Auction for Julee

As most of you know, sweet Julee lost her husband Matt in a car accident weekend before last. I am so honored to be part of this auction to love on Julee and Preslee.

 

I will be auctioning off a credit for 2 dozen custom cookies!

Valued between $48-$72 and all shipping will also be included if highest bidder is out of town.

 

Open to U.S. residents only.

 

 

I am not taking any new orders for a while, so this gives all of you who have emailed me about orders a chance to get some cookies!

I will be donating 100% of the proceeds to the fund for Julee and Preslee.

 

To check out the other items being auctioned, visit one of these blogs:

 

She She Made

Life In The Green House

Life Sweet Life

Knee Deep In Munchkin-land

The Getts Times

 

Happy bidding!!!! 



Family Pics

First off, I want to thank everyone for the sweet comments about the new baby. We are beyond excited and grateful for another sweet baby God has chosen to entrust us with. I just thought my house was crazy now, ha!

 

A couple of weeks ago we had family pictures taken and I have had a lot of people asking who took the pictures, so I thought I would share some pics and share the photographers info!

 

Our pictures were taken by Amber, and we are SO pleased. I cannot say enough good things about the way she handled the kiddos, and how easy she was to work with. We will be using her for all of our future pictures!

 

 

I know I'm partial, but ya'll, this melts my heart.

 

This picture is sweet for two reasons:

1. Taylor's face. It sums up her personality.

2. The first pic of "the bump." I think its just now sinking in that this is really happening.

 

 



And this, just this. She's beautiful.

 

 

There is something so sweet between these two. Taylor knows who to run to for sympathy, or to get out of trouble ;).

 

 

 

And these two; I am so blessed.

 

 

My sweet boy, I love the relationship between a mom and a son. He is such a blessing.

 

 

The big announcement :).

 

 

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you have already seen this, but I think this picture is too sweet not to share. The kids faces are priceless. :)

 

Thank you Amber!

 

If you are interested in having Amber take some pictures for you, visit her website at www.amberdickey.com. She is running a great special for the month of October; $75 for a family session and a CD to print as many prints as you would like! Fall is the perfect time for pictures, so don't miss out!



Surprise!

"From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another."

John 1:16

We are thrilled to announce we will be adding another sweet baby to our family in April.



A Year Later.....

One year ago this month, I made my first rolled sugar cookie. I had NO idea that a year later I would have made thousands of cookies and shipped them all over the U.S. I can't tell you how much I have learned about myself and life throughout the past year. I have no doubt that God has taken me on this journey and I am excited to see what the next year brings!
So, with that said I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my customers and readers who have been encouraging and supportive, I'm looking forward to being part of many more parties and celebrations!

I can't celebrate 1 year of baking without some cookie pictures, so here are a few of my recent orders:

 

See you late Alligator baby shower.

 

 

Brody's 4th Birthday 

 

Addi's School Bus/Chevron Birthday

 



 

A close up of the rainbow chevron.

 



 

A colorful candy birthday party.

 



 

Another monogram.

 

 

 A Lululemon inspired baby shower.

 



 



 

And a picture of me with my sweeties :).

 

I have some really fun pictures to share at the beginning of next week, make sure you don't miss it!

 

*I am not taking new orders at this time. If you have an existing order with me this does not affect you.



Lately

Lately we have........

eaten Angry Bird pizza for lunch.....

and Apple Pie for dessert.

We have gotten into a good "school" routine, and both of the kids have done wonderful and love it.

We are loving the fall weather, and I am loving dressing the kids in fall clothes :).

And of course, I've been making a few cookies.....



I'll pretend these are for Track and Field or something we are always really good at :).

And of course I had to throw in some Chevron somewhere :).

And I loved these little onesies so much. I just can't get enough of the bowtie/tie fad. I hope it never goes away!

Eye Candy

I am ready to get back to some regular posting, and things are slowing down a little bit around here so I am excited to share some fun stuff this week!

But first I'm going to share some fun cookie pictures from the past week.

I did these sweet monograms for one of my closest friends who is having a baby girl in November. I loved these colors and I never get tired of a cute monogram.

These sweet cookies were for a first wedding anniversary. I made them to match the wedding theme and invitation.

Chevron and Polka dot twos for a sweet friend of Taylor's.

More chevron and Polka dots. I heard from a lot of Razorback fans after I posted this picture on Instagram :). (That was before Saturday's game).

I absolutely loved these cookies and the theme of this party. I always love the red and turqoise together, and I always jump at the chance to do Paisley.

Here is a close up of the paisley pattern. I did a tutorial on this here.

Another sweet monogram for Jillian. I couldn't have picked three better colors.

And last, but definitely not least, "water painted" trees. I did these to match a print that was being used in the baby shower. I'm not going to lie, these took FOREVER. I was seeing dots for a few days after I finished these :). 

I have to share this last picture because its just too funny. One night last week I told Parker to go put a shirt on for dinner, and he came back like this:

Happy Monday!!!

Rainbow Party Fun

I'm back! We spent last week celebrating Taylor's birthday, and we have spent the past few days trying to recover :). I took a break from cookie orders to get ready for all of the birthday celebrations but cookies pick back up this week.

I have some party pictures to share with you, but I thought I would share Taylor's party cookies first since it has been so long since I have posted any cookies.

Her party was rainbow themed with some ruffles and chevron, so I had so much fun doing cookies with all of these fun colors!

Rainbow Chevron Frames

Ruffled Cake on a cake stand (with 2 candles of course:)).

Ruffled Rainbows

Ruffled Rainbow Cake

I can't take any credit for the cake :). I debated on making it and then decided it was worth my time to have one of my favorite local bakeries make it. I absolutely loved it and was SO happy I passed that duty on to someone else!

I also made a ruffled table cloth to match. I knew I wanted something fun and girly and I thought this was the perfect combination of the two!

I posted a pic of the table cloth on Instagram and I have had a lot of people ask me how I made it. I will do a tutorial in the next few weeks for those of you that have asked. It was super easy and super cheap!

I also made Jolly Rancher suckers from Pinterest and stuck them in vintage blue Ball jars for a fun effect on the table. Parker helped me make these one day while Taylor napped. This is a perfect and fun activity for a toddler.

I love Mason Jars and knew I could squeeze them in somewhere :). 



I also made white cupcakes with white icing and a rainbow topper for all of the guests.

I made the toppers with extra icing from making cookies. I'll show you how to do that too. Its the perfect way to use up any extra icing without wasting it. A topper made out of dried royal icing is good for a year if stored air tight. Fun, right?!

I also made a chevron birthday banner..........

and labeled the water bottles with chevron labels...

I will share more party pics and party people after I get them downloaded and edited. But for now I will leave you with a pic of the birthday girl because I can't resist!!

Reese's Cupcake Recipe

I have taken off about 10 days from making cookies to get ready for Taylor's birthday this coming weekend and I have found myself baking away anyway! No sugar cookies, but a lot of other yummy treats.

Yesterday afternoon Parker and I made these Reese's Cupcakes for Jason because he LOVES anything peanut butter.

And yes, they are as good as they look and they are SO easy to make!!! I had a handful of people ask me for the recipe after I posted an Instagram pic so here it is....

Make your favorite chocolate cake. I love Better Homes and Gardens and this cake recipe is one of the best I have found. Or make your favorite boxed cake mix.

Quick sidenote: I really want these recipes I post to appeal to the working mom or busy moms who have kids at home and don't have all of the time in the world to be in the kitchen. So I know its not the most appropriate as a baker to recommend a boxed cake, but its true, I make a cake from a box sometimes! As long as it tastes good, right?!

Anyway, after you've made your chocolate cake, let your cupcakes cool completely. While they are cooling begin to make your Peanut Butter icing. Get ready for the best thing you've ever tasted. It tastes exactly like the middle of a Reese's.

Peanut Butter Icing

1/2 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3-6 Tbs milk depending on how thick/thin you want your icing

Soften (do not melt) your butter. Mix butter and peanut butter with mixer until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar alternating with the milk until you have your desired consistency. There is no right or wrong consistency, you just don't want the icing to be too runny.

The icing is really what makes the cupcake. After you ice your cupcakes top it with a Reese's of course! I used a regular size Reese's cup and cut it in half and it fit perfectly. You could also use mini Reese's, Reese's pieces, or crumbled Reese's candy.



Yeehaw and Gymnastics

I had every intention of posting these on Thursday, but my poor blog has been broken. It magically fixed itself today so I'm crossing my fingers nothing else happens

I was so excited when sweet Megan asked me to do cookies for her twins cowboy/cowgirl themed 1st birthday. I love the western theme, and combined with the fact that it was for boy/girl twins, these made some cute cookies!

Megan was so easy to work with and basically told me she was using pinks and blues and she wanted cowboy boots. I added a sweet pink bow to half of the cowboy hats for sweet Sloane, and a sheriffs star on the other half for Knox. 

I also did some pink and blue #1's with names to add some color to the set.

And of course some cowboy boots. I did half pink/half blue.



Oh, and did I mention I did 100 of these???? :)

I can't wait to see pictures from this party, Megan has been posting the CUTEST tidbits of the party on instagram. It's going to be adorable.

Speaking of adorable.....

These two started gymnastics this week. CUTEST. THING. EVER.  I'm totally going to be that crazy Mom in the bleachers when my kids get older and start playing sports. I wanted to jump through the glass window at the gym and tell them they were the best and that what they were doing was awesome. All over a front somersault. But really, it was the best ;).

If you are wondering about the rock heart, Parker told me Peyton would really like it if he held his heart in this picture. My parents get us something for our garden we built for Peyton every year on his birthday. They got us this heart this year and we love it so much we have kept it in the house as a sweet reminder of him.

I really love these two. Their daddy and I pretty much think they hung the moon :).