Tip of the day {in poetic form}-

Washing all the little parts and pieces that go with cookie decorating is a pain,

and they go down the drain,

It is insane.

So I thought up a plan,

I will wash in a pan,

That didn't work, oh man.

So I thought to myself,

When I saw the colander on the shelf,

This may be good for my health.

Not one of these ideas work,

but in the laundry room, a quirk.

Lingerie laundry bag, made me smirk.

But it will work!

P.S. It was a new clean one,

Now my poem is done.

More Merry Cookies-

I decided to make chocolate sugar cookies as well to take to Merry's and besides this is my form of relaxation.

I wanted to make stars and so while digging around my Christmas cutters for a star I found another cutter and had an inspiration!

The cutter is supposed to be the star over the manger but when I picked it up to see what it was I thought it would make a great firework in the sky. So I filled them blue, let that dry, then piped on white and while it was wet sprinkled on the colored sugar. I think they turned out exactly like I saw them in my head and that makes me really happy.

 The body of these {a much larger rocket} is my birdhouse cutter. 

I just wanted to make some bigger ones to give to some people. 

Notice that I put the red in the center of the spark and I like that much better.

These were just going to be simple single color stars to fill with the other decorated cookies but then there was a toothpick laying there and they became what they are.

Happy 4th of July.

I will not be making cookies for at least a week because of tour. 

So see you the next time I get inspired.

A Merry 4th -

Every year the Merry family has a big 4th of July celebration 

on the 3rd of July.

I made some cookies to take.

{I saw the bottle rocket idea on another blog}

On her's she used a template and cut around it with a knife. I just wanted to use a cookie cutter and then I remembered that I had an arrow shape. So I went to get that and saw a little funky pumpkin shape and thought it would make a great smoke bomb cookie. So credit to Sugarbelle for the bottle rocket idea and me for the smoke bomb. She outlined her whole cookie in black. I didn't want to. She used flat bamboo skewers and "glued" her spark on with icing. I used lollipop sticks {cut in half to make them shorter} and put both the firework and the spark on then baked them. Ok, photos.

Star of David mini cutter for the spark and an arrow for the rocket. The stick becomes the fuse.

Little pumpkin for the smoke bomb.

I love my stackable cooling racks.

To get the "burst" on the spark I outlined and filled a little with yellow then put an orange dot in the middle.

Pulled a toothpick through from the center of the orange dot out to each point and you have a spark.

{If I would have wanted to get really elaborate I would have put a red dot at the very center and made a lovely three color spark, I didn't}

Let those dry for awhile then outlined the top of the arrow with blue.

Let that set up for about 10 minutes then filled the blue in.

Added white stripes and let them dry for 10 minutes.

Then added red stripes and let them dry.

 Outlined the base in white, added a star.

 {I just drew it with a tiny tip and then filled it in}

 They make me smile. Thanks to Sugarbelle for the idea.

For my smoke bombs the spark is the same then I just outlined and filled the bottom in the color I wanted it to be, waited until it dried a little added some dots for decoration. 

There they are all drying so they can be packed away and saved for the 3rd.

Spain Cookies: Delivered -

Stole these pictures from Jill.

 Stacy, Nikki and Ashley

Thanks, Jin.

More Cookies for Kids -

This time I went with a very simple design.

Popsicles.

 79 {just so you don't waste your time counting}

I had to make a cookie cutter because I have yet to find one that I like.

Side note: I told Bryan I am going to be running for president {he was watching FOX News and they were talking about the upcoming election, when isn't there an upcoming election?}

I digress...anyway...and my platform will be "Just have a cookie." I think it will go and perhaps solve a lot of things except maybe the whole obesity thing America has going on...Watch for my book {everyone writes one these days. Bristol Palin? Really do we need to know the details of your life?} it will be called, 

"Cookie Bookie"

Stepping off my little soapbox now...Won't happen again.

Congrats, Chachi!

Bobbi's friend, Charity, graduated from Lincoln Police Academy tonight.

We made a little cake for her.

Cookies for Spain-

I made some cookies for the Spain Team.

Jill is taking them to Spain with her on Tuesday.

She will be gone a month.

I will miss her.

She gets to see Ashley.

That makes me happy and a little jealous all at once.

But she is taking these for me.

What a nice girl.

p.s. I made 10 because she would eat one anyway. 

That way there is still enough for everyone. 

Thanks, Jill.

Tablecloths and Pop's Popcorn -

While in Walnut, Iowa I found some vintage tablecloths at a sale for very cheap. So I got them in hopes that they fit The Turquoise Table. Two of them do! And one is too long but will fit a bit bigger table at the cookie/coffee shop in my dreams.

Then because it is Father's Day and my dad loves cookies and snacks. I made him some very fast cookies shaped like popcorn. Actually the only way you would know they are supposed to be popcorn is because they are in the popcorn box! haha I will try harder next time I make that attempt. And I won't try it when I only have an hour before church!

Possibly, they look more like broken eggs in a popcorn box,

 not popcorn with butter and salt!

Just a few creations from Tuesday -

I wanted to try making a ticket out of my rectangle cookie cutter so I did. 

Next time I will make the writing neater. I was just messing here.

Chocolate Cake -

But it's a very good one.

I found the recipe for it, the filling and frosting on the internet and thought I would try it.

 Mainly because I was curious about the toasted marshmallow filling.

It is a very rich cake. And the frosting is delicious. 

I think that I would do it differently next time. The instructions said to cut the cakes in half and put the marshmallow and chocolate frosting alternately on each layer. 

I think, when I make it again, I will just put the marshmallow filling between the two cakes and then frost it with the chocolate. 

It was a tad too rich for me with all that filling between thin layers of cake. 

But it is so good.

And I used my little flag cookies to decorate it.

You can't tell from this but there are 3 layers of toasted marshmallow frosting. 

And it is on my lovely cake stand that I found at Target for $6.

Cookie Confetti -

This little, and I mean LITTLE, project was a result 

of having a dab of dough left from the t-shirts.

I have some tiny little tin cutters and thought "Why not?"

Here is the result. Little tiny flags. 

I think they would look adorable on cupcakes.

 Cut out less than 1/4 inch thick and baked at 350 for 5 minutes.

Cooled and piped on a gray flagpole. #1 tip.

Piped on blue dot. #2 tip.

 Piped on 3 red stripes. #1 tip.

2 white stripes piped on with #1 tip. Let dry and packaged up.

Took the picture with them in my had so you could see the actual size.

There are 24 in the bag and it took me 15 minutes to frost all of them.

Esprit Tour T-Shirt Cookies_

Decided to make the kids {75 of them} a cookie that looks like our t-shirt for this year.

 First I did the main color then while it was wet, I added the little shadow details. 

Let those dry really well then used a clean paint brush to brush on the purple.

When that was dry I used the same brush to brush on the blue "heart" design.

Let it all dry really well and then used a #1 tip to write the words.

Pretty happy with how they turned out. 

The main icing color was a perfect match until it dried then it seemed a little more pink toned than I wanted but oh well. 

I timed myself and did 37, main color and shadow, in 30 minutes.

Weekend projects -

Since I had the kids here this weekend I made homemade cake donuts. 

They turned out really well.

The recipe said to roll them to 3/8" thick.

I probably did 1/2" or more. It worked fine.

 Deep fried for 1 and 1/2 minutes per side.

 Done to perfection.

Removed and drained on a paper towel.

 When they were cool enough to touch we dipped them in icing and put sprinkles on them.

Eat as directed.

We also decorated some cookies...

 Amiah

 Amani

 Hudson

and I just did a few mini cupcake cookies. 

I left my cell phone in there so you have a size reference.

Busy weekend but fun projects.

Also made a batch of bbq sauce to have when I want it instead of making it each time.