Back to School Treats

I made these little cookie jars for my kids' teachers on the first day of school. (PJ says its called sucking up, I just think its being nice.)

First bake some sugar cookies in the shape of apples. Any recipe will work, I used one with lots of butter. The cookie cutter is from Wilton, which I bought years ago from Walmart

Next, make up some royal icing. I use this recipe here, which uses meringue powder. Make a thicker royal icing and outline the apple in red.

Add a little water to the red icing and flood the cookie.

Using icing a little thicker than flood consistency, make your stems in brown, and leaves in green.

To make the these tags, download the printable at the bottom of this post, and print out. I sized the tags to fit a Stampin Up! 1 3/8" round punch and then I used the scalloped punch to mat it in red.

Back to School Printable

Birthday Tags

I figured out how to share PDFs here on the blog.

I made these tags a long time ago for some cards I made on this post.

They can be used for gift tags by printing out on card stock, trim to size, punch a hole in the top, use a little ribbon and attach to a gift bag.

Birthday Flower Tags

In order to print, click the download button (the cloud with the down arrow) and then print.

Week 1, Day 2

Couch to 5K stats: 2.19 miles, Average running pace: 10 min. mile, Average walking pace: 17 min. mile. New additions to my playlist: Headstrong- Trapt, Barracuda- Heart, Kashmir- Led Zeppelin and Enter Sandman- Metallica. I know, right? Weirdest combo in the universe, but I didn't quit so it must work for me. I also have been watching Food Network as I run on the treadmill. So to sum it up, the keys to successfully running for me are: Watching people eat while listening to many decades worth of music.

I'm cooking up some back to school treats which I will post about next week. So fun!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies, and Cake

I was in a sugar cookie making frenzy this summer. I kept finding these really cute cookie decorating blogs and tutorials on the internet and I had to try some out for myself. The key to making cute cookies is Royal Icing. You can't get the nice smooth finish if you use butter based frostings.


Angry Bird Cookies! I made these early and froze them for his party.


I found this adorable onesie cookie cutter for 65 cents and had to use it right away.


Lemon flavored sugar cookies.


Angry Bird Pig Cake for Ellis' 7th Birthday.

I RAN

I have decided that I want to be a cool runner. I have started the from couch to 5K program and downloaded this app for my iPhone. I have never been able to run for more than 2 minutes in my life. I just figured I was physically unable to run. I feared that I would die. The last time I tried running I had what I thought was a stroke (turns out it was a complex migraine, which had nothing to do with the running).

On Sunday I did day 1 of the program and I am still alive. I went 2 miles on the treadmill without stopping, even though I had to pee every time I ran. The app is super cool and tells you when to walk and when to run. I downloaded a few songs to motivate me. I really like Maroon 5's new song Moves Like Jagger. What songs pump you up for a run?

Wish me luck. Peace out.