CHRISTMAS!!!!

Go, Sweet B(ay)...

...It's yur burthday...

...and yur bloggin' like it's yur burthday.

In case you weren't sure - yes, I am a dork. 

But a sweet one!

Just wanted to share some fun Christmas cookies with you on my birthday!  (Yes, it really is my birthday!)

I stuck with a few designs from last year, but have added lots of new ones!! And a new flavor!

For your enjoyment, here's the new Mocha Peppermin-tini!

Chocolate sugar cookie with peppermint icing.

Yum!

Ornaments!  I got really excited about these because I get to doodle on them like my Easter Eggs!

Check out the cute new mittens!

I can just picture these snowmen dancing around in the snow!

There are 2 of each design going into the Sweet Cheer Jar (seen below).  Perfect for a hostess gift or teacher or neighbors!

 Cookies make a great addition to a bottle of wine or a perfect gift topper!

So, if you need to pick up a couple, stop by Neapolitan Cupcake Shoppe in Augusta or downtown Aiken or VeryVera!!

Or if you need a dozen or more, or personalization, email me at ThinkCookies@gmail.com!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

What a fun time of year to have a house warming party!  The colors of autumn are so warm and inviting. 

I have been wanting to do house cookies for some time now.  Quaint little doors.  Cute little windows with sweet little window boxes. 

They turned out so cute and sweet and quaint!

I hope to do lots more of these little houses!

Hope y'all are having a great fall so far!  I'm hoping to do some fall trees this week...how fun does that sound?!

The Challenge

So, this time last year, VeryVera started selling my cookies in 2 retail locations.  This time this year, Sweet B's is still being sold in Vera's 2 locations AND my cookies are in the 2 locations of Neapolitan Cupcakes!!  I also have a "cookie boutique" at the Neapolitan in Aiken. 

Along with this growth, I was challenged with my largest order yet...1,000 cookies.  1,000 individually wrapped cookies.  1,000 quatrefoil (new shape), individually wrapped cookies.  But I was up for the challenge, and excited to take on this many cookies.

What. was. I. thinking.

What kept me going was the cause.  It was for the biennial (every other year) fund raising gala for Sound Choices Pregnancy Clinic.  My sister-in-law is the development director for the clinic and orchestrates the gala, which continues to be more successful with each one she does.  This year was a record high attendance. 

The cookie preparation started as soon as it was approved by Sound Choices.  As in, I put together a budget and started ordering supplies - 400 yards of purple satin ribbon, 1,000 of my clear, gusseted bags, and custom labels for the event with the Sound Choices logo on them and "Custom cookies by www.ThinkCookies.com".

I also started gathering things to accommodate for the large order.  I arranged with Molly to use her space in the Neapolitan Cupcake Shoppe in Aiken so I could order one of these -

(For those of you who do not know, when a baker has a sheet pan rack to call her own, it is a huge deal.  It feels like success.  A personal goal in life has been met.  Check that one off the list!)

I cut out the quatrefoils and froze the cutouts, like I do with a lot of my orders.  Only this time, it takes me 3 days (with some help from my ma!) to cut them out.  After only 1 day of baking (yay! for commercial ovens!), the challenging part begins.  I enlisted some help from my other job, who I couldn't have done without.  Mrs. Susan spent several hours helping me flood the cookies a beautiful color of blue.  And Megan, Kierra, Lacandrea, and Kristin helped package the cookies.  My sister, Bonnie, helped me do all of the above and more.  She spent countless hours with me flooding, packaging, counting (after all, she is an auditor, so inventory counting was right up her alley) and finally, packing up my little Fit with all 1,010 cookies.

They made the drive to Columbus, with NO breakages!!

Once out of the back of my Fit, these cookies ended up here:

In a beautiful ballroom of purple, silver, and blue.

I was so honored that Sweet B's cookies not only were a part of this gala, but they were a part of decorations.  They helped make the table pretty.  Yay!!!

Seriously.  I'm still in awe that I could be a part of this endeavor.

The clinic has been in operation for 30 years.  Hence, the "30 years of life".

30 years of giving women another option...

the option of life.

Now, most of the time, this blog is just about cookies.  But the challenge of this particular post is that it's not just about cookies.  It's also about life....for someone who's voice can't be heard.  And this organization, Sound Choices, over the past 30 years, has rescued 6,000 lives that would have otherwise been "terminated".  And this, is why I was so honored to be a part of the gala.  My cookies were given to each patron to say "Thank You". 

Thank you for choosing life.

Color Trendin'

So, it started with these...

They matched the invitation.

And then I did these (to match the invite)...

For a Pampered Chef party. (If you couldn't tell.)

Have I mentioned that one of my favorite things to use in the kitchen is the PC batter bowl?

I love it!

And then, I suggested these colors to a customer (imagine that)...

Oh, and then my dad needed to send some Thank You cookies, color choice was up to me...

guess what colors I chose...

Anyone noticing a pattern?

(I always loved those coffee cups that were covered in different languages of Thank You, or I love You, etc.  That was the inspiration for these.)

Can you name all the languages I used for Thank You?

And for the last installment of my pale blue and orangey-red cookie series, (for now), are these exciting cookies...

These were for one of my regular customers. 

Who wanted to announce to her co-workers that she was expecting!

(How fun is that?!)

She had her son (who I made the pirate cookies for) give out the cookies!

(How cute is that?!)

I was one of the first persons to know she was pregnant!

(How awesome is that?!)

Anyways, if you couldn't tell, I was pretty excited to make them for her...and it just so happens I could do them pale blue and orangey-red. 

Funny how that worked out.

So, I think you can tell my current color combo obsession. 

(If you're still in question, please review the pictures above.)

Exciting news to follow soon!!!

More Pink and Green!

There are certain color combinations I suggest when someone doesn't have a combo already in mind.  Pink and green is becoming one of my new favorites.  It may have to do with how much I loved June Anne's cookies, but regardless, I'm lovin' it.  These pictures are from 2 different orders this past week.  One was actually for June Anne's grandparents and the other was sent to a friend who has just had surgery.  They're so much fun!!

Personalized with each grandparent's nickname.

I hope the green hearts weren't too girly for Pops and Popi.

Although, I've learned that most guys don't care about what the cookie looks like...

Just the taste!

I haven't done flowers in awhile, so it was fun doing them again!

Next blog, I'll let you know one of my other current favorite color combos...

Anyone have any guesses??

June Anne

So, one of my frequent customers, Kristen, has ordered and received Sweet B's for some time now.  My sister gave her Sweet B's when she completed her master's degree.  She has celebrated her birthday with Sweet B's.  Whenever she goes on vacation, she orders some iced whites to take with her.  (In fact, she's one of the reasons I started offering iced whites!) 

Well, Kristen just had a baby.  And of course, I wanted to welcome her sweet baby June Anne to the world with some sweetness.  But, since it was Kristen, who was already a big fan of Sweet B's, I knew that her new-mommy cookies had to be above and beyond any cookies that she had received in the past.  And I was excited to do them...like sooo excited...and here's why...

Did you squeal?

Because that's what Kristen did when she saw them.

The pearls were inspired because Kristen's sweet husband gave her a strand of pearls thanking her for bringing his precious daughter into this world. (*swoon*)

I picked pink, green, and white as colors just because I thought it suited Kristen.

As it turns out, those are June Anne's colors!!

I wish I had videoed Kristen when I brought them in her house.

She was excited...to say the least.

I showed a little cookie on a few of these...I know it's a little scandalous.

I can honestly say that it was hard to give these away.  Most of the time, I love giving my creations away to the customer.  I confess that I wanted to keep these for a little while longer.

Sigh.  I'm glad I took a lot of pictures, because I still love looking at them!

I'm so glad Jason and Kristen enjoyed their cookies, because I SO enjoyed making them!!!

And of course, I loved meeting Baby June Anne, who was more precious than the cookies!

I hope these cookies will make you forget that I haven't posted in 2 weeks (whoopsie!).  Even if I'm not posting, I'm always...

Thinking cookies,

~B~

Lucy In the Sky With Cookies

Are you singing it? 
Lucy in the sky-yy with coo-ookies...
I knew I was going to title this post after the song, and then I couldn't stop singing it.  It actually happens to be one of my favorite Beatles' songs.  And as I was singing "girl with kaleidoscope eyes...", I had the idea to do kaleidoscope cookies!!  That would be awesome!  Now, if I could just find the time...

Back to the current cookies.  Sarah and her family are fans of my cookies, they are now on their 3rd order since May, so obviously, I'm a fan of them too!  She has such sweet girls, so I was delighted when she asked me to make cookies for her daughter, Lucy's birthday.  Lucy wanted the hot air balloon cookies.  (Hot air balloons go up in the sky, hence, the song reference.  Thought I'd spell it out for you.) 

Sarah asked if Lucy's name could be on the cookie somewhere.  At first, I wasn't sure how that was going to work, but I think I made it work!

Sooo, I really wanted to take a picture of the hot air balloon with nothing but clouds in the background. 
Like reeealllly bad. 
(For some reason.  Sometimes I just get a bee in my bonnet about things, ya know?)  So, this is what I got.  Not exactly how I pictured it.  I'm sure it comes across as - B, you're ridiculous, rather than - That's so cool!  Oh well.  It gave me an opportunity to laugh at myself. 

Because I did. 

(Which I do. Often.)

Here is the result. 

(You are welcome to snicker.  I won't be offended.  In fact, I'm snickering just posting this.)

That didn't work.  Maybe I'll just get a shot with trees in the background...

Hmm.  That didn't really work either.  Maybe I'll try holding it, and it might be cute that you can see my fingers...

Not really.  Let's try again...

Oops.  I broke it.  It was the only spare I had.
Oh, well.  It wasn't really working out anyways.  Moving on...

So, this was definitely a good opportunity to humor myself.  I can only imagine what I looked like standing on the front porch furniture, taking pictures of a cookie, hanging by dental floss from the hanging basket chain.  Oh, the things I do for the love of the blog.  Ha.

Sometimes in bizarre ways, but...
As always, think cookies.
~B~

Twosie Sets of Onesies

I hope you don't get tired of seeing onesies...because I don't get tired of making them!  They are probably one of my most favorite cookies to do.  (Of course, my favorite cookie list is pretty long.)  Here are a few of the recent onesies I've fallen in love with.   

A set of boy ones...

And a set of sweet little girl ones...

Looking forward to many more onesies!!

(I attempted to write this blog no less than 3 times last week. But got distracted by Pinterest, Facebook, Scrabble, Cupcake Wars, something very important.  It finally got done!)

As always, think cookies.

~B~