November blowing in....

 ~ Greetings and Warm Welcome to my Blog ~

I hope this finds each of you well 😊

Today is Saturday and I'm excited to be attending a Craft Bazaar/Craft Fair at our local church.

Ellie's in Youth Group there, and they run the Bake Sale/Kitchen area where all profits go to support them through the year.

I decided to make my cut out and iced cookies. 

I made Pumpkins & Scarecrows

Here they are all bagged up and ready to take to the sale:

Before I ever made it to the door ~ I sold 40 out of my trunk. I took the remaining 40 and $80 from my parking lot sales, and handed it to the Bake Sale coordinator. I bet when I get there today there will not be many left if any. I sold them for $2 a cookie, which most people probably are thinking: for a single cookie? But if you look up pricing - a dozen of these cookies go anywhere from $25 -45 (and up) They are very time intensive. I had about 16 hours in these. I'm not a professional and I have made 1000's of cookies but I have never taken 1 penny for any of them. I give them from my heart, it brings me great joy to see people wonder over how they look and then to see their faces once they bite into one....priceless!

If you are interested in learning - 

I can tell you how I learned. I taught myself 10 years ago. I wanted cookies for my son's Eagle Scout Reception. I priced them at a local bakery. About choked and then decided to teach myself. 

I Googled: Iced Cookies. At the time I started going through blogs/websites and one of the first people I settled on was Sweet Sugarbelle. You can find her blog here: 

THE ADVENTURES OF SWEET SUGARBELLE

another gem of a website is: 

KAREN'S COOKIES

There are TONS more. This was also the first time I used  YouTube as a way of learning something. There are LOTS of cookie decorating videos. Again just let your fingers do the typing and you can find a wealth of information from good hearted people that spend a great quantity of time to upload free content to help others. I know people have mixed feelings about the internet, and I agree there is bad, but I choose to look for the good and don't mess with the bad or stay far away. 

My Cookie Recipe is basically Callye's BASIC SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE 

the only thing I do different is: I use a TBS of LorAnn Emulsion and I use 3+ cups of flour (I live in humidity so I have to use more flour than Callye has to living in the desert so the cookies will not spread)

I also use Callye's icing recipe: ROYAL ICING RECIPE

the only difference is: I use again 1TBS of emulsion and about 1/2 c. water (depending on the humidity)

Doing these take a large amount of time. And typically it takes me 3 days of work to get to a final batch of cookies. Day 1 = make the dough, cut, bake off

Day 2 = make all the icing colors (lots and lots of work) and decorate (more lots and lots of work) leave out all day/night to dry

Day 3 = packaging - I have learned sealing each one in their own self sealing cello bakery bags HERE

helps the cookies to last a lot longer and stay fresh, but I also find that sealing them like this and THEN freezing them inside a rubbermaid container is the best way of extending their life for giving. Practice makes perfect and there is nothing like a little bit of sugar to make most people smile real big. I try to always have cookies on special occasions to pass out. 

It is truly the simple things in life! It truly is!

There has been zero stitching going on. I'm dry, folks. Like a desert. I've been dealing with a lot on my plate, it seems really full. Much more full than normal. This new avenue of arthritis in my knees (and I think hips too) is getting me down/worrying me. I've had a lot of less than ideal dealings with people over the last several weeks. (Had another just last evening - try to help and then blows up and becomes my fault)  SO. I've decided to retreat to my safe place. My home, my interior life, my blog....I will not be on social media for awhile. I think an absence will do my spirit and my heart good. The only thing I will miss is the inspiration I gain from seeing other makers, connecting with some great stitchers that are on there for stitching (not for personal gains and promotion) and the gems of knowledge that I gain from other's personal lives. Perhaps people I know and enjoy interacting with will notice I'm not posting and seek to find me. I'll go back to posting some day again, just taking a break - everyone needs a break now and again.

Until next time....

I'll be keeping you all, our world around us, in my thoughts and prayers.

Keep creating!

Love in stitches, 

Vonna xxxx