Pretty in Pink...

I'm a little late in posting last weeks cakes.  I finally have my kitchen back, so I've been seriously enjoying cooking, and baking, and decorating it!  :)  I'm waiting on a couple of final items to come in, then I'll post pics.  It's so beautiful!!!!

This is my favorite cake from last week.  My customer was looking for a Barbie cake, which we can't do due to copyright issues.  So we went more with a princess theme.  Everything on the cake is edible...the crown and jewels are made out of white chocolate, and the pearls are white chocolate clay.  I really hope McKayla liked her cake!

I just love it when customers order cookies that match their cakes.  They are so much fun to do!  Below are the cookies and the cake to go with it....

And I have a bit of good news!  Anyone who has followed my blog has heard me talk about our grandchildren in Florida.  We go down for visits twice a year and I send them goodies at almost every holiday.  Well, the entire family has decided to relocate up here by us!!!!  So instead of seeing them twice a year, we'll get to be full time grandparents.  We're so absolutely thrilled!!!!  Below is a pic of me with the grandkids at the zoo during our last visit....aren't they just too cute for words?!  :)

Hope you all have a fantastic week!!!!

Still at it....

Remodeling, that is!  This project has definitely turned into a bit of a never-ending process.  But I think we're finally in the home stretch.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day grouting in the tiles my hubby set the day before.  That was a job, let me tell you!  It took so much longer than I anticipated, which really shouldn't surprise me at this point! 

I do think there's finally an end in site.  On Friday, we can seal the grout.  At that point, we'll be able to put the sink back in (thank goodness!).  Tonight I'm going shopping for tiles to use as the backsplash, which will hopefully be my project for tomorrow. 

This morning was spent going through cabinets, reorganizing, etc.  That's the fun stuff!  And...ordering new curtains, new clock, and a new utensil holder.  I'm going with splashes of red to get some color into the kitchen, since I hadn't really intended on doing the whole thing in gray!

So, awhile back, I posted pics of cookies I received during our cookie swap.  I just realized, I never posted pictures of the cookies that I made!  I sent these to Laura at A Dozen Eggs Bake Shoppe.  It was a little nerve wracking making cookies for her, as she is so good at what she does!  But I had alot of fun creating these, and she seemed to really like them, which totally made my day!

Busy Week

We have been soooo busy this past week.  Not only did I have alot of cake orders, but we've been remodeling our kitchen all week.  You can imagine the chaos that causes!  But the cakes came out good and the kitchen is coming along, so life is good!

First I'm going to sneak in a couple more "in progress" pictures of my kitchen!  We have everything done except countertops.  We've decided to tile the counters, and having never done that before, it's proving to be a bit more time consuming than we thought.  Actually, tiling itself really isn't bad...it's cutting the tile, and finding a decent tool that will actually cut it properly.  Poor Arnie is off at Home Depot again, hoping to find a better tool (which is why I have a minute to blog!). 

And we have our first little section of tile down.  Now, it can't be grouted for 24 hours, so this is just the base tile...no backsplash, no edging, no grout....i.e. no fancy stuff.  But I love the color of the tile and how natural it is!

I'm just so excited to get it all finished!  :)

Okay, on to cakes.  This was one of my favorites this week.  I've done versions of this cake before, but not with the Valentine's Day colors, which I really loved!

I've also done a version of the sock monkey cake, but I really love the colors that Kayla decided on for this, plus the little birthday hat on the sock monkey, which was also Kayla's idea! 

And cookies that will be shipped out tomorrow to Wisconsin.  They are the logo from a musical that the kids are putting on at school.

Oops...almost forgot the big Nike shoe for Jimmy's 13th birthday!

Well, I'm sure Arnie will be back soon, and then its back to work for me!  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Kitchen Fun

In a different way than normal!  We're doing some remodeling to our kitchen.  I am just sooo excited to get the extra cupboards and countertops.  Our kitchen wasn't designed very well to begin with.  I have a separate kitchen for doing cakes, but our actual kitchen had almost nooo countertop.  Here's a couple of before pics:

Yeah, pretty crowded, right?  So here's our new floor (and my sweet dog)...I LOVE it.  My hubby actually broke down and bought the good stuff!  :)

We moved the refrigerator to the other side of the room.  We also took out the dishwasher.  I know, insanity, but I honestly hate the dishwasher.  I used it about a dozen times when we moved in, and now it's used for storage.  I thought cabinets may be better storage!  :)  And here's a beginning shot of our new cabinets.....

Happy Valentines to me!  :)  I'm seriously hoping for new countertop tomorrow or Wednesday. 

Okay, next post I'll add some cake or cookie pictures, but I'm having so much fun and am so excited by my new kitchen!  :)

Cookie Swap Cookies!

So my big news is that my Cookie Swap cookies finally arrived this week!  (Hmm, maybe I need a hobby or something!)  And they are soooo darling!  Definitely worth the wait!  And I have to admit, I did eat MOST of them, per my partner's request, but I just had to save the lemonade pitcher and the glass.  Those were way, way too cute to eat!

And speaking of mailing cookies, I needed to get cookies shipped out to the grandkids this week, so they could have them by Valentine's Day on Monday.  I had to go a little more on the simple side than I usually do, since I had a very large order for OSU this week.  But they're little...I don't think they'll care!

I have to admit...sometimes doing cakes for boys is just not all that much fun.  Not always, but sometimes.  This week though, I had SO much fun creating this cake for Tommy's 7th birthday.  I've always wanted to try the giant Legos, and I really liked how they turned out.  The little figures are all modeled out of chocolate.  They are supposed to resemble the Lego Star Wars figures. 

And one final cake to celebrate Brad's 50th birthday.  It would also make a really cute Valentine's Day cake!

Have a great weekend!!!!

Good Read

As if my life doesn't revolve around baking enough, I'm still drawn to books that are written about baking!  :)  I picked this up over the holidays, thinking I'd read it while we were on vacation, but I just now got around to finishing it.  Really, really cute book!  If you're looking for a good, light read, this book is perfect.  And lots of cookie recipes too!  :)

Last year, twelve of us from Flickr met in Tennessee and had "Cookie Camp".  This book kind of reminds me of that! 

When the cats away....

LOL.  Since my hubby has been out of town visiting a friend most of the weekend, I used the time to spend some quality time with my new cutters.  (Sssh, don't tell!)  :)  I ordered from Ecrandal...a fantastic family owned cookie cutter company who does AMAZING work!  Their website is http://www.ecrandal.com/, if you're interested.  They make beautiful, sturdy copper cutters that will last forever with a HUGE variety of shapes and sizes available. 

First is the flower bouquet.  I loved this one!  It's a really large cookie, which gives me room to work with larger fondant flowers.  This one cookie with maybe some small hearts or flowers would make a wonderful boxed set.  I did the flowers in a hurry, as I'm always anxious to see the finished product! 

I also ordered two new corset cutters.  The ones I've done previously have more of an elegant feel to them, while I think these are fun and playful and sexy.

And I got this weekend's cookies all packaged up.  I think I enjoy packaging almost as much as I enjoy decorating!  :)

We've finally gotten a break from the ice and the cold here today, so its been a bit of yard clean up from our ice storm last week.  It's finally safe to attempt to walk across the yard!  And of course, still stalking the postal carrier, hoping my cookie swap cookies will be here soon!  :)

Valentine's

...is just around the corner!  Be sure to get your order in this week.  Surprise your sweetie with a delicious treat!

My wonderful friend, Diane, turned 50 last week, so I just had to mail her out some cookies, done in her favorite colors. 

And of course, lots of work on Valentine's Day cookies.  This first picture has a cookie that I entered into a contest, so pop on over to Haniela's and vote for mine!  (Or your favorite....I guess!)  :)  There's a Wilton set as a prize that I want to win for my daughter, who has finally decided to start decorating cookies!  Finally!  :)

I'm really excited....I should be receiving my cookies from our cookie swap this week!  I will post them as soon as I get them.  I think our mail carrier is starting to think I have a crush on her....I've been staring longingly at her all week, hoping she was bringing my cookies!  :) 

Have a great weekend!

Cupcakes Galore

What do you do when everything is under an inch or more of ice and its treacherous to even attempt to leave your house?  Well, if you're me, you bake!  When everything outside is cold and miserable, I loved being holed up in my warm kitchen with a good cup of coffee and something sweet in the oven!

So yesterday, after baking my hubby his very favorite gingerbread cookies, I thought it would be nice to get some Valentine's Day cupcakes done.  I had so much fun playing with these!!!  I bought these adorable wrappers last year and just didn't have an occasion to use them.

And I love chocolate icing with red accents...it just really makes everything pop!

I've wanted to do this "sealed with a kiss" design on a cookie, but I think it's just as adorable on a cupcake!

And I would hate to waste such adorable cupcakes, so I packaged them up in my new boxes to send with my hubby this morning to give to his customers.  I really love how they look.  I think they make such a sweet gift!

Keep warm and safe, everyone!

Ice, Ice, and More Ice

We've spent the last two days covered in this awful layer of ice.  Last night, we had another ice storm, on top of all the ice we already had.  We spent most of the night waking up once an hour to some type of crash or another.  When we got up this morning, it looked like a tornado went through the yard.  Tree branches are breaking under the weight of the ice, sheets of ice come sliding off the roof of the house at any given moment (making leaving and entering quite stressful!).  I probably have no right to complain, as I have friends who are dealing with more snow than I want to think about.  But last night, as I was crawling out of the ditch by my mailbox - where I had slipped into the ditch and couldn't find one single place to put my foot to climb out, not my finest moment - I would've given anything to trade the ice for just a few inches of snow!

So, today is a great day to curl up with a cup of coffee and get caught up on my blog!  I worked on a couple of Valentine treats over the weekend.  My daughter found me THE cutest little Valentine jars.  They were just screaming to be filled with cookies, so I caved.  The light pink ones are iced in Strawberry Royal Icing and are soooo delicious!

I also had some extra cupcakes over the weekend, and I saw quite a few pictures online of cupcakes iced like this, to look like roses.  What a fantastic Valentine's idea!  I'd love to give credit to someone for the idea, but I've seen sooo many pictures that I wouldn't know where to start with finding the original! 

We bought boxes with inserts that hold four cupcakes, which I think would make the perfect gift.  Wrapped up with a Valentine's ribbon, it's a pretty presentation.

Well, I think I may attempt to start cleaning up the mess in my yard, although I'm not sure I have shoes equipped to deal with the ice.  If only I had a pair of cleats!  Wow, that has to be the first time THAT thought ever crossed my mind!!!

Have a good day, stay warm and safe!