2012: A Look Back

I can't believe that 2012 is almost over. I can remember back when I was a young girl I thought a year took forever. I would dream of being grown up and the life I would have. Now that I'm in my 30's it seems like a year goes by in the blink of an eye and I want time to slow down. Now I dream of going back to the time I was a young girl and I didn't have a care in the world.

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at my favorite creations of 2012. If you click on the picture it will take you to the post for that creation.

2012 was a year filled with many highs and lows. There are so many things that I am grateful for. I'm hopeful that 2013 will bring brighter days.

Are you a resolution maker? I'd like to say I am but every time I've ever made resolutions I don't really keep them. I can tell you some things I'd like to improve upon in the new year. I'd like to be healthier, more organized, less of a procrastinator and spend more time with those that I love in this world. 

Wishing you all the best in 2013. Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas

For those of you that celebrate Christmas I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love and joy.

These are the last treats I made for Christmas this year.

These Holly Doodles were a hit at my husband's work. You can find the recipe here.

I'll see you next year!

Pink Cookie Cutter Challenge

If you know my friend Cristin of Cristin's Cookies then you know that she loves pink. It's only fitting that the cookie cutter she made for her challenge would be pink. She sent each participant a cutter and none of us knew what the cutter was or even if we were getting the same cutter. The rules were that we were to design a cookie based on whatever we saw in the cutter and we were not to discuss it with any of the other participants.

The first thing I saw was a baby chick with a bow but I didn't want to design it because I felt that others would see the same thing and I wanted to be different. When I flipped the cutter upside down I saw a giraffe but again I thought others would see that too. I decided to push my mind to see something so out there that my design would be unlike anyone else's. 

This is what I came up with. A monster using two of Cristin's favorite colors--pink & green.

 

Initially I was happy with it but then I started thinking that it needed something more so I added teeth and a tongue to it. This made all the difference. My pink monster came to life. 

 

Look at all the other designs that everyone came up with. It's so neat to see how one cutter can create so much. Look at #11. Lene had a monster in mind too. Yay! Great minds think alike.

#1 - Aymee of Wacky Cookies - www.wackycookies.com

#2 - Melissa of Simply Sweets by Honeybee - http://www.simplysweetsbyhoneybee.com/2012/12/pink-cookie-cutter-challenge.html

#3 - Tiffany of Tiff's Tasty Cookies - www.facebook.com/tiffs.cookies

#4 - Ansa of Sweet Treats by Ansa - www.sweet-treats-by-ansa.com

#5 - Shannon of The Sweet Shop Cookie Company - www.facebook.com/thesweetshopcookiecompany

#6 - Kristina of Kristina's Kreations - http://www.facebook.com/pages/kristinas-kreations/251226944912844

#7 - Kate of Kooking in Kate's Kitchen - http://www.kookinginkateskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/12/cookie-cutter-challenge.html

#8 - Kim of The Cookie Puzzle - http://www.thecookiepuzzle.com/2012/12/cookie-cutter-challenge.html

#9 - Margaret of Decorated Cookies (dba Edible Canvas Creations) - www.facebook.com/ediblecanvascreations

#10 - Stephanie of Ellie's Bites Decorated Cookies - http://elliesbitesdecoratedcookies.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/pink-cookie-cutter-challenge/

#11 - Lene of Not Your Everyday Cookie - http://notyoureverydaycookie.wordpress.com

#12 - Tammy of Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fluffybutt-Cookies/272728056090697

#13 - Laura of Laura's Cookies - www.facebook.com/laurascookies

#14 - Flaget of Cookies with Love by Flaget - www.facebook.com/pages/cookies-with-love-by-flaget/242124942466772

#15 - Karen of SugarDeaux Cookies & Cakes - www.facebook.com/sugardeaux

#16 – Cristin of Cristin’s Cookies – http://www.cristinscookies.com/2012/12/cookie-cutter-challenge-cutter-give-away.html

 

Thanks again Cristin for letting me be a part of this fun challenge. You are not only a talented cookie artist and a great friend but now you have a new talent of making your own cutters. Pretty cool in my book. It was fun collaborating with the CP's again.

Christmas Cookies For Family

Today's post is a quick one to show you the cookies I just sent to my parents & my aunt. I had to wait until they received them to show you.

This year I didn't want to decorate my Christmas cookies in traditional colors so I chose a softer color palette.

This set was for my parents & my brother.

This set was for my aunt. It has simple holiday dogs in it because my aunt is an animal lover.

I like the way the cookies turned out but I think they were a bit too soft in color. I think I'll be going a little darker or brighter with my next sets.

Thanks to Ali from Ali Bee's Bake Shop I can now make decent bows like the one on the wreath. You can find her tutorial here.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be taking a break from Christmas cookies to show you a fun project I was a part of in my next post.

Simple Holiday Dog Cookies {Video Tutorial}

I just got through making a couple of sets of Christmas cookies and in one of the sets was a couple of these cute little dogs.

The inspiration for these little dogs came from this mug that a friend gave me last year.

If you're looking for a quick and simple holiday cookie you might want to change things up from the standard shapes and make a platter of these little festive dogs. These would be really cute with little bowties or bows on them. I chose to go with a soft color palette for my Christmas cookies this year but the possibilities are endless with color choices.

Here's a quick video tutorial of the wet on wet technique used to make the dogs. They don't take very long to make.



In case you are wondering I got the cutter to make these dogs from my Betty Crocker 101 Cookie Cutters set. I bought it at Walgreens last year & I don't believe they are available anymore. You can see what they look like on Sugarbelle's post here. You may get lucky and find them somewhere. It's a great set to own.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy creating!

Santa Baby Cookies

I'd like to start this post by saying that my thoughts and prayers have been with the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. They have been heavily on my mind these past few days. I delayed this post until today to show my respect to all those affected. As I write this it's still hard to know when is the right time to go on with our normal activities when so many have had the normal in their lives stolen from them. It's with a heavy heart that I write this.

One of my favorite holiday songs is Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt. It was one of the inspirations behind these cookies.

The other inspiration came from a practical joke. An idea was born in my mind and I knew I had to get the Santa baby out of my head and onto cookies. I had the perfect person to send the cookies to. My cousin is due to have a baby any day now and although she is expecting a girl I wanted to send her the cookies as a congratulations on the new addition to her family.

I love how the little guys turned out and I really love their little mustache pacifiers. Thanks to my friend Nicole I was able to try out these boxes from BRP box shop. It was my first time boxing cookies this way and I really liked it. The boxes are really nice and sturdy. Great quality.

 

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be sharing more cookies soon.

***I used the baby cutter from Karen's Cookies which you can find here. I altered it by hand cutting and piecing on a Santa hat.

My First Cookie Swap

I just participated in my first official cookie swap. I've sent cookies to friends before as a tasting swap but this was the first swap that I decorated cookies for someone that I don't know very well and who had never had my cookies. It was exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.

Each participant had to fill out a questionnaire answering all sorts of questions from things we like to who and what we wanted with us on a stranded island. My swap recipient was Liz from CookiesToGo and these are the cookies I made for her.

Liz likes taking walks in the woods near her house. She owns a cat and she likes sewing, gardening and traveling. There was so much more to Liz that I could have cookied but it was so hard to narrow down what I wanted to do. In hindsight I would have added a few more designs but I hope that Liz was happy with them.

These are the cookies I received from Penny of Grammie's Cookies 'N Goodies.

I love them! I cried when I got them because Penny really understood who I am from my questionnaire.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself so that you understand the meaning of the cookies. I LOVE snowmen and I collect them. I especially love cute and whimsical snowmen. Not so much the more serious ones. I also collect snow globes so a snowman in a snow globe is super awesome. Frosty just epitomizes snowmen. My favorite movie of all time is The Wizard of Oz. I can repeat a lot of it. Be glad you can't hear me sing. Finally, I do not have children yet so my two dogs are like my children. When I was unpacking the cookies and I saw the two cookies with their names I lost it. You have to understand that this questionnaire had lots of questions and somehow Penny picked out the things from it that mean so much to me and that make me smile.

Thank you again Penny for my cookies. In case y'all are wondering yes I ate the cookies. I love food what can I say? They were really yummy. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you may have seen that I paired Frosty with a hot chocolate. Sorry Frosty.

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspiration Challenge: December {Winter Wonderland}

I'm back! I'm sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I have a tendency to think that I can do lots of things at once & it is becoming more & more apparent that I cannot. I may have mentioned it before but I like to sew. I'm kind of a newbie to sewing but I enjoy it. I decided to sign up for a craft show thinking I would have plenty of time to make stuff for it. Boy was I wrong. Long story short I spent a lot of time sewing in the last couple of weeks. The craft show didn't go as well as I had hoped. Lesson learned. I think my time is better spent on cookies.

So another challenge is upon us and because of me we are a bit late posting it. This month the theme is "Winter Wonderland". I had a lot of great ideas floating around for this one but in the end I had to go simple. My grand ideas of a 3-D wonderland are on the back burner for another time. I needed to make a simple cookie that captured the feel of a winter wonderland. This is what I came up with.

It's a portrait of what I wish I could experience every now & then here in Texas. I'm writing this post on December 4th and three years ago it was the day before my wedding and snowing in Houston. It rarely snows in Houston so it was a sight to see. Now it's 80 degrees in December! It doesn't feel like Christmas time when you're still wearing sandals. We've had a few cold fronts but it has yet to get really cold & stay that way for days.

Anywho, back to the challenge. Please head on over to Ellie's Bites Decorated Cookies and see what Stephanie came up with for the challenge. I'd like to thank Stephanie for putting up with my tardiness. She's an amazing friend.

Please link your winter wonderland cookies or sweet creations below. Next month in honor of a new year we are challenging ourselves to try a technique that is new to us. We hope you'll join in on the challenge. It doesn't have to be original but just new to you. Don't be afraid to try something you've been wanting to try. It's a new year & a new you. Challenge yourself to grow not only in cookie decorating but in all aspects of your life.

Thanks for playing along & happy creating!