Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's Birthday so I  baked up a batch of his favorite cookies..

Lemon sugar cookies

Dad loves to spend time fishing & hunting.  In the past I've sent him fishing cookies and a set of tools

so this time I made hunting cookies complete with camo.   I followed this post by Serendipitous Sweets and soon realized it was so easy to do camo cookies! 

Happy Birthday Pop!  We love you so much and are so lucky to have you as ours.  

Thank you for always loving us! 

xoxo

Camo hat with dad's initials

Vest over camo tshirt

I finally found something to prop my cookie up for photos.. 

a mini cookie cutter. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving! 

I am thankful for my husband, family, friends, home, good health

and a great job!  

What are you thankful for ? 

Cookies..from here to China!

 

 

I'm happy to report that after 6,000+ miles ( &13 days in transit) the cookies I sent to my sister for her birthday made it through customs and only one cookie was broken!   It's a good thing she has a fondness for broken cookies so it didn't go to waste. When she lived here she told me she would help me wrap cookies but the real deal was she wanted to eat any that were broken...it's amazing how many cookies ended up broken that day :)

 

 

I will definitely send them more cookies soon..

in less than 2 months it will be my brother in law's birthday

followed by our nephew's 1st Birthday!

Hard to believe almost exactly a year ago we were

planning her baby shower, anticipating his arrival.

 

Happy Birthday Brie!

 

My Sister

cupcake I enjoyed in honor of her birthday

 Today I'm over doing a surprise guest post on my sister's blog

Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House

The reason I say Surprise is because she has no idea that I wrote a blog post to 

wish her a Happy 35th Birthday!   

She is currently living in China and I shipped her Birthday box on 11/3 but can't do that birthday post until she receives the box from China Post.

Come visit me over there and see how much I love her! 

Motorcycle

When I started dating my husband I had no idea that he had a Harley.  I remember my first ride on the back of his bike.. Once I quit thinking "What if we crash?", I was saying "This is great!" 

I've traveled many miles on the back of his Harley and still love it.  About 10 years ago we traveled from Gilroy to Santa Cruz via Watsonville.  I will never forget the smell of the strawberry fields... so sweet that you could almost taste them. 

My friend, Michele, asked me to make a few Harley cupcakes for Tim.  My husband gave me his 

ideas and I went to work.  I used Makin's clay set that I have used for fireman suits, Tinkerbell shoes and many other things.  It's a great little set to have and can be found at Michael's in the clay section.  

I used a texture plate for the diamond plate design

then sprayed it with Duff's Silver Graffiti spray

This was delivered to my doorstep yesterday so now I don't have to buy Graffiti spray

and can actually airbrush pieces!  He had a great deal on his website for $25 with shipping so I ordered one for myself.  It currently sells at Michaels for $149.

The motorcycle was a freehand creation.. no cutters necessary

Helmet

Mini cowboy boot cutter, cut off the spur

and you have motorcycle boots

Happy Birthday Tim! 

Happy Halloween - belated

I forgot to post these 3 weeks ago!  

Happy Belated Halloween! 

Sweet Autumn Princess

Have you heard of  Tiny Prints?  In my opinion, they are one of the best personalized greeting card sites I've ever used.  I found them last Christmas when I wanted to make photo cards that were not the standard photo cards, but actual photos printed on card stock.  I've used them a few times since and just recently ordered thank you cards for everyone that sent or did something nice for our family during the recent loss of my Grandpa.  The quality is amazing and they ship rather quickly.   

Gramps  - "Dam'n I'm Good"

August 20, 1921 - October 8, 2012

This set of cookies was designed for Baby Girl Nash after one of Tiny Prints baby shower invitations called Sweet Autumn Princess.  

I have over 300 cookie cutters but I don't own a leaf cutter or pine cone cutter (can you believe that?)

Rummaging through my cutters I found a lemon cutter.  Perfect for a leaf shape.   Can you figure out what cutter I used to make the pine cone?  (answer is at the end of this post)

The plaque cutter is from another company that I love... Plastics in Print (PIP). 

Their store is on Etsy, they update their inventory every Friday and like Tiny Prints they ship out very quick.  It takes about 4 days for me to receive my order in California.  PIP Cutters run about $6 and they do combine shipping.  They do offer custom cutters as well. All you do is send them your drawing and PIP will do a custom listing for you.  Pretty cool. 

Perhaps a tutorial is in order for the pine cone.. it is 

much easier than it looks

No Chill Lemon Cookie recipe 

PIP Plaque Cutter 

Can you identify the cookie cutter shape? 

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SPOILER

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if you guessed SANTA you are correct! 

Santa turned into a pine cone

Rustic Bling

Do you know what's more fun than a western party? RUSTIC BLING! 

This was another fabulous party by Brenda.  You can see other parties she's hosted here.  She never misses a detail & has a friend who does amazing floral arrangements. 

This was a party for a husband and wife, celebrating birthday's together.  Brenda had seating areas for "her" and for "him", complete with leather couches, shag rugs, candles.. the works!  Her parties truly transport you to another place.  

6" vanilla cake with raspberry filling

Mini cupcakes in lemon & carrot 

I sued the hat cutter for Brenda's Wyatt Earp party a few years ago

It's a great cutter to have and can be found at Bake It Pretty

I made the mini butterflies with 2 paisley's that I glued together with royal icing. 

You can find the paisley set at Cheap Cookie Cutters

Gold Dragees...for a little bling

Living in California we can not buy dragees. I bought a bunch when we were 

in New York last year visiting my inlaws at Chocolate By Design which is located in Ronkonkoma, NY. 

The large flower is made with circle cutters in varying sizes

Once it was dry, I sprayed it lightly with Duff's Graffiti gold spray

and then made a royal icing center and dumped some disco dust on top

We also added a few dozen cake pops for added bling! 

Mustaches

I'm back & on a crazy mission to get my blog caught up this week!

I have lots of fun things to share with you all.

October came and went and left me very behind!

 

I did this set of cupcakes a few weeks ago for a baby shower...

This  set screams LITTLE MAN!

Little man cupcakes for Cayden James

 

The party decor was designed by Etsy shop by BusyChickadees.   I have a little mustache love ...remember this post about how my love goes back to my gramps mustache?  The toppers are made with fondant and royal icing.  It is easier to do details with royal icing. 

 

I hope you enjoy this set as much as I enjoyed making it!

 

Welcome Cayden James!

 

 

 

Etsy shop by BusyChickadees

 

Royal icing mustache

Fondant & royal icing tie