Teaching is a Hoot!

I saw a tutorial by Marlyn at Montreal Confections that I couldn't wait to try -- my opportunity came when a friend from church asked me to make a tray of cookies to deliver to one of our local schools for a teacher appreciation event. I tried Marlyn's method of making transfers for the owl eyes and loved how easy it was - AND the cute effect it had on the cookie:

 

 

 

The orange pumpkins really stood out against the purple owls and made a very eye-catching tray. I needed a 'banner' cookie, so I used my Wilton comfort grip oak leaf cutter to cut a couple of cookies to write "Teaching is a Hoot!"

 

This is one of the best cookie sets I've ever done, and it was a lot of fun to design and implement.

 

The Cookie Lady

 



Busy week!

I had two cookie orders this week, and both for little boys' birthday parties. The first request was for dinosaurs for a 5-year-old:

Fortunately, his mom provided a photo to me of the party plate and napkin so I could try to match colors - and his favorite color is ORANGE!

The second order was a Cookie Monster theme to fit in with the overall theme of Cookies. I had bought the cookie cutters for Cookie Monster and Elmo a few weeks ago, just to have on hand for 'someday':

These turned out so well, I couldn't believe it! My only boo-boo was when I messed up the street sign - I only intended to put Easton's name across the bottom but I was looking at "Sesame Street" and began spacing out the letters from the middle. After I had written the E-space-S-T, I realized what I was doing and had to change my plans. Anyway, I hope Easton enjoys these on his special day tomorrow !!!

Next week: a baby shower order!

The Cookie Lady

An Apple for Teacher

I'm not sure why we associate apples with teachers...apples keep us healthy? when we are healthy, we learn? teachers help us learn? Anyway, apples represent one of those signs of Autumn and is a favorite symbol of the season. I was asked to prepare a couple dozen cookies for the daughter-in-law of a church friend to present to her son's preschool teachers. There were two trays, very similar:

I hope the teachers enjoyed these as a 'sweet' beginning to their new school year!

The Cookie Lady

Ahhhh, Autumn is here...

and with it comes SEC football - in particular, Tennessee Vols football! To celebrate, and because it was my turn to bring breakfast treats to Sunday School, I made a tray of football cookies in vanilla and chocolate to accompany fruit and white powder doughnuts:

Included with the traditional orange and white was the new color of smoky gray [the Vols have new uniforms this year]. I'm very fond of the gray! The stadium is from a design courtesy of Ali at Ali Bee's Bakeshop. Not as cool as hers, but it will do.

So, in case I don't get around to it again....GO VOLS!!!!

The Cookie Lady

Bright & Funky Teenage Birthday Cookies!

Just finished a really fun set of spunky cookies for a new teenager! Those Americolor electric gels really create some bright colors:

This tray contained a mix of designs: birthday cake with candle and zebra "H". I just happened to have several types of very colorful sprinkles to add a little extra 'oomph' .

When Hailey saw these, she was all smiles! I hope she has a wonderful birthday celebration!

The Cookie Lady

Superheroes, Part II

This week's superhero is the Caped Crusader: Batman! I did not include his sidekick, Robin. These cookies are headed to a 5-year-old's birthday party and I hope he enjoys them:

The Bat signal features transfers that I made separately and 'glued' to the cookie base with icing. Batman's head was cut from a tulip cutter and then trimmed, as I had nothing else close to that shape. I already have another order for Batman cookies - stay tuned...same bat time, same bat channel!

The Cookie Lady

Superheroes Series

Well, it will be a short series...I've been asked to make cookies for back-to-back birthday parties for the grandsons of a friend at church. This week's superhero was the man of steel:

I am indebted to Callye at The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle for her tutorial on the Superman shield! Her ideas made this design work up quick and easy. Some colorful stars with Superman sprinkles and some number "3" cookies for the birthday boy rounded out the two trays of treats.

Next week, I'll post the next superhero....hope those cookies turn out as well as this set did!

The Cookie Lady

Colorful Thanks

My daughter's mother-in-law was so kind to ship two tubes of Mary Kay lipstick in my very favorite color a couple of weeks ago. I was so happy that she found the color still in stock - companies tend to drop shades and add new ones without warning, and I had delayed ordering a new tube for so long that I just wasn't sure it could be found.

In return, I baked a tasty 'thank you' for her, using some new colors that I really, really like [but probably won't be able to create again since I was just playing around with the gel colors]:

In real life, the colors are a dark teal, burnt orange, and ivory. Kind of an early hint of fall....which I'm so ready for!

Shipping out on Monday and hope they arrive unbroken!

The Cookie Lady

Cowabunga!

I'm amazed that I remember that Ninja Turtle byword after all these years, but maybe it's because my son said it a LOT! He was all things Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when the critters first came out in the early 90s. Fast forward 20 years...they're BACK!

These are for a birthday party for a 5-year-old grandson of a church friend. They look better than I thought they would since I had so much trouble with craters in the icing. Not sure why that happened, whether it was the lack of humidity today or the type of powdered sugar I used...or something else. But I hope all the little guys enjoy them, anyway!

The Cookie Lady

Sweet baby....

Not only have my husband and I had the joy of another grandbaby added to our family, but lots of our friends have had grandbabies this year, too. The oldest daughter of our dear friends, Rebecca & Larry, and her husband gave them gift of grandparenting this spring upon the birth of their little girl, Eva. Celebrations deserve cookies, so these are shipping out today to Heather & Doug:

Just a little something for the parents to enjoy...

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In other news, our son and daughter-in-law are back from their travels nearly around the world. They brought back a set of the cutest little cookie cutters from Norway for me:

 

I now own a tiny space shuttle!



 

Thanks, Matt & Karen!

 

The Cookie Lady

Beach Party

A co-worker hinted for cookies after I produced a few flip-flops for her trip to Florida, and I finally had extra time to make a couple of trays for her. I think most of them were eaten by folks in the office, though! This is just a sample of the nearly four dozen that I made:

The past month has been a busy one, cookie-wise, with trays made for a bridal shower, birthday party, a 'get well' gift for a friend and surprise set of flip-flops made for former co-workers, a new baby set for neighbors welcoming their first grandchild, plus those made for my own grandson. There are more cookies in the works around here! And maybe I'll think to have Hubby take photos...

The Cookie Lady

Vroom, Zoom!

I'm getting ready to go see my Little Man [grandson] this weekend, so of course I made cookies [and he will be expecting some]. These aren't quite finished, but almost! I'm also practicing for a similar set that has been ordered for a birthday party next weekend:

Hope my baby is pleased!

The Cookie Lady [a/k/a MiMom]

Golfing

A new friend at church asked me to do a tray of cookies for her dad's birthday and apparently he is an avid golfer. The family planned to celebrate by gathering this afternoon to watch The Masters. Now, I know very little about golf and even less about the traditions of The Masters [except I know it's held in Augusta and the winner gets a green jacket - but it's not as green as what I put on these cookies!]:

I may not have 'eagled' or 'birdied' with this set, but I hope I made par! :) Thanks, Laura, for the order!

The Cookie Lady

Spring Weddings

My first order this year for bridal shower cookies!

The leaves are meant to be fern fronds; the purple flowers are hydrangeas [or could be lilacs] with royal blue sparkle sugar rounds, in a mix of vanilla and chocolate flavors. Actually, the colors are brighter but the photo was taken with my husband's phone in the dining room under dim lighting.

They are shipping out tomorrow evening and I so hope they arrive unbroken.

Thank you, Kimberly, for the order!

The Cookie Lady

Swim Team Set

A friend from Union City asked me to create a set of swim team cookies for her daughter's birthday party this week. I hadn't done a swim set before, only beach-themed cookies, so this took a little thought. She provided ideas and a color theme, and I did a little looking around the Internet for inspiration...and didn't find much. So I took cutters I already had and came up with these:

[photo credit: Russell Cook]

Swimsuits, swim caps, goggles, kickboards floating in the water, and the pool with racing ropes complete the set in the birthday girl's favorite colors of hot pink, lime green and black with sparkling sugar bubbles. I hope these add a little 'sparkle' to her birthday celebration.

Thank you, Cindy, for the order!

The Cookie Lady

The Lorax

My grandson, Mr. Little Man, will be three in a couple of weeks and Grandaddy and I plan to visit over President's Day weekend. I knew I wanted to take cookies with me and tried to think of something that would make him smile that matched some of his current interests. When his mama mentioned that he liked "The Lorax" movie, I was reminded of the Lorax cookies that Callye at Sweet Sugarbelle made when the movie first came out. I used the fish cookie cutter, as she did, but mine didn't turn out as 'fuzzy' looking as hers because I thinned the icing too much:

[photo credit: Russell Cook]

These are now residing in the deep freeze wrapped in foil and sealed tight in Tupperware until we leave for West Tennessee. Colors of sky blue, golden yellow, orange and white make this a cheerful set. I wish my character cookie had turned out better, but the birthday boy will know what it represents and, after all, it's just a cookie......

The Cookie Lady

January 1, 2013...And we're off!

2013...the beginning of a new year, new adventure, new start...whatever you hope this year brings, I wish it for you!

I missed getting gifts ready for my husband's co-workers. Actually, since he was new and this was his first Christmas at this job, he didn't know what to expect about gift-giving. So I'm making a new tradition: New Year's Day cookies!

[photos by Russell Cook]

Clocks, confetti, party dangles...snowmen and snowflakes with fireworks...and my favorite combination of white, pink, baby pink, gray and charcoal gray with sugar sparkles and sanding sugar and sugar confetti. Inspiration from Georgeanne here and from Callye here for designs. Both chocolate and vanilla bean sugar cookies. Three trays equalling roughly five dozen cookies. This was a fun set to design and implement and I felt much more relaxed working with them...not with the pressure I always feel right before Christmas.

I hope the library staff is hungry!

Happy New Year!


The Cookie Lady