworks or shooting stars, she said. i got to thinking about 1921, and the early 20's remind me of things like seersucker suits, and patriotic bunting, and real silver coins. i wanted something equally blue/metal/banner-waving, with Sharon's ideas of stars and federal-holiday-sparkle....

and i made these. one medium star and 2 mini stars were baked with a 9 and a 0 (one of my favorite tricks--the dough spreads as it bakes and glues itself to it's neighboring parts.) pearl dust was brushed on just-dried icing. i dropped them off at the hospital where Sharon is a nurse and when the ladies at the front desk overheard that i was there to drop off customized cookies, we had a little show-and-tell. one asked if i sell them, and i always have to do the 'yes, but... not licensed or anything... customers so far are just friends and family... just a crazy lady who bakes, etc.,' to which she replied, "who cares? these are beautiful!" so much of my feedback is encouraging with a tone of urgency. i'm looking into my job options; if my own store is out of reach, maybe i'll help another shop rise to stardom. (jazz hands!)

speaking of jobs, hats off to Sharon and her fellow nurses. :)

get it? hats off? (ahem.)

drop by again soon, birthdays are keeping me busy, Easter has me stumped....

my kid ate my homework (& thoughts on bake sales)

friend-of-the-fam' and previous client Brenda asked if i wouldn't mind donating my wares to Fox Ridge Elementary's fundraiser last month. i agreed, then pondered all over the place... the suggestion was to do baskets, maybe 2 of a dozen each. i only had to provide contents, but i thought of my reserve of cookie-appropriate containers and how to fill them in some delightful way. it came down to 2 blue mugs and a candy dish, to be tied in my usual cellophane poofy-topped way, containing a scholarly selection--apples, pencils, letters numbers, and rows of sticker-sized gold stars. the idea was to have 3 gift sets, with the candy dish having more of each shape. then my terrible-2y/o got into the candy dish, so i made the mugs and a few favor bags instead. (thanks kid)

luckily i made these, also in favor bags. the designs are piped dots, some dragged with a toothpick. the "metal" is black icing with pearl dust. i was pouting as i was getting to the end of decorating these--i wanted to make one in every combination of colors and patterns. maybe i'll get a wedding/baby shower gig soon? hope so, i can't look at this picture without getting more ideas.

i threw out a line on twitter and facebook, wondering if any area followers wanted to co-donate to a basket, but no bites. meh, we're all busy, it's ok. but with the funds that need raising all over, i'm looking forward to any movement in bake sale culture. they could be like little conventions of local artists (cakes cookies) gardeners (preserves pies) and kitchen warriors (aforementioned and then some) networking their secret recipes into American hearts and pallets while offsetting what's gotten to be a sad [i paused a while here] everything.

secret shoppers from huge food magazines could discover the next home-baked celebrity or publications/blogs could spring up to cover the bake sale bandwagon that everyone is hopping on so they'll be featured in said publications/blogs. all proceeds to charity. are we doing this already? links please, i'm on board. and magazines, i'm for hire...

Brenda says the cookies were a hit, and i'm glad to help. (high 5 Fox Ridge!) coming soon, cherries and blossoms, Heather's baseball birthday do-over, and Henry partys like it's 1921.

i have a daydream...

Sharon, who ordered the tiny elephants for her granddaughter's birthday, let me know about her friend Tara's blog, Go West Young Mom (click here ) a blog about kid-/mom-/family-goings-on in these Chicago burbs. just when you feel like you live in the boonies and there's nothing to do, there's someone to point out all the fun events you're missing! it's a lot, by the way, Tara does her research. i gave her a shout-out on twitter, and it turned into emails about cookies for her (then) upcoming Go West Girls' Night Out at Urban Style Salon and Spa in Batavia. the specifications were something holiday-appropriate, yet also like the blog's logo. so i made pink and brown (the blog's colors) pinwheel stars in varying shades and textures.

part one of the day was spent finding the place to drop them off. a small brain shortage on my part led me to type "Geneva" in my GPS. i went west all right. and while i was going south, facing the 2pm-ish sunshine through a salt covered windshield, i ran out of washer fluid. don't worry, i got there. then my plan was to go home, get dinner going, and when hubby showed up to watch the kid, i could go to the event and mingle around.

well, part 2 was hubby coming home with a bloody nose because it was so dry out. then he slipped in the bathroom and hurt his knee. i got him put together, the good sport, and i went back to Geneva. i mean Batavia.

i was pooped, but everyone had a nice time. Tara arranged door prizes (someone won a dozen custom cookies, but i haven't confirmed who yet) tasty catering, and various mini-spa services. i chatted up with a few folks, but i had to scoot out early and hit Osco for a knee brace and Kleenex. high 5 to Tara! i'll be at the next one, and i'll stay longer. :)

since then i've been thinking about parties and cookies. i originally started this blog to show my work, and to get an idea about what the baking-audience expects from the baking-artists. in more than a year, i've determined that so far, they want cupcakes and recipes. but what i'm really gung-ho for is the art. and if i were to do this on bigger and fancier scales, what direction should i take it? my own shop? a picture book? how do i make cookies every day, gain exposure, and increase enthusiasm when (perhaps) the world isn't ready yet?

then i came upon 2 websites. one has guest bloggers sign up to make cookies or cupcakes, blog about them and a personal account of how breast cancer has effected them, and donate the cookies to a group fighting breast cancer (a clinic staff, for instance). another organizes groups to gather for cookie decorating parties (!), and the cookies are donated to various charities. now, i can make cookies all week. i'd love to be employed this way, but i do it as a hobby too. i'll even do it for free if i'm invited to your birthday party, so i'm not out to conquer the world with cookies. i just really want them to be popular enough, at some point, that my skills will be needed in the baking-arts world. in the meantime, how do i get all you people involved?

it's MLK day, a day suggested to be one of service, and i know i've spent too great a time on my rear end. and now i'm discovering opportunities to apply my talents to humanitarianism, and i have this funny habit of noticing where the universe is leading me... here's my very important question, so please reply: if i held a cookie decorating party for charity, would you go?

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!