WAR IS OVER!

the title of this post refers to John Lennon’s assertion that all we’d have to do is declare peace on all the front pages and billboards of the world, and we would collectively experience a paradigm shift—that by believing it were possible, it wouldn’t be too far behind to simply make it so.  food for thought.
the next biggest paradigm shift i can think of is becoming a parent.  you think you know people, try making one!  it’s a daily reality check, and Jon and Cassie are joining the club.  Cassie’s cousin Lisa commissioned me to create baby shower cookies based on John Lennon’s baby animal drawings.  it was the much-loved motif at her own shower, and they wanted to revive that same charm.
while i couldn’t copy Lennon’s nuanced doodles, and though i was constrained by the shape of my cutters and the late summer humidity, they still turned out to be cute little animals, sketched on bright pastels with an edible marker.  many thanks to Lisa, and many more congrats to the parents-to-be! 

and i got a Star-Wars something coming up—yay!

i do... want cookies...

a bride to be liked some cookies similar to these, and i did my best to recreate their features on a dozen for a shower, and i hope the original artist won't hold it against me, but they were pretty, and my pleasure to make, and i came up with a great new technique for making uniform hearts:  sponge food coloring onto the back of a metal mini heart shaped cutter, and stamp the cookie.  i did the same with the square outline and got nice even lines and duplicated the shape each time. awesome.  Congrats and thank you!
coming up, info on the opening of the ITN "Meet Market," a baby shower, a birthday, and some yummy bugs...

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.

Wall(y) flowers

Wally is a regular where i work.  a senior citizen, often in board shorts and a t-shirt, sometimes a suit, and always an earring, he gets a small half coffee, half cold water, and chats it up with us in the middle of the day.  the other Katie, a fine arts grad, recently finished a painting for him, and Pat got him a souvenir shirt from Mexico.  like the hubby would say, he's good people.  one day he got us lunch (really good bbq sandwiches that i felt guilty finishing without taking part of it home to share) so to say thanks, i made him a few cookies with my new flower stencil.  i chose teal because when do you ever see a teal flower?  and some pearl shimmer and yellow pearl dragees for some extra pretty.  but i can't decide if i should call them asters or mums.  (shrug)  thanks Wally! 
coming up, i know i have a baby shower, details on the way.  and also some details on my second job as (brace yourself) a baker.  boo-ya and shazam.  stay tuned...

how do these grab you?

Mary Jo's niece has graduated from Iowa and threw a "Thriller" themed graduation party, and Mary Jo wondered if i could make 8 dozen of something to match.  while i probably could have done full body zombies, 96 dead hands reaching out of the dirt seemed subtler, and certainly quicker.  a little extra powdered sugar made the death-green a little lumpier, lending to a gnarly sinewy claw-like shape, and table sugar over the grey icing made the tombstones extra stoney-textured.  thanks to Mary Jo, and 96 high-5's to the grad!  coming soon, i think flowers.... (pondering....)

midsummer night [day]dream

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny

 but in ourselves." - William Shakespeare 

have a great weekend!

little ones

Michael’s baby boy, their first, is on the way, and the huge family baby shower needed 12 dozen cookies.  i said no problem [my record is 220] and was ready to delve into baby design when he provided me with a picture of just what he wanted, gray and baby-blue onsies with ties.  he was also in favor of their last name somewhere on the cookie, and i offered, and he accepted, the alternative of a little pocket with a monogram.  sweet. 
Chicagoland weather these last few days has been absolutely soaked, and my old house is pretty bad at being resistant to humidity.  i run the AC till i’m feeling freeze-dried, and it still takes my cookies a day and a half too long to dry.  but if i boost the powdered sugar for dryer icing, it’s not flat and smooth.  so i fretted a bit finally getting them to their destination, but they got there.  [apologies to Michael’s mom, i delivered the cookies with a smudge on my face, no doubt gotten from trying to fish out the cord for the Garmin from under the car seat.] 
Michael also insisted that i provide something with my website, but i still haven’t resolved my new laptop/old printer/no disc/no internet impasse to printing labels and such, so a big thanks to Jason at OfficeMax for helping me make simple little labels.  [i might have been showing my age when i asked him to just add a little flourish character from Wingdings, and i had to tell him it’s a font—i didn’t add that it’s one of the only-12 fonts i first had back in like, 1993.  ya know, right after the internet was invented...  am i that old? 
i finished off the cookie with a light dusting of pearl dust.  not a lot, just enough to soften the matte finish of the icing, give ‘em a little “glow.”  i hope all party-goers found them sweet and cute, a preview for when little-man Mr. S. arrives.  Congrats to Michael’s family! 
and stay tuned everyone, i got a new stencil...