Did you say Tyra Banks?? Birthday Cookies

I have a funny story about this set of cookies. This may be a little long but it needs to be to explain my dinginess!!

I was at home and I was actually working on a set of cookies to help out a friend for cookie con 2014 when my cell phone rang. It was my good friend who lives in Minnesota we have been friends for over a decade and I never want to pass an opportunity to catch up with her so I answered the call and continued working on the cookies while we chatted. I was not sure if I was distracted or if it was the reliable cell phone connection we had but I obviously did not comprehend what she asked me to do.

We played catch up for a bit and then she told me she wanted to place a couple of cookies orders. She told me about a girl that was a neighbor and a great athlete and she wanted to do something for her and she said another name and said that she was in her husbands Harvard class and they were going to go visit her around her birthday and wanted to give her some cookies. I told her to go ahead and just send me an email with all the details of the designs she wanted and such and we ended our call.

A week later I got the email from her and I read through the first order...... it went something like this 

For Elizabeth E....

• Blue, white, red are some of High School and future college colors. #19
• Soccer-she won Ms. MN Soccer 
• Track-she broke long standing (20+ yr) record in 400 meters at Minnetonka high school

1 Doz, you can decide how to decorate! 

Then I read the second order on the list

For Tyra Banks, (i'm thinking oh they know someone named Tyra banks, that's interesting...I continue to read) 

• Favorite word/theme: *SMIZE, 
• Favorite color: *yellow, 
• She loves: designer furniture, new food, Mexican food ;) 
• spending time at the spa
• Likes creative make-up artistry 
• Graduated from Harvard, She runs America's Top Model, 

(WAIT what did I just read, is she really talking about Tyra Banks..I keep reading) 

I think a *picture of her would be fun...hope that gives you some ideas...let me know if you need more (I starred the things I would for sure like) 2 Doz sent as close to 8th of April, as possible. Thank you so much!   Did you enjoy your convention? Xoxo thanks for the visit last week! 

____________________

I immediately yell for my husband to come to the computer and I read it to him. Asking him do you think this is for real. So then I recall seeing a picture of my friends husband on his facebook feed  that he posted of a group of people and remember maybe that one of them could have been Tyra Banks. So I go check out his page and sure enough the woman in the picture was indeed Tyra Banks I just did not realize it when he posted the picture.  

I am in shock and I call my friend immediately and no answer I leave a message, I then text her to call me and also send her an email. I needed to confirm that this cookie order was indeed for Tyra Banks!!!

Some pics of Tyra

She was not able to call me back until the next day and we had a good laugh and my dinginess when she first called me. She said that she was a little surprised that I did not say anything or have any kind of reaction when she mentioned that she wanted me to make some cookies for their friend Tyra Banks for her birthday.

Her Catch Phrase SMIZE

I obviously did not hear the name correctly when we were on the phone the first time and after I talked to her more about how they knew her and found out the Tyra was in the same Masters program with her husband at Harvard and my friend had met her before and said she was a such nice and wonderful person and they wanted to give her something unique for her birthday, and she thought my cookies would fit the bill.

After the call was over I was overcome with fear that the cookies I would make would be awful and Tyra would hate them but after I got them finished I was pleased with them and I am happy to report that when she got the cookies Tyra was so pleased with them and just could not believe that there were pictures of her on cookies. Funny hu, Tyra sees her face one magazine and TV all the time but never on a cookie.

Harvard Graduate

I asked my friend if possible I would love it if she could get a picture of Tyra holding my cookies but I understood if that wasn't possible.

She did not get a picture of Tyra holding my cookies and so you don't have to believe a thing I have said..............BUT it is true!!!

Love of Mexican Food

Spending time at the Spa

Love of Makeup Artistry

The whole Cookie Line up!!

Sooooo this is probably the closest claim to fame I have ..... I made cookies for TYRA BANKS!!!

Thanks to my awesome friend Evonne, for trusting me that I could do this for one special woman!

Celebrate Life! My precious Bud and Tutes

Celebrating life today, and honoring a very special woman through honoring others.

We are celebrating the life today of Anita from Sweet Hope Cookies, she is an amazing woman in the cookie world.....well, she is just an amazing woman period!! Her example of selflessness and charity is so wonderful. I often think there are no people that give of themselves in this world including me, and when I see her constantly thinking of others it restores my faith in humanity, and gives me the boost to improve myself.

With this project we were asked to make a cookie or set a cookies for someone you love, who inspires you or someone you are proud of. 

I chose to honor my son and daughter. Since I have started making cookies more of a side business than a hobby, they unfortunately get less of my time. Every time I am doing a set of cookies my daughter will ask "who are these for?" and "are there any extras for us?" Most of the time there are no extras, but sometimes there are.  

So I chose to do a set of cookies for my two wonderful children who make me proud everyday. 

The above picture shows the stenciled pattern background a little better and the cookies in the picture below show the pet names that I call them, my special Bud and Tutes.

My son, who is my Bud came into our family a month earlier than planned, and in so doing his lungs were a little underdeveloped and he caught pneumonia. He had to stay in the hospital for 12 days before we could bring him home, so he got to spend his first Christmas attached to wires and tubes and I was a little freaked out. We got to bring him home on oxygen and he grew fast and was strong and was off of the oxygen within a week after coming home.   Since then he has been healthy and happy. He is such a tender sweet child and is willing to help out, and he takes care of his sister and forgives her quickly after she treats him unkindly. He is a smart kid and loves to build Lego sets and loves what every other seven year old kid likes...game consoles, electronics, scooters, Karate and super heroes!!

Our daughter came into our life five years ago in May, and she came in fast and furious, and she is still pretty fast and furious to this day! She likes to test my patience on a daily basis, but she is my Tutes girl and I love her dearly even if we butt heads on a daily basis. She has the most beautiful blue eyes that I love to stare at. She loves to sing and dance although she does not like you to watch her do it, for some reason this diva has a shy side.  She is bright and clever and ever so independent. She is going to accomplish great things if she puts her mind to it. She is four looks like she is six and acts like she is 16. :)

One more look at my Tutes girl......

and my Bud boy!

Excuse my messy kitchen, I live it in all day everyday and it shows. This is my children checking out the cookies as I unveiled them.

Their cute smiles.

I may not do a lot of things right, but my husband and I did two things perfect!!

Please check out all the other cookiers that made cookies to honor Anita and those who inspire them and remember to share your stories with others to #celebratelife

You should be able to click on the pictures below to go to each individuals FB page or blog.

Family History Cookies - Mom's 80th Birthday

Last year my Mother turned 80 years old. For our family reunion we honored her and had her celebration that day. 

It was quite fun, my mother did not want a big party or anything but she just wanted a family cookbook made. In the past one of my sisters had made a family cookbook. I have used mine so much and it looks it.

Anyway for the birthday/reunion she wanted to update the family cookbook and add more recipes from our 80+ family clan. It was an event I waited for all year. My oldest sister was in charge and she came up with a great idea. To go along with the cookbook idea for our food at the party every one was assigned a dish from the cookbook that they were to bring! Such a great idea, that way you would know where to get all the recipes from the meal we enjoyed.

My assignment was the birthday cake and some cookies of course ;)

As a part of the party a part of my mothers personal history was read and I wanted to make cookies that would be memories from my mothers life. 

So those of you who are not my family who may be viewing this post not going to understand these cookies but I wanted to share them with you. I wanted them to be personal to my Mother and be something that she would cherish.

My Mothers favorite color is blue so I used that as my color theme and then did sketches with a black food color pen. And thanks goes to my husband who sketch out the memories I chose to use.

This is a picture of my Mothers father, my grandfather. I never met him , he passed away when my mother was 13. A tractor he was driving fell over on him while he was clearing land. In my Mothers history she always said she adored her father and said he was a hard working "real" cowboy.

These next cookies from left to right represent... 

• the cabin that was her childhood home in Wyoming
•  the "K-hill" to represent Kanab the town they have lived in for over 40 years
•  a sleigh that was used for transportation as a kid
• a empty box labeled Marriage which refers to a quote my mother loved which is something like this..."Marriage is an empty box. It remains empty unless you put in more than you take out."
• and the last cookie with all the numbers on represented different numbers that are no longer current...9 children, 39 great grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren (that one has increased to 17 I think and going), 80+ is all the family that descends from my mother and father.

From LtoR: 

• words of some of the many many events and things she has done through out her life
• the "cry room" as church where she spent many many hours since she raised 9 children
• SUN stands for Southern Utah News and was the name of the newspaper business that my father owned and ran for I think 30+ years
• the ones with the logs represents the many memories my mom has of playing on a tree that had fallen over on their land. 

Wouldn't it be nice if I kids would just play all day outside on a fallen tree!

And this is a picture of my Mom from the day she was married back in 1955.

And to finish of the set, the number 80 with some brush embroidery flowers. 

So it was not all about the cookies but cake as well. We did have to feed 70+ people. I was going to do a three tiered cake but decided to just do three separate ones to make it easier. I also prefer to do buttercream cakes than fondant style, not that I don't like fondant it's just much more time consuming and frustrating for me because I need way more practice with it. 

Credit for the cake is not all mine. My awesome niece Lacee helped me do the cakes. She did most of it! So here we are with my amazing Mom, me on the left and Lacee on the right.

Another shot of the best parents in the world!

I love my mother she truly is an amazing woman and am grateful that I was able to be her daughter, I feel so blessed and loved and will always look to up to my Mom for she is the best example I could have on how to be a good Mother!