Back from vacation and ready to cookie again!

I am back after a week of family, fun and some much needed no cookie time. Now that I am back I need to dive into cookies again. I feel rejuvenated and ready to create some great new designs. Here are some old and new designs I have done since coming back from vacation.


Happy Halloween from Dr. Frankenstein!

Eyeball Cookies (can come in any eye color)

Baseballs (just in time for little league and t-ball)

New Golfball (golf tee and green coming soon)

Some fun party favors for a special little girl.

Have a great week!

Autumn Cookies and more

I have been swamped. I love it but at the same time I have been too busy to keep up with blogging. I am booked through the end of October and have orders all the way through the middle of January. Thank you so much to all my customers. You guys are the BEST!!

Acorns and Pumpkins


Birthday cookies for my daddy


A close-up of the tractor. I am adding this to the website. I love how it came out.


Teddy bears but I changed up the design and added stitching


More pumpkins



I am on vacation next week!!! No cookies, just family, fun and memories. More cookies in October.

Cookies, cookies and a broken laptop

My laptop died. Well, the hard drive on my brand new laptop went bad. It was bad when I got it and after nine million calls to Dell and a little bit of tough talk I finally got a new hard drive. I think I am having problems with Internet Explorer now (it locks up for no reason) but that is a whole other blog entry... my hatred for Dell.

I have been super busy with my business. I am thinking of putting my Etsy shop in vacation mode for the rest of this month. I am currently booked through the 23rd of October and I have orders straight through the middle of November already. I am going on vacation at this end of this month and I want to finish the cookies that I need to finish before vacation and not worry about conversations with clients and customers asking for cookies in October even though my shop says I am booked. Yup, I talked myself into it. I am going to put my shop in vacation mode on Wednesday.

I did tons of cookies this week. I have some new designs to show off as well. Talk a look and let me know what you think. I want to squeeze in some Fall/Halloween cookies, finish up my sports cookie line and try to get out a few new designs I have in mind too. If only the day gave me a few extra hours.


New 1st birthday design.


Baby peapod cookies... twin girls (these are for a baby shower)


Doves for a Holy Communion


Happy Baking...

Sorry I have not posted in a while...

It has been a busy few weeks of getting ready for school and just enjoying my family and my friends. I have been busy baking away too. I have some new designs that I think you will really enjoy.

Hibiscus Flower for a Sweet Sixteen Luau



Pretty Daisies for a Bridal Shower



New Ladybug Design


The design matched the invitations for a garden bridal shower


Have a great week!!!

Wedding Cakes

It was wedding week here at SugarCoated Cookies. 8 dozen three tiered wedding cakes were created and the bride gave me creative control to do whatever I wanted. I had tons of designs and I really liked them all but here are some of my favorites.



My Favorite


I like the scroll work on this one.


I love the romantic look this one has.


This matched the brides dress


This is a fun design.

It's party time!

A few cookie creations to get you in a party mood...



The cake is my favorite part of any party


I love these little "candies". The sanding sugar makes them even better.


Balloons are perfect for any celebration

Time to get the party started!!
If you are in need of party decorations to match your next celebration check out this blog... www.pinkhippoboutique.blogspot.com
Her stuff is so cute and everything is handmade.

Cookies

New Designer Onesies


Martini anyone?


Explorer Stars!


Ballerina Tutu

www.sugarcoatedcookies.com

It is here!!! SugarCoated Cookies has a website.

This whole experience feels real now. This is not just my little hobby any longer. This website has made it feel official and professional and everything I hoped it would be. Take a moment and check out the website and let me know what you think. I still have some tweaking to do like adding descriptions and such but overall it is up and running and awesome.

www.sugarcoatedcookies.com

A huge thank you to my web designer, Amber. She is amazing and if you are looking for someone to create a custom site for you she is your girl. She is sweet and helpful. She really takes her time thinking of what you would like and what would work for your business. She listened to everything I wanted and went above and beyond. I can not sing her praises enough.
Check her out at www.thecoutureddesigner.etsy.com

New Website

SugarCoated Cookies is getting a WEBSITE!! That is right, it is time to take the next step and that means try and move off Etsy and on to my own site. I love Etsy and selling on there but I need to beef up my local orders and have a place for them to go and view my cookies. Business is booming and I am just so blessed.
Designing this site is harder than I thought. I want it awesome, I just do not know what that is for me right now. Do I want it childlike or sophisticated? Do I want muted colors or bright colors? The choices and the designs are all starting to blur.

I am so excited about this and will obviously let you guys know when it is up and running. In the meantime I have cut back on my cookie orders for the summer. I have been taking no more than 5 a week and it has given me some time to work on new designs and more importantly play with my kids this summer. Here are some designs I have been working on.

My daughters party

Most of the time I have customers tell me what type of cookie I need to make for their party so when my own daughters birthday rolled around I started thinking what we could make. I had so many ideas. She was having a bowling party but figured I could go bowling theme or birthday theme. I thought about it for a long time. I sketched out cookies and about a week ago I took out all the cookie cutters I thought would work. I had everything lined up and I took my daughter into my work room and said okay, here are the sketches, here are some of my ideas, and here are the cookie cutters that you can look at to get an idea of size and shape. Did I mention this is her 5th birthday? A little overkill I know, but she is super smart and I knew she could follow all this ridiculousness I had done. I had three tier birthday cakes, I had sketched out a bowling shirt that had her name and a bowling ball on the back, I had cupcake cookies, party hat cookies, initial cookies, you name it. She looks at everything for 5 seconds and says "I just want a purple bowling ball cookie". Now I am thinking, UM!... okay but that is just a 4 inch circle cutter with some added details. Look at the cornucopia of detailed designs I have for you. Yea, no! She picked the BOWLING BALL! All my hardwork and brainstorming went right out the window. She did decide to add a sparkly number 5 to the ball. I was thrilled to make them for her because it is what she wanted. It matched her theme and her number 1 criteria was size and this is a BIG cookie.

I was also able to make her cake. I saw a picture of this cake on a food blog (that I can not remember the name of to save my life) and I knew I had to make it. So I was able to make her cake this year as well and she loved it.

We just got back from her party and I think it was a success. Everyone loved the cookies and the cake was a hit too.

Bowling ball cookie favors designed by my 5 year old:


The cake I made for the party:

A little break

Well, after last week (595 cookies) I really needed a break from cookies. I gave myself one week with no cookies (other than for my daughter's birthday party) and I made it to Tuesday without feeling the need to decorate. HA!!
I am still enjoying my week off and I have only done a few cookies here and there. This week has been great. I created a few new designs for my store and I had no deadlines!! WIN WIN!
My favorite cookie this week is not my own design but one inspired by Karen of Karen's cookies. She sells baking supplies and usually includes pictures of cookies she designed using the cookie cutters she sells. I LOVED her gumball machine and had to make one of my own. It is so fun and I really love how it turned out. I am happy with all the cookies I made this week but that is hands down my favorite. Without further ado... a FEW of this weeks creations.

Giddy Up Cowboy


Will you marry me?


Baby Time!


GUMBALL MACHINE!! (my fav)



Okay, so tell me your favorite from this weeks creations and any design you would like to see me try. Have a great weekend!!!

Pear cookies and more

In my last post I mentioned doing pear cookies for dear family members. Well, they are done and being shipped tomorrow. I am very happy with them and can not wait to hear what Joe and Betty think.



I have also been busy with end of year school cookies...


I even did some Hungry Caterpillar fruit cookies for a little ones 1st birthday.



I have baked and decorated 595 cookies in the last 6 days. It has been CRAZY!! I will post more soon but wanted everyone to see what I have been up to.
Thanks for the orders!!!

Busy, busy, busy!

I have a VERY busy two weeks ahead of me. I have tons of orders, some of which are very large and my dear husband is leaving for India for 2 weeks. I guess the silver lining is that I will have plenty of time after the kids go to bed to bake and decorate. I am super excited for one order I have coming up. I am making pear cookies for two of the nicest people I have ever met. My "step" grandparents have been married for 50 years. I have known them for over 10 years now and they have always been wonderful to me. It is truly my pleasure to make these pear cookies (because they are the "perfect pair") for their big anniversary party. I wish I could attend this party but it is far away and with my husband out of town a few special events of our own had to be pushed to that weekend as well. I will post pictures after the party so everyone can see how they turned out. I have the whole design planned out in my head but of course I have never actually made pear cookies before. This is typical me... remember my motto, "I will figure it out". This motto was tested last week. I promised my best friend Minnie Mouse cookies for her daughters party. I have NEVER made minnie mouse cookies and of course they had to be perfect. I made a test cookie, which I normally never do and boy was I happy I did. I changed the design a little and had to change the consistency of my icing for everything to work. I had a stomach ache about these cookies after that test cookie. In the end, I made it work and I love how they turned out. Thankfully, so did she. Most of my other orders are desings that I have done a million times so although still time consuming I am confident with what I am doing. I am hoping to sneak in a little time to work up new designs for my website and a little R&R wouldn't be so bad either. Look for more cookie designs soon. Below are the minnie cookies I did. What do you think?

Happy Mother's Day

I have a really great family. They make me laugh, they make me try harder, they sometimes make me yell but mostly they make me feel love like I never thought I could. My daughter thinks that every cookie I make is beautiful but is quick to point out my decorating mistakes. She is sweet but honest. She told her teacher her favorite thing to do with me is bake. I love that. My son has a sweet tooth the size of his head and can smell a cookie from two blocks away. He is the only two year old that uses the word client on a regular basis and can melt my heart when he asks if he can have a cookie or if they are for my "cients". My husband is supportive and the greatest taste tester I could ask for. If you ask him he will tell you that everything I have ever made has been fantastic. If you guys do not like a flavor I make you can blame him... he told me it was FANTASTIC. My husband also loves this new venture because now he never has to search for a gift idea. I have never been a jewelry girl so the go to necklace/ring never worked for me. Now it is baking pans, aprons, and today along with a few other goodies it was a large rolling container with three drawers for all my cookie cutters. I have over 250 cutters and I am still on the hunt for more.
I had a fantastic Mother's Day today with my family that I feel blessed to have. I hope you all enjoyed your day today as well. Happy Mother's Day.

I have been ending my posts with a cookie picture. So, here is the latest farm collection. My favorite is the cow print number 1's.

Not Enough Hours in the Day!

Have you ever felt like there are just not enough hours in the day? When business is slow I worry about boosting it but when business is booming I worry even more. I need to get my orders done, I need to keep my site updated, I need to create new cookies. The list goes on and on. Oh, did I forget to mention, make breakfast, lunch and dinner, keep a somewhat presentable home, give my family 100% of my attention and still have a few precious minutes to SHOWER.
I promise every post won't be me complaining and I am not really complaining in this post, I am just trying to find a balance. Last week I turned down 7 orders in an effort to get that balance and it worked... but I lost 7 orders. Is that what I need to do? Is there a better way? I am sure everyone that has their own business has asked these questions at some point. Heck, business or not I am sure everyone has had to search for balance in their life.

On the brighter side, I am coming up with new cookies. I am doing a glittery red apple for end of year teacher gifts and a "bucket of popcorn" cookie for a carnival birthday. I am excited to try a baby block and this neat pirate ship cutter I got the other day.
Oh the cookies I could crank out if I had an additional 5 hours in a day.

If you have a cookie you would like to see leave me a comment and let me know. I would love the feedback.



Here is another cookie pic for you. This cookie was inspired by Callie, a fellow cookie decorator.

I NEVER in a million years thought I would have a blog.

Although, opening up my own cookie company was a shocker to me too. Sometimes I get these ideas and act so fast I do not have time to doubt myself or think of the risks, logistics, etc. I just get in go mode and figure it out. That is my motto most of the time... "I'll just figure it out." Thankfully, most of the time, I do! I started this company back in January and I have spent everyday since then "figuring it out". I love it! I love the flexibility it gives me. I love the feeling of pride when someone asks me what I do and I say "I own a cookie company". Call me crazy, but that is cool. It can get nuts sometimes and I tend to overbook myself but I am slowly working out the kinks. I think I will use this blog to showcase all my new cookies, let my customers, friends and family know all the latest and greatest goings on with my company and last but not least give everyone a little insight into how a new company can drive you slightly crazy and over the edge some days.

Keep coming back to see if I can manage to turn sugarcoated cookies into everything I dreamed of... without losing my mind.


Oh, here is a cookie pic too.