Royal Icing Transfers - Ravens & Spooky Skulls

After completing a custom sugar cookie order for a good friend {"Go Ravens! Go! ;)} Might I mention the most difficult of cookies I have done to date... and not totally satisfied with my results :(   I suffered much guilt sending these over for the birthday party (not so much the good ones, but the ones who's plaques cracked...grrrr... I WANT A DO OVER!!!!    I know deep down that T won't mind at all getting extra cookies from me just because... they are evil, wicked cookies - and no body in her house likes them at all.  ;)


I had quite a bit of icing left over..."What to do with it, what to do with it?" I wondered. I couldn't not use it. Lucky for me the colours lent themselves perfectly to Halloweeny projects... and so I made Skull candy of a different variety.

Season One - It's Over...all Over.

Back in February I had decided to attempt to shed some pounds and with having set forth this seemling impossible ideal for myself I have been pleasantly surprised by my results to date.  Minimal to some people but HUGE to me (if you consider what my primary hobby is - baking)  17 pounds...yep that's right, I am on the slow and steady wins the race weight loss regime. 

Why couldn't it be as easy for me as it is for him to shed the pounds...he blows his nose in a tissue and looses like 5 pounds. No not  really! Why did my metabolism have to crash after having children??? Why? WHY???  I am starting to go a little stir crazy with this because I made a deal with my darling husband ( don't get me wrong I love him dearly...but sometimes - )  He's holding me to our deal.  BAH!

What's that you are wondering?  I lose 25 lbs and I can get a new puppy.  Sounds silly...but I really needed something to focus my efforts towards.  You are also probably wondering why on earth would I not ask for something grander than a puppy like diamonds - after all they are a girls best friend - but so can a dog.

But back to the header - Season One - It's over.... all over.  No more excessive weekly baking bindges for the local farmers market to fill our house with mouth watering aromas (and looming cookies).  Maybe I can actually get my puppy in time for halloween or Thanksgiving....I may have to make a dog costume!  Oh the options!!! 

I sense some sort of pet related goodness in the near future...and pirate cookies or other as mentioned yesterday.

Monday September 19 - National Talk like a Pirate Day?

Really? Have you heard of such a thing???  Just by chance my son wore his "Ahoy Matey" shirt  {we found on a trip to Target this summer} which caught the eye of my neighbour.  It was she who informed me of such a day...and then a second reminder to confirm it on Moshi monsters.  Who knew!!   Now, had I been in the loop sooner I could have made up something fun to celebrate the occassion IN ADVANCE.   I guess I could go and put on my eye patch, black out some teeth and tell my wee scallywags to walk the plank before I blow! Shiver-me-timbers!! {is that right?}.  Hey I never did come in first in any races, but at least I finished them!  Pirate cookies we shall have...when? I don't know, but they will get made.

Candied Rainbow Popcorn

Yesterday was Wednesday...this meant farmers' market in the evening.  I must admit I was a little slow at getting started this week with only 1 double batch of chunky monkey cookies under my belt the night before.  For a change of pace my husband offered to drop off our daughter at school this a.m. which opened up some extra time to work through preparations...until my four year old said he wanted to "bake popcorn".

Back to School Treat!

So, my kids here will be returning to school in 1 week...us Manitobans are behind our southern friends and so I thought this little treat would be a perfect start to a new year for them.  I admit, I did not invent this idea but rather came across it on quest to find a school bus clipart to use as a template for some sugar cookies for next weeks local Farmers' Market {seriously - why reinvent the wheel right?}.  This perfectly fantastic idea came from a fellow blogger Simply J Studio.