Hello faithful readers! I’m back. It’s been a crazy 9 months since we moved across the country to Brisbane with a lot of personal challenges. It took us three months to find a rental that would take two dogs who live inside and out but we finally managed to find a somewhat suitable house. The oven in the house doesn’t lend itself to baking cookies so i’m not doing any baking at the moment. We lost our my dear father-in-law last October – as a family, scattered far and wide, my partner’s siblings are working hard to stay connected and support their mother. In the whole awfully distressing scenario, the only good thing to come about, has been the reconnection of all of his siblings. There have been some other challenges but that’s enough sadness for this post! Now on to the fun stuff: Upholstery!
Design Plans – Yay or Nay?
Friends, I’m a design plan advocate. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, a design plan will help you identify future problems allowing you to solve them so that the entire project doesn’t hit the skids.
Baby You Can Drive My Car
Friends, last week Mr SuziWong and I attended a vintage themed wedding, so this cookie is perfectly timed! This cutter is huge; you could feed an army with a cookie cut from it…or more appropriately you could feed the wedding reception guests with it.
Mother’s Day Nesting Chicken Cookies – Pt 1
I swear, this isn’t a belated Easter post! It’s an early Mother’s Day Post. This past week, one of my (many) De Koekkenbakker orders arrived and the nesting chicken and egg cutters were in the package. I love Mariëlle’s cutters and her decorating style and this design screamed Mother’s Day to me!
Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit Run, Run, Run; Easter Cookies – Part 3
Happy Easter! Friends, I’ve had an epic lead up to Easter with making cookies and these are the last ones. They’re super simple to make and very easy on the eye.
Here’s what you’ll need to make them:
Easter Cookie Designs – Part 2
Friends, I pretty much feel like this cookie: all crossed and crazy! I delivered my large-ish Easter order yesterday and today I’m exhausted. First up, i’ll apologise for the quality of these pictures; they were taken at night and even though I had my glasses on I’m fairly certain my glasses were either filthy or I need new ones. I suspect it’s the latter.
Easter Cookie Designs – Part 1
Friends, it’s only the leading up to Easter and i’m already exhausted. I’ve been baking and decorating for an order. Despite working through to the wee hours, I’ve enjoyed the creative process.
Cleaning the Iwata HP-C Plus – knowing your airbrush anatomy
Food Friends, it’s been a run of eBay purchases and then returns of late. First it was the compressor that I purchased. The wrong item was delivered and the eBay store were a nightmare to deal with in getting a refund. Then, it was the silicone piping bags that I bought; I bought two different sizes from two different sellers but the larger bags were not sent. Instead I got sent smaller bags and was asked to accept $1 Chinese Yen as a refund. I declined as $1 CY converted to 21 Australian cents. I also declined when they offered another refund of $2 CY. And finally it was the purchase of a Chinese knock-off trigger action .3mm airbrush gun that arrived and was broken. I took it apart to trouble shoot why air was continually blowing out of the nozzle and the nib broke off.
Stamp It
There comes a point where you start thinking about being a little more serious about what you’re selling. I’ve been casually selling cookies for a few months now; the most serious I got was to individually package each cookie in a cello bag to maximise freshness. This week, I designed a logo using Pic Monkey and had that logo made into a rubber stamp. I also ordered some stickers with the logo on too. And at some point I will need to get stickers listing ingredients; especially If I am going to sell cookies at markets.
Stencilled Hearts & an Iwata Compressor
Food Friends, I’ve been having all manner of problems with an eBay seller from whom I recently purchased an 1/6 horsepower airbrush compressor. Suffice to say, I have now requested a full refund after I was sent the incorrect item. Over the past 6 months I have purchased two air pump machines which worked okay but weren’t spectacular when using sheens for decorating cookies. This time round, I decided to purchase a true air compressor. In the cookie decorating world, the words ‘compressor’ and ‘air pump’ are commonly interchanged which is a total mis-use of the terms. It’s not unusual for an air pump to be referred to as a compressor, but I can assure you they are two different beasts. The dreaded eBay seller sent me yet another air pump despite their picture and the specs for the item saying it was an air compressor.