a bunch of squares

perhaps i've mentioned i'm now employed, and that it involves complex coffee making skills.  i haven't? well now you know.  and like anywhere i go, i end up talking about cookies, so Natalie, whose last day was imminent, said, "figures, i put in my notice and we hire a baker." so i asked when her last day was, and she asked, "oh, are you gonna make me going away cookies?" and i said, "i'll make you cookies that just say 'go away.'" (ha ha ha ha...) but i made extra dough for an upcoming batch, and had extra icing from the previous order, so i whipped up some little toothpick-dragged designs on some almost-mini squares with white, lite blue, and dark blue, finished with blue edible marker.

normally i take the picture before i wrap them, but i wrapped them before work and the sun wasn't up yet.  getting up that early for coffee kinda takes care of itself i guess.  and with Natalie off to Michigan, i now open Thursdays, so you should stop by so i can totally impress you with my latte foam.  best wishes to Natalie, and a big howdy to my new teammates! (waving)
awesome butterflies are on the way... 

Joe's 90th birthday

i had a temporary post of my sketches for these cookies, and the explanation of my doodles, but lets look at the cookies instead.

tada!  i mentioned that Benita was throwing a party for her father Joe's 90th birthday, and that the colors for the party were tan brown and gold, and that last senior i saw in brown was the endearing Mr. Frederickson in the movie "Up," which made me think of fabrics in masculine patterns--a favorite chair, or shirt...  in the end, when i had them all laid out in rows, these cookies reminded me of the table of ties at a department store, with their little patterns, and satiny finishes.  each was airbrushed with a different stencil, 2 of which were hand cut from plastic lids, the 3rd was a section of needlepoint grid. then detail lines were added with edible marker, then a border of gold, and a coat of gold pearl dust.
the whole time i was doing these patterns i was imagining them in different color combinations.  how awesome would some blue look for a baby shower.  right?  or some Christmas sweater cookies...  or red and pink argyle hearts for Valentine's day.... (losing focus)
baby owls and tiny gymnasts are next, stay tuned, and happy birthday Joe!

zoobie zoobie zoooo.....

this is the last batch that i brought to the office, my farewell platter, on my last day.  i said the look i was going for was kinda mid to late 60's, to which Mike brought up Madmen (one of my favoritest) but i had to say hmm, and not quite find the explanation beyond something about sundresses, before someone asked me something else, not that i would have been able to remember what i was going to say as the mention of Madmen got that "Zou Bisou Bisou" song in my head again--  aaggh!!  Mike wasn't too far off though, as, if you follow the show, they're up to late 1966.  i sometimes have to watch an episode 2 or 3 times because i'm so distracted by the look of it.  Don Draper buys the Madison Ave. decor, but in 3 Madmen-years, it'll be the year my parents got married, and all that stuff was on sale by then, or at least imitated cheaply, so every striped pillow or barrel lamp shade reminds me of the eventual equivalent that i grew up with, though it was 15 years old by then.

what i would have said to the Madmen suggestion, had i thought of it then, was that he had the right era, but the wrong show.  in hindsight, i see now that i was imitating a mid-60's Pepe le Pue (Pew?) cartoon, from the Chuck-Jones-as-director category of cartoons.  he did Tom and Jerry too, with the same floppy scribbles, giving you the suggestion of a flower, or a filigreed archway, or a scrollish table leg. it was loose and casual, and the same sloppy-pretty kinds of patterns can be found in all my grandmother's scarves and dresses from about 1966 to 1972.  the colors however, were inspired by what i'm seeing in season now.  all i saw all winter was brown and grey coats.  we need some summer-of-love colors now. amiright?

and this will be my 100th entry, and will likely bring my 10,000th page view. (grins and chair dancing) thanks again for stopping by and liking my silly little cookies. more to come!

best lamp ever

Jeff's coworker Rita also has a horse stable, and she and her husband have a boarding business. she suggested we bring the kiddo by some time, and when she held a garage sale, Jeff figured hey, what's keeping us. so we went, Rowan rode a pony named Caramel (i think?), and we saw all the big horses too; Ro kept saying yee-haw. [you bet he was a cowboy for Halloween.]
then back at the garage, and amongst the sale items, i spied her sister's lamp. a spherical iridescent thing of beauty straight out of Rainbow Brite's condo. i have a slight lamp-rescuing-complex. and i had no cash on me. crestfallen, i asked Rita if her sister would take cookies for it. she replied, "tell ya what, i'll buy it for you and you can make me the cookies." then she threw in a 3-piece cowboy cookie cutter set, with a horse, hat and boot. [i thought, "SCORE!"]
and after the afore-blogged white pumpkins and the to-be-blogged wine-glass-encore, i made Rita some cowgirl cookies. there was a also hat cookie, but it was cosmetically damaged, but that's ok because the rest of them were [rootin' tootin' ding-dang!] awesome. my other horse cookie cutter is more toy-like; this one turned out more like the animal. but i still gave it a gold mane and something eye-catching on the butt. [i couldn't help it, there had to be some nod to My Little Pony. i think i had my niece Grace in mind--horse lover, Nancy Sinatra sing-alonger--through this whole project.]
the boot's gold pattern was done by laying a stencil over the dried icing, lightly sketching where the spaces fell with an edible marker, then piping with gold. when just dry, i dusted with gold pearl dust.
and i had been dying to try a wet-on-wet technique and combine it with the black marker to make bandannas. white icing was piped right after the pastel so it flattened together. then when dry, i added the black details. it's more the imitation of a motif, than actual bandanna patterns, but i adore them.
the colors themselves are a result of just finishing with some experimental colors for the church bake sale (chartreuse acorns, and brick-red leaves with blue veins) and while they were drying, i added the previous colors to the new icing plus different ratios of red teal and yellow, resulting in these fabulous kitchen-of-tomorrow, 57-Chevy colors. i wanted to sing "stand by your man."
Rita pointed out the cookies' only flaw: "they all got eaten." i'll have to ponder about a Christmas platter for Jeff to take to work. but coming up, after wine, shoes, hands, acorns, leaves, and tattoos, i'll have fabric patters, bells, poinsettias, ornaments, maybe some frogs? stick around...