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. :)

a little off-course....

in my networks and follows and forums and likes i came across Lila Loa's contest to turn a gift shape into something that isn't a present.  you can view the entries and winners here.
and finally, belatedly, here is my little creation.  i turned mine upside-down, added a little half circle, made a lovely scene that would have delighted you all... then my computer blew up.  so i didn't get to enter the contest.

so there's that.

i have tons of pictures to show you, by the way.  i did birthdays, a baptism, a bridal shower.... maybe by fall you'll see them!  we have a loner laptop in the meantime, a fine machine that doesn't improve on Taco Bell's wifi's suckiness.  so sorry kids, you'll see these pics as time allows, but please believe me, my head isn't in the clouds. :)  and for the love of all things frosted, if you know of a place near Elgin that needs my mad skillz, EMAIL ME.  i'm going a little crazy being unemployed and cooped up.  meanwhile, have a spectacular summer, you crazy kids...

Wayne's planes

F-I-L Wayne has a birthday mid-April, but whether it's his day or not, if the weather is nice, Wayne can probably be found in the back yard, pushing a grandkid on the swing. while torpedoing through the air, the kids like to look up and squint and point out planes, and birds, and whatever zooms into view.
i have an airplane cookie cutter with a top/bottom perspective that really only lets me decorate the plane to look like the boring underside of the craft, skew it all funny for a side view, or use the outline to suggest an element of the design-- in this case, "looking up." so i made plane-shaped sections of sky with birds and branches and telephone poles and little airplanes, all in silhouette, like when you squint at a blue sky.
the silhouettes were painted on with black food coloring; the brush can only make so fine a line though--i'm considering switching to a food-writing pen. the clouds were layers of white and gray icing dots and white sugar. off in the corner there's a piped icing jet contrail, or as Andrew says, "look! a skywriter!"
happy birthday Grandpa Wayne!
coming soon, silver and sapphire, purses and shoes, music, baby chicks, lambs, moons and stars, maybe dinosaurs, definitely army men, contraband and pyrotechnics, 'my little phonies,' and a few cookies go over the rainbow. (whew!)