Christmas Wish Cookies

I have some big news! We're moving!
I currently live in a wonderful little one bedroom apartment in the heart of Seattle. And in less than 1 month I'll be relocating to beautiful Mercer Island, WA.
If you are familiar with the area, you know I am only moving about 10 miles :)

But it's going to be a HUGE change for us. I work in downtown and only have to travel about 3 miles, it takes me about 13 minutes in the morning to get to my office. DH2B walks every morning. We are pretty lucky to have such an easy commute!
All that will change when we trade it in for a lovely 2 bedroom condo on the island. The view is gorgeous, the price is right and there is lots of extra room for cookies ;)
I'll take all of that in exchange for the tedious I-90 traffic. I am already dreading it though!

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the move and post pictures once we get there.

In light of the move, I had planned to close up the shop for the rest of November and December to allow us time to pack and move and unpack and get settled. We'll be pretty busy between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I do have quite a few orders already placed including some for recent giveaway winners. All current orders will be honored and delivered as scheduled.
However instead of filling up and remaining spots with holiday orders, I'd like to dedicate all my available time to making someones Christmas a little merrier.

I am asking you to nominate someone you know, maybe yourself, for a Christmas cookie package. Christmas is my favorite holiday and it's my favorite time of the year. I want to spread the love and joy and holiday cheer this year!

Please, please, if you know a family or individual who is in need of a little holiday cheer consider nominating them for some Christmas cookies.
Email me (samantha726@gmail.com) your nomination with a description of the family or person and why you want to give them cookies.
If you are willing to pick up the orders (local friends) or pay for shipping please include that in the email. It won't exclude anyone if you can't but it will make it easier for me to pick more families. I'd like to have at least 3-4 families for this and any help with shipping would be greatly appreciated.
Please email me no later that December 3rd, with your nominations. I'll do my best to respond to everyone and will hopefully make my decisions by the 5th of December.
I want to be able to get all the cookies off in plenty of time to be enjoyed for the holidays.

Each package will include about 2 dozen individually wrapped cookies and with a card about your Christmas wish to brighten their holiday season. I'll try to accommodate special requests and any personalization.

I found this on Pinterest, originally here.

Thank you!

SAP
Flour De Lis

The BEST $25 I've spent on cookie decorating (giveaway challenge)!

After reading the blog post by Flour Box Bakery, I knew I had to get a heat gun. I know had two reasons I needed one. The other I'll show you later. I am still working on that project!




Today I went to Home Depot after work looking for the Black & Decker model I had studied online and decided on.

It was very reasonably priced, only $29.97. The only problem, was that they couldn't find it when I got there. So I went with this little lovely instead.

It's a few dollars cheaper at $22.96. I paid almost $25 with tax. Great price, it's a pretty shade of mellow yellow and it small and very lightweight!

I LOVE it!

I had an order of cookies to work on. I already hand-cut the shape and baked them so I had a long night ahead of me to get them all done.

I decorated all 2 dozen cookies in less than an hour and they were completely dry to the touch! Done. I bagged them and wrapped them and am heading to the post office first thing in the morning! I have the rest of the night to myself!

These cookies are for a friend of mine, the doctors wife :)

I did the lid first, in 20 second icing and gave it a blast on the low setting for about 30 seconds. Seriously 30 seconds. I made quicker time by piping about 4 at a time and lining them up and using the heat gun for about a minute on each set.

Did the label and bottle next with the same process and the details last.

Forgive me Jo for posting about them and ruining the surprise, but I had to share the results :)

And a fun GIVEAWAY challenge :)

Here is what I love about this tool. Not only are the cookies completely dry, they have a gorgeous glossy shine that you normally only see when the icing is wet. No more all nighters in my future trying to finish 200 wedding favors in 2 days. Just think of all the spare time you'll have to spend with your family or catch up on reality t.v. shows :)

Or work on more cookies! That's more likely, right? You can now take that last minute order that you might have really wanted to do and not have had time for!

Plus the best part, (well maybe the time spent with your family is the best part) the SMELL! The heat kinda cooks the sugar, not visibly it doesn't start to turn golden brown like toast, but it smells like creme brulee! I kid you not. I now have a ferocious desire to eat creme brulee, like for dinner. Like I might be trying to see if the heat gun will actually make creme brulee, right now...

Anyway, back to the matter at hand! If you haven't already pick this up. You should. It's gonna be a lifesaver! At least a sleep saver :)

The only con is that it gets HOT! Only the metal part though, so don't touch! Even if you think you've waited long enough (5 minutes in not long enough BTY), don't do it! It's gonna burn you!

Remember that giveaway I posted a few days ago, right here. Well I challenged you to share the giveaway and help me reach 1,000 fans on Facebook by Thanksgiving. In return I'll give one lucky FB fan this :

 Well I am going to sweeten the pot! If we reach 1,000 FB fans by Thanksgiving, I'll also giveaway a $25 giftcard to the Home Depot. And if we reach 2,000 before Christmas I'll give away two more! 

You can use it to buy the heat gun I bought or towards a different model.  Or if you could care less about the heat gun or already have one a $25 Home Depot giftcard would be a pretty great stocking stuffer for your husband, sister, dad, daughter-in-law, son, grandpa, crafty cousin or whatever! 

Here's how it works, all you have to do is share my Facebook page and help me reach 1,000 fans. Just by being a fan, you'll be entered into the giveaway for the mixer and the first $25 gift card. If we reach 2,000 before Christmas I'll chose a winner or two from my Facebook wall. All you have to do is send people to my page, all they have to do is leave a comment on my wall saying who sent them and you'll both be entered to win. When we reach our goal, I'll use random.org and choose one wall comment for the winners!

It's worth every cent by the way! If you can't wait to win one, go get it now. It's the best $25 I've spent in a long time!

SAP
Flour De Lis