Minnie Bows

 I just had to do a quick post to share what I got for Mother's Day from my 5 year old, Matthew. Or as I sometimes refer to him on here "Big M" ("Little M" being my 2 year old, Miles). For those of you who don't know him, Matthew loves to make everything out of paper. And I do mean everything. Well for Mother's Day he was absolutely positive that what would make me really happy was a Minnie Mouse bow cookie cutter. So what did he do? He made it for me. Out of paper.

He's such a sweet heart! That's the card he made me complete with Minnie bow "cutter" on the left, and a "cutter" for the polka dots, on the right. He was so excited and so proud of his gift that of course I didn't have the heart to tell him that's not how it worked. So at night after he went to bed I hand cut a few bows and decorated them, leaving one for him to do. 

 I love that he loves making cookies with me, and I love that he tried so hard to think of something I would enjoy. Another bonus is that we got to eat the results, which happens so seldom in this house!

I hope everyone else's Mother's Day was great!

catching up

Life is busy - as always - so I've been neglecting this site. Although if you follow me on Instagram you'll know I haven't stopped baking! But I am way behind on pictures. Some of these will look familiar to those who do follow my Instagram, but not everything. Since this is a picture heavy post just click on the link at the bottom to see all of the pictures.  Ok no more talking, here is a brief view of some of  what I've been up to over the last 3 months or so (I'm saving a couple of my absolute favorites for posts of their own).

I'm baaaack!

Life keeps changing, but it looks like I'm going to finally - really - be back to making cookies.

Updates soon...

but I'm working on some big changes!

{dragonflies and dancing fairies were for my sister

Merry's fairy party... it's as awesome at it sounds}



a random assortment of cookies

Life gets busy and I don't always get around to posting everything I want to post. So I was going through my phone trying to clear out some space when I came across these photos... lots of cookies I've never posted here. These are by no means everything, but I thought it would be a good way to catch up a bit. So here is a random assortment of never before posted cookies...

{monster eyeballs, for Halloween, if you can't tell}

Little Mary

Growing up, I had a second family. When I was about a year and a half old I moved to a small town in New Hampshire called Merrimack. I haven't lived there for almost 14 years now but I still consider it to be where I grew up, and a large part of me still thinks of it as home. There was a family there who my family was close with, and I've known them all my memory. Two of their kids are my age... Matt is about 6 months older then me and as kids we always competed for who was the tallest (these days I think he has a good 6 inches on me at least). He was my first kiss (we were about 3 or 4) and we used to play tag with each other, except when we caught the other we would kiss. This is a fact we earnestly denied as we got older, and it's also a fact that our older siblings never let us forget. "Little Mary" was the other, about a year younger than me, and her and I were best friends. My younger brother Tommy had a major crush on her for a long time and as a little kid he used to sing "I love Mary Kahler" all he time. My family referred to her as "Little Mary" for years because I have an older sister named Merry.

Here we are, that's me in the middle:

And here is Mary with my brother Tommy!

I came across those pictures recently and had to share! But on to cookies. Little Mary is little no longer, and while we haven't seen each other in many years (what with living on opposite sides of the country) I still keep in touch with her and all of my second family. Well Mary recently had  her first baby and I wanted to do something for her. I talked to her Mom and sister, and sent some surprise cookies for her baby shower whose theme was pink and black damask:

These first ones are my favorites, but they were pretty intricate. This is my first time doing damask and I think they came out pretty good!

 

I also tried a simpler pattern

And threw in some baby carriages as well.

And just because I worked hard on these and they are my 

favorites... one more picture of these damask cookies!

I'm definitely going to have to play around with this pattern some more. 

And I'm happy to announce that Elizabeth Keila was born on November 17th, 2011 (which is a wonderful birthday... Matthew's is the next day!) and she is healthy and beautiful!

On another note, I'm feeling adventurous and I'm in the mood to start making cookies again... except I can't decide what theme to go with! Any suggestions?

Mother's day lace cookies

Quick note before you check out this post, if you haven't checked to see if you are a winner of the giveaway, scroll down to the next post or click here!

Finally some pictures. These are the cookies I'm sending out for the winners! For Mother's Day I wanted to do something very feminine. For some reason I just don't work with the color purple a lot (I guess it just doesn't come up very often) so I thought I would go with a purple theme. Lace reminds me of my own mother, especially because she makes all of her own clothes... and by clothes I mean dresses because she wears nothing else! And yes, you read that right. My Mom makes all of her own clothes. Nearly every dress is trimmed or somehow complimented with some kind of lace, so I think of her when I see lace.

These next ones were more of some experimentation. I've done some like this before but never so large and never with such contrasting colors. What do you think?

They remind me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it... maybe some old vintage fabric I saw at my Grandmama's house? She has lots of fabric, seeing as she makes her own clothes as well. Or at least, she did. She's over 90 now so I'm thinking she doesn't sew as much anymore!

I had to throw in some more flowers... what is Mother's day without lots of flowers?

So what are your Mother's Day plans, are you going to see your Mom? Is your family doing something special for you? Word from Aaron is that he has a suprise for me... I can't wait to see what it is!

For the Mothers in my life I have a very special something that I'm going to be baking for them (non cookie related!). I haven't made them in a long time so I'm hoping they come out good. I'll be posting a recipe up this week!

Don't forget to tell your Mother that you love her!