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Old School Cookies

My son started 1st grade last week. That's pretty much as full day as school gets. Because let's be honest, by the time he's old enough to start after school sports and clubs... he will also be old enough to start sleeping through class or ditching out entirely under the guise of a "dry heart disease." The first day was SO exciting for everyone. He was, of course, awake at the crack of dawn, completely dressed...including shoes.... standing mere inches from my sleep deprived eyeballs, staring at me until I conveniently awoke and he could proudly announce he had chosen the striped blue shirt and green plaid shorts all by himself without even turning his light on. He poured his own cereal and waited rather impatiently by the door until he finally managed to convince me to leave for school about 4 hours early. Or 15 minutes. It was an early morning. The details are fuzzy. I dropped him off and headed home. By the time I got to the edge of the parking lot, I

How to Make Cookies Look Like Leather

Can you believe that life goes on even when you're NOT making cookies? Hi. My name is Georganne. It's been 17 days since my last cookie. I've just been through a 2 week cookie decorating detox program. I had to clear the counter and put away all of my cookie cutters where they go. Yes, even the cutters in the bin of despair. I washed every last icing tip, bag, and coupler. All of my left over royal icing was purged. My house was clean. I was clean. (Except for the pre-baked and then forgotten cookies in the plastic container on top of my counters. I can't even remember when I put them up there. Eeewww. My plan is to leave them there for a couple more weeks until I can completely justify throwing the entire container away along with the cookies. At this point, there's no need to go opening that up.) I read a book. A whole book - without forgetting what it was about half way through. I made actual dinners every night. I went to sleep before midnight and wo

Summer Tree Cookies

I'm not one to spread sensationalist claims that scare the general public and cause mass hysteria without any facts or hard evidence to back it up... but I think something happened to the space-time-continuum. See, when I was a kid, summer lasted about a jillion years. Each day was an eternal summer of its own. I could spend a lifetime as a mermaid, read 3 books, fall asleep in the sun, set fire to dead grass and weeds with a magnifying glass, eat 2 snacks, climb a mountain that turned out to be a tree, invent a machine to make my bed for me, and also completely annoy all 3 of my brothers to point of shunning and anger all before dinner time.   And now I can barely manage to dress myself and eat breakfast by the time my kids are ready for lunch. Sure, it doesn't help that they want to eat lunch at 930 in the morning and I'm trying to keep them from setting things on fire with a magnifying glass while also making them 2 snacks and convincing them that until they a

Add Something Extra Round Up and a WINNER!!

Umm, did anyone see July coming? Because I think maybe I missed it. Yesterday it was the beginning of summer and now it's August. I think I blinked. Luckily I have all the amazing entries from the July CHALLENGE YOURSELF as proof that July actually happened. These patriotic shark cookies by Lettie's Labor of Love stole my heart from the first glance. I love the expression of the little crab man and the perfectly piped rope on the preserver. The flowers are so so pretty and the bite marks in the shorts?! LOVE it. As a sharp contrast, we have these soft and pretty spa cookies from Sugared Hearts Bakery . There are calming colors and patterns all over these cookies. I am LOVING the bubbles in the tubs and the "fluffy" non-pareil collars on the robes!! This Folk Art Bird from Gigi's Fresh Baked is so creative and such a fun use of sugar crystals and sanding sugar. I love all the different colors and patterns! You know what else I love? All the la

Challenge Yourself -- PAINTING!!

I have a new love in my life. Don't worry.... it won't displace cookies. In fact, it is STILL cookies... just more, somehow. This new love completely understands my need for depth and texture and knows that I like to create in the quite moments when no child is screaming at me or simultaneously pushing and pulling on my legs. This love is there for me when I just can't figure out where to go next with a design, when I'm awake at 3am and utterly hating on my latest cookies and always surprises me with the perfect next step. This new love solved my Caricature Dilemma .  And wholeheartedly supported my Western Wedding obsession.  It's brought that little *spark* back into my cookie decorating life... ...while simultaneously aging it in the most wonderful way possible.  I just feel so selfish keeping this love to myself. So I bring you August's Challenge that has the potential to change your cookie decorating life if only you can bring