How to Decorate Christmas Cookies

Photos not adjusted, text not proofread, layout a little wonky…

But it's done!

I've been meaning to post a "How to decorate cookies" tutorial forever and here it is finally, imperfect though it may be. So let me know if it doesn't make any sense. I'm happy to answer questions if I can!

Download the PDF here!

Last weekend my best friend (who lives 2 1/2 hours away) came for my birthday. We went to our favorite junk shop and bought tons of vintage Christmas decor.

This weekend my cousin (who lives all the way in Spain!) came over for a lesson on how to decorate cookies. Here's the angels she decorated. With a little practice I think she'll be a great cookie decorator!

Next weekend is the first of 3 family Christmas gatherings for us.

Christmas parties, programs & shopping fill the time in between.

So… like everyone else I know… I barely have time to think. But it's a very happy state of stress. I really love the flurry of activity this time of year and I feel very lucky to get to spend some time with family and friends.

So… in case I don't have time to write again before Christmas…

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS!

It's Beginning to Look Alot LIke Christmas!

• Cookies Baked √

• House Decorated √

• Presents bought (almost done!)

Before this weekend I was feeling pretty stressed about getting everything done. Since I work full time most of my holiday preparations have to be done on weekends and this weekend was the last free weekend I had to get the bulk of my shopping, decorating and baking done. Actually… my mom came and helped with the cookie decorating last weekend so that was taken care of. (Thanks Mom!) But I still had lots of things to do. Thankfully… after a nice Thanksgiving with my in-laws, I was able to finish my decorating and get most of my gifts bought. PHEW! Feels good to start the work week with some big things checked off the old "to-do" list.

AND…

I GOT A NEW KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!! Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to me! My 18 year old Oster mixer was falling apart. I literally had to hold it together to use it. So… I braved the early morning Black Friday crowds and got myself a new Kitchenaid! Totally worth getting up at 3:00 am!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that your Holiday preparations are coming along!

Happy "Cyber Monday"!

A dimension of Imagination…

You're traveling through another dimension – a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.

I've been off in another dimension lately. A dimension of paper clay and paint. A dimension of wool roving and felt. A dimension of fabric and thread. I've crossed over into… the Crafty Zone. Every November I take part in a craft boutique with some friends. So… October is always devoted to crafting. I make little doodads with paper clay and a few needle felted critters.

I've let a lot of things slip while I've been busy with my crafting. I forgot to tell you that I had the honor of writing a guest post for Connie at The Constant Baker. Connie is a pastry chef in San Jose. Her blog is full of great ideas and information. It was very flattering to be asked to contribute to it!

I'll be spending my Halloween helping to "Save the World". The "World" is an old theater in our town that was built in 1927. The World Theatre Foundation is trying to raise money to restore the theater and turn it into a non-profit movie house run by volunteers. They're having "Candlelight Ghost Tours" for Halloween. The speech team is helping with the event and since I'm a speech mom… I guess I'll be helping too. I think it'll be pretty fun!

Happy Halloween!

Going to the Bar

Happy Valentines Day!

I just realized this is post #50! I also just realized that I started this blog on the lucky date of 7/07/07 (I wasn't thinking about that at the time!). It was March of last year that I started posting here on a more regular basis so that's what I'm considering my "blogiversary".

I'm celebrating by going to the bar!


Okay… it's a cheesy play on words. I'm talking about brownies and bar cookies.

The last time I went shopping for cake decorating supplies, I noticed that Wilton has a line of products out for making fancy brownies. They've had similar cupcake kits and the like out for a while. It made me wonder…

Are brownies the new cupcakes?

Naaah… I don't think so. I love brownies but they just don't have the same appeal as cupcakes. I can't imagine brownie printed fabrics and paper and other decorative things.

Never the less… I wanted to see what I could come up with to make brownies and bars more interesting and, in the end, I fell back on the standard practice of stenciling them. I was happy that I figured out how to color powdered sugar. You can't really see it in the picture, but I made some pink powdered sugar to sift over the letter stencils. I just stirred in some red powdered food coloring. It worked great!

Let the Frilly Unfurl!

Let the Frilly Unfurl!, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Pared down, modern clean simple designs have their appeal. In fact my plans to redecorate my house involve a lot of paring down and simplifying. (I'll post my inspiration photos at Flying Time)

But sometimes…

You just gotta let the frilly out!

The wedding cakes in this 1960s Wilton Cake Decorating Book are so, unrestrained, over the top, hilariously frilly. Not a speck of cake is left unadorned. After seeing this I couldn't help myself. I just had to make some ridiculously frilly, super tacky cupcakes. As I was working on these I was reminded of those 1980s Jessica McClintock prom dresses with the puffy sleeves and all the lace. Those were the days…

Oh by gosh, by golly… It's time for mistletoe and holly…

"retro" cookies, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Well…

It's the last week of school before Christmas vacation.

Our first big family Christmas gathering is this weekend.

Time is (pretty much) up!

I guess I've got most of the important things done. (Just need to get those cards adressed and mailed) But the season seems unusually rushed this year.

There's always so many more things I'd like to do…

Anyway…

Just wanted to wish you all a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Take care! Stay safe!
See you next year!

Emily

Now showing at the Gallery…

My artwork will soon be on display in a very fine gallery.


Okay… I have a friend who owns a wonderful gallery in a nearby town. She asked me to make some cookies for an opening she's having soon. But, hey, just 'cause I'm not really the main attraction, doesn't mean I can't have a little fun being all hoity-toity, right?

This was my first order of the season. My mom came over and helped me work on these. She even decorated all the angel cookies for me…I've been making angels for the last 10 years, and I just can't stand to do it anymore!

Here's the little "muffin tin of cookie accessories" I put together for decorating day. I made all the sugar-paste holly leaves and things the night before. The multi-colored metallic dragees and the silver colored sugar next to them are brand-new. They just came (from Fancy Flours) in time to use on these cookies. I love the dragees but I was kinda disappointed in the silver sugar. I thought it would look much more metallic/glittery/sparkly. It was kind of a dull gray.



I also listed a few fun new things in my etsy shop. I'm gonna try to get a few more things listed in the next few days so keep checking back.

You Can't Always Get What You Want (but sometimes you do!)

If time, money, and my husband's sense of style were no object, this is what I would do with my kitchen:

• I would paint my honey oak 1990s cupboards a nice creamy white. This would appall most of my family. They all still believe oak is the be all and end all of woods and painting it is a terrible sin. But someday, I may just whip out the paint brush anyway.

• I would install a dark stained hard-wood floor

•get new counter tops (not sure what kind) with a (what's it called?) "rimless"/sunk-in sink

• I would buy these appliances and such…

I did get something I've been wanting for a while the other day. Heather (from Merry Moon) & I traded cupcakes! Here's is the one she designed for me. It looks very sweet in my kitchen.

Janice, from Pug Yoga has tagged me to tell you about some of my (many) quirks. Here's the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Mention the rules
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4) Tag six other bloggers by linking to them
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged

So…my quirks…

1. I am ALWAYS cold! I cannot drink anything with ice in it or I'll start shivering. I earned the nickname "Super Emily" at my last job because I would walk around with a blanket tied around my neck (over my three layers of clothing).

2. I love learning about plagues and epidemics. I research these things for fun. My favorite books are the Hot Zone and The Demon in the Freezer. So scary, but so fun to read. I dream about writing a book set in a tuberculosis hospital in the early 1900s or about the 1918 influenza epidemic. (I'm not a novelist. It's never gonna happen, but its fun to think about). I used to think maybe I wanted to be an epidemiologist or virologist, but I don't really want to get my hands dirty I just want to learn about these things from afar. Maybe the CDC needs a graphic designer?

3. I DESPISE matching up socks. Matched pairs never seem to get put in the same load of laundry. So when I'm folding clothes I throw the unmatched pairs in "the sock basket". We have a huge laundry basket of unmatched socks. When someone needs a pair, they have to go dig for two that are at least the same color.

4. I hate green vegetables

5. Every night, before I get into bed, I have to lift up the sheets and check for spiders.

5. The smell of cantaloupe makes me want to puke! I think it smells like a garbage dump. GROSS!

Okay, I'm passing this on to…

She's Sew Slye
Lulu Carter
Violaceous
Elfie and Me
Potty Mouth Mama
Practically Neccessary

You're invited!

national sugar cookie day!, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

National Sugar Cookie Day is July 9th and I thought it would be fun to have a little blog party/cookie exchange.

•Bake up some sugar cookies (plain or decorated)

•photograph your cookies

•blog about them

•post your photos to the National Sugar Cookie Day Flickr group

•e-mail me with your info/blog link. I'll post the links and some photos here on July 9th (late evening)!
Have fun!

P.S. I've never hosted one of these blog events before. I'm not sure what to expect. If you think I should structure this differently somehow please let me know!

Have fun!

Thanks!

Mother's Day

My creation, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Here's a little bit of a glimpse into how I think and how I find inspiration for my cookie designs.

I made a new friend in the blog world, Happy Loves Rosie. Her sight is so "happy" and colorful. Very inspiring. She has a link to Cath Kidston's site on her blog. I love Cath Kidston! So, I click over to Cath Kidston's site, find this fabric and think "ooooh! I could make cookies that look like this!" The resulting Mother's day cookies are shown above. I'll give them to all the mom's in my family. I'm thinking this palette could also be the inspiration for this years flower garden if I ever get around to planting it!

May Basket Cookies

A friend is going to start selling Longaberger Baskets and asked me to make these for her first party which will be on May Day. I'm still learning how to work with fondant. This time, the marshmallow fondant I made was very hard. I had to add water and really work with it to get it to hold together and roll out smoothly. Once the fondant was the right consistency it was fun to work with. I had fun making the lines on the baskets. Hopefully, with more practice, I'll figure out how to make fondant the right way so it's not so hard to work with.

May Basket Cupcakes

I had some gumpaste flowers left over from the anniversary cookies I made a while back so I used them on these May Basket cupcakes. I wasn't sure about using pipe cleaners for the basket handles but I think they worked okay. I just loosened the paper cup a little where the pipe cleaner needed to go in and tucked the pipe cleaner in so that it's kind of "next to" the cupcake and not actually "in" the cupcake. The pink crepe paper that I wrapped around kind of holds everything together.

I just wrote a post at Flying Time about how I'm trying to keep this whole Sugar and Meringue Etsy business organized . It's probably something I should have posted here instead but the pictures looked better over there. :)

faux bois cookies

faux bois cookies, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

I had a few extra scalloped square cookies in the freezer and I wanted to do something fun with them. I've kinda been into the "faux bois" trend lately (see my collage at flying time) so I decided it would be funny to make "faux bois" cookies. Here's some pictures that show how I made them.

Vintage Lily left a nice comment on a couple of my last posts so I visited her blog and absolutely loved it! She has a really great vintage style. Well… imagine my surprise when I visited her blog again and found a picture of my cookies in her flickr faves post! How fun! It was great to see them there!