Learn how to make some fun polka dot pumpkin decorated sugar cookies with this royal icing cookie decorating tutorial!!  Oh friends. Let's make things simple today, shall we?  I made cookies.  They're fun. 

Learn how to make some harvest themed pumpkin cart decorated sugar cookies with this royal icing cookie decorating tutorial!!  I am ready for a good old-fashioned family holiday.  Like... on a scale from "one" to  "waiting for the baggage carousel at the airport to start moving" -- I am solidly at "watching a pot until it boils."

Learn how to make some colorful Fall or Autumn leaf decorated sugar cookies with this royal icing cookie decorating tutorial!!  We've run out of "acceptable" breakfast cereals at my house. I'm not gonna lie...it's been rough.  Sometimes, I buy cereals based on the nutritional content and my current efforts as a loving mother to help my children be self-aware and make healthy food and life choices so that someday they can grow up to be happy, successful adults. Sometimes , I buy cereals based on my very low tolerance for incessant "please, please, pleasing" while simultaneously jumping about and very nearly knocking things over.  So as you can imagine, we have a stack of healthy-er-ish cereals in our cupboards of whose very existence my children refuse to acknowledge.  After being away a bunch this fall because of back-to-back CookieCon schedules...we hit an all-time low this week. The very last of the impulse cereal purchases was consumed.  My kitchen ta...

Use this icing color palette and the formulas to make icing for your next fall or Thanksgiving cookie project!!  I used Chefmaster brand food coloring for all of these formulas.  If you're not sure what the "parts" mean, or how to use these formulas, check out THIS POST for detailed step-by-step photos!  Grab the cutters: whole pie , large pie slice , small pie slice , turkey , and leaf .  See more of my color palettes and formulas HERE ! 

Don't miss the video tutorials for all of these cookies at the end of the post!!! Starting new things is hard. Even just knowing WHERE TO START a new thing can be hard. Cookie decorating is no different.

Use this cookie decorating tutorial to learn how to make decorated sugar cookies that look like cornucopias -- perfect for Thanksgiving! I have a confession to make. I've made a cornucopia cookie tutorial every year for the last three years.  THREE YEARS. And do you know what happens? Somehow Halloween turns into February overnight. Every single time. It's like some kind of conspiracy.

I don't like space movies. There just aren't a lot of plot options. As soon as I see a trailer, I already know that the movie is going to go one of two ways -- something bad happens and everyone you've come to know and care about dies in some horribly noble way that will forever scar your life OR something bad happens and they find a solution at the very last possible second and only one person that you've come to know and care about dies in some horribly noble way that will forever scar your life.

If parent guilt was an Olympic sport...I would be a medalist. I worry about what I'm teaching my kids if I let them eat dessert *gasp* every night. I worry about what kind of parent I am if I let them watch Netflix more than once during a school week. (And two days? THREE DAYS??!! I'm basically a monster.) I rarely do crafts with them unless I'm desperate. They play outside sometimes. And once in a while they wear weather appropriate clothing to school on purpose. I've been known to intentionally feed them quesadillas for dinner. And during the summer...my toddler ate tomatoes and strawberries straight from the garden without even washing them. Trust me. If there is something a parent could conceivably feel bad about themselves for...I've already booked a one way ticket on that guilt trip. But my biggest shame....

It's funny. As a kid, I always thought that when I grew up and bought my own groceries...I would buy SunChips every single time. I would live on SunChips. I would build my house out of SunChips and I would send SunChips Christmas cards that turned into bags of SunChips when you opened them. And then I got older. And learned about these things called "vegetables" and "exercise" and "modeling healthy behavior for children" and I cried inside because I never wanted to be a grown up ever again. And now when I go to the store and feel all "splurgy" and "spontaneous" I end up buying kitchen garbage bags...with DRAW STRINGS. One time, I even went all out and got the kind that smell like lavender. ( FYI -- Totally did NOT smell like lavender. Don't waste your money. Buy SunChips instead.) And then I come home and drown my SunChips sorrows in cookie decorating. Which is kind of ironic because these are "grateful"...

Learn how to make some gorgeous pear decorated sugar cookies for fall or Thanksgiving with this royal icing cookie decorating tutorial!! It's barely the middle of October and I'm already tired of making pumpkin cookies. All that orange. And the segments. And THEN you have to go and pipe a stem on top. A STEM. Like I've got time to go around piping stems on top of pumpkins. I've already got weeks worth of laundry piling up and now I've got to be worrying myself about pumpkin stems? I don't think so. I'm never going to make it through November. And it's definitely too early to skip ahead to Christmas. I mean, it's not even cool enough to turn off my air conditioner.  I absolutely refuse to get in the Christmas spirit until I can open a window and not feel the urge to bathe in popsicles. (Blue raspberry...in case you were wondering.) It's time to do something drastic. We're just going to have to start a revolution. A PEAR revolution! Pleas...

I'm kind of a "from scratch" food maker person. Like, if I could grow wheat in my backyard, I probably would. And then I would grind it up into flour and make noodles so that I could make noodle soup. But I would buy the chicken. Because... eeww. Chickens smell. And I have a little yard. It's only big enough for wheat. And tomatoes. And also an apple tree. I make food from scratch for two reasons. And neither of them are good reasons.  The first reason is probably obvious... I don't ever listen to what people tell me to do. I'm pretty sure that my own way is better. Boxed brownies? Eh. I could probably make them fudgier. ( What? I'm insane. It's not even possible. ) The second reason is even worse. I never plan ahead and I hate shopping. So like, let's pretend that last week I had a bunch of friends come over to decorate cookies. (Yeay!!) And that morning I decided that I wanted to make a giant sandwich to share. Of course, I don't have a ...

I kind of make a lot of turkey cookies. If there was some kind of Code of Cookies and they put a limit on the number of different kinds turkey cookies that a person should make in their lifetime, I probably would have already broken that code. And then the Round Table of Cookie Decorators would have to cast me out. And I would run away clutching my PME tips to find a cave to live out the rest of my days, eating only root vegetables and blemished fruits. And still I would find a way to make more turkey cookies. And not because I even like turkeys. Because I don't. Not even a little bit. They are actually quite repulsive to me in every possible way -- 1. They are birds. Birds have feathers. I hate feathers . In fact, I LOATHE feathers. 2. They make crazy noises. I hate crazy noises. 3. I don't eat meat. 4. That *thing* that hangs off their beak. Eeewww. Right? 5. All those actual feathers means crazy complicated cookie designs. And THAT, my friends, is why I make a ji...

Use this cookie decorating tutorial to learn how to make turkey sugar cookies that are perfect for Thanksgiving! I started making these cookies last weekend. I was pretty sure the world needed more "simple" Thanksgiving cookies. Because, let's be honest... PILGRIMS? That's like an eleventy million step cookie. Even if you only make one gender. And turkeys have all those feathers. And I don't even like feathers. Just thinking about all those colors and mixing and blending and time and steps and waiting and the dragging of toothpicks through the icing... I pretty much had to stop right there and buy a pumpkin pie. And then, of course, I had to find whip cream for that pie. And, you know, I might as well get the rest of the groceries on my list while I was at it. And I took some time out to feel sad about the wilty little green things that were masquerading as cucumbers. Poor summer vegetables in the winter. It's not really their fault. Not really. S...

My children have no concept of Thanksgiving. For as long as they've been alive, we've lived far from family. My oldest thinks that Thanksgiving means making turkeys out of cookies, candy and frosting. My middle child thinks it means meeting new friends. And my youngest child is still happy just living in the moment. She doesn't even realize her birthday is in 8 days. But for the first time in their little lives.... Thanksgiving is going to mean FAMILY. And food. Lots of food. AND -- I'm hosting it at my very own house! I'm so excited! And nervous. And of course, instead of worrying about the food or making sure I have enough chairs for everyone to sit on... I've been planning the centerpiece. And, I know this is going to be a bit of a shock for everyone... but it's going to be a COOKIE centerpiece. A cookie cornucopia, to be exact. It was actually a lot easier to construct than I thought it would be. Although, I will certainly do a few things differently...

I have a feeling that I might regret every day of my life that I am telling you this, but that isn't going to stop me now. I tried not thinking about it. I tried making myself promise that I wouldn't tell you. But then I went and had a pretend conversation with you in my head and you thought I was hilarious and not at all weird. And as everyone knows, there is no turning back after the pretend conversation.... so... I taught all the boys in my house how to do arm farts last night.  Whew. I said it. It's true. Arm farts. They happened here. I'm a train wreck of blog sharing. I can't help it.  You're all too nice and loving and I just have to tell you everything. Remember, you thought I was hilarious and not at all weird. Don't go back and change the pretend conversation now. Also, I have to tell you that I am going to break my "Don't even think about speaking about someone talking about decorating or celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving...

I'm a briber. I bribe my children. This is socially awkward to admit because when I was growing up, " I bribe my children " meant pretty much the same thing as " I am the worst parent in the history of ever because my small and illogical children aren't altruistically making the right choice on a daily basis and they will never truly learn to love or be loved all because I have made this horrible, horrible life choice for them at such an early age . And I smell bad." Apparently, children were supposed to have already picked up the concept of sacrificing the now for a later gain by the time they reach the age of two. I was determined to not be the worst parent in the history of ever. I wasn't going to bribe my children. Ever. And for a while, I was really good at it. I was fair and logical and patient and loving and I have to say, my child really was practically perfect. And then he was born. And around his second hour of life, I scrapped that whole...