Color Pop

The focus of today is the book shelves flanking my TV set. In my old house they were covered with books and games, the one on the right was white, and the one on the left was a light wood veneer. The new house, however has bookshelves built in all over the place and these guys were left without a home. So I painted them a dark brown to sort of match our TV stand and now I need to accessorize them somehow. They need some color. 

Yesterday my mom and I went to Deseret Industries and found 7 clear flower vases for under $5.00!! We bought some glass paint and I went to town:

I think they will be adorable in the dark brown bookshelves! 

Now What??

Well, Christmas is over. I was given several items to help me update my house a bit, so its almost time to start major projects! I will post more about that later though. FIRST I need you to help me decide what to do with the picture frames below. I just put things in them for Christmas, and now I need some cute/creative ideas for the rest of the year. Whomever gives me the idea that I end up using wins a dozen cookies with one of my new chocolate molds on top!

  

This was just a practice run. the cookies you win will have beautiful clean molds on top :-) These are the frames I need ideas for:

Can you help me please??? Especially the big frame. I'm tired of pictures of me and Scott all over our house.

Christmas time is here!

Well now that I've totally missed the opportunity to post my real Halloween cookies. And my darling Thanksgiving cookies... It's CHRISTMAS! It is always surprising how quickly Christmas sneaks up. This year it snuk up on me in the form of cookie orders! One day my schedule was wiiiiiide open. The next? 21 dozen cookies looming over me. To be fair- only 16 dozen were orders, the other 5 were for my own goodie plates. And this past week I only made 13 dozen. So here are pictures! because that is what is really important.

 

13 dozen (or 156 individual) cookies.

  

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Some of the finished cookies

And a snowflake. One of the few I've seen in my lifetime.

commitment issues

I think I may have commitment issues. Please don't tell Scott. I have a hard time updating this blog very often, much like the problem I have with exercising.... dog training... house keeping... I go through spurts where I'm doing a great job and then there are extreme lulls. (you can really tell Scott if you want, he already knows)

Anyway I made some Hello Kitty cookies and some Mustache cookies. they turned out pretty cute. My brother, Jason, came over the day I was working on them and took 10,000 pictures. Please note that all of these pictures were taken with his iPhone, not with a fancy camera.

It was like a party. So you will get a more exclusive look at the cookie decorating process. here it goes.

All my cookies start with a plan. Making these beautiful sketches helps me to know what colors I need and to see how I am going to layer my frosting.

Then I mix the colors (just making frosting takes me anywhere from 20-40 minutes)

The next step is outlining the shape and then filling it with the flood icing. I have to push the flood over the outline with a toothpick to get that smooth final finish.

Add any pattern I want in the background while the flood icing is still wet, that way it will all be one flat surface.

Put the basic shape on.

This is a rare opportunity to see me working on cookies. as you can see I work really hard to look my best while i work ;-)

Start adding details

AND COOKIES! Hello Kitty with a Mustache.

Don't forget to have fun with cookies!

I also made some pretty adorable cookies for my cousins baby shower this week. Unfortunately, Jason didn't come over to take pictures, so I only took one. Here it is!

They were a hit!

I didnt forget!

I haven't had any cookie orders recently, so I've had a few weeks off from the cookie life. Actually saying that I've had a few weeks off makes it sound like I am happy about it, but in all reality I have missed it. I love making cookies because it gives me an outlet. It's something creative that I am good at and enjoy, but I don't have to keep it forever. I've never been great at scrap-booking, nor am i much of an artist. I mean, I can draw just like i can frost a Cookie- but let's be real; while these pictures look pretty nice on a cookie its not something i would ACTUALLY want to hang on my wall for all of life.

Man I am having a really hard time with my typing right now. I keep expecting the spell checker to fix my typo's like my iPhone does. and then I have to backspace a million times so I can fix it myself. I guess I'm officially spoiled.

anyway, back to my cookies an how much I have missed them. I missed them so much that I agreed to make some sugar cookies for my husband and his friends tonight while they play Domino's. I had a technique I wanted to try and I think it turned out pretty awesome. Check it out!

I have also been trying to figure out how to make a basket weave with frosting. Everyones always looked so nice and mine always turned out so ugly and spiky! but I finally got around to "Googling" and I found out how. This is my first attempt (the correct way). It's a little sloppy but still SO much better than before.

Also- I ran out of white frosting for the background and I didn't feel like making more (Since this was just for fun) so i just used the teal to finish them and I sort of love them. 

In unrelated news- look at this picture of Harvey that my brother took!!!!!!

Palatable Pigs, Peace Signs, and Patterns

Our activity for the youth this evening is called "pig out on personal progress." Personal progress is a program where the girls make goals based on values and carry out those goals. So this activity is to help them become familiar with the book. Tonight we are all wearing PINK and bringing PINK treats! 

Of course, I made cookies :-)

Of course the round ones had to be PINK PUMPKIN PIGS AND PEACE SIGNS. Mainly because Scott wanted more pumpkin cookies. 

Halloween is closer than you think!

With Halloween only like 4 weeks away i decided it was about time to start warming up! Not only did I practice decorating with a spooky style, but I also practiced making some delicious pumpkin sugar cookies.

Okay I said they were delicious- I'll admit, I didn't eat them. I have a serious issue with pumpkin (it's icky). BUT some of my husbands friends from church ate them and just loved them and I took the last few to work and my coworkers loved them as well. They got nothing but rave reviews. Trust me, my husband was mad when I took the rest to work so I had to make him a fresh batch! You want these cookies!

Same price, new great flavor.

Regular Halloween cookies (pumpkins, bats, etc.) are $15/dozen

Specialty cookies (nightmare before Christmas or other super thematic designs) are $20/dozen.

However, if you place your order for October within the next week, I will make specialty cookies for $15 as well.

Happy Fall! I hope the weather cools down soooooooon

Nightmare Before Christmas

A friend of mine ordered 2 dozen nightmare before Christmas cookies for her daughters birthday party. Well I was MORE than excited to take on the challenge. What do you think?

 

 

What is your favorite part of this movie (besides the fact that its amazing)? I think my favorite instance in the film is when Sally uses a spoon with holes in it to trick her creator. And of course, my favorite full scene is when Jack discovers Christmas Town. 

Busy

Today was amazing! My husband and I took the day off for no reason. And while he caught up on some homework, I bathed the dogs, cleaned the bathroom, washed the floors, made some pumpkin spice cookies, and started my spaghetti for dinner (crockpot). Then we went to lunch at sweet cakes and it was amazing as always.

This afternoon I taught my first piano lesson in the new house. This was my students very first piano lesson and he is picking it up very quickly! I'm worried he will have the whole first book passed off by next week and I will owe him 500 candy bars!!

At any rate I loved today. I love baking and teaching piano. I love my home. There is no where I'd rather be and no one I'd rather be with than my husband.

Now I need to go to bed because the reality of 4am comes around far too quickly.

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?

SPONGE-BOB SQUARE PANTS!

As i mentioned before, i have started making cookies and I was recently commissioned to make some Spongebob cookies. I think they turned out pretty cute! what do you think? 

This is everything except Spongebob

Meow!

Patrick

Sandy

Squidward (wish I could have made a clarinet in his hand)

AND Spongebob! I couldn't move him because his hands and feet were still wet.

And I made some Bee cookies for one of the girls at church who is moving. I'm sad she will be moving, but i think her cookies turned out pretty cute.