Derby Days

When I was in college, each spring we would board a bus and travel to another college town about two hours away to attend a horse race. I went every year, spending time thinking of the perfect dress and coordinating hat to wear. (Remember that I departed for college in the late nineties so needless to say those outfits are not something I care to share publicly.) Those races were some of my favorite college memories, though I never once saw an actual horse. In fact, can anyone confirm for me that there are actual horses at Foxfield Races in Charlottesville? I kid...kind of.

Once college ended, so did the horse race attendance, aside from a 2008 revival appearance thanks to some girls who convinced me that was a good idea.



Gone was the two hour party bus ride and instead my husband dropped us off and studied in a local coffee shop while we tried to recreate our past complete with decorated plastic cups.  A fun time was had by all but I can nearly confirm that was my last horse race for a while. (And in case you were wondering, we did have a brief horse sighting that time around.)

Anyway, while I draw no comparison between Foxfield and the Kentucky Derby, there is simply no way I can think of a horse race without fondly remembering the fun memories I have from our own mini version of Churchill Downs.

I have made horse cookies a time or two, but none for actual horse races. So when a friend/party planner extraordinaire chose me to make the cookies for her Kentucky Derby birthday party, I was thrilled!  WAIT until you all see this party.  Sadly I enjoyed it from a far, but it looked simply amazing.

For the event, we chose julep cookies to match both the invitations and the birthday girls's monogram...



mixed in with preppy jockey silks.



Undoubtedly some of my favorite cookies to date. Thank you for having me be a part of another one of your FABULOUS events Melissa!

Hope you all had a happy derby weekend.

Spa Birthday Party Cookies

I love when people send me invitations or party paper goods to channel into cookies. Recently I was sent a link to some adorable spa party plates that lead to equally cute cookies for a 7 year old girl's spa birthday party (my kind of girl!)



And while I have never had a "spa day" in my life (just not my thing) I certainly enjoyed making the cookies for one. :)

Thank you as always Meaghan!

Down on the Farm

Last week I had the pleasure of making cookies for a friend's twins' first birthday. I did the cookies for her baby shower just last year and it continues to amaze me how quickly time flies.

We agreed on a variety of farm animals, barns and cow print number ones.





My personal favorites were the chickens...



Thank you Beth!

The Evolution of a Mustache Cookie

One of my favorite things to do relating to baking is translate an invitation into a cookie. I openly welcome clients to send me copies of their party paper goods and love to use them as inspiration. The latest was a mustache/chevron bright colored invitation for a friend's son's first birthday party. I thought it was adorable and set to work on making cookies to compliment.

Mustaches were up first. For once I remembered to take a few photos along the way so I could share the full evolution of a (mustache) cookie.

Phase one:

Two:

Three:

Voila!

The order was completed with chevron monogrammed cookies.

Thank you Kathryn! You did a wonderful job with R's party and I appreciate you including me to be a part of it.

(70 Degree) Winter Wonderland

As I peruse Facebook and the like, I have observed many complaints regarding this week's unseasonably warm weather. Each to their own as my opinion is the exact opposite. I am welcoming the warm weather with open arms and even celebrated it by indulging in frozen yogurt two days in a row this week. (Thinking I may have to go for three today now that I typed that.)

If you're on "Team Winter" then these cookies are for you. They were made for a repeat customer who requested polar bears, penguins, igloos and "something else" for her son's birthday. We agreed that snowflakes seemed like the right choice to complete the set and I am very happy with how the collection turned out.

Thank you once again Mina!

Special Second Birthday

The weekend before Thanksgiving we set out to visit our friends and celebrate their daughter's second birthday. I had asked if I could bring a "smash cake" and behold my first attempt at incorporating my cookies into such a cake.

The birthday girl's gift from me was a set of cookies to pass out at her party. There was a bright colored cupcake theme with an Elmo undertone that afternoon so these worked out well.

Of course the best part was watching to bday girl enjoy her cake (and three cookies on a stick!) Love it.

Happy Birthday sweet C! You know I adore you...and your parents too.

This & That

I have a crazy-busy week ahead and won't be able to share much until I get through with it so I thought I'd check in and show you a few things that I have been working on.

Cookies for wedding welcome bags including monograms and wedding cakes:

Ballet birthday party cookies (some day I will share more about my long-time love of ballet but for now I just wanted to document these while I was thinking of it.)

And primary color/circle themed baby shower cookies:

Thank you Lindsey, Lisa, Char and Sarah!

This week will bring everything from Twilight to college football to legos to super heroes to 30th birthday to 2nd birthday cookies. Whew! Looking forward to sharing all of those as I go.

Have a great week everyone!

Tee Time

While there is no doubt that I am a better cart driver than golfer, I have always enjoyed the sport. Perhaps it's because golf reminds me of vacation or maybe it's the good memories of tournaments I've attended over the years...could even be the "golf parties" I enjoyed in college or even just the attire in general. Somehow I do not think the fondness comes from my summer of being the only girl in golf camp (I was too young to appreciate that opportunity at the time!)

When a friend requested golf cookies for her son's second birthday party, I was happy for a new challenge. Navy and green were the party colors with argyle, stripes, dots and flags all making appearances in the decor. In the end we both loved the golf tees the best.

Thank you Carey!

Princess, Fashion & Fresh Beat Band

A few photos from recent collections...

Princess cookies for one of my favorite little girl's third birthday.

Logo cookies for CR Fashion Book:

And finally Fresh Beat Band cookies for this family's big fifth birthday party. I wish Laura could come photograph my cookies every day but I will settle for that adorable birthday girl photo!

Thank you ladies!

Cupcakes, Bumblebees & Preppy Football

Eclectic title, right? I have come to the conclusion that if I ever want to blog about the months worth of cookies I still have to show you, I am going to have to combine different cookie collections into one post. Maybe weekly recaps would help me? Who knows. In the meantime, I will share a few of my favorites from last week.

Cupcakes and chevron for a friend's sister who could use a smile right now:

Bumble bee cookies done to match a party invitation for little Lucy (love that I did her first birthday cookies too!)

And finally UNC football/sorority cookies for a reunion weekend the uber-talented party planner "Southern Vogue" was enjoying with her college friends.

Thank you Anna and Melissa!

Princess Party Cookies

My toddler BFF is about to have a princess-themed third birthday party. Sadly I am unable to make the celebration this year but my cookies are making the trip! So in thinking about her cookie favors, I came across two princess collections I had made but never seemed to blog or even post in my Facebook album. (I don't think I have mentioned on here that our old computer crashed and took many unposted cookie photos along with it...sigh.)

So while everyone else is watching football today, I hope you enjoy these princesses and company.

Thank you Elisa & Lindsay!

Mickey Birthdays

(Short and sweet today!)

I have made a couple more Mickey themed cookie sets over the past month or so.

First was a Mickey and sports themed second birthday for a friend's adorable son.

And a Mickey's Clubhouse 1st birthday party for another little cutie.



Thank you Kristen & Kate!

Vineyard Vines Birthday Cookies

I love when people give me new ideas to make cookies in honor of. So when a friend asked me to make Vineyard Vines inspired cookies for his wife's birthday, I was in. (Last year he chose Tory Burch and company - the man has taste!) I decided to go with polo shirts, bow ties, canvas totes and of course the signature pink whale...

Makes me wish I was on the Vineyard! :)

Thank you Ross!

Golden Birthday Cookies

I cannot believe that I haven't shared these cookies yet. I loved creating them and loved the party they were a part of even more. When Melissa of Southern Vogue contacted me about making pink and golden cookies for her "golden birthday" party back in May, I was thrilled to do it. She was looking for elegant cookies, both cakes and polka dot monograms. This party was magazine-worthy (as is every other party on her blog) and I loved seeing my cookies on her beautiful table.

Thank you again Melissa...and happy belated birthday! ;)

Hello Kitty

I don't really have a background story to tell on Hello Kitty cookies as I don't remember her being a big thing when I was growing up. (At least not in my world anyway.) However I was excited to make these for a birthday party since creating something I have not done before is always my favorite. We decided on the Hello Kitty face as was as her bows with the birthday girl's name on them. Instead of packaging these at my typical 5 a.m. time, I was able to photograph them once the sun came out, so these pictures make me happy. (Thanks for always tolerating my dull photos - you'd be sad to know that I actually have a decent camera but do not have ever much light to work with.)

Thank you Sharri!

Sunny Days...

We have decorated a LOT of Elmo cookies around here...and even a Sesame Street order or twenty, but never before had I received a request for Grover, Bert & Ernie to join in. Always happy for a change in cookies, I was excited to draw the new characters. They were for an old friend's daughter's second birthday. (I made her first birthday party cookies too - love that!)

So in the end we had a rather complete cast of characters (minus a certain grouch) heading to the party...

Thank you Kara!

Tractor Time

I am not a girl who grew up on a farm, so when I think of tractors I automatically think of riding lawnmowers. :) True story. In fact I always had a strange fondness for mowing my parents' lawn growing up when they had a riding mower. They never once asked me to do it, but it was one of my favorite things to do for some reason. Maybe it was the time in the sun, or the alone time with music, or maybe it was the satisfaction of seeing my work pay off. I really don't know.

Anyway, onto the cookies for today. I had two parties a couple of weeks ago that worked tractors into their theme. The first was a birthday celebration for 2 brothers. One likes Batman and one likes tractors so their mom and I decided on half & half.

(Random personal Batman fact: The only movie I have ever walked out on in my life was one of the Batman movies. Thankfully there was no movie viewing going on here - just cookie decorating.)

The other party was a tractor themed second birthday party. There were a lot of plaid accents worked into the party so we played that up in the cookies too.

All three birthday boys are adorable and I hope they had a great time at their parties. Thank you Melissa and Jen!

Safari Birthday Cookies

Recently friends of ours celebrated their son's first birthday with a jungle safari bash. The invitation was adorable, featuring the birthday boy driving a safari jeep with a slew of animals as his passengers. I recreated those scenes on his cookie party favors along with a few animal print ones.











And although he will probably only remember these cookies from the photos, I had a great time making them for such a precious little boy!

Happy Birthday C! xo

All in the Family (of Cookies)

A few months ago (yes that is how behind I am on this blog) a friend of mine asked me to make cookies to bring to a family she was going to visit in Florida over Spring Break. We decided to do a few cookies for every member in the family and the eclectic mix that came together as a result still amuses me. :)

We included a few for the birthday being celebrated during the visit.



We did fun cocktails in honor of the reunion/vacation...



And of course we made a couple of special treats for the lady of the house.



It was a house full of New York sports fans...





The youngest member of the family has a love for UPS (even dressing up as a delivery person last Halloween!)



Needless to say there was something for everyone! I loved seeing it all come together.

Thank you Ana!