Tea time!

Happy 2013!  What a year 2012 was....I can't wait to see what this year brings!

Sometimes I make little secret New Year's resolutions.  I try to keep them small, as not to stress myself out over keeping them...because really....I don't need one more single thing to stress over.  I also tend to keep them somewhat secretive.  I don't really believe in that whole idea where if you tell a bunch of people that you're going to do something then you're more inclined to actually do it....peer pressure, I guess.  I am my biggest motivator and I am my biggest critic.....so I really only need to commit to my resolutions in front of me!  So I'll keep the majority of my little resolutions to myself....but this one I think I can share....

I'm definitely committing to spending more time with Mia this year.  I'm talking about uninterrupted, completely focused, fun time with my daughter.  Don't get me wrong....we do a lot of stuff together.  We go to the grocery store, we go to story times at the library, we always eat dinner together as a family, and we really do plan some fun activities together each week.  But it's all too often that a whole day will quickly turn into me telling her over and over again...."go play with that" or "go read that" or "go watch that show". And before I know it the day is over and I'm so mad at myself for not just stopping what I was doing for even an hour of the day to just spend quality time with her. This whole adjustment to working from home has been very difficult for me.  It is SO SO hard to walk away from your work when your work just constantly surrounds you.  There's always something to be done, an email to return, bakery boxes to be folded, ribbons to be tied, etc.....and I just can't get away from it! 

Mia is super-great at playing by herself, which I think is really important for kids to learn how to do, but I'm now committing some time each day, no matter HOW busy I am, to just spend with her and be silly, do something out of the ordinary, something NOT planned,  make something together, teach her something, just time to be together and not be bothered by work.  And so far, I'm loving it!

What inspired this resolution was a day back in early December.  I was making these tea pot and tea cup cookies to be shipped to a birthday party in Michigan. 

The whole time I'm making these cookies for another little girl I couldn't help but think how fun it would be for MY little girl to see these and be able to play with them.  I baked a few extra and made a secret promise to myself to make these for Mia and surprise her with an edible tea party. 

So I finish my order and ship the cookies off to Michigan....and I'm so excited to show Mia the set of cookies that I made for her....and just as I thought, she absolutely LOVED them.  We giggled and laughed as we shared the coolest tea party ever.  And then, I spotted a little stack of undecorated tea cup and tea pot cookies and I blurted out...."Do you want to decorate your own cookies?"  OMG.  What did I just do?  I'm going to let her touch this stuff?  Get all sticky and icingy?  Make a huge mess?  WHAT WAS I THINKING????  But the way that her little face lit up was so amazing that I suddenly didn't care about that other stuff.  I mean, I can have a little control over the situation and she can still have so much fun.  It's not like I was going to give her a gallon of icing and lots of food coloring and walk away!  We're going to do this together. Maybe I'll even teach her a little something....and that's completely worth any mess that we could make.

So i put some icing in these little pampered chef icing bottles that I have and I taught her how to hold the bottles, and how to squeeze the icing out.  I showed her how to do lines and circles, and then I just let her have fun.  I let her eat the icing....and the cookies, of course.  We had so much fun.....and the only reason that I thought about work the whole time was when I stopped to take pictures just knowing that I would someday blog about it.

So since that day, I've been really enjoying my small breaks that I take to spend time with my daughter.  We've made crafts, we wrapped Xmas gifts together, we've gone pretend-camping in her tent, we've folded laundry together, we've looked through our family photo albums, we've painted our nails, we've had dance parties.....and so much more. 

And of course....I got a brilliant idea for the cookie business from our little cookie-decorating date that day.  I'm hoping that someday I'll be able to do cookie-decorating birthday parties for kids!  Wouldn't that be so fun? 

Superpower

You guys, I have a super power.  I'm serious. 

I have cookie-vision.  And that's a real thing.

Here's how it works....I'm walking through a store...or maybe just watching tv, I could be reading a magazine, or maybe even driving my car or taking a boat ride on a sunny day.  And suddenly I see something....and my brain automatically turns it into a cookie.  It happens all the time....a street sign, a company logo, a toy that Mia is playing with, a light bulb, a tool...and now, stationery.  Stationery...you know how I know how to spell that?  And to not write "stationary"?  Well...I had a teacher in 5th grade that taught me to always remember that stationery, the paper that you write on, has an E at the end like PEN.  WHYYYYY do I remember stuff like that....yet I cannot remember a grocery list of 2 things to save my life!!!  Frustrating!

Anyway...back to cookie-vision.  My superpower struck again when I was browsing through Michael's and spotted some super-affordable stationery that really caught my eye.  It was Christmas-y without screaming CHRISTMAS in my face...you know what I mean?  It had this mix of colors and designs that were kind of classic looking, yet modern.  A cozy look that resembled a knitted pattern....and just an all around warm feeling to it.  What?  Stationery doesn't say those things to you?  Must all be part of the super-power I guess.

So I knew right away that I needed to translate these patterns and images into a collection of cookies.  But for what?  Like I really don't have time to just make cookies for the heck of it.  I needed a purpose.  I couldn't think of it right away so I just bought a whole bunch of the stationery and strategically placed it in my clear view everyday (so I didn't forget about it, duh!) and then one day it hit me!  Teachers gifts!  Teachers love paper, they'll love stationery.  And cookies!  Perfect. 

Here's the thing.  Sometimes it's a great idea to re-create an image exactly.  For example....the dinosaur in this post: Making the cut. But in this situation it just wouldn't be a good idea to try to copy these images.  They were just a little bit complex for icing. To draw inspiration from the stationery.....that was my exact plan....and it's really enjoyable for me to just sit down and freely create sometimes. 

The first step was the colors.  I love grey and I make it often so that was an easy one.  The red took some time to create.  Red icing tends to darken as it dries so I had to be careful to not deepen the shade too too much.  I think the shade of red that I created was pretty close to what I was going for.  And of course bright white icing....which is always great to work with.  There's only 3 colors in this whole collection but doesn't it look so much more complex than that?



I love the knitted look on the white circles.  That design was a complete after-thought.....but I'm so glad that I did it!





I used a normal piping tube but did a shaky effect so it resembled the text on the stationery.  And then I thought to just use that line-effect on all of the cookies so they coordinate. 




It's kinda fun to see the snowflake on a red background.




The trees are so simple but may be my favorite one!




I tell people this all the time.....when requesting a collection of cookies, it is so important to have one design that is almost completely solid.  It just anchors the collection and gives your eyes a little break from all of the patterns and designs.  I loved this red reindeer and thought it was a necessary part of the collection.


So I made 5 gift baskets with these cookies and stationery combinations.  I found the most amazing coordinating ribbon and some adorable gift boxes to complete the gifts.  I was super-excited to make these....and it became my favorite project in a long time. 



I added in some red velvet cookies because the red was just a perfect match.  Yummy, too! 



So that's cookie-vision.  Who knows when it will strike again.  Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas!! 

Rob, Mia, Layla, and I wish you joy and peace during this Holiday season.  Enjoy your families, make some wonderful memories, and eat lots of cookies!  Love ya!

Give Mia Holiday Giveaway WINNER

And the winner is.....

Comment # 14 which belongs to Debbie Staffen!

Yayyyy for Debbie! 

Thanks to everyone who entered....reading your posts about your favorite Christmas gifts and memories was really fun...and very touching, too.  Thank you for sharing your stories :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Give Mia Holiday Giveaway!

It's that time again!  In the spirit of holiday giving I'm giving away one dozen cookies to one lucky winner!
The prize will probably look something like this(but no guarantees on that because seriously....I could lose my mind by the end of this contest and start making Easter Bunny and 4th of July cookies...you just never know):

It's so easy to enter....all you have to do is comment on this blog post with an answer to this question:

"What is the most memorable Christmas gift that you've received....either from childhood or adulthood?"

...and don't forget to include your name & email address!

You entry should look (something) like this:

Rob Hogue

rob.hogue.ilovemywife@hotmail.com

My most memorable Christmas gift is from when I was 23 years old and Katie said YES when I asked her to marry me on Christmas Eve.  My wife is seriously awesome and extremely talented.  She's always right about everything and I am so lucky to be married to her.  She even looks perfect in the mornings when she wakes up after 2 hours of sleep because she was baking all night and has flour in her hair and icing on her sweatpants. 

Rob wrote that, I swear.

Anyway.....

So if you've already ordered Christmas cookies from me(aren't you sweet!) then your win could count towards your current purchase...or you could take the extra dozen(who doesn't need 12 more cookies at the holidays!)

This contest is even for those of you who live out of town!  Because if the winner is not local in the Pittsburgh area, I'll ship these cookies to ya!  (just not out of the country).

Either way....just ENTER to win!  It'll be fun, I swear!  And encourage your friends to enter, too!!  You can even share this blog post on your facebook page by clicking the little facebook icon at the bottom of this post. The winner will be chosen by using random.org on Sunday 12/16/12 at 6 pm.  For the official rules look right here:

• Entries will be accepted from Wednesday 12/12 at 7:00 pm EST until Sunday 12/16 at 6 pm EST.   Entries received after the specific time period will not count. Sorry, procrastinators!
• Prize:  One dozen Holiday cookies or the value of one dozen Holiday cookies to be deducted from your existing Christmas order.
• How you will receive the prize:  If you live locally in the Pittsburgh area then we can set up a time where I can deliver the cookies or of course you could pick them up, too!  Otherwise, the cookies will be shipped via FedEx or Priority Mail. I can only ship to U.S. residents! Shipment will be sent on 12/17.
• Only 1 entry allowed per person (see entry instructions above)
• The winner will be notified via email, I'll post it on Give Mia Cookie's facebook page, and I'll post it on the blog, too.  Basically...I'll find you :)
• Email addresses will not be used for any other purpose other than to notify the winner
• The winner will be chosen randomly using http://www.random.org/ 
• I reserve the right to delete any posts due to profanity, etc. Keep it clean, kids.

Good luck and thanks so much for reading my blog... 

You all make my day :)

Foxy and Roxy

This is our first year having Roxy (the Elf on the Shelf) living with us.  Mia loves her so much, although you can always see a bit of annoyance in Mia's eyes when she wakes up to find that Roxy has been playing with one of her toys overnight. 

So these days, it's been extremely difficult to impress Mia with my cookie designs.  She's kinda over it, much like most kids probably feel about their parents' professions.  I mean, my husband works in a toy factory for crying out loud....you'd think she'd go to school and be all chatty about how cool her mom and dad are.  But no, she goes to school and tells her teachers all about how we eat macaroni and cheese sometimes. Really, Mia?  Nothing more exciting than that???

But these cookies....these ones really caught Mia's attention.  I knew that this cookie request would be coming as soon as the holiday season approached and I couldn't wait to make them.  Here they are...

Elf on the Shelf cookies!

 

 

"HI!  I'm Foxy!"

I named our cookie elf "Foxy" and Mia thought that was hilarious.  And Foxy is quite funny and witty....much like our beloved Roxy.  Here's just a few of the things that Foxy's been up to:

" Hey good lookin'! " (This placement of Roxy was completely Rob's idea by the way)

Having a chocolate snack

Trying to blend in

Foxy's new friends

"Santa won't eat me though, right?  RIGHT?"

Doing some research

Trying to tie up one of his friends?? 

Foxy snuck onto Mia's play cookie tray!  She was shocked!

Layla sniffed out Foxy....and we were pretty close to losing her to our cookie-loving doggy!

Happy Holidays everyone!  14 days until Christmas!!!!!!!

Shine on!

Well usually I wouldn't address my absence from blogging, I would just hope that no one would call me out and we could all move on.....but I feel like I need to briefly explain.  My computer is on it's deathbed.  It's sad, really.  The sound no longer works, it freezes all the time, the battery doesn't hold any life at all, and there's flour underneath all of my keys so you can imagine how awesome that is.  It looks a mess...poor thing.  So instead of throwing this computer across the room every time it froze during writing an awesome blog post or while attempting to upload pictures onto the facebook page, I would just politely shut it down and walk away.  Well I'm over it now.  I've attempted to re-install drivers, I've been super nice to my computer and deleted a bunch of stuff to clean it up a little bit... and still, it's rebelling against me. 

Even today my computer froze 4 times while writing this blog post. I can't take it anymore.

ugh.  frozen :(

With all of the darkness surrounding my computer drama, and by darkness I mean the blank black screen that I stare at when shutting down my computer for the gazillionth time each day, there have been some bright moments, too.  I recently did some cookies for a bridal shower and I tried a new technique of painting them with metallic gold edible paint.  I loved the final result so much.  It was a lot of work, probably three coats of paint on each cookie....which is why I was glad that I decided to keep the gold parts to a minimum.  I didn't want the gold to be overpowering or really flashy, just a light soft gold.

I have a few other ideas for metallics up my sleeve and I can't wait to work on them.  I'm always trying to challenge myself and learn new things....now only if I could learn about computer repair.

I'll be back just as soon as my technology allows me to be :)  You did miss me though, right?  RIGHT???

Have a good week!

Baby Love

It's official....baby cookie orders have taken over.  Baby showers are definitely the most common event type that I'm asked to  make cookies for.  Just in the past three weeks I've made cookies for 8 eight showers!

Obviously I love babies so it's super fun for me to design and make these cookies.  A lot of customers just ask for the basic onesies and strollers in pink or blue, and a lot of times they ask for the polka dot design because for some reason people think that these polka dots look magical.  I mean, it is really cool that the polka dots aren't a raised design, but that they are embedded into the base color so that it almost gives the effect of being a printed fabric.  It's great for me that this is so popular because I'm familiar with doing it....and familiarity brings a lot of low-stress cookie weeks.  And low-stress cookie weeks mean that I get to be nice to my husband and sometimes make dinner.  This week I made oatmeal raisin cookies for dinner.  What?

So here's a sample of some of the baby cookies that I've done recently. Enjoy :)

I loved these primary jungle colors.  Fun!

A "match the invite" project from last month

 

Another "match the invite" challenge!




Here's the invitation!  Love that ribbon!
http://www.mara-mi.com/shop/index.php/in-retail/mara-mi-for-target/dot-carriage-primary-baby-invitation.html



I just loved the red with the baby blue.  Very pretty

Very modern orange and grey

Gotta love some chevrron onesies!

Polka dot onesies are always a favorite!

Classic baby blue

I used that baby blue/red combination to make these baseball themed baby cookies.  Love them!

For a little All-Star :)

Football baby cookies for a tailgate-themed baby shower