Great Ideas does not always equal Great Results!

I had this great idea for the cookies I was to make cookies for the missionaries of our big mission conference last week at our church. Ha! I guess my mind is much more creative and refined than the actual cookies that came forth......these cookies didn't turn out quite like I thought they would. Our theme was "Passport to Missions" so I thought I'd make a large rectangle for the passport and then make mini-transportation cookies to depict all the modes we take to share the Gospel of Jesus to others.

Wwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllll.......I ended up with this HUGE cookie and then made it even HUGE-ER :-) by globbing on mini cars, trains, planes, and boats. In the middle of decorating car after car after car and then train after train after train....... I was screaming in my mind, "What was I thinking?!!!" But nevertheless, I got them done (took me probably 10 hours over two days time) and delivered on time to a friend in charge of hospitality for the missionaries.

I learned a lot from this experience.......be careful with GRAND ideas and plans! lol

I took a picture of the first day's baking so you could visualize 24 large rectangles, 24 mini cars, 24 mini trains, 24 mini boats, and 24 mini planes. Get the picture? I truly am a CRAZIE cookie lady. ;-)

This pic says it all......look how huge and globby these look from a side view. :-)

Valentines Day 2008

I was thrilled to have real RED for Valentines Day this year. The contrasts with the pink and white were so fun.

Christmas 2007

I don't usually do sugar cookies for Christmas.....but this year I decided to try it out now that I'd developed a better technique and had those more vibrant colors.

The Christmas trees were especially fun because they allowed me to get creative with the decorations on them. :-)

I darkened my brown just a bit too much.....and my gingerbread men look nearly black in these photos!

I especially love how the snowmen turned out (I love snowmen!)

Fall 2007

Now that I was using the Americolor soft paste drops......I had a blast with fall too. I'd done fall cookies before, but not like these.

Summer 2007

I felt like I turned a corner in the summer of 2007. That is when I started using Americolor soft gel paste drops to make some of my colors (red, black, navy, and brown) and also I made many more colors of my shiny hard icing for the base on the cookies. Thus.....my cookies got more colorful and more true to life looking.
And what fun are the shapes for summer......flip flops, lady bugs, ice cream cones, and the like.

This is my all time favorite flip flop (the green one with pink rose buds) and I love how the ice cream cones turned out too.

The watermelon slices and lady bugs turned out so cute.....and once I established a format.....they were easy to duplicate.

Cookie History (Easter 2005 thru Easter 2007)

Here's some pics of my history in cookie adventures. :-)

Somehow Easter became our "traditional" time to decorate sugar cookies. I took pics for the first time in 2005.

Once we got Easter "down pat" (ha!) I started making cookies at other times.

Winter 2007

Puzzle pieces I made for a display at a booth for our 2007 mission conference......about where we "FIT" in God's kingdom work. :-)

We did Easter cookies with friends in 2007 and mixed them all together in the pics.....so not all these cookies are mine.

Cookie Blog Beginning

I thought it would be fun to blog my progress in learning to decorate cookies. So far, I've been seriously decorating sugar cookies a couple of years. I have a million cookie cutters :-) and am always reading about new methods and recipes to try to make them better "the next time". I have no desire to sell my cookies because 1) they are a labor of love.....and how do you put a price tag on love?, 2) there are lots of legal issues that immediately come into play when selling a product including needing a "professional" kitchen, owning your own busines, etc. etc and I have no desire to go there, and 3) I'm not sure I would love doing this if it was under a deadline and people had particular expectations of my work. This truly is a labor of love. I get such a kick out of bringing delight to others by sharing my baked goodies with them. And believe it or not......I believe God can use anything we do in His name....so even with my cookie baking, I desire to bring glory to Him. :-)