Beach Cake

Happy Birthday, Pam!!  This cake was made for my friend Pam's 50th birthday.  I have been blessed to get to know Pam through our church these past several months.  I got the idea for this cake from cookies and cups blog although hers was way cuter! :)  I started decorating this Friday morning, took a break in the afternoon and ended up very sick later that day when I was planning on adding more decorations.  So needless to say it wasnt as detailed as I would have liked, but its a fun cake and I hope to be able to make one again and build off this idea!

That thing up in the corner was a seashell.  I just realized you cant tell that very easily in the picture!

A little bucket of "sand" and flip flops.

Blessings for a wonderful year, Pam! 

Mother's Day ideas!

I promised I would get up some ideas I have had for Mother's Day.  Of course, Mother's Day cookies can include anything and be based on what Mom likes...the spa, golfing, running, etc.  But I know many moms like flowers, so I thought what about cookie bouquets of flowers?!  Flowers you can eat, I know that would work for me! :)

Those of you local to me can order cookies either as: individually wrapped in a cello bag with a matching ribbon; cookie platters, wrapped up and tied with a ribbon; or cookie bouquets, which I have a variety of containers and ribbons you can choose from.  For non-locals, I am able to ship individually wrapped cookies.  I ship USPS Priority Mail and have always had cookies arrive in perfect shape, although I cant claim responsibility for what happens to them after they are shipped.  Leave a comment with your email address if you are ever interested in ordering :)

By the way, I can't believe Mothers Day is less than 2 weeks.  Its been so busy around here lately, and then I was sick all weekend, and the time is flying by!  Wow!

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I was in a hurry to get them done!  Yellow daisies, my favorites :)

Two-toned pink flowers.

Stitched daisies with a Happy Mother's Day "tag" cookie.

Tulip bouquet with a Mom "tag" cookie.

Another tulip bouquet, this time without any tag cookie. 

Can you tell I love daisies and tulips?! :)

Thank You, Sophia!!!

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but things have been busy around here.  (It always seems that way!)  Anyway, before Easter I sent several cookies to my dear friend Sophia.  I wanted to test out packaging and shipping cookies, and she was happy to be my guinea pig :)  Thankfully, they all arrived perfectly and she even took some beautiful photos of them for me.  Here are the pictures she sent me.  They are wonderful, especially for someone like me who is a 'point-and-click' kinda photographer. 

Thank you, again, Sophia, for taking these pictures for me. :)  I think they look amazing!

Coming Soon...

...cookies for Mother's Day!

Of course, any cookies are great for Mother's Day, especially if Mom likes something in particular.  (Daisies (that's me!), VW bugs, cupcakes, etc.) But I have a vision in mind of lots of flower cookies for moms this year.  I mean, most moms love flowers, and these flowers you could eat.  Yumm!

I attempted tonight to get some flower cookies decorated so I could take some samples pictures.  Some nights, cookie decorating just "flows." I get in the zone and its sooo relaxing. ahhhh.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

Instead of "ahhh" it was more like "arghh!!!"

So the Mother's Day flower cookies will have to wait until another night this week.  For those of you local, or at least within driving distance, these would look great in cookie bouquets.  For those of you long-distance, I can ship them wrapped in individual cello bags tied with a ribbon.  I'm sure all the moms in your life would love them :)

Also coming soon...graduation cookies!

Happy 1st Birthday, Tyler!

I have to admit, I love facebook.  Especially as a stay-at-home-mom, it makes me feel connected to the outside world on those days where I don't even get to leave the house.  It has helped me re-connect with friends from both high school and college.

Plus I have gotten to show off my cakes and cookies. Which is always fun! :-D

Jeni and I went to high school together and her little boy just turned 1.  So I got to do his cake.  We dont live far from each other, but we communicated a lot about the cake over facebook.

This was his smash cake. Thanks to all those on cc for their inspirations!

Thanks to sue_dye on cc for her inspiration.  There were fondant tools to go on top, I'll post pics of that once I get them from Jeni.

Happy 1st Birthday Tyler! I'm so glad I got to be part of your special day!

Happy Birthday Miss Alexis :)

We just got home from our niece Alexis's 3rd birthday party.  I can't believe how big she is getting!  I remember so well when she was born and those first several months when I got to spend a lot of time with her.  She really pushed my baby fever into high gear!  I just love her so much. 

She LOVES Disney princesses and so this was her cake.  It was inspired by a cake from cake central.  I wanted to have a gumpaste bow, but my bow broke so I had to use ribbon.  Thankfully I had bought this as a back-up so it wasnt any big deal.  Plus I think she liked this better because it had the Disney princesses on it!  Plus she loved the tiara on top because she could wear it afterwards. 

and I didnt get a good pic of her cookies, but here's the quick shot I got of them.

a want, flower, cupcake, balloon, crown, and flower cookie bites.

Happy Birthday Alexis!! We love you!

Spring Cookies

You could say I'm kinda hooked on cake central.  They have a section for cookies, and there is a thread for Spring Cookies...so here is what I created.  The women at Bible study got these tonight and they really liked them.  That made me happy :)

I like the ones with eyes better than the one without, I think.

Daisies..my favorite flower!! (I have a tattoo on my back of 3 daisies.  I got it when I was 19.)

catepillars!! My first time doing these, I cant wait to do more.

I love doing umbrellas.  They're so simple but cute.

I love doing tulips.  I've had lots of requests for these for Mother's Day!

first attempt at dragonflies...this cutter was very difficult to use, so I definitely want to try it again sometime.

My first collection of spring cookies.  I cant wait to do more!

Look, a Cake!

See, I still do make cakes! LOL  Just kidding :)  I actually have a LOT of cakes coming up soon.  But I also just finished a set of cookies, so I'll be posting those here soon too!

This cake was for our "connection group" from church.  Jay and I are in a group with 2 other couples (will probably grow to another couple or 2) and we have a book we go through.  Its all about growing in our relationship with Christ.  One of the other couples has a son just a week older than our Oliver.  The other couple has the little baby who I made the cookies for his nurse.  (Which, by the way, baby Daniel should be coming home THIS WEEK!!!! Yay!! God is SO GOOD!!!!!)

So here's the cake.  A friend has requested this "Cornelli lace" design for an upcoming cake so I wanted to try it.  I should have taken a picture of the inside of the cake.  It was white with raspberry swirl with raspberry filling..yummmm!

Miracles Happen.

This cookie order was very special to me.  We have a wonderful set of friends at church whose grandson was born very prematurely. (I want to say 25ish weeks?) He was due April 27th and was born January 10th weighing 1 lb 10 oz.  God has used baby Daniel to inspire so many of us.  Daniel is now over 5 lbs and should be coming home soon!!!  Jay and I have also been blessed to become friends with Daniel's parents.  We are now in a small connection group with them through church, along with one other couple.  We are all young parents and the support is wonderful.

Daniel's grandma ordered these cookies to take to Daniel's nurses at the NICU.  After 3 months they have formed some very special bonds with them.  There were 2 dozen "Thank You" cookies and 2 dozen baby cookies.

These were some of my favorites from the set.

teddies :)  look forward to making more of these, they were sweet.

wasn't real happy with the carriages, but I look forward to trying them again sometime.  I might look around for another cutter for this one.

bottles :)  these were so fun to do.

onesies!  In an odd way these reminded me of Easter eggs in regards to the fact that there are endless designs!!

baby duckies

I loved how these rattles turned out!  I wasnt sure about them but they really were a lot of fun.  and of course, the little cookie bites were so fun!

Angie (Daniel's grandma) absolutely loved these cookies and said they could just make her cry.  That made me tear up!  I feel so blessed that God has given me a skill that I can use to help others.

Women's Bible Study

We have an awesome group of women at our church.  Our group is called W.O.W...Women Of Worship.  They are just wonderful, Godly women and I feel blessed to be a part of their circle.  They show God's love in a way that can only be experienced, not described.  So each week during our Bible study I bring cookies :)  I think I'm developing a reputation as the cookie lady!

This week I did a platter of cupcake cookies.  These are always so popular and one of my favorite cookies to make.  This time I wanted to try out some of my new Americolor gel colors and did a set in their "electric" colors.  I really like how they turned out!!

a close-up.  yummy :)

a few more Easter cookies!

Its almost Easter, and as a Christian this day is so exciting for me.  I cant wait for our church's first Easter service.  To make it even more special, Jay and I are getting baptized tomorrow during service.  I was baptized as an infant, but I want to make it my own conscious choice this time.  Dying away from my old self and rising again to live for Christ.  It is going to be awesome!  So while the Easter baskets are so fun, and giving Oliver some of these cookies will be great, we are making sure to stop and remember what Easter is all about.  Hallelujah, He is risen!

These turned out fun, the colors were bright and cheerful. :)

Bunny face 'n booty :)

carrot cookies...I love these for some reason! I get a kick out of making cookies that look like other foods, lol.

Sorry for the poor lighting, these little guys were a very pretty yellow.  I can't wait til Oliver sees the big ducky.  Its HUGE!!

I loved doing these crosses, but had a problem with my dough spreading. Oh well, they are still neat :)

A friend ordered pig cookies for her sons for their baskets.  Carly, I hope they liked them! I thought they turned out cute...I just hope they dont look like pink hippos!

And her sons also like John Deere, so I made these eggs in those colors for them.

A good friend at church ordered these for her 3 girls.  I cant wait to hear their reactions when they see them in their baskets :)

and I had to take a pic of the end result of an Easter platter.  I think it turned out very pretty :)

and if you've made it this far looking at all my Easter creations, heres a little treat for you :)

My precious little Oliver..who got ahold of a coupler and tip of black icing!!  ahhh boy.

Boy was he proud of himself!

and one more, because I think the many pictures I got of my dad and Oliver are precious...

They went for a little walk outside while I finished up some orders.  Oh, this makes my heart happy :)

and I just realized that I forgot to take a pic of the whole bunch of mini-cookies I did. Oh well!  Some are in Oliver's Easter eggs so I'll try to get a pic before he eats them all.  (Some kids get candy in their eggs, some get money...mine gets cookies! anyone surprised??) :-D

Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!!!!

Happy Easter!

You all ready for this? LOTS of Easter cookies!!  (not all in this post...blogger is sloooow with uploads, and, well, Oliver just isnt that patient!)  This week has been insanely busy. It reminded me of how I felt with the wedding cake! God works in mysterious ways though; of all weeks for Jay to experience hardships at work and be at home with us, this was the week for it! And I still have more to go! I still have to decorate a set for a friend and all of Oliver's. So just when you think this post is over...there'll be another one soon :)  Some are probably duplicates of what I've already posted, but hey, with a little one, sometimes I just have to quickly upload so they at least get posted! :)

Bunnies! Funny, when I got this cutter I wasn't thrilled with it but now I'm going to make more because they turned out pretty cute.  I like the simplicity of them.  But I do think I'll put some sanding sugar on their tails next time.

Pretty bunny faces

little bunnies peekin' at ya

pretty butterflies

hey chick! :)

quack, quack, quack!

Lambs, I have some different ideas for next year but I just stuck with this design for now.

stitches...

Baskets...these were really popular so next year I want to get an actual basket cutter instead of using the egg! and maybe do a blue background so that the whole cookie has icing. (maybe thats just my love of icing coming out.) :)

I love polka dots :)

All different designs for Easter eggs! I already cant wait to do them next year.  I have so many ideas in my head, but I was incredibly busy this year and just didnt get time to try them all out.

Some simple butterflies with stitching.

A group shot of some of my faves.