just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

my pictures are backing up again, so real quick: for Derek's 1st birthday's camping-themed party, we narrowed it down from about 20 possible great-outdoors-appropriate shape to one, fish!  i wanted to keep it to one design because i had 3 other things do that weekend, and it's way easier to do one broad-range kind of design.  apples for teachers, stars for the 4th.... large mouth bass at the camping trip!  happy birthday Derek, and happy weekend to all...

speaking of frogs...

Brenda wondered if i could help her out with her some thank-you cookies for her daughters' teachers. 'something for summer' with frogs and fishing specified. after falling in love with how i make frogs (see the previous post below) i was happy to do another round of froggies. plus the fish, some leaves with a little beetle, orange monarchs, daisies, and my other favorite, strawberries. Brenda reports that all feedback was positive.
"my work here is done," i said as i shook hands with the townspeople and rode into the sunset... but there i was being narrative again. no, Brenda's cookies didn't end there. these cookies were characters and scenery meant to evoke feelings of summer at the lake. while in parts, they're adorable cookies. when en scene, they're quite a little picture, worth a thousand words. so i baked a handful of extras and made another scene, like "planet cookie" ...maybe "cookie lake"?

i enjoy making these. if i did it for a living, i'd make one every 3 days. i probably could with the ideas that keep popping up in my head. the current one in progress will be for christmas. the next one... suggestions? perhaps something literary. i'll daydream on it.

eldra's "year of cookies" august '09

challenging myself to do new and different shapes for eldra this month was easy when you remember that nothing happens in august. no holidays, no particular weather accept hot. so i decided to use that lazy-days-of-summer idea and give eldra a day at the lake.

neat new techniques included using the sunflower to make the sun, and painting the woodgrain on the boat with brown food coloring. i was totally intimidated by the fish, but it became my favorite of the trio.

tune in next month; it's back-to-school season, with a storybook theme.