fall cookies and a little how to

 

It's November! Which means Thanksgiving is coming and people are starting to think about the things they are grateful for. Mostly I just think about the fact that between now and the end of the year I have to prepare for 11 family birthdays, 2 major holidays, and an anniversary. Apparently we like making things difficult in our family... 2 of those birthdays are on Christmas Eve, one is on New Year's Eve, and my anniversary {for that matter my sister's too - theirs is the same day} is on or around Thanksgiving every year. But anyway. I'm going to force that out of my mind for the moment.

I've been getting more requests lately for some how-to's. I haven't really bothered with that up until now because there are so many extremely talented and popular cookie bloggers out there whom I feel have covered the how-to better than I ever could! But it occurs to me that - while I have learned a lot from them - everyone's style is a little different. Everyone has their own methods and what works for them. And now that my work situation has changed - I should actually have time for this! I will just have to learn to take more pictures as I do things. Half the time I forget to take pictures at all.

Today I just wanted to show a quick little trick I've used. Sometimes I want a shape that I don't have and I either don't have time to buy or just simply can't find. If I only plan to cut out a small handful off cookies I'll just make a template and cut around it with a knife. But in this case I didn't want to do that. So I made my own shape - out of an old shape I didn't want.

Ok so that's not the original shape - it was actually a large star. But I have a thousand start cutters for some reason so I deemed it ok for this one to go. I straightened it out a bit and undid the fasteners. Then I drew out the shape that I wanted {make sure the size is small enough that it won't need more metal than you are starting with!}:

and then used needle nose pliers to work it into the shape I wanted, while constantly setting it on top of my guide to make sure it was right.

When it was done I clipped of the excess with metal cutters, and used some super strong glue to set it - and then used a c-clamp while it set.

 

It looks all wonky from the top, but I'm not worried. I haven't tried it {yet!} but I imagine a home improvement store would have some sheet metal or something that could be cut and bent to the right shape. I definitely plan on experimenting with that, and will let you know when I do.

But in the meantime I'm happy with my shape.

So there you have it, my cookie cutter hack I guess you could say. 

Happy Fall everyone - as busy as this time of year is, it is definitely my favorite.