Christmas Fun with Family!

My best friend and her family live in San Antonio, and at the start of break, I headed south for a visit.  Her sisters-in-law have been pumped over this whole cookie endeavor and wanted me to show them how it is done.  So, I packed up 4 tupperware containers of stuff, icing, and cookie dough and went on a trip.  I didn't get pictures of everything, but these were kind of fun, so I thought I would share.  I would also like to mention that two of the gingerbread girls were harmed in the chaos, and I stitched them as a fun way to deal with their damage.

Christmas Cookies - Round 2

I received an order for Christmas party cookies, and she was wanting trees and snowflakes, and I had been dying to use the Christmas light cutter I was given.  So, this what I came up with:

Disney Cookies

At the Departmental Christmas Luncheon I mentioned in my previous post, our department head's wife introduced me to a friend of hers.  This friend was in search of Disney cookies for her grandkids and asked for Mickey, Minnie, pirates, and Rapunzel for her first order, and at the same time, placed a second order for Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and more mice.  Lucky for me, I remembered a beautiful Cinderella cookie that I chose to use as a general princess template:

Courtesy of Sweetopia

 I actually printed this picture out (in the size I needed), and used it to hand cut all of my princess cookies.  I also did a bit of internet research and even busted out the crayola stash to make sure I had all of the right colors covered.  I am also extremely visual (and love to color) so this was a bit of a process.

I had a Christmas order going at the same time, so you are seeing some of those sketches as well:

Transferred the sketches to each cookie using a food color marker:

Cinderella was easily my favorite.  I had great hopes for Rapunzel, but I wasn't impressed with the finished cookie.  And I just cannot forgive Sleeping Beauty for forcing me to recreate bad bangs and a weird dress.

And the non-princess cookies:

Gift Baskets!

Okay, so.......I have a confession.  I have been off of work for two weeks doing really great holiday things, spending as much time as I can with the horses, and filling a few orders here and there.  And, well, "update blog" has yet to be crossed off of the list.  So, time permitting, I am about to play catch-up on what should probably be 5 posts.  I plan to employ the "long story short" philosophy for all of these, and go for more of a brief photo journal.  I will also promise here and now, that I will try to do a better job of writing these as I go from now on (with the hope that there will be more orders in the future), so this can serve as both story-telling fun, and a cookie portfolio.

Here we go, catch-up blog numero uno.....On December 17th, we had our annual Department of Animal Science Christmas Luncheon.  My peeps in the accounting office, who have been SOOO supportive of my new hobby asked me if I could make a basket or two for door prizes.  You know what my answer was, so here is what I came up with:

And yes, the pigs are wearing hats, and the lambs are wearing scarves!

Christmas Cookies....Round 1

Two posts, one day, I know....shocking.  While I have the camera, computer, time, and myself all together at once, I have to take advantage.  This past Tuesday I received an email inquiring about some basic Christmas cookies for an open house event.  Since I was going through dough trials at the time I had quite a bit of red velvet made up so I asked if that would be okay for the party, and with approval I proceeded with a cream cheese royal icing.  Now, I have really elaborate Christmas cookie designs pinned on Pinterest and I don't think there is any way to get all of them done this year.  Not to mention, I have to be very careful not to get too terribly excited with the orders or I will add too many details (which were not requested) and potentially push the deadline too close.  So, with the reins pulled in tight, I started on my first set of Christmas cookies (snowflakes, stars, houses, and trees).  

Have a look:

I would also like to point out that I learned how to use the white balance on my digital camera this week, and these pictures were all taken at night.  I will work on better backgrounds next, but hey, we have advanced to almost real pictures now!

My First REAL Order!!!

This is how it begins....I received an email on Tuesday saying that the pirate cookies I made a couple weeks ago (you can see them here) had been seen by a friend of the family.  This friend loved the cookies and asked for my contact information.  After reading the email, I was excited but went about my day not thinking much else about it.  Later that afternoon my phone rang.  It was the daughter of the friend, wanting to order 3 dozen cookies for a baby shower.  I was in the car at the time and tried to collect all of the info I could think of and told her I would call her the next day with the quote.  How fun is this: the baby's gender is unknown, the colors are cream, melon, and turquoise, and since the order was needed on such short notice the shapes were up to me!  This time I got excited and the excitement stuck.  All I have are my trusty iPhone photos, so some of the cookies look a little dark and have a glare, but here they are:

I will deliver them later today, I hope they LOVE them!!

Holiday Craziness...

Okay, I have to be honest.  The shop just called back on my truck and my mood has dampened slightly since my original plan to start this post.  Correction - mood majorly dampened.  Who wants to go from calculating the month's budget and coming out ahead, even after Christmas shopping, to then being so far behind you aren't sure how your going to make it through the 10th, much less the first of the year.  Sad day.  But, I am trying to tell myself that I am lucky, the problem is repairable, I am not totally without a vehicle (just until Friday), the engine isn't blown...I am lucky and it will be okay.  Phewf.  Enough of that....back to happier times.  

So, company came just before Thanksgiving, and this company arrived wanting to make cookies!  I had all of the cookies ready and the icing prepped so only the fun part was left.  I really went all out.  Made my first attempt at royal icing transfers, tried a new turkey design, and baked horse shapes (without an icing plan)...  Here are some photos of the fun:

The few remaining transfers:

 My best friend's niece catching on SOOOOOO fast:

I did not get enough pictures before, but here are some creations by the team, all packed up and ready for the Thanksgiving trip back home to the family:

 This is a platter I arranged once our company had left and we headed north to celebrate with my husband's family.  I know you have seen these already, but I feel like this is one of the best photos I have had to share:

At my sister-in-law's house I realized I had not gotten any pictures of my latest turkey creation (transfer and all).  I also feel that a random remark from one of my close friends needs to be shared...She accidentally called the transfers royal icing "transplants" which is actually perfect in a way, and totally hilarious!

 

I am sooooo looking forward to my first-ever Christmas cookies!!!!