Polka Dot Inspired

I kind of have an obsession with all things baby right now! I can't believe my little boy is about to be 6 months old on the 25th of this month! Where has the time gone?  It has been so fun seeing him grow and learn each month. It seemed like just yesterday he was born, and now he is already able to sit up on his own and talks to us all the time in his sweet little baby language and laughs all the time at the silliest things! It definitely seems like this was the year for a bunch of our friends to have babies, which has been so fun because Sam has so many little friends that he will be able to grow up with.

We recently went to Charleston, SC to visit some of our friends who just had little girls so it was great to get to see Sam and them interact together. Of course I am a sucker for cute baby clothing, and especially little girl stuff. I think it's probably better that we had a little boy because I have seen way too many adorable girl outfits that I have wanted to buy lately adorned with ruffles and flowers and bright colors and patterns. On occasion I do scoop up a few little girl outfits for gifts for our friend's babies. When I saw these pale pink polka dot onesies I just couldn't pass them up. So I grabbed three of them and decided, hey why not make some cookies to match!

I love getting decorating inspiration from clothing...didn't these just turn out adorable?

Not only do I have an obsession with girl baby clothes, but also with cute gift packaging. On a recent trip to TJMaxx I seriously hit the jackpot and stumbled upon box after box of Martha Stewart treat boxes...stripes, polka dots, and these pale pink boxes you see here with the scalloped edges. So I loaded up my cart and now have a closet full of adorable packaging readily available for just the right occasion...as was the case here.

Seriously, does it get any cuter...pink and polka dots! I just love the way these sweet little gifts for our friends turned out.

Ice Cream Cone Cookies

Making Ice Cream Cone Cookies has been on my cookie "to do" list for a few years now! I can't believe summer is almost over and I have just baked up these adorable little cones for the first time! There were so many decorating and ice cream flavor ideas running through my mind on how I could ice these cookies. I decided not to be too ambitious and just stick to a few basic "flavor" ideas for this batch!

So vanilla and strawberry cones seemed to be the best choice and then I added some sprinkles on top for extra cuteness!

I packaged the cookies up and took them to Charleston, SC for our nieces and nephews when we went visit them over Labor Day weekend! The kids tore into these cookies in a matter of seconds, and crumbs started flying as they devoured them one by one!

Beach Cookies

This past weekend we took a short beach trip to Portofino Island, FL. We were visiting family and so of course I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to make something fun for the nieces and nephews! The kids were each bringing friends so I thought the girls would enjoy some bikini cookies and the boys some swim trunks!I also threw in some beach balls with sugar sprinkles! The cookies were a hit and all devoured immediately after dinner on the first night!

I just had to share this picture of our little beach bum! How cute is he all covered up in his beach attire! We tried so hard to keep him out of the sun, in the shade and under umbrellas, but the poor little guy still managed to get a little sunburn on his cheeks and top of the head. He absolutely loved the beach though and we can't wait for many more family trips!

 

Have you made any beach themed cookies this year? Where is your favorite family vacation spot?

Pink, Orange & Green Baby Shower Cookies

Here's a look at some cookies I recently made for baby shower favors. My sister's good friend is expecting her first baby on Dec 5th, a little girl. They picked out some fun fabrics with stripes and polka dots for the nursery in pinks, orange and green so we thought it would be fun to decorate cookies to fit the color scheme.

Baby shower cookies are some of my favorites to decorate so of course I documented the process with lots of pictures....


This was by far the biggest batch of cookies I have ever decorated at one time.
40 onesies....40 bottles...40 monograms for baby Harper
5 1/2 hours later my hand was very cramped after all that piping...

but I was thrilled with how they turned out!

The cookies were carefully packaged and wrapped in layers of bubble wrap to be shipped 725 miles to KY for the shower! Two huge boxes of cookies later I dropped them off at the post office and said a few prayers for the safe journey of these cookies! As it turns out all but 2 arrived safely...and the 2 that cracked my sister was happy to sample so it all worked out in the end!

The mother to be loved the cookies and so did all the shower guests! Congratulations Ashley on your little girl that is on the way!

It's a Boy...It's a Girl?????

Baby bumps are everywhere right now! I literally know about 10 people pregnant with babies due between now and April! It is so fun to be surrounded by so many friends at different stages in their pregnancy and to watch their bellies grow! Andy while we are on the topics of babies...I have one more surprise to share with you...I am expecting too! I am 19 weeks!

The time has been going by so fast and next week we will be finding out the gender! I have been dying to share the news for some time now and even have a cute cookie idea planned to share too...so I hope to get to that next week after we find out if it's a boy or a girl! And I must admit that this is part of the reason for my lack of posts lately! From about 6-15 weeks I was very nauseous. Just the thought of anything sugary made me sick, especially all things cake! It was the weirdest thing and something I never imagined could happen to a sugar and cake lover like myself! I am slowly getting back into baking more but still have not really wanted to even eat a bite of cake or icing! This may be a good thing though so I don't pack on the extra pounds from sugar cravings during the pregnancy!

Its seems like one of the most popular cookies I make are onesies for baby showers. They are so much fun to design b/c you can customize them a million different ways. My cousin's wife Cassandra is due in January but they have decided not to find out the sex. So for her recent baby shower, I thought it would be fun to just stick to the traditional pink and blue colors and make some onesie and baby bottle cookies.

There are going to be lots more baby showers and probably onesie cookies in my near future! What are some of your favorite baby shower themes? I'd love to start brainstorming some new ideas for cookies, cupcakes or anything sweet!

Minnie & Mickey Mouse Cookies

Hope you're having a great week so far! Just wanted to pop in real quick and share some Minnie & Mickey Mouse cookies I made for a 2 year old's birthday party recently!

Up next...some baby shower cookie ideas!

Monkey Business

This weekend my childhood friend McKensy's son celebrated his 1st birthday! Although I was not able to attend the party since we live in different states, I of course wanted to participate somehow so I offered to make and send some cookies for his special day! The theme was monkeys which I thought was adorable! I just love the invitation that McKensy created with pics of Barrett and his stuffed monkey! Using the colors from the invite created some personalized cookies to spell out his name.

I just had a feeling these cookies were going to turn out super cute, so I captured step-by-step photos so you can see how to create these little monkeys! So let's get down to business shall we...

You will need:
-monkey cookie cutter (I used Wilton brand found at my local craft store)
-sugar cookie recipe
-royal icing (tinted light brown, dark brown, pink, black)
-decorating tips: #2 for light brown, dark brown, pink, #1 for black)
-2 squeeze bottles for flooding icing

1.Using piping bag with tip #2 light brown icing, pipe an oval outline for the monkey face.

2.Using piping bag with tip #2 dark brown icing, outline the shape of the monkey and create outlines for the ears.

3.Using piping bag with tip #2 pink icing, fill in the monkey ears.

4.Once all the monkeys are outlined in brown it is time to go back in and "flood" the cookies with a thinned down version of royal icing using squeeze bottles. Allow the outlines to dry for about 30 minutes before flooding.

5.Using the flooding consistency light brown icing in the bottle, squeeze some icing in a zig zag inside the monkey face and the icing will start to spread.

6.Using the tip of the squeeze bottle gently move the icing to fill in the entire shape of the face.

7.Using the flooding consistency dark brown icing in the bottle, squeeze some icing in a zig zag inside the monkey head and the icing will start to spread.

8.Using the tip of the squeeze bottle gently move the icing to fill in the entire shape of the head.

9.Using the piping bag with tip #1 black icing, pipe on the eyes, nose and mouth. Wait about 1-2 hours before you go back and pipe on the face so it doesn't bleed into the wet icing.

10.Allow flooded cookies to dry 24 hours before stacking or packaging.

And since every monkey needs a banana, I couldn't resist I had to make a few bananas too!

McKensy went all out for Barrett's birthday by making some monkey cake pops, mini cupcakes and a jumbo cupcake! Everything turned out super cute from the pictures I have seen and the birthday boy seemed very happy enjoying his sweets!

Happy 1st Birthday Barrett!