Happy Thanksgiving

 

Our Thanksgiving celebration was also a birthday party, acknowledging the numerous milestones reached in November.  Brother-in-law, Marty celebrated 80 years . . . 

Niece Wendy reached her 50th milestone, and great niece Chiann celebrated her 30th.  

Finally, a turkey with a party hat for my Irish twin.  It may not be a milestone for Rita this year, but she is the one family member with a birthday that was actually on Thanksgiving Day!

 

 

 

Fall Bake Sale

 

 

November brings the annual bake sale and I am always happy to contribute, but I do get bored decorating the same cookie designs year after year.  So although this Sweet Sugarbelle Scarecrow has always been one of my favorites, I gave him a vacation this year. . .

and added  two new scarecrows to my collection.

Whether it's a cutter  originally designed to be a hamburger, an ice cream cone, a manger, a snowman or an actual scarecrow, these guys have made me smile through the years.

 

 

Fall Cookies

 

After baking a large quantity of cookies for a baby shower just a few weeks ago, I opted to keep it simple for Thanksgiving and the annual bake sale this year.  The scarecrow and the acorn turkey have always been a couple of my favorite designs, they make me smile.

It's Turkey Time

 

The cookie collection for our large family gathering includes the acorn turkey that is one of my favorite designs, a turkey from a seashell cutter and two "flips" from cutters that I have owned for years and have never used.

A turkey from a flower cutter inspired by the very creative, Jill FCS .  .  .

and a scarecrow from a manger.  This is the first "flip" that I designed on my own.  It won't be one of my favorite scarecrow designs, but it was fun to try something new.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Brings Another Bake Sale

Cookies are bagged and tagged for the annual CCW bake sale.  Designs include traditional pumpkins, a gnome and several "flips."  

An ice cream cone = a turkey 

and turned upside down: 

A hamburger cookie cutter = a scarecrow

An acorn = a turkey

A tulip = corn

 

A Busy November

About 200 scarecrows, pumpkins, sunflowers and leaves kept me busy at the beginning of the month in preparation for the return of the CCW Bake Sale.  The scarecrow design has always been one of my favorites so I am always happy when I have an opportunity to use it.

A few days later, I started on some simple designs for the welcome bags for the hotel guests at great-niece Kaley's wedding.  The icing wasn't the shiny silver that I had envisioned, but there is a bit of sparkle that didn't show up well in the photo.

Shortly after completing the cookies, I broke my wrist but I managed to package them using one hand the day after surgery.

There will be no cookies for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, hopefully, I will be back to baking by Easter!

Fall Cookies

New scarecrows and sunflowers. . .

. . . plus some traditional favorites for a fall bake sale.

While baking cookies this week, the Chicago Cubs were playing in the World Series.  Although I knew championship cookies would be big sellers IF our beloved Cubbies won the series, I was superstitious and just "couldn't count my chickens. . ."

As I am packaging the cookies I am watching the Cubs Parade to celebrate their World Series.  In addition, I continue to read all the amazing posts that people are sharing via FB regarding this special Chicago celebration.  A friend posted  a picture of the following cookies that he purchased at a bakery for $4.00 each!

Perhaps a prop will increase the price of my cookies at the fundraiser!

Fall 2016 will be a memorable one for all Chicagoans!

Go Cubbies!

A Turkey Free Thanksgiving--NOT!

Last year, my Thanksgiving cookies were all about the turkey, thanks to all the creative bloggers who posted various designs and tutorial. This year, I decided that the Thanksgiving cookie collection would not have ANY turkeys, not one!  After all, how many different ways can you design a turkey?

Since I have never made Scarecrow cookies, I decided a fall theme would replace the traditional bird.  My husband is usually enthusiastic about my designs, but not this time.  He said, "Thanksgiving without a turkey?  I don't get it."  I was not deterred, I just kept telling myself, "no turkeys."

So the fall theme took shape, and a Scarecrow was born using Sugarbelle's instruction's to re-purpose a Snowman cutter.

Of course, a Scarecrow needs crows, so I re-purposed a carrot cutter and took design inspiration from a childhood cartoon.

I added another crow design when I found this cute creation by Nanny.

At this point, I started second guessing myself . . .Thanksgiving + bird = turkey, NOT crows! Turkeys needed to be added to the collection.

My second scarecrow design was made with a re-purposed hamburger cutter, thanks to the creativity of Jill FCS.  I thought his hat would be a good place to include a turkey in the collection.

When a surprise package arrived in the mail, I knew that I couldn't wait until Christmas to use these cutters! Thanks, Donna.

Since the little ones in our family love puzzle cookies, I decided that the Bearfootbaker's  turkey design created with a re-purposed acorn cutter would be the perfect bird to disguise.  I bagged these cookies and added a little tag that said, "I am not a turkey."

What happens to design themes when an unseasonably warm fall is interrupted by snow? It wasn't a few flakes or a light dusting . . .the headline in the paper read, "Season's first snow is Chicago's largest November snowfall in 120 years."  The cookie collection now needed Snowmen!

Finally, when I saw this adorable football turkey designed by Jill FCS,  I knew I had to add them to the collection.  They reminded me of the fun I had a few years ago collaborating on a football design with my Sugar Sister .

Scarecrows, crows, turkeys, football and, snowmen. . .so much for themes.  I guess my design style is eclectic.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

A New Season

It's the first full day of fall and the Chicago temperature of 50 degrees definitely suggests that the seasons are changing.  I have a love-hate relationship with fall.  Love the crispness in the air, football (GO BEARS), and the beautiful colors.  Hate the shorter days and the snow that is sure to follow.

In my cookie world, fall is my favorite season, there are no mistakes on pumpkins and leaves.  I haven't started baking fall cookies yet, but decided to put a few pictures together of fall cookies from the past.

I tried to use nature for
inspiration in this collection.

Quilt Cookie Inspired by Cookie Crazie

 For my Mom's 80th birthday in 2010, we had a quilt made that included the name of every family member.  I contacted Pam (Cookie Crazie) and she graciously gave me permission to use her unique quilting style on cookies that were part of the collection I made as a thank you gift for the woman who made the quilt.   If you are not familiar with Pam's work you can view all of her beautiful designs on her blog:  http://www.cookiecrazie.com/

Inspired by SweetSugarBelle

This Scarecrow collection was created using the tutorial that Sweet Sugar Belle posted on her blog.  My Brother-in-Law said they looked like snowmen dressed up as Scarecrows for Halloween!  Don't you just love the honest, constructive criticism from family members?  Lesson learned, next time make the face a little darker.


I can't imagine there are any cookie decorators that are unfamiliar with Calleye's work, but just in case, you can check out her step-by-step instructions for the scarecrows here.

Thanks to SSB's creativity and willingness to share her decorating tips,  I have become a better cookie decorator.  

I have some new designs that I plan to make this fall, so I'm looking forward to decorating cookies in the weeks ahead.