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Oct 31, 2012

Humbled (Part One)

If you were to ask me what my favorite part of my cookie adventure is
my response would be the same every time.
Friendships!
Since I have started this cookie adventure,
I have met some of the
nicest,
friendliest,
sweetest,
kindest,
most generous,
talented,
encouraging,
supportive,
and funniest
people on the
face of the earth.
I have known this for a long time,
but last month,
the depth of those friendships
the kindness of those friendships,
the generosity of those friendships
exceeded even my wildest imagination.
 
I started writing this post..and it kind of
grew
and
grew
and grew
 
so,
I have decided to break it into
several parts
I hope you will not mind
and that you will come back for
more parts
I promise, it is a great story,
a touching story
and a story of how
people all over the place
changed my life, and the life of Collin.
I started baking cookies as treats for my son, Collin's
Special Service Class.
Then it kinda grew, and grew and grew.
 
Last month, I was a little discourage at the funding given to
the Special Services Classes at my son's school.
So...I sprung into action, baked some cookies
and offered 2 dozen up for Auction on my Facebook Page.

I decided to bake and decorate puzzle cookies,
because I love puzzle cookies
and I AM The Cookie Puzzle.

BUT!

I wanted to do some special puzzle cookies,
and my friend Jodi from Serendipitous Sweets
made These, and when I asked her, she gave me
permission to use her cookies as inspiration!

These are Jodi's cookies...NOT mine!
I have to tell you, when I saw these cookies, I cried!

The quilted puzzle look just amazed me!

They were perfect in every way.

So, I made some quilted puzzle cookies


 
I post the auction, hoping that I might be able to raise $50 for the class.
BOY was I WRONG!
Soon my friends were sharing, and sharing, and the bids
started coming in.
 
 
At the end of the Auction, thanks to
 
 
and
 
 
 
The Auction raised
$225
for the class!
 
 
I was shocked once again!
 
 
See...Very Special People!


I was overwhelmed, Collin was stunned, and his teacher was amazed!


We now had $225 to spend on the classroom!


What to buy?
What to buy?
That was the question!


We have bought a few small things, order some things, and trying
to get as much as we can.


But we thank you!


Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!


You will never know how much your generosity mean to these kids.


For once, they get to feel special, they get to have the things that
make them happy, things that help them learn,
things that let them know they are SPECIAL!
 
 
The Auction ended on a Saturday,
I was so happy, so humbled, so grateful!
 
 
I was walking on cloud nine!
 
 
Little did I know what was about to happen!
 
Until next time.....
Hugs
Kim

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!
 
 
Halloween is not my favorite Holiday
 
BUT
 
I still made cookies!
 
Don't go hating on me
 
it is not that I
 
Hate Halloween,
 
It is just that I am not a fan of
 
blood
 
and
 
Knives
 
and
 
being scared out of my mind.
 
But
 
When you have requests for Halloween cookies
 
You make Halloween cookies!
 
 
I made regular sized cookies!
 



 
And I made Mini Cookies
120 to be exact!
 
 
 
AND
 
Every year, I make these for Collin's class!
 
 
 
 
EWWWWWWWW!
 
GROSSSS!
 
But he loves them and the class loves them
 
so I suck it up and make them
 
 


 
 
Have a safe and happy Halloween!
 
Save me some candy
 
Almond Joys are my favorite!
 
 
 
 
Hugs
Kim
 
 
 


Oct 21, 2012

Pumpkin Cookies...on different backgrounds

Sorry I have been MIA for so long!
I know I promised that I would post more, and
here it is the 21st of the month, and this is
my second post this month.
Ugg....sorry about that!
I had plans on posting last week
but, well, life happened
and
Cookies happened
and on Monday
well
Monday was an emotional, humbling, and surprising day
I PROMISE, I will tell you all about it in my next post, this week
Pinkie Swear!
So...in the mean time, I will share with you
some simple pumpkin cookies I did!
I was planning on just posting a few pictures,
But, while I was editing the pictures, I noticed something
I often take like 800 pictures of my cookies...and change the background, and angle
around, praying that I might get just a few decent looking pictures,
Well...this time,
the stars were aligned, and I got several good pictures,
Well
Good for MY pictures.
And I wanted to show you how changing the background
or angle of your pictures, your cookies can look totally different.
Wanna See?
Ok.
Same cookie, same background, different angle!


Same cookies, same angle, different background!



Same cookies, same background, different angle, and zoomed!



Same cookie, same angle, different background!





How about a side by side comparison?



Kinda cool right?

I think so!

So what did I learn about this?

Well...take 8 million pictures, thanks to a digital camera, you can do that,  and
you are bound to get at least a few good pictures.

Scrapbook paper, makes great backgrounds!  You can find it in solid colors,
patterns, pictures that look real (see the leaves, wood, and hay...they look like I laid
my cookies in the leaves!)

Move around, take pictures from several angles...it is fun
and again, different angles, can give you a totally different look!

And..have fun...this is not rocket science...they are pictures
of COOKIES!


Until next time!


Hugs
Kim

Oct 1, 2012

Sometimes you feel like a nut....

Happy October Cookie Peeps!
 
 
It's the first of the month....and that means it is time
 
for another "Inspiration Challenge"
 
with my two favorite ladies
 
Melissa of
 
 
and
 
Stephanie of
 
 
Can I tell you...I just love these ladies
 
They Challenge me each and every
month, and I have come to look forward
to joining them.  If you have not
checked them out..you should!
 
 
So...this month the theme was
 
 HALLOWEEN CANDY!
 
Ohhh...I love me some candy!

It was not too hard for me to decide
what candy to do

I kinda love chocolate
and
coconut
and
almonds..


So...I made Almond Joys!

And I LOVE how they turned out!

 
 
 
The Wrapper was HUGE, but I did that on purpose
wanting to get all the details, but in the end...I just could not get
the glaze to cooperate with me...so the tiny details on the bottom
are not there..sorry!
 
The candy themselves were super easy to make...wanna see?
 
I started with an oval cookie..then kinda squished it into
the shape I wanted, then took small pieces of dough
and shape it into an almond shape, then damped them
with a little water to attach them before baking.
 
I then made some chocolate colored glaze, and placed the
cookies on a cooling rack, on a sheet pan and
spooned the glaze over the cookies.
 
 
Then used my off set spatula to guide it down the sides
 
 
Making sure all the sides were covered!
 

When they were completely covered,

 I gave the pan a good shake, and tap, to even the glaze out.
I then let them dry overnight, and used a sharp knife to pop them
off the cooling rack.
 
Done
 
 


 
 
These were fun to do..and I think I will be making them again. Almond Joys are my
mom's favorite candy bar!  When I was young and still trick-or-treating, she would
steal all my almond joys...but that is OK...I still love her!
 
Make sure you head over to
see the cookies that
 
Stephanie made Here
 
and the ones
 
Melissa made Here!
Melissa is hosting a link up on her blog, so if you have
made candy cookies in past, make sure
to link them up at her site!
 
 
They are amazing.
 
Thank you ladies for the Inspiration...and I can not wait until next month
 
the theme is
 
"Show Me Your State"!
 
I can not wait...and already have plans!