Sometimes cookies stress me out. Usually it happens when I realize I haven't even started on them and it's already 8pm the night before the cookies are needed, which is usually also the same day that the entire neighborhood is coming over to celebrate a Victorian Tea themed birthday party for my 3 year old daughter that includes period costumes for everyone and coincidentally, also turns out to be the same weekend I intend to climb Mt. Everest...blindfolded. So you know...not a lot going on besides cookies. I've come to really appreciate the under appreciated cookie designs. You know, the ones that will never be the hero and save the princess from the dragon in the castle. Just the regular, working class cookie designs that make sure everyone gets where they need to go safely but no one realizes how crazy important they are until suddenly all the flights in the entire country are grounded for days and you're stranded at the airport with no way to get home an...

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...

You know how kids get super tired, but they don't really understand tired yet, so they just end up falling asleep in the weirdest places? My son was like that. He fell asleep on some pizza once. But right before that happened, he kept trying to pick it up with the handle end of his fork. When he couldn't get that to work, he looked down and finally realized what he was doing. He started crying and asked, "What's happening to me?!" 20 seconds later, he was out cold and didn't even wake up when his dad opened a bag of candy. And you *know* how kids have cellophane crinkling radar. I feel like that right now. Tired beyond normal reasoning...yes. Wishing I was eating pizza...yes. But mostly -- What's happening to me??!! It's already October 7th and this is my first Halloween post of the year??!! Remember when I used to start posting Halloween cookies in August ? Sigh... the good old days. When I actually posted the cookies I made. Because... if we...

  **Fair Warning-- This post is a little wordy and full of numbers and zero actual cookies.** Remember last spring when over TWO THOUSAND of you poured your icing covered hearts out to me in an icing issues survey? I promise I didn't forget! I wasn't keeping it a secret. I *may* have lost my notebook for a few weeks this summer...but here is what I've been up to --  First -- I compiled all the numbers and made a bunch of charts and mathed things out in percentages looking for patterns and possible theories that might solve all of our icing problems. Second -- I asked for volunteers to help test those theories (and was overwhelmed by the very generous lot of you that said yes!!) I sent out different ingredients with varying methods of mixing, storing, and coloring icing. All my volunteers tested those ingredients and methods and reported back. Third -- I put all *that* information together in more charts with lots more scribbles. Some of my theories were compl...

There are two things that every cookie decorator asks me. The first -- what do you DO with all the cookies you make? The answer -- All sorts of stuff. I let my kids eat them. I let the neighbor kids eat them. I give them to everyone who will take them. I surprise teachers and coaches with them. Sometimes I throw them away when it's actually taken me 3 weeks to get myself on track and actually finish the cookies. And sometimes I give them to my friend because she likes to make magnets out of them. And the second question -- How do you keep from eating them ALL THE TIME?! The answer to that is surprisingly simple. I don't like baked goods. Cakes, muffins, cookies, pastries all have a near zero appeal to me. I would consider myself the luckiest girl in the whole wide world if I didn't know my deep secret. I LOVE CANDY. All kinds of candy except the kind that are just chocolate and nuts. I only merely like those kind. But if it's brightly colored -- I'm in love. ...

Can we talk about paper for a minute? More specifically -- the pages of a book. I know I'm a blogger and this pretty much goes against everything internetty that ever was... but I just adore books. I like the weight of them. And the smooth smooth paper. And I like that things stay in the same place. If that one recipe you love and adore more than your first glitter nail polish is on the bottom of the left page...it's always going to be on the bottom of the left page. You can ACTUALLY book mark it and it will always be right where you left it. And you can flip back and forth between two pages for as long as you like. You don't have to click on something to make it bigger. It's already bigger. And it doesn't have to load. You don't have to charge it. And if you accidentally spill your drink on a book (who does that???!) ... it's probably still going to be okay. Maybe a little wrinkled or wavy...but still totally functional.   And in all of my love of b...

Use this cookie decorating tutorial to learn how to make bright and fun Back To School decorated sugar cookies for your favorite student or teacher! Sometimes I think about my life before I moved to America. My kids were each born in a different state or country. They are actually convinced that if we move again that they will get a little brother. My 3 year old says, "You get in an airplane and then you get a baby." I'm letting her believe that for now. I used to dream about moving back to America and how easy it would be to find the exact cutter I always dreamed of. And turning lanes. And buying milk at 3 in the morning. And owning a house instead of renting. But as it turns out... I still order most of my cutters from the internet. Turning lanes actually are the most fantastic thing that ever happened to my driving life. I've never once, in the entire 2 years I've been back gone to purchase milk at 3 in the morning. And owning a house? Not quite as f...

I'm going to petition to make grocery shopping a sport. I'm not really sure WHO it is that you would have to petition or even really how to do it. But if I can figure out how to use Twitter... I am pretty sure I can figure this out. I mean... it's physical exertion, right? 25 pound bags of sugar and flour don't just lift themselves up into your shopping cart. Your children don't just walk quietly next to you as they pass their favorite candy/toy/game/random-what-have-you-with-flashing-lights-and-noises. And then you lift all those groceries up on to the counter, then back into the cart, you have to push it across the parking lot while simultaneously corralling said children and dodging into the path of cars to snag them up since you really weren't very good at corralling them and once you get to your car, you unload everything just to lug it all back out again when you get home. All of this would be totally fine and carefree if your diet consisted of sunfl...

I don't know about you guys, but I just can't make myself turn on my oven right now. It's like my oven is telepathic. If I even get out my sketch book and cutters, it somehow heats my house up another 10 degrees. And then I get all heat lethargic and have to crawl around looking for water and refuge. Which is awkward because it doesn't seem to affect my children.

You guys know this is my favorite day of the month! I get to peruse my cousin's fantastic paper creation blog and then recreate one of them in sugar form. I actually made these awhile and I have been SAVING them for some reason that even I don't comprehend. And also I may have forgotten I had them for awhile. But here we are with some of the cutest, most adorablest sea creature cookies I've ever made. Which is not a surprise considering I used this CUTEST BEYOND WORDS crab card as my inspiration!!!! WHY did I not also make the flower?! (Because I'm just awful at flowers, that's why. But next time...Imma brave it anyway. It's just too cute.) 1. Bake yourself a crab shaped cookie. You can eat one of them if you want to. I won't tell. 2. Using thick black icing and a #2 tip, outline the entire cookie. For some reason, I thought it made sense to leave gaps for the eyes. But...it doesn't. Just outline the whole thing. Let the outline dry for ...