Just Something a Little Bird Told Me

So I am sitting here the morning before Thanksgiving with tons to do to get ready for the big day, so what would make more sense than sitting here procrastinating by catching up on some posts of cookies I've done since the long ago October 4th post. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. ;) 

Anyway, I did these about a month ago for my cousin's daughter's baby shower. She originally wanted 4 dozen and I was up for it. We planned that she would pick them up when she was in Birmingham on Thursday of that week and I'd planned my baking and decorating accordingly. She lives in Atlanta, so just zipping over for cookies isn't really an option if she wasn't going to be in the area. Then she called me about noon on Tuesday and said her appointment had been changed to Wednesday and could I have them for her then. My response? Uhmmm, no! I'd not even started them yet. I explained that to her and she said she guessed she would have to cancel then. I felt bad and was kind of excited about doing these because I'd come up with all alternative uses of cutters for these, so about an hour later I sent her a text and asked if she'd be okay with just two dozen, because I knew I could have that many ready in time for her and that way she'd still have some. She liked that idea, as did I.

Bird cookies

Now for the alternate cutter usage: For the larger birds, I used a Valentine's Day heart with an arrow through it and trimmed off the pointy part of the heart. For the smaller bird in the middle, I used the snail cutter from an animal set from IKEA. There's also one tucked in there that is just kind of silly looking, but I used a football cutter for it. For the bird cage, I used my large tombstone cutter and trimmed a good portion of the length off of it. And for the birdhouse, I used the little church cutter that I have and trimmed off the steeple. Obviously, I didn't trim the scalloped squares, but was thrilled with how my semi-freehanded little birds came out. I actually found an image online that I liked, printed it and halfway traced it on to the cookie with a food color marker. I think these turned out really cute and I love that I didn't do what I always do, which is run out and buy yet another cookie cutter to make them.

Gender Reveal Cookies

These were so cute, but it was cloudy and rainy the when I was trying to get pics, so all of the pics were horrible! So I did this visually deceptive collage to make up for it. The theme was "Beau or Bow?" using mustaches and bows. I totally stink at drawing mustaches, btw. And I am still scared of piping lettering on small cookies, thus the writing you see on these is done with a food color marker.

Gender Reveal Cookies, Beau or Bow Cookies

Pumpkin Patch Cookies, Tractor Cookies and Frozen Cookies

Had two separate birthday parties going on this weekend, so I did 4 dozen cookies for the two parties. One was a pumpkin patch party and the other was Frozen themed.

Tractor Cookies, Pumpkin Cookies, Frozen Cookies, Snowflake Cookies

I was a bit scared of the Olaf cookies because I had no frame of reference for them. I looked at various pictures and immediately thought of my carrot cookie cutter. I printed one of the images of him, cut it out and laid it on the carrot and it was perfect! I did trim the leafy portion of the carrot. Then I just did the "wing it" thing and did his face freehand while looking at a pic of him online. Could they have been better? Absolutely, but I am still okay with them.

Taco Cookies

Did these for a friend's son's birthday.

Taco Cookies

Taco Cookies

Used a carrot cutter for those peppers and was too lazy to thin the red icing for them, so you'll notice their icky texture. Not nuts about the margaritas.

Pink Ribbon Cookies

A friend's workplace had a pink ribbon bake sale. The company manufactures sewing machines, so I did stitching around the edges of the pink ribbons, and did some buttons and sewing machines as well.

Pink Ribbon Cookies, Sewing Machine Cookies

Roll Tide and DZ Cookies

Haven't posted in a while, so I am going to do several back-to-back posts to catch up. Here are some Roll Tide Cookies and Big Al Cookies I did for the opening game this year. I also did some of the Big Al ones for my niece's birthday and some for a friend's mom. I did another set for a friend's niece who just pledged Delta Zeta in her first year at UA.

Big Al Cookies

Alabama Cookies

Big Al Cookies

Delta Zeta Cookies, University of Alabama Cookies

Back to School and Shark Week

So my niece, Elisabeth, started her first teaching job this week and is teaching in the system from which I graduated, along with tons of people with whom I went to elementary, middle and high school. She's teaching 6th Grade Language Arts. Since so many of my friends work with her in the school, I decided to make a ton of back to school cookies for her to take with her on one of the teacher work days before school started, to share with her new co-workers. I forgot to get a pic before wrapping them in plastic, but she was kind enough to snap a couple of pics for me before they were all eaten.

Back to school cookies, Crayon Cookies, Notebook Paper Cookies, Ruler Cookies, Chalkboard Cookies

Back to school cookies, Pencil cookies, Apple cookies

I love how the crayons came out. I own a gazillion cookie cutters, as do most cookie freaks like me, however it always seems that I don't have the one that I need when I have something I want to do. I have finally become much better at trying to use what I have to make things instead of buying yet another cutter. For the crayons, I used a lipstick cutter that I had and trimmed it a bit on the tip and sides. Worked like a charm. For the large pencils, I used a little triangle Christmas tree cutter that Wilton had in the Christmas bins at Wal-Mart in 2013, the Wilton tombstone cutter and the end of a large Christmas bulb cutter for the erasers. For the small ones, I think I used the lipstick cutter again. I did the chalkboards using a small plaque cutter that was in a set I picked up at Target earlier this year. I don't like hand cutting at all, so for the simple rectangles for notebook paper, I once again employed the tombstone and then trimmed the header and footer off of it. And for the rulers I used a large number one cutter and trimmed the flag off the top of the number. The stars, ABCs and 123s were last minute fillers, which I knocked out super fast one morning before leaving for work.



One of her new co-workers who teaches the same grade and subject matter with her is one of my cookie fans, who gets me to do some for her from time to time (perhaps you recall these golf ones?). Elisabeth mentioned to her that I was doing the back to school cookies, so she sent me a message, noting that she knew it was last minute, asking if I could do some for her son because he loves those cookies so much. She left it completely up to me as to what I would do with them - she said she was even fine with basic shapes with random icing colors on them. Then it hit me that it was shark week and I knew that was the perfect theme to go with. I used the Sugarbelle shark tutorials and this idea for the surfboards, since I didn't have a surfboard cutter. And this idea for the shark bites out of them using the Ikea porcupine cutter. I made the swim trunks using the large teddy bear cutter in the 101 Wilton set and trimmed it to what I needed.

Shark Week Cookies

Cheerful Heart Cookies, Airplanes and Nautical Cookies

So my July has been pretty light in terms of cookies. I've just done a handful of sets. I did this first set that I call Cheerful Hearts for a friend just after a mastectomy but before her chemo started. She's been keeping a blog and often references Proverbs 17:22, which in one of the translations reads in part, "A cheerful heart is good medicine..." The second time I came upon that reference in reading her blog, I knew it had to be cookied! Granted these are very simple and I put did them pretty hurriedly to be able to get them in the mail, but I think they definitely fit the bill as being cheerful hearts. I do hope they were good medicine!

Cheerful Heart Cookies

I also did some colored softballs for a little girl's birthday party, but didn't get a pic of those.

Then I moved on to some nautical cookies for a baby shower. The colors were navy, khaki and white. I did anchors, lighthouses, life preservers and sailboats. Another friend's little boy was having his 7th birthday party that same weekend, so I did some airplanes for him in the same colors with the remaining icing.

Airplane Cookies, Nautical Cookies, Anchor Cookies

 

Tie Dye, Teddy Bears, Birthdays and Anniversaries

I haven't really done a lot this month, but here are the few things I've done. My friends were having a 1st birthday party for their son/grandson. They call him Sawbear, so teddy bear cookies were a must. The grandmother made his party hat and I based my designs and color choices on that.

Teddy Bear Cookies, 1st Birthday Cookies, Party Hat Cookies

My long time friend, Anna, had her birthday on the 11th of this month, but was at Disney, so I waited a week later and took her these to surprise her for her special day. She'd said she wanted peace signs, moons and suns, but I knew much better what I wanted to do for her. Turns out I was right. They were beyond anything she'd even thought about and she loved them.

Tie-dye cookies, Groovy Cookies

I also did a few #3's for my great nephew's 3rd birthday party as cookie favors for his party guests. Truly, the date slipped up on me and I threw this together at the last minute. I'd really wanted to do some much more special for the big day. :(

3rd Birthday Cookie Favors

Then I did some birthday and anniversary cookies at the request of my friend Amy. Her husband's birthday falls on the same day as their anniversary. She said that he always asks her favorite thing about his birthday and her answer is that she gets a gift, too! :) I had no idea what to do on the anniversary ones, so I stalked her facebook photos and found two shots from their wedding day. Her flowers were yellow calla lilies, so I opted to do the hearts in yellow, although the color they dried was a little more orange than I would have liked.

Anniversary Cookies, Champagne Cookies

Champagne cookies

 

Birthday cupcake cookies, Birthday Candle cookies

The birthday boy with his cupcake cookie and B-on-a-Stick, the baker!

Oh yeah, I'd done these last month for my friend Alison's mom's birthday. We loved how perfectly the ribbon and the cookies matched - the ribbon was bought completely separately from me doing the cookies. I also LOVE the giant cello bag covering the entire tray - that was Alison's idea - and I may have to use it more often!

Birthday cupcake cookies

Cupcake Cookies (HaliHannigan's Style)

So on Monday of this week I received a late, late birthday gift from my sister and her husband and decided I would make some cookies for them as a thank you. They have a cupcake shop in Jackson, TN called HaliHannigan's Cupcakery , so doing cupcake cookies was an easy choice. I thought about trying to mimic some of her cupcake creations, but truthfully I was just way too lazy to mix that many colors of icing. Then the idea came to me to make HaliHannigan's Themed cupcakes. When creating her business, she went to great lengths to make it unique and inviting. I think they had to have the floor painted several times to get it just right. The colors used are a shade of hot pink, olive green and a black & white harlequin pattern, so I let that be my jumping off point. 

HaliHannigan's Cupcakery, Jackson, TN

I totally lucked out that the pink turned out to be the perfect shade of pink to match her shop, because I was at the very end of my small container of Americolor soft pink (which to me is anything but soft) and I only had a tiny little pink left in the little Wilton tub I had. I got every last bit of each that I was able to get from the containers and it was PERFECT! Then that olive green. Oh my, it was looking really bad at one point - very pooish. I used Americolor Lemon Yellow, Wilton Kelly green, Americolor Warm Brown and Americolor Ivory. At first I did just the yellow, green and ivory, but it still needed something. That's when I added the warm brown and that's when it looked like poo!! So I added a little more green and a touch of ivory and it came out pretty well. I only did the harlequin pattern with icing once, because I'd mixed my black very thickly for a ninja project I was working on and was (see the lazy note above) not going to mix another batch of black. So even though I did it as wet on wet, it still ended up with a texture to it because the black icing was so thick. The remaining ones I did using the harlequin pattern were done using my trusty black food color marker. Worked like a charm.

HaliHannigan's Themed Cupcake Cookies

 NOTE: I have noticed something in my writing in the last few days that is sort of freaking me out - I am leaving out articles and am not noticing it. So, PLEASE point out if you notice one of those omissions and know that I do not speak like a caveman! (Me B. I speak like caveman!)

Here's a collage shot of the shop and the cupcakes together:

So did you notice that I mentioned that I was working on some ninja cookies? A long time friend asked me on Sunday if I could do a dozen ninjas for her friend's birthday on Tuesday. I usually prefer more time in advance in terms of notice, but agreed to do them for her. She just said ninja and let me go with it. I knew I could do easy faces with a round cutter, but that seemed pretty boring. Then using the gingerbread man cutter came to me and I did a google search and a pinterest search and saw that I was not the only one with that idea. My friend wanted black, but I strongly recommended against that since the birthday party was a lunchtime at their office and they would be seeing patients immediately thereafter, so the black teeth thing would definitely come into play! I told her that I thought pink ones would be cute and she agreed.

Pink Ninja Cookies

Recognize that pink? Yep, I did them on the same night and since I was so limited in the pink coloring I had on hand, I mixed enough for both sets and crossed my fingers. Since I had other colors I was going to use on the cupcakes, I did these first since they needed to be all pink. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Over the weekend I'd done some graduation cookies that were a total disaster. The school colors are purple and gold. I was worried about getting the gold just right and finally liked it... then it dried. I didn't see it at night, but really wonder if it glowed! I think I'll rename it to Rudolph Gold. And I don't know what happened with the purple. I looked up the Sugarbelle Color Chart and liked what she called her favorite purple. I went to get color because all I knew of that I had on hand was some Regal Purple. I made a special trip to Hobby Lobby to get the Electric purple. Got home and had 2 Regal Purples, for a total of three identical bottles, but no Electric purple. That's what I get for not checking and just trusting the display. I was bugged, but not enough to go back and switch it out. I don't like the Regal Purple alone because it seems to photograph very blue for me, although in person it is clearly a shade of purple. I looked and found that I had some Wilton Violet, so I just added some of that in with the Regal Purple and the color came out quite well. However, I don't know what happened with the drying. After an entire night of drying, the gold ones were completely dry, but those purple ones weren't fully dry and looked like they were dry on the edges, but wet toward the center. I had to get them dry so I did the quick dry method and put them in for about 25 minutes. When they came out, they were dry, but they looked terrible! The outside of them is noticeably darker than the rest of them. No idea what the problem was. The cookies were a little greasier than normal because I may or may not have been precise with my measuring, so maybe it was oil that seeped into them? But I can't figure why it only did it on the purple ones. At least it was somewhat of a uniform discoloration! Kelly loved them, as did the graduate, Anna, but I was totally cringing at how hideous they looked! (I am including a pic, but I am not going to caption it, tag it or appropriately name it because I don't want them showing up on a search engine!  LOL)

Oh, and once again, the lazy bug was visiting me, so I just did the outlines on the diplomas with the purple. One thing I did like about the diplomas, though, is that I have always hated the way my bows looked because that cutter has both the top of the bow and the tails of the bow, so to me it looked odd whenever I did them. So when I was cutting them out, I simply cut off the tails and liked it much better.