Clearly, I Need to Make More Time for Baking

I received a copy of the book Cookie Craft:  From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions for my birthday last month.

I first about it on Bakerella's website, which is a great one to read if you like seeing beautiful baked goods and finding mouth-watering recipes for sweet things.  The book basically takes the act of making sugar cookies and turns it into an art form.  The first section of the book contains a number of design ideas for various holidays, such as:

Thanksgiving

This is the first place I opened up to when I got the book, and I was amazed at the beauty of these cookies!  I was really hoping to make some for this Thanksgiving, but we're already going to be spending several days with family and indulging in a Thanksgiving feast.  Combine that with my desire to continue losing weight, and it seems like taking cookies along might be a bad idea.  On the other hand, there will be more people to help me eat said cookies, so perhaps I shall do that after all!  I love the turkey with the candy corn and the big turkey in profile, although I would choose chocolate brown frosting for the turkey's body instead of black for both.

Christmas

This one gives some great basic Christmas-themed cookies and jazz them up a bit.  I think I'd expand the selection of colors, especially for the stockings and the Christmas tree decorations.


New Year's

I don't know that I would have thought of making cookies to celebrate New Year's Eve, but the champagne bottle is a really cute design.  I like how they used basic circle cutters for a clock about to strike midnight and a gold bauble, and notice how they reused candy cane cookie shapes for noisemakers?  The hats are just triangles.


Easter

Again, creative use of circles!  The Easter basket is beautiful, and so is the Easter hat made from two circle cutters.  The technique on the pink Easter egg is one that was seen in the large turkey from the above Thanksgiving cookies.  You use Royal Icing to pipe the basic design and flood the piped area, then use a toothpick to pull the icing to give it that cool look.  I've only tried using Royal Icing once and failed miserably, but this book has some great tips that I hope will help me to overcome my aversion and become a Royal Icing expert.


Baby Shower

Wouldn't these be cute as party favors for shower guests to take home or as a treat at the shower itself?


They also have photos and instructions for many other occasions, including Winter, Valentine's Day, Mother's and Father's Day, Sports, Girlfriends Gathering and Pets.


Other chapters of the book cover explanation of the ingredients you'll want to have on hand for cookie crafting, equipment you'll use, tips for planning, recipes for 4 types of rolled-out cookie dough, tips on decorating both prebaking and after baking, websites where you can find tools and supplies for cookie crafting and more.  It also features helpful information in boxes interspersed throughout (such as Make-Ahead Tips, a Cookie Craft Planning Page and Suggested Color Palettes for different themes).


I find myself itching to start making these designs, and enjoying poring over the pages of the book in the meantime.

Giving Thanks

Since Thanksgiving is in a few weeks, I thought this would be a good time to list some of the things for which I'm thankful.  I'm thankful for:

• a Savior who loved me enough to come to earth and die for my sins, centuries before I was even born.
• a wonderful loving husband who is a caring father to our children and who seeks to serve the Lord in all he does.
• a 6-year-old daughter who sometimes drives me crazy but always keeps life interesting, who is intelligent and funny and sweet.
• a 2-year-old son who lights up when he sees someone he loves, who sometimes expresses his love with a little *too* much hands-on demonstration and whose giggles are infectious.
• the liquid maple trees and their vivid red leaves at this time of year - they look unreal!
• music - all sorts of music, from cheesy 80s pop to Christmas songs to praise music to Hawaiian and lots of others in between.
• having family nearby and being able to see them regularly.
• a really fun vacation to Victoria a few months ago with our dear friends Corey and Gilda.
• a warm comfortable house (and especially my warm comfortable bed).
• being able to sleep well again at night and not dealing with several of coughing before I'm able to settle down.
• physical health.
• a weight-loss tool that has allowed me to finally develop willpower and self-control and see results that I know will last.
• computers that provide opportunities for organization, communication, creativity and fun.
• a church staff and membership that is striving to follow what the Lord would have us do and is growing and being challenged in how to put that into action.
• the ability to sing.
• trees, grass, flowers and bushes, and the general abundance of greenery in the Puget Sound area.
• rain that keeps me from having to water said trees, grass, flowers and bushes for about 9 months out of the year.
• sun breaks in the rain that keep me from going nuts and allow me to appreciate the beauty of the rain falling.
• the double-layer pumpkin cheesecake that I'll be having on Thanksgiving.
• fondue.
• board game nights with friends.
• Christmas.
• Reese's peanut butter cups.

It was actually pretty easy to come up with that list, and I could keep going, but it's getting late and I'm down to the wire with publishing this today.  Perhaps I'll do another thankfulness list in the next week or two and see what else comes to mind.  Suffice it to say that I'm feeling pretty thankful!