Neeeeeeeigh....that's a horse sound

When you turn 16 you want horse cookies right?

No?  Well for my cousin's daughter she's way more into a horse as her form of transportation than a car. However I don't think she'd turn down a car.  Just my gut feeling.

Gabby loves anything horse related.  She always has, even when she was young.  At a family dinner years ago my brother tried convincing her that he road across Oklahoma on the back of a horse named Mr. Ed.  It was the best story ever - that he continued to make up on the fly.  The rest of us had a hard time not
laughing out loud and I think Gabby wasn't entirely sure that he was making it up.  He had great answers to all of her questions.  My favorite was when she asked what he fed Mr. Ed - and Matt  replied "Cheerios" in a very matter-of-fact tone.

Even though we tried to convince her of my brother's horse past - she never wavered from her love.  Thus, horse sugar cookies to celebrate her birthday were perfect.

I started with just a few frosting colors - thankfully left over from orders earlier that week and some extra mixing to get more brown!

I was torn bewteen trying to do entire horses or just the heads.  Heads won out.  Simplicity seemed smarter.

A flooding of brown.

And a quick white strip of white flood frosting while the brown was still wet.  Then they dried for about 3 hours.

I needed the base layer to be hard enough so I could do the horsey details.  Yes, horsey.

That means eyes, a halter and hair...ummm a mane.

I also made some accompanying cookies that were to have horseshoes on them.  

The final cookies turned out pretty cool.  Consider me shocked.  I was prepared to be completely unhappy with the horses.  

Happiest Birthday Gabby - I hope turning 16 was awesome!  Mr. Ed wishes you a fantastic day too!

The Road Runner

It's not every day that I make road runner cookies.  Nor is it easy to find a cookie cutter that works.

I was asked to make cookies replicating the logos of a local elementary school.  Who knew they were roadrunners?

Enter my fantastic husband who begrudgingly  willingly made me a road runner cookie cutter that looked like the logo.

I posted the cutter once it was made on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts and asked if people could guess what it was.

I love the comment about a "crime scene for a ginger!" Hilarious. 

No one guessed correctly.  They ranged from ninja, Olaf, Big 6, Mickey Mouse's hand, Rudolph, airplane, to a shark.   Wondering if I should try making any of those?

So away I went.  Baking away and then realizing that I desperately need a kopykake or some sort of magic projector that's EASY to use.

I ended up drawing on EVERY SINGLE COOKIE before I started piping.  

EVERY. SINGLE. COOKIE.  

Did I mention I had to make lots?  Lots and lots.

This was just step one of what felt like 100...even though it wasn't that bad.  Mentally I'd just lost it because I was making these at 11 pm.  I turn into a two year old after 11 pm with an inability to do anything.  It's pretty special.

I forgot to take a final picture, so you'll have to deal with the packaged cookies.   Just look past the cellophane.

I'm thinking and hoping they were loved and enjoyed by all!  

Anyone need a road runner cookie cutter?  I have one.

Ready Or Not...CookieCon Here I Come!

Ready or not...Salt Lake City...here I come.

With some cookies that are packaged up tighter than Fort Knox.

I've spent more time worrying and deciding and figuring out what to enter for the CookieCon Sugar Show that it became something I dreamed about.

Honestly, I dreamed about piping frosting.

That's when I knew I had a problem.

Who dreams about that?  Wow.  Pathetic.

I guess it's better than the dream you have where you're falling or running afraid from someone.  So I'll take piping frosting.

Back to the Sugar Show.

There are four categories:

• Spring: It's that time of year- flower are blooming!
• Once Upon a Time: Let fairy tales, fables and stories inspire.
• Home Sweet Home: Where are you from?  Represent your hometown, state or country.  What makes your home special?
• Anything Goes: Let your imagination run wild!  (Must be G or PG rated!)
• Mystery Shape: The shape will be unveiled and decorated AT CookieCon!

So after searching for ideas and deciding what I thought I could actually accomplish I picked a Lion & Lamb for Spring, a Frog Prince for Once Upon a Time, Herbie Husker for Home Sweet Home, and a Gingerbread House for Anything Goes.

Executing all those were a different story.

If you're been following me on Facebook, you've seen my trials and tribulations, mainly with one entry...that dang Herbie Husker.

He was mighty difficult.

Stubborn.

And his face.  Oh his face.  He looked like he'd ran into a wall going 60 mph.  And it was a brick wall.

See.

They were embarrassing.  So bad that I threw those four away and started all over.

Yes, I did.  And thankfully the second round looked better.

So without further adieu here are the action shots.

And then I finally got around to decorating (and dreaming about decorating)...

Then I had a few mishaps. Good thing I had decorated four at the same time so I could pick the best options.

Then I went to Herbie Husker...twice...the are of the first round that all got thrown away.

Sidenote: For those of you who aren't from Nebraska, Herbie Husker is the mascot of the Nebraska Huskers and has become the pseudo state mascot. 

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of the spring lion and lamb.  Well, I took a few and posted them on Facebook...but I forgot to use my nice camera to take some in-progress ones!

But overall I'm pretty happy with what I'm turning in for the CookieCon 2014 Sugar Art Show...

Packaged up...with more bubble wrap than a box should have...and they're being carried on.  This is handheld delivery to Salt Lake City.

Oh and I'm taking cookie cutters along too.  Why? Well, they have a table where you can participate in a cutter swap.  Thus the "leave a cutter, take a cutter" - so I'm taking what I have doubles of.  All of these I have two of.  I'm secretly really excited for this little table.

And some business cards.  I think I might want to have a few of those on hand.

So now, I pack.  And I get on a plane tomorrow!  Stay tuned for more updates.  And a huge picture dump after I get home.  I'm thinking I should possibly pack a second suitcase so I can shop at the vendor booths too.

Pretty as a Peacock

A close friend asked if I'd make peacock cookies for her daughter's sixth birthday.  Normally she's not too shabby when it comes to making sugar cookies - however she didn't want to attempt these.

Chicken.

So it fell to me.  To make them.  And to make them look good.

A hard feat.  Feathers are just difficult.

So I started with a seashell and oval/teardrop cutter.

Everything you'd use to make peacocks right?

The ovals would become the feathers.

A freehand teardrop, slightly shaky, but a starting point none-the-less...

Then I just put colors on top of colors.

And after that it came time to layer on the feathers

and some more...

and more

The peacocks were just an experiment in the making.  Which actually means I had no clue what I was doing and was flying by the seat of my pants.

I'll say that it ended up working pretty nicely...though the peacocks seem to have a surprised look on their faces!  Maybe because they're so shocked that it worked.

I didn't take any pictures of the number 6's I did...they were actually a surprise for the birthday girl and her mommy.  So that's the reason I'm using for not taking photos...and I'm sticking to it.

I'm fairly happy with the way everything turned out.  I still want another go at the feathers.  But I think we'll have a pretty happy six year old.

A very very Happy Birthday to Miss Riley!  We hope these live up to all your peacock wishes!