Secret Cookie Swap Part 2

OK, so the cat's out of the bag.....but I don't think it was in for very long!!

I knew who sent my cookies when I first opened them up.  There was only so many participants from CANADA....and only 1 who sends cute little notes on a precious panda card.  Yes, my wonderful queen was the fabulously talented Nancy of 'Sweet Pudgy Panda'.

Please go and visit her unbelievable creations. Here are the links to her fb page and her flickr photostream:

http://www.facebook.com/SweetPudgyPanda

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbarinque/

I had the pleasure of designing cookies for the ultra talented Kim, aka Sugar on flickr, who has such a unique style of decorating cookies that is completely her own.  She uses buttercream, as in cake buttercream, to decorate her unbelievable cookie creations.

You just have to go to her flickr photostream and have a look for yourself.....then you'll know why I felt a tad bit intimidated making cookies for her.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43488478@N06/

I'm glad I decided at the final hour to participate in the swap because it gave me the motivation to design these, which I had been putting off.  These are the cookies I sent to Kim, who , by the way, is from Colorado........So, I know 'dare ain't no Mardi Gras over dare, cher'. (It's not misspelled, that's Cajun for There isn't any Mardi Gras over there, cher(is a term of endearment pronounced sh-a [a makes the short a sound]).

So besides cookies, I sent her some background info on Mardi Gras traditions and the meaning behind the cookies, and of course I sent her some Mardi Gras beads!

And a close up......

Secret Cookie Queen Cookie Swap

That's a mouthful in the title of this post! 

Once again, the Cookie Queens cookie group on flickr conducted a 'secret' cookie swap.  Each 'queen', who wanted to participate, submitted their name to the pool of willing participants.  One of our wonderful group administrators, Asya, took it upon herself to coordinate the secret swap.  Once we received our fellow queen's name and address, the rest was up to us......choosing a design.......bakin', makin', and shippin' 'em off to our queen.  I can't yet say who I sent my cookies to....because everyone hasn't received their cookies.  Nor, can I post the cookies I sent to my queen.....not until everyone is on the receiving end of these little treasures.

It's a fun thing to do.  Although, it can be a little stressful and intimidating making and designing for one of your peers.  Always, the self-doubt creeps in....will it be good enough for my queen.....especially the one I had to decorate for!!

Late yesterday afternoon, I was the lucky recipient of these little masterpieces from the queen who baked and decorated just FOR ME!!

She sent a sweet little note telling me to be sure and eat them.  Say, what???!!!  They are way too cute to do that!  I think I'll just admire them for now!  My kids want to have at them, though!  They don't seem to have a problem gobbling up custom decorated cookies that take hours to design, bake, and decorate!

Here's my booty..........

And the super cute packaging they came in...

They're so cute, they deserve a close up.....

I'll post the cookies I sent to my Cookie Queen once everyone has received their little masterpieces!

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I managed to post.....too long, actually!  Life's been calling.....kids, school functions, basketball games,  illnesses, a broken arm (not me, my 4 yr. old),  and cookies, cookies, and more cookies.  Lots of them are repeats of designs I've done before, so I won't post all of them again.

Remember the batch of dough that yielded 100 cookies?  This set of baby shower cookies, 30 in all, was from that batch.....

 

Plus I made another set of 30 from that same batch. I love that new mixer....it can handle a double batch of cookie dough with no problems at all!

Here's more....not from that batch of 100 cookies, though!

For a wedding......

 I've discovered a love affair with opal sanding sugar.

I love that stuff....it goes with ANY color of icing.  I used a lot of it on this wedding set, although it doesn't show up too well in the photos. 

.....a baby shower

and birthday party favors.

 

You may have noticed that I added a subcription box to my sidebar for any of you who want to have post updates delivered to you email.

Next post, I'll tell you about that other late Christmas present.....

Winter Cookies and a Late Christmas Gift

As is the norm, my husband always waits until Christmas Eve to go Christmas shopping.  I knew I was included on that 'short' list he has when my kids starting asking if I needed a new coffee maker about 5 days before Christmas!  No, got one of those last year, don't need a new one.  So, I told them to tell daddy, momma wants a new, bigger,  KitchenAid
mixer. So off they go in search of one on Christmas Eve.  Yeah, right!  Didn't find the one I wanted, so my husband says to find the one I want and he'll pay for it.    It was a good thing that they didn't find 'the one', because I DID, and boy did I get a great deal!  Nothing like getting exactly what you want, on sale, free shipping, and a rebate to boot!  JACKPOT!!!

Here is my new mixer.........

Found it at Amazon......retails for $499.99......got it for $311.60.....FREE SHIPPING (good thing, it weights 30#!!).....and KitchenAid has a $50.00 rebate on his baby!  So do the math.......$261.60.  I'd say that husband's procrastination definitely benefitted him this Christmas!

So, the kids were dying to try out mom's new toy.....they had to use it right away.....before me!  They all gathered around to make, what else......chocolate chip cookies!  I think they enjoy the dough raw more than they do cooked!

Here are the best three gifts I ever received!!!

 

And the fruits of their labor........

They looooove homemade chocolate chip cookies! Funny thing.....I love those puffy chocolate chip cookies as opposed to the flat ones that always result when you follow the Toll House recipe for chocolate chip cookies to the 't'.  While my oldest was making them one day, he melted the two sticks of butter instead of using them softened, and guess what resulted.......puffy chocolate chips.  Go figure!  I never would have imagined melted butter would make them puff up!  'Ya never know!

Here are my first batch of cookies with the new mixer.....actually, my first batch was a double batch.  That mixer tackled that mess of dough with ease.  I was able to cut out 100, yes 100, assorted size cookies from that one batch.   Talk about timesaving. 

It also made a double batch of icing, too, to decorate those 100 cookies!  AMAZING!

More pics of the rest of the 100 cookies in a later post, and......another late Christmas gift!

 



GEAUX TIGERS, GEAUX SAINTS!!!!

No new cookies today, just bringing back some from the past in order to give a 'shout out' to the home teams.  The LSU Tigers are playing in the Cotton Bowl tonight, taking on Texas A&M.   GEAUX (GO, for those not familiar with the Cajun interpretation of the verb go) TIGERS!!! 

Secondly, our beloved home team, the New Orleans Saints, are traveling up to Seattle to take on the Seahawks in an NFC Wildcard game tomorrow afternoon.  Hey, Reggie, if 'ya listnin'.....'Ya need to step it up BIG TIME tomorrow, dude!  What with the 2 leading rushers out for the remainder of the playoffs, Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory, it's gonna be on your shoulders!  Show us some of those moves 'ya had at USC!!  Bring it on!!"

In reference to the recent unexplained findings of massive numbers of dead birds, I saw this explanation posted on facebook.  No doubt, it came from a Who Dat fan!!

Figured out the dying bird thing... God is a Saints fan and he is telling us that birds are going down... Seahawks, Falcons, Eagles, Ravens... in that order... mark it... WHO DAT!!!!!!!!

I guess that says it all! 

 GEAUX SAINTS!!

16th Birthday Cookies

It's one of those milestones of childhood........One that brings both joy and a bit of sadness to parents.  When their baby girl turns '16'!  It's a time that makes a parent remember that just yesterday was her..... first smile, first tooth, first words, first steps, first birthday, first day of kindergarten.......Fast forward 16 years later, and a parent wonders, 'What happened to my baby girl?  She's all grown up!'  Well, not 'all grown up', yet!  But it's coming, sooner than one realizes. 

When asked to make this set of cookies for a beautiful young lady celebrating this momentous of  birthday occasions, it set me to thinking that in only 6 short years, I will be in the same shoes as this parent!  Am I ready for that?   NOT!!!!  I guess I have 6 'short' years to prepare!

                 



All of these were cookie pops.  The mom requested them this way in order for her to use some of them to decorate her cake.  She cut them to length and inserted them into the cake.  She used the remaining cookies to make two table arrangements on the cake table.



My Blog Facelift and More Christmas Cookies!

In keeping with the newness of the 'New Year', I decided my blog needed a facelift of sorts, or a freshening up, a newness, like the new year.  This is the result!  How do you like????  I enlisted the help of a very talented graphic designer that I found on Etsy.  Her name is Julie Farber of 'Deluxe Designs'.  This is the link to her Etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JulieFarber and the link to her blog:

http://deluxeblogdesigns.blogspot.com/p/snapshots-of-blog-designs.html

If you find yourself in need of someone to do graphic design for you, she's your gal!

Julie is professional, talented, communicative, extremely quick, and most importantly...listens to what you want, keeps at it until it's just like you want, and is sooo easy to work with!  Go check her out!

  Anyway, here are more personalized gingerbread people and some 'girly, dog, Christmas' cookies...... Yep, that was the request, 'girly, dog, Christmas' cookies.

                                                            Family #1
                                              (Click on picture for closeup)

Family #2

Family #2 in their cookie bouquet.

Girly, dog, Christmas cookies......

Christmas Cookies

Some more of the many cookies from this Christmas! Enjoy!



Merry Fishmas!

A custom request for a young man who enjoys fishing and was taking a fishing trip to Florida.
In celebration of Dylan!  He will be undergoing a double lung transplant.....please pray for him that all goes well!



Custom Gingerbread People

A dear friend asked me to make these for some special people in her life.  Each gingerbread man/lady/child was personalized for the individual for whom it was made.