Oh Baby! How Sweet It is to Love You!

Earlier this Spring, one of my dear church friends had a beautiful baby girl.  The Women's Ministry at our church had a baby shower for sweet Lila Margaret, which happened to be the day before her baptism.  At the time, I also happened to be short on cash in the gift-giving budget, but long on ideas for beautiful cookies to celebrate the birth and baptism of this special baby girl, so Momma and Daddy got a gift basket from Sarah's Sweet Shoppe, filled with yummy cookies! ;^)

These "sign" cookies were my first attempt at using a "#1" tip for icing decorations.  Even with that small of a tip, it took several tries to squeeze all of those words on the big cookie! ;^)

 My wishes for their sweet family!

The "Daughter of the King" onesie is my favorite!

 I baked some of the cookies on sticks, so that they would "stick" up at the back of the basket. ;^) That backfired on me when one of the sticks broke out of the cookie while I was putting it in the bag.  No problem.  I just took another cross cookie and used Royal Icing to "glue" the stick back in place and covered it with the extra cookie. ;^) Extra cookies save the day (again)!

Top Right Cross reads: "Lila Margaret ~ Fearfully and Wonderfully Made"

In the final gift basket, I ended up hiding the small hearts down inside the basket to hold the other cookies in their places better.  After this photo was taken, I put the whole thing in a gift bag and tied it with a bow.  It was a beautiful gift (if I do say so myself...;^)) and Rachel appreciated the time and effort that went into creating such a personalized gift of love.  Besides, who really needs more baby clothes anyway, right?

The finished Gift Basket with the Hearts tucked inside!

I also made these baby hands and feet, but they didn't make the cut for the basket.  It was fun to try my new cutters, but I wasn't completely happy with how they turned out, this time. ;^)

Congratulations Rachel and Johnny!
Happy Baptism Lila!

Love,
Mrs. Rose

  

Lil' L.'s Secret...

Face it... we are all motivated by something.  Lil' L., my almost two year old, is motivated by COOKIES!

So today, I am posting cookies that will either get me banned from Facebook, or nominated for Cake Wrecks.

Today is the BIG DAY!  Lil' L. is a BIG GIRL!  We are having a huge Potty Party to celebrate!  I pulled out all the stops and I am following the method of Lora Jensen, the self-proclaimed "Potty Training Queen," for toilet training in THREE days.  Here we go!!!
 

So, they aren't anything that would make Victoria's Secret blush, but they are perfect for a toddler in training!

So, at our house, we celebrate everything with COOKIES.  (Surprise!)  So, of course, this huge milestone needed to be celebrated too... AND as we already know, my darling daughter is VERY motivated by COOKIES.  As with all of my cookies, I try really hard to make them fit the personality of the honoree.  Lil' L. loves Minnie Mouse, balloons, sunshine, and since she is turning 2 on Monday, I made a big deal about the #2.  At the same time, I wanted these to be good, encouraging, teaching cookies... (and I had a lot of blue frosting, so...) Here we are... Potty Party cookies!

Potty cookies aren't nearly as gauche as they seem... when you are 2!
(I made them from the "Pot of Gold" cookie cutter from my new St. Patrick's Day set... Ironic, isn't it?
But if you have been buying diapers for the last 7 years, you, too, will know how appropriate it is.)

Lil' L. loves to "high five," so this is how we celebrate! 

 

Lil' L. loves Minnie Mouse and picked Minnie panties for her big girl pants, so these were perfect!

I couldn't bring myself to make anything to fancy... like these lingerie cookies from Nadia at My Little Bakery or even these cute Granny Panties from Marilyn at Pink Martinis and Pearls.  Plus, they had to be tiny, so they could be rewards for a "job well done."  I ended up using my onesie cutter and just cutting the bottom part off.  They turned out just the right size!

The full learning set!

The full celebration set!

Lord willing, by Monday, we'll be able to eat these and celebrate big time!

So, needless to say, I am not doing any baking today...  but we are having a LOT of special one-on-one time with my big girl, having tons of messy fun in the kitchen: play-dough, paints, pudding (since I am going to be doing laundry later anyway and because we don't do that very often, it is really special), and we even painted our toes.

She picked blue...

"Train up a child in the way they should go, 

and when they are old they will not depart from it..."

Proverbs 22:6

I'll be back baking on Monday... hopefully, I'll have some fun Minnie Mouse birthday treats to share for my "Big Girl."


Cheers!
Sarah