FOWL Play

My sister has been hosting Thanksgiving for untold number of years and it it is my God given duty to bring cookies for the dessert table.  Usually, that table is quite full so this year I made turkeys just for the kids (by that I mean mentally a kid so it qualifies a few more folks than you would think). These cookies combined The Cookie Architect designed wave cutter with a small candy corn cutter (both found at the wonderful Truly Mad Plastics web site.) The colors utilized were Americolor egg yellow, orange, chocolate, and sky blue (each icing batch had a drop of egg yellow gel to balance all of the hues).

Oh yeah.  And one of the turkeys is not like the others.  Getting my Sesame Street on.

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LEGENDARY Birthday

Don’t we all hope for a birthday celebration that has a place in the history books? (um. I guess I’m not an introvert…)  Well clear off the tabletops and hop on up for this legendary celebration set.  I was inspired by a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; they are running an exhibit on Mythical creatures.  Wicked cool and culturally enriching.  And germinated the seeds of an “epic” birthday set….

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Why Don’t You Come Up and SASHIMI sometime?

#truth  My never ending love of puns extends to every food experience.  Just one trip to my favorite sushi restaurant and these little jokesters started hanging around IG (yep, you can find me at MamaMayerBakery on Instagram).  Oh, and it’s been a summer of humorous inspiration.  Just you wait.

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FATHERS DAY 2015

I know quite a few Dads who are utterly amazing.  This is my quirky nod to that generalized word, no matter which way- a.MAZE.ing or a.MAIZE.ing- your find your guy to be.

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‘EARS to you Dad!

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Although my own chemical balance may be in question, my cookies are “elementally” correct.  I found the original idea of using actual properties of the elements to describe the written topic at Newton and the Apple’s Etsy shop. Gemma has clever, meticulously researched greeting cards and more.  Be sure to check it out!

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For Sure, Architecture

There is a lot of fun banter that goes on via the Instagram feed.  So it happened that the fabulous Rebecca Weld, aka the Cookie Architect, off-handedly inquired if a particular set of my cookies had a home.  And how she was willing to volunteer hers if not. Those cookies were spoken for but the wheels started turning for a “structurally” sound solution.  As ridiculous as it seems, there appears to be a pun/wordplay for every situation, including architecture.  If you want to have your socks knocked off, click on the link above to visit Rebecca’s blog- and prepared to be dazzled! Her cookie art is one of the Seven Wonders (of the Cookie World).

In’Tense’ Architecture: past, present, and future

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Arch Enemies

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Escher Construction Company

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packaged and ready to mail

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So Cheesy

A dear friend works as a “cheese guru” for Wegmans (utterly fantastic grocery store, for those who do not live in the northeast).  As she was approaching a milestone birthday, I wanted to send her something to lighten the mood.  You know, to encourage her to BRIE all that she could BRIE.  Go a little CRACKERS on her big day….

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Mother Lode

So Denver had 70 degree sunny days in January and, here it is, Mother’s day in mid-May, and we are expecting thunder snow.  That Mother Nature has a few tricks up her sleeve.  Moving on to other tricks, I included some word play and pictograms in this first playful Mother’s day set. See if you can figure them out (answers at the end of the blog. wink. wink.).

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In the second set, I overloaded in the gushy and the sentimental.  The aim was to make a story board in cookie form…along with writing a poem to my children. (It is our second-born that is the wordsmith so take my musings with a grain of salt).  My kids are anything and everything for which a mom could ever hope. Thanks to them, we’re celebrating me on Mother’s day.  Oh, and, thank you Hallmark.

Then I thought of my mother. My mom was a quiet role model of strength and perseverance. I never heard her complain, even though life threw a full arsenal of difficulties her way.  My dad died suddenly and unexpectedly when I was 3. In a time that it was uncommon, she went to university (graduated top of her class), converted the second floor of the house into an apartment as well as sold my dad’s cameras (he was a professional photographer)/anything else of value to help pay bills, took in my grandmother (after my grandfather died), sewed/made the clothes on our backs, took us on every.other.year camping vacations (the only way she could afford) to show us the wonders of the USA, and robbed.Peter.to.pay.Paul to put me through an expensive engineering school.  Such incredible people in my life.  Sometimes, you just get lucky as all get-out.

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(one in a million, the whole nine yards, fantastic)

Party Animal

I have a confession. Our eldest turned 25 this week.  Holy time passage!  Look away for a moment and our babies are adults!  Tori has found that lovely balance between working hard and keeping things playful and in perspective.  But, um, the girl does know how to rock a celebration.  With that in mind, I give you her ‘party animal’ birthday set. Hope all your birthday wishes come true, Tori!

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Hi(gh) from Colorado

No longer in the “empire state of mind”, we’ve adjusted in to a different “state of being,” our Rocky Mountain high…  truly, it makes a difference being a mile (plus) above sea level.  It has taken me 3 solid months before I could hike the mountains without huffing and puffing.  And I don’t mean THAT kind of puffing.  But hey, altitude or attitude- you pick.

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I have seen quite a few new “stores” that I did not find in New York.  Some of them inspired the cookies below.  My Colorado cookie recipe has remained the same; no new ingredients have been added.  I feel like folks here having the munchies is good enough for my business…. 😉

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