THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A huge thank you to those of you who have passed my name or this site along to your friends and family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

(Cookies say "Merci, Arigato, Grazie, Danke, Thank You and Gracias".)

Graduation and Mother's Day orders are starting to roll in.............................and a possible wedding!

I am very lucky to work with and be friends with (and be related to) so many wonderful people who are excited about what I'm doing to the point that some would like me to stay home and do nothing else. Very tempting but not very practical at this point. (Take a deep breath - I'm not leaving my job).

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suprise 50th Celebration

Ideas

It's been a couple weeks since I posted. I have more pics to post, but some are for a suprise tomorrow so I can't blow it. I promise to post some later in the week. In the meantime, I've been thinking............

Ideas, ideas, ideas. I want to do so many things with the cookies. It is hard to concentrate at work as I think up possibilities...................

• Large decorated cookies - 7 or 8 inches
• Pan sized cookies - like sheet cookies or giant round decorated cookies
• Cookie kabobs - 2 or 3 mini cookies on a stick
• Cookie on a stick
• Provide plain/naked cookies for other people to decorate with their families
• Learn how to decorate parties
• Cookie of the month club - a dozen cookies all the same shape for each month in a corresponding season or holiday shape
• 12 Days of Christmas cookies. 12 shapes. 1st day of Xmas you'd get one cookie. The second day you'd get 2 cookies, etc.
• Possibly flavored sugar cookies – cinnamon/nutmeg; citrus; mint; gingerbread flavoring; maple; eggnog?
• Come-make-your-own dough/cookies (like Dish, but for baking)
• Recipe swaps
• Sell my "seconds" as samples. My boyfriend gets very mad when I throw them away....slightly mishapen ones or ones where the frosting got smooshed............ although there are less of these nowadays.

Too little time. Sooooo many possibilities!

Weekend baking marathon

Sorry for the underlining - the blog is doing it by itself.

I decided I'd better sit down and make some cookies to take pictures of for my website that has nothing on it. I've been taking pictures as I've completed orders (sometimes having to pull the cookies out of the boxes - no one said I'm always organized!).

So I have St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Spring, a variety of flowers, some sports stuff, birthday items and girly stuff - like purses and shoes.

This week I had orders for birthday items (cupcake with candle, party hat and balloons) and some diplomas:

Aren't they cute? I admit, I'm a little biased...........

I baked over a hundred cookies Saturday and decorated about half on Sunday. Wedding stuff, baby stuff, patriotic/election/4th of July, school stuff, graduation.........a small selection is shown, but remember, there are still naked cookies in my kitchen! I'll probably try to start posting to the website this weekend. Which will save me from trying to describe them....

If you live around here, you know that this was our first gorgeous weekend of 2008. Gorgeous, kick off your shoes and socks, sittin on the porch sunny weather - mid 60's and no windchill. : )

I had to keep telling myself, there will be others...................keep baking!

Imposter

The only way I've ever decorated cookies is by using some pretty remedial tools - butter knives and toothpicks and such growing up. When I worked part time at a bakery I learned to decorate using icing in a freezer bag with a corner cut by scissors. This is much more efficient than it sounds, and once you get used to using this bag method, it's very nice. I just didn't feel like I could incorporate much variety...........

And so I decided to take a couple of cake decorating classes. I blatantly admitted my reason for being there - to make my cookies cuter; I am not a cake person. (Have to set the right expectations up front, right?) Now, silly me, I thought it would be all about using the little tips to learn a variety of looks; and maybe have to bake a cake for the last class or something. I pictured little pieces of acetate covered with my practice strokes. The class does cover using tips, but for the second week, we had to bring an iced cake to class to decorate. An already iced cake. Homework. I am not afraid of my oven often. It doesn't often operate the way I'd like it to (see an entry below) but I generally don't like cake. The only cake I had ever frosted was a 9 x 13 carrot cake - you just smear cream cheese frosting on the top. I don't like to bake them, not really crazy about eating them. (This is why I do cookies). Sigh. So I baked a cake and put on that Crisco frosting that the class makes you use (on the sides, too, of this round cake). And I used the tips and my cake was cute!

So we baked a cake a week. I wanted desperately to revert to my crafty ways and just decorate styrofoam, but I caved. I even did a 2 layer cake. (This is where you oooooh and aaaahhhhhhh).

I'm now taking the next level to learn about fondant. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Tip of the week:

Whatever store you take your cake decorating class from, use their coupons for everything or you will go broke. Very fast. And make Wilton (I always picture the volleyball from Cast Away, even though it's name was Wilson) very rich. Also look into local stores that are not chains. We have a lovely Decorator's Grocery here with helpful people and their prices will not jump until May on these items (unlike the store I'm taking the class through - they have already hiked everything).