pretty in pink

hubby's cousin Dana had a lovely outdoor wedding in California last month--tons of flowers, hanging votive jars and crystals, all in a palette of pinks.  prior to, i was tapped by m.o.b. Aunt Donna to create the bridal shower cookies.  i went with a lacy umbrella, embellished with fondant flowers with dragee centers.  D for Dana, and J for Josh were stenciled on adjoining hearts.  Dana emailed back with exclamation points that she loved them.

so closer to the wedding, i offered to make cookie favors for the big day.  Dana was totally on board and described her midsummer-night vintage vineyard look, and i played with sketches and ideas and the clues i had from the invitation.

here's part of it...

here's what 12 dozen looks like...

and here's the final product.  "silver" curls and pink blossoms, with scrolly lettering on classic 3-tiered wedding cakes, and a final brush of gold pearl dust.  so many steps, but once you get to the end of the counter, the other side is dry and ready for another detail.  it was cookie after cookie, with that nice zen-like busy feeling.  (it ain't work if you like doing it!)
Jeff's Aunt Dahlas helped with the shipping once i got them baked.  humid late August is the worst time for waiting for icing to dry, so i was nervous that even Dahlas's painstaking saran-wrapping and double boxing, or however she did it, couldn't keep them from squishing, but in the end they made it from IL to CA in perfect condition. (whew! thanks AD!) Dana bagged them and added ribbon and a personalized label, and had one at each place setting.  Congrats to Dana and Josh; many more sweet and sparkly memories for you!

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).  

thinking big

i also had some repeat orders.  Donna wanted purses just like these, and Lisa wanted hummingbirds just like these.  it's cool that people want encores.  not cool is when my cookies break en route.  long story short, the hummingbirds were ill-fated, and i'll be looking into other, better, shipping options.

and rather than dwell on that, let me redirect your attention to the tiny oven where all my magic starts.  my wee little oven is 20 inches wide.  for perspective, that plate with the flowers is a foot wide.  about as much drawer space in my dining room is devoted to all (700ish?) cutters and all the decorations.  it's true, you don't need a big fancy show-kitchen to make big fancy cookies.  just the skills to bake slow and pack tightly... and a long counter for decorating helps, and a patient family who knows not to bug me when i'm working. :)  i daydream about the future when i'll be working in some huge hip place with big orders to fill, and i'll remember my little junior oven, in my little Hobbit shire townhouse, digging through zip-lock bags of cookie cutters while the kiddo watches Tom and Jerry.  ah, the good old days.
and speaking of cartoons, i've mentioned that i base a lot of my artistic methods on cartoons.  i recently watched an old "documentary" about Bugs Bunny and was floored by one small part: the animators drew the pictures as rough drawings, but sent them to be copied onto celluloid frames by the "ink and paint" department. i always thought they drew them from beginning to end, but they don't.  the final images were painted... by a room full of women.  over and over, they'd outline and fill, let them dry, and send them down the hall to be photographed.  and because so much of the golden age of animation was also the great depression, most of those celluloid frames were washed off and reused.  i was like "i make ephemeral cartoon art too!!" after the moment of awesome from eating the cookie, all you have is the picture you took of it.  well.  i feel honored to have illustrated your happy moment.  keep 'em coming, my lil' oven and i are ready.  have a great weekend! (waving)

"shiver me cookies!"

it's talk like a pirate day and i actually have pirate cookies to show you! Karina works with the Hubs and was attending 2 birthday parties, and one was pirate themed.  the parrot is actually an eagle with the beak nudged down a little before baking.  across the top is a crown with the 2 inner points pinched together.  that leaves a mini-bell shaped space right where his ear goes.  and when they all bake together, it makes a little boy with a bird on his shoulder.  the skull and crossbones were prepiped so i could draw the little boney details in edible marker.  awesome.  i mean, "yar, they be awesome."     (high 5!)

the other party was Mickey Mouse themed, and since i don't prefer to do licensed characters, and don't have a Mickey cookie cutter anyway, i offered Mousketeer hats made easily with a large circle cut in half, then 2 smaller circles perched on top.  tada! 

i've always liked doing something besides the character him/herself.  like, if ever i do a Snow White party, i'll bring red apples.  Harry Potter would get white owls.  the cake is usually the showpiece, i bring the little birds and flowers for the background.  it's like... accessorizing!
much thanks to Karina! and happy birthdays to my new little cookie fans.  more on the way, and i just finished more baptism crosses and new-baby birdies. making neat stuff for kids is seriously activating my polar elf genes.  are my freckles sparkling?

a baby blue baptism

hubby's mom's cousin's daughter Michelle had a little sweety boy named Evan.  cute as a button and so little compared to my now-horse-sized 4 year old; they had an adorable round of making 'aaahhhh' faces at each other.  Michelle asked if i could do baptism cookies, any style.  the cousin in that opening sentence is a retired pastor, so i did my homework and consulted a Gospel or two and liked the image when, after Jesus is baptized, the clouds part, which i painted with 2 shades of blue icing and white food coloring, with the "spirit descending like a dove" in edible marker.
the E on the crosses is my new favorite trick. usually one uses a stiffer stencil for cookies or cakes, but i used a floppy wall-painting stencil.  turns out if you nudge a dab of icing over it with a modeling tool and lift, you get a spiffy monogram.  nice for light-on-dark letters, which isn't really doable with the airbrush.  still need more experimenting with the white food coloring, but check back in winter, i have some snowy ideas.
welcome little Evan, and congrats to your family!  stay tuned all, more is on the way.  had them all listed, but this laptop ate my original blog entry draft. boo.  well, now we'll both be surprised. :)

birthday girls!

the same week i worked on Brenda’s ice cream, i also did a big platter for Shannon, another friend from back-in-the-day.  Shannon was a fellow She-Ra fan, the take-no-crap middle kid between 2 sisters, and the daughter of a mom who called BS and won against a grinch of a vice principal’s no-snow rule that earned 2nd graders Shannon and me an hour of solitary. in jr high i remember her more in the hairsprayed crowd (those bangs!! remember??) and i drifted to the weird girls who went on to shave parts of their heads. i didn’t, but i did have every hair color. 

anyway, before we all went to different high schools and moved away, Shannon lived next door to Paul, who i remember as an energetic, affectionate boy who wrote me love letters when i was 7. i spurned him, only because that’s what girls did on tv.  he gave me a polished rock.  i think i still have it, but it seems smaller every time i find it.  {hey Paul!}  Shannon’s mom and Paul’s mom Jennifer go way back, and Shannon thought Simeren’s hula girls were too cute, and she was delightfully specific about what she wanted for Jennifer's surprise 60th birthday party: little ladies, with shoulder length black hair, wearing her signature shirt, and bell bottoms, and why not bare feet for a flower child look, and daisies like on the invitations, and hearts somewhere for her odds-beating longevity after a long ago heart operation, and her age. [i actually encourage bridezillism, the condition of wanting something as though one’s emotional stability depends on its presense and perfection. no one really goes that nuts, or even close, but it really wrings the details out of someone’s requirements.]

i used the gingerbread girl shape like with the hula girls, but tried to angle the little ladies to look as though they were walking, then turned to their right to strike a little arm pose mid-stride. And those gerber daisy petals were kind of a pain, but they turned out nice and …petally.  and then i dropped them off—after all these years, Shannon and i live about 8 minutes apart. J  thanks lady, and i’ll see you around town!

brain freeze!

back in spring (i finally got the pictures off the memory card!), Brenda once again ordered thank-you cookies for her kids’ teachers.  “something summery” has been her yearly request, and this year i did ice cream in wafer and waffle cones, double-stick popsicles, and my new favorite, mini sno-cones. bright sugar was the “sno,” edible markers made nice stripes on the paper cups. thanks again Brenda!

and now updates: if you’ve received my card, resume, or someone’s advice to hire me, i am volunteering to work gosh-forsaken hours in a hairnet for you. and i can make more than cookies, it’s just that pretty and/or pictures is so much fun.  full time is swell, part time is doable too.  {radiant honor-student go-getter smile}

second, in the closing of Trinity Lutheran School and the parting of it’s lingering craft supplies, teacher and hubby Jeff’s Aunt Dahlas has bestowed to me enough cookie cutters to keep me busy for about 11 years.  i don’t just have a cornucopia of cookie cutters, i have a cornucopia-shaped cookie cutter.  i have officially lost count of my collection. the zip lock bags i store them in don’t close, nor do the drawers holding the bags.  thank you, oh thank you, Aunt Dahlas.  :)

third, there will be many pictures.  i’ve had a busy summer and despite a lack of job, computer and 2nd car, i’m not yet beat… sometimes flopping petulantly on the floor in frustration, but i’ve managed to get lots of baking done. i haven’t, though, been able to get the pictures off the camera till now, but you’re in for some nice cookie viewing—as many as 9 posts on the way, including pirates!  Now you know you gotta come back…