I love spring.
I love the way you think it's getting warmer again "for real this time" and then it snows for 3 days straight.
I love that my children think that if they can see the sun and the grass at the same time that they can wear shorts and sandals and ride their bikes around the neighborhood until 10pm.
I love that they legitimately think it's a good idea.
I love looking out the window and seeing the sun shining through the flecks of green that are new leaves budding on the trees and the feeling that you just *have* to go outside and enjoy the world and feel those rays of sun on your skin and then the icy blast of the wind knocks you back inside the second you actually open the door.
I love that it never stops me from opening that door and just hoping it won't happen again.
I love that hope.
Spring IS hope.
I love spring.
You know what I don't love? When I delete pictures that I actually wanted to keep. I really wanted to show you how I made these butterflies, but I may or may not have gotten rid of half of the step-by-step photos. So I had to "magic up" some pictures so you would know what I'm talking about. And by that I mean, I drew up my pictures in paint.net. (Because you all know by now how obsessed I am with that program.)
1. Take any 6 petal flower cutter you can find. Then cut off the edges of each petal with a circle cutter. Or drinking glass. Or any round object you happen to have lying around that also happens to be food safe.
2. Using 15 count white icing, pipe along the outside edges of the cookie and fill in the top two "petals" of the cookie. Put just a little more icing between each of the "petals" on the bottom.
3. Immediately pipe some wings into the empty spaces with 15 count icing in the colors of your choice. Add some dots if you feel like it. Let the cookie dry overnight.
4. Using stiff black icing and a #1.5 tip, pipe a big ol' dot for the head/body, outline the wings, and pipe some curly antenna things.
I really wanted my colors to be more casual, to kind of flow in and out of the black outlines, but in the end, I just can't be too crazy like that and most of my outlines turned out to be kind of perfectly on the edges of the colors. But if you are cool with crazy cookies, you should definitely try for that. Because it's fun. And I like fun. Unlike the cold. Which I do not like.
You can also see a video of the whole process.
NEED MORE?
See how to make these butterfly cookies HERE. PS -- If you went to CookieCon do these look familiar? Like...maybe something you wore around your neck on a lanyard all weekend?
Learn how to make quick and easy flower bouquets to go with even more butterflies HERE.
And for the days when it's raining through the clear blue sky...an easy polka-dot umbrella tutorial HERE.
