Christmas 2024

Hundreds and hundreds of cookie cutters can be found at my house and I always say I don't need to buy more, but it never works.  When I saw these designs I knew I wanted to include them in my holiday collection this year.  Dozens and dozens of tree cutters, but not one with a star on top, so another cutter has been added to the cutter closet.  It was worth it, these designs make me smile.

As I was decorating them, I remembered some other non-traditional trees in the past, so here is a look back at some previous designs.

 

In addition, great-niece Avery, received a special collection of cookies reminiscent of paper dolls.

 

Love, hugs, cookies and Merry Christmas to all!

Reference:   Tutorial for the tree designs can be found at Little Cookie Co.

 

Christmas is Here

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and after social distancing in 2020, our extended family was looking forward to our celebration. Since some of the "kids" in the family now live out of state, the crowd was not expected to be as large as usual.  However, due to the Omicron variant of the Corona virus, by Christmas day the crowd had dwindled from 27 to 6!

Matt and I were grateful to be able to attend and the food was packed and delivered to other family members.  I guess "meals on wheels" was a step in the right direction from last year and we are grateful that the vaccine has kept symptoms mild for those who were afflicted with the virus.  Hopefully, next year we can return to a full family gathering.

Cookie designs this year,  included:

Plain  .  .  .

Fancy .  .  .

Traditional  .  .  .

One cutter, four looks. . . 

a new Santa .  .  .

and angels in remembrance of family members, Kathy and Diana,  who left us this year.

         Merry Christmas one and all.

O'er The Fields We Go

Cookies to send to friends in Iowa and Ohio are baked, decorated, packaged, and in the mail.

The Ho-Ho-Ho cutter is new this year.  I have made them before by piecing two cutters together, but this year I purchased a cutter designed by Mike at SemiSweetDesigns.  I was unable to manage the crisp clear lines that Mike had and my elf looks a bit tipsy, but I keep telling myself,  "it's just a cookie."

I had no intention of repeating the cars and trucks that I made last year for my family because it is time consuming to piece together the car and tree from two cutters.  However, when I found this tin and card with the same theme, I thought they would be a fun package to send to friends.

In addition, an internet search helped me find some inspiration for more realistic looking trees.

Finally, I had to purchase the new cutters designed by my favorite cookie mentor, SweetSugarBelle.  That reindeer just makes me smile.

To friends near and far,

love, hugs, cookies,

and

a very Merry Christmas!

'Tis the Season. . .

 

This year I decided to spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying the season with family and friends.  As a result, all of my good intentions to make a lot of new and different cookie designs will have to wait until next year.  Instead, I opted for traditional Christmas colors, design favorites of the family and some cutters that I have had for years but never used.

I did complete a few orders for friends.  .  . a dozen for Kathy and Joe to send to their friends in Iowa, and a few good men for Lyn to give to some committee members at school.  I changed the beard from last year and opted for a humorous tag.

I chose Mrs. Claus as the design for the Our Lady of Victory Women's club.  Once again, I revised the design from last year and followed SSB's tutorial to use a Halloween skull cutter in place of my round design.  Mrs. Claus' tag said, "Behind Every Good Woman.  .  .", but I forgot to take a picture of it.

It is somewhat of a tradition that I add a new and different Santa and Reindeer each year, so I added two new cutters to my collection. 

This year the great-nieces/nephews

will find personalized stockings on the dessert table.

Finally, for just a bit of fun, I trimmed my Santa cutter and created Snowbird Santa.  This design was shared in a Christmas Collage on The Bearfoot Baker's blog.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!

Christmas in July

A Reindeer in July?  WHY?

. . .because he is also a Giraffe!  This will make sense, if you read the entire post.

Several years ago a few pictures of an unusual reindeer started to appear on FLICKR and I decided I really wanted that cookie cutter.  After searching all of my favorite cookie cutter sources and not finding this guy, I searched Google images and discovered the cutter in Australia. Alas, international shipping was not available.   Disappointed but not deterred, I was on a mission to add this cookie cutter to my collection.

I have a niece who travels to Australia periodically on business, so I asked her if she had any contacts in Australia who would be willing to let me order cookie cutters that would be shipped to their home and then ship them to the United States.  It worked and I ordered 2 cutters one for myself and one for my dear friend, Donna (http://carrollscookies.blogspot.com/), who shares my passion for cookie decorating.

Shortly after I received this package, I read about Spring Fling in Kentucky.  To my knowledge, this was the first convention of its kind for cookie decorators.  Donna and I thought it would be nice to bring a gift for May and Kay (http://www.cookietwoshoes.com/), the two amazing women who organized this gathering, as well as the wonderful group of instructors who would be teaching us throughout the event.

What gift do you give to cookie decorators?  A cutter?  These women probably have 100s, if not 1,000s of cutters. . .but one from Australia?  Could I possibly figure out a way to order these again?  Once again I relied on my family to help me with my crazy, cookie hobby.  Another niece had a friend who was traveling to Australia to attend a wedding.   She agreed to pick up the cutters, carry them back with her to Seattle and mail them to Chicago.  As a result this cute, little Aussie is now residing in several homes in the USA!

So why is he a Giraffe?  . . .because of the creativity of SweetSugarBelle, of course!  She has the incredible ability to look at a cookie cutter and see something, the rest of us do not see.  Click on this link to see how the cute, little reindeer can be transformed into a giraffe:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2012/07/how-to-make-giraffe-print-cookies/

Click on the link below to read more about Spring Fling:
http://carrollscookies.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-fling-2012-its-all-about-shoes.html