Mixing it Up! episode 1

Do you know how many TV shows there are?  Me neither, but it seems like 5 billion!  If you want to watch a boatload of stinky men catching lobster, THERE'S A SHOW FOR YOU!  If you want to watch people hunting through foliage for a glimpse of a Sasquatch, THERE'S A SHOW FOR YOU... seriously, and it's super squatchy.  Watching people down a mug of their own urine more your speed?  THERE. IS. A. SHOW. FOR. YOU.

What about people who want to watch incredibly talented cookie artisans create masterpieces out of flour and sugar?  ....   ....  ..........  WHAT?!  There is no cookie show?  I can see an emotionally damaged person be forced to evacuate their rat infested home or people running around abandoned warehouses yelling insults to ghosts but there is no show for cookiers?!  Oh the humanity!  

I decided to take matters into my own hands and along with Mr. John we have created the first ever episode of a show I call "Mixing it Up!"  My very first guest was the incredibly talented and lovely Cristin of Cristin's Cookies.  She has been such a sweet friend of mine right from the beginning of my cookie adventure, and I was so excited to finally meet her.  We got to chat and decorate cookies together, she even fed us lunch.  She is even cuter in person if that is possible!  I know the video is a little rough, but I've learned tons from this process and I'm beyond thrilled Cristin was willing to be my guinea pig.  It's a lot like my tutorial so hold on tight, it's going to be a cheesy ride!

The Junior McGoos

Pardon the interruption while I show off how cute my kids are!  Yesterday was so beautiful and I was hit with inspiration to take some pictures of my kids.  I had a serene and dreamy vision of my lovely children gallivanting in a field.  The sun was setting fast so I ransacked the kid's rooms to find any white clothes they had that weren't horribly stained and we set off into the wide world.

We drove for a bit and found this olive grove and I let the kids loose.  The light was beautiful and the kids were pretty cooperative.  They are growing incredibly fast and I know that soon, there will be eye-rolling and arms crossed and "I'm too busy mom" while texting friends to get them to play along with my photographic whims.  It's a little scary to think how fast those teenage years are speeding towards me.  For now I will enjoy their crazy, infectious laughter and sweet snuggles.

And now for a serious moment... ha ha

You only get to be a kid once for a short time and then, the rest of your life you're a grown-up.  

Enjoy the little ones in your lives!

Hey Girl,

Last night Mr. John and I were curled up on the couch getting caught up on our DVR shows while simultaneously checking email and playing games.  yeah, we're romantic like that.  I start snort laughing and Mr. John looks up from his Bejeweled game with a curious look.
  
    "What are you laughing at?"
    "Have you heard of Ryan Gosling's "hey girl" meme?"
    "...Ryan Gosling's what now?"

So I show him several of these hilarious things that are floating around the interwebs including this one created by the snort-inducing Kristan of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

Confessions of a Cookbook Queen has several "hey girl"s that are HILARIOUS!  Especially for food bloggers

Mr. John stared at the picture with a confused look on his face, but he soldiered on having a true desire to understand.  After several minutes, hundreds of "hey girl"s later, and a deep jealousy of Ryan quickly developing, a lightbulb finally went on over his head:

    "You should do a "Hey girl" cookie."


We've been married almost 14 years now, but in that moment I truly knew how much Mr. John loved me.  I ran into the kitchen to grab a leftover iced cookie to paint on, only to find it had been eaten.  All the cookies in the jar were unfrosted so I quickly frosted one and went to bed, disappointed that I had to wait until morning to paint the "hey girl" cookie and let the royal icing set.

This morning I woke up, got the kids showered, dressed and fed and shooed them off to school.  I quickly painted my little "hey girl" tribute cookie and as soon as I finished I found out I wasn't the only one who had a "Hey girl" project going.  That darling Mr. John sent me these to my email!

I think it's safe to say that he gets it now!  There were a couple others... but I think I'll just keep those to myself!  Mr. John, I absolutely adore you.  I love how you inspire me and are not afraid to send me pictures of Ryan Gosling.  You are the best!

Hey girl,
I hope you have a fantastic day.

3,000 Facebook Fan Giveaway

I recently gained lots of new friends on Facebook and I am so grateful and happy to have you!  I am lame and was supposed to do a 2,000 likes on Facebook, but I promise to make it up to you now.

I thought about what I should do that would express my appreciation for all you lovely likers out there and I figured I'd do what I love to do:  Make some cookies!

Sooooo, since this is for the big 3K I thought I'd pick not 1 winner... not 2 winners... but 3 winners!
Each winner will win a half dozen cookies and a one of kind piece of jewelry with an illustration by me on it.  I just thought of that, so I don't have any example to show for it but it's definitely marinating in my brain.  What can I say?  I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal!

How do you enter you ask?
There are only 2 things required:
1.  Simply "like" me on Facebook.
2.  Leave a comment below detailing your feelings about waffles, polka-dots, or climate change.  Actually your comment can be about anything, just make sure it's epic and only ONE.  I know you won't disappoint.  {I always LOVE comments on Facebook and you should leave lots of those too, but only comments below will be counted in the giveaway!}

I really want to open this giveaway to everyone, but I'm scared about prices for shipping all across the world, because unfortunately I'm not a millionaire (sad face).  If you are an international liker, whattya say if I open up the giveaway to you as well and if I randomly pull someone from Spain (hypothetically), we can split the shipping cost via paypal.

*ONE entry per person and I will keep the entries open until Friday, March 9th when I will announce the three winners.
*Make sure you include your email address so I can contact you when you are chosen as a winner!
*New winners will be redrawn if I do not get a response within a week.  {fair warning!}

Thank you for all the sweet compliments and support.  I'm always amazed at the response on Facebook I get 

and am so grateful to you.

Good luck! 


This giveaway is now closed!
Thank you all who entered!  You certainly did not disappoint with your comments.  They were EPIC and even poetic at times.  The winners have been emailed and are as follows:
Misty O'Brien
Jamie Polocak
Rachel Z
Congratulations!

Never WonderLand

I'm sitting here in front of my computer, it's past midnight, I'm eating some leftover coconut cream pie, and I'm composing a post about cookies.  How did it come to this?  I have a lot of cookier friends and I seriously think we are all varying degrees of crazy.  We cookiers are a diverse international community with a huge range of styles, but the thing that draws us together is sugar.... sugar and craziness.  Woah!  I just might have made a discovery here folks!  Maybe it's the sugar inhalation that makes us crazy!

So, I think a lot about cookies.  I dream about cookies.  I have cookies I plan to make.  One theme that I have wanted to cookie for some time is Alice in Wonderland.  Imagine my joy when an old friend of mine (that makes it sound like she's old.  She's not: see?  She's super cute and super talented) contacted me and asked if I could make some Alice in Wonderland cookies!  She also wanted Peter Pan cookies for her daughter's birthday, saying that little Avi likes looking at the new cookies I post {flattery will get you everything!} and Peter Pan is her boyfriend.  Besides the fact that I REALLY wanted an excuse to make Alice cookies, and that Nemiha is awesome, the most important fact is that Avi is my most adorable blog reader; so of course I said yes!  

Though I love Disney's Alice I decided to cookie Sir John Tenniel's classic illustrations instead.  They are so charming and a little bit creepy just like the story calls for.  It was hard narrowing down the ones I wanted to do, but here are the ones I ended up cookie-ing:

  

These were so fun to paint!  The 5 year old in me wanted to color them all in with a big chunky crayon, but I decided instead that I wanted them to look like the book plus little pops of added color, but on an old page colored background.

When it came time to do the Peter Pan set, I knew I wanted to cookie Wendy trying to kiss Peter.  Avi's crush on Peter reminded me of his countless admirers and how oblivious he is to all of them.  Wendy, Tink, Tiger Lilly, and all the mermaids in the lagoon; pining over dashing Peter!  I focused on the magic and fun and pixie dust.

Wendy:  But Peter!  How do we get to Neverland?
Peter:  Fly, of course.
Wendy:  Fly?
Peter:  It's easy!  All you have to do is to... is to... Ha!  That's funny!
Wendy:  What's the matter?  Don't you know?
Peter:  Oh sure.  It's... it's just that I never thought about it before.  Say that's it!  You think of a wonderful thought!

Thank you Nemiha and Avi, I had an absolutely magical time making these cookies.