Custom Cuts: Gone Fishin’

My best friend (and former roomie) Kate needed a hostess gift a few weeks ago.  She was heading to Annapolis for the opening of rockfish season.  She figured food would be a nice touch.

Who am I to disagree with her?  After all, food is great.  For all occasions. 

So we put our heads together and decided on some sugar cookies.  Fish perhaps?

Now, I do not claim to be a fish expert.  In fact, I eat the little guys, I don’t catch ’em.  So, at the risk of offending my fishing friends, I went simple with the fish shapes.  Really simple.

I think they are pretty cute, though.  A little reminiscent of those little cheesy crackers from days long gone.  

And, if the fish aren’t biting, at least you have a cute, cheerful (and delicious, if I may say so myself) cookie to eat!

Custom Cuts: Barnyard Birthday

I was so excited when AJ contacted to me help out with her Godson’s first birthday.

But then she sent me the invite… and then I was nervous.  She wanted the cookies to match the adorable barnyard invites.  

Eek!  Farm animals?  I managed the birds, but could I do horses, cows, pigs and sheep?  I really wasn’t sure.

So I worked on a game plan.  Okay, it involved breaking down the animals into simple shapes.  Turns out that one art class I took when I was nine did come in handy!

The final product?  Not too shabby.  And I have to say, pretty close to the little animal’s on Mikey’s invite.  

But you’ll have to trust me on this?  Why you ask.

Well, you know, since my computer decided to freeze last night (ensue PANIC) and today it had to be completely deleted and reset.  So that means, I no longer have said invites.  Guess that just means you have to trust me.

Does the sympathy make them even a little cuter?  Perhaps.

Custom Cuts: 30th Birthday Boy

Yesterday, I focused on the fact that I turned 30 this weekend.  I have details and food and a few DIY projects to show you, but I’m still easing into this whole “I’m 30!  Yay!” thing. 

You know what’s a lot easier?  Talking about other people who are 30!

So let’s start with these cookies, a 30th birthday surprise.

I had a lot of freedom when it came to color and design.  I settled on a modern masculine color palette (or at least that’s what I think blues and oranges are) and some traditional birthday icons – candles, balloons, cakes.  You know all those things that just made your 5th birthday.

And, the way I see it, these same items should make your 30th birthday great.  Because 30 is certainly not too old for balloons and candle.  Really, is any age?

Custom Cuts: Cowboy Gus

Granddad loves Westerns.  Mini-series or full-length feature.  New or old.  Seen or unseen.  He loves them all.  If John Wayne is in it, well, that’s like hitting the lotto.

So, I can only imagine how disappointed he would be to find out I had to do a Google search when I was contacted to do these cookies.  See, the soon-to-arrive baby will be loosely named after the main character, Gus, in Lonesome Dove.  (On my behalf, I knew it was a Western.  I just didn’t know much after that.)

Cousin Pam (you remember her from this post, right?), who ordered these cookies for a book club friend, wanted to tie-in the name reference with the cookies.

And so 10 gallon hats were born.

And as a bit of an ode to those Western days, we added stars to the onesies.  Come one, surely Western babies wore cute star adorned onesies.

From what I heard these were a huge hit.  Perhaps, this will inspire me to read Lonesome Dove.  On second, thought, maybe I’ll rent the miniseries and just watch it with Granddad.

Custom Cuts: Vroom… Vroom…

One of my friends from Philadelphia contacted me a couple of weeks ago to see if I could do some car cookies for his son’s third birthday.  Could I?  Absolutely!

I had a car cookie cutter just waiting to be used.  Plus, with the birthday party scheduled for November 26, it was the perfect way to break out of the Thanksgiving sugar cookie monotony. Blue would be a much appreciated change after being elbow deep in brown, red, orange and yellow royal icing for days.

The theme for the party is Cars.  So we decided on…

red cars, in honor of Lightning McQueen and…

light blue cars, in honor of Sally.

I love how they turned out and am happy to report my friend and his wife received them yesterday… and loved them too!  Phew!

Hopefully they are the perfect addition to what I am sure will be a fabulous 3rd birthday party!!!