Brrrr......It's Cold Outside!

Lots of exciting things to come here on this blog. The January give-away will be announced in a few days.....so don't miss it. I'm so excited about many things going on and can't wait to share with all of you.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of extra time taking some shots of making icing and all that is involved with it. (Stopping a million times to take pictures is interesting when you are trying to make and decorate cookies!) Since we had snow outside, it made the kitchen nice and bright.....so the photos came out pretty good. I even made a very crude video of the 10 second approach to icing consistency. Let's just say that I'll leave videography to my talented son, Neil. :)

There's LOTS going on at the home front. Keith, my Army son, just left for college in Florida this last Friday. He's hoping to enter their ROTC program. Then Neil is leaving for Johannesburg, South Africa in just two days. sniff sniff He'll be gone through June 1 doing a Hands On program with the International Mission Board (SBC). I'm so excited for him because he will get to do video and photography on an internship type level......plus get college credit for it......plus be on a 4 1/2 month mission trip! As a Momma......my heart is heavy knowing he'll be gone that long. But I couldn't be prouder of him. :))))))) Then Jill is working full time and starting at the community college this next week. Kyle & Allison continue to work at their part time jobs. It's funny......even though my kids are becoming very independent......there are waves of needing Momma in big ways. I wouldn't have it any other way! Going from 24/7 homeschooling mom to independent mom with lots of freedom would be too hard......but my job has certainly not ended.....just changed. I'm blessed.

One last cookie of my first Winter 2011 collection..................

And here's the gang all together. :)

Tomorrow I'll start showing you my Winter Warm Drinks collection......coffee....tea...and hot chocolate......so appropriate for these very, very chilly morning. Brrrrr!

Brand New Year......Think of all the Cookies Ahead of Us ;)

I've been itchin' to bake/decorate since New Years Day......finally got to yesterday. It was a happy day. I went a "whole two weeks" without baking. Poor me. ;)

So my first cookies of 2011......guess what kind? Winter.....of course. :) I love, love, love snowmen and everything to go with them. And I love snow. (We had a white Christmas by the way......so special!)

So.......I have a bunch of new collections to show you. PLUS.....I even took some shots of actually rolling the dough, cutting it, and using a template. Needless to say, you need to get ready for some "how-tos" in the days ahead. I wish I had someone to follow me around to take photos and video instead of me trying to do it myself.....but I'll just go with what I have for now. Hopefully I'll get better at it with time. 

With this first batch of 2011 cookies......I tried very hard to make mostly unique winter cookies that I've seen from graphics, etc. It was loads of fun to transfer those ideas into cookie form. Expect much more of this in the coming days.

Oh.....and there will be a January give-away soon.......plus a guest post in the next week or so. Fun fun!

Here's my first set of winter-wear. I love these colors together. :)

Much more to come.....