Snowflake Cookies Uploaded by irresistibledesserts

Snowflakes for a Dinner Party

Uploaded by Mad About Cookies

Snowflakes 2009 Uploaded by AMasterCreation

My cookies do not show the same delicate finesse these amazing inspirations do, but they were quite tasty. More importantly, they opened up the door to cookie decorating possibilities in the future! I look forward to continuing to hone

my skills as a cookie decorator.

Cookie decorating skills I am going to need since my best friend got me some very cute wildlife cookie cutter from Ikea ! They are the Drommar Cookie Cutters

snowflake cookies

Originally uploaded by JILL’s Sugar Collection

these cookies are truly magical! They look as though they are made from actual snowflakes - they are true works of art. I bet they tasted good too! With practice, perhaps I too can bake and decorate something so whimsically beautiful.

This year, along with one of my closest girlfriends we will be attending the Alice in Wonderland Festival at trout Lake  (www.aliceinwonderlandfestival.com) For years, I have either been away, or unable to attend due to extreme forgetfulness. This year, finally I will be there and though it is months away I am looking forward to it already. Why? Because I know it will be filled with other fun loving individuals like myself!

I have been fortunate enough these past months at the behest some of my clients with to create some beautiful pieces for their events. It has been very exciting for me to take their ideas and create the combs that they have wanted. I have also done some feather work for clients recently, and I look forward to seeing pictures from their events. I thought I might share some of my recent custom requests. Feel free to drop me a line if you have something custom in mind as well.

Being on the the front page wasn’t only  great for my eg, it was great for my store’s popularity. I am now up to 370 favorites, gaining over 40 new fans in one day thanks to this most recent Front page with my Golden Butterfly Mosiac. I am sad to say that I have not had the pleasure of discovering myself on the front page - I deduced it had happened when the views on this item went from 200 to near 700 in a day. Searching through the archives that Etsy keeps on Flickr, I discovered that my hunch had been correct.  I hope that my work continues to garner attention and that my ideas remain fresh so that people will continue to get excited about my work.

My butterfly combs having been brightening up my own hair dos all summer. It is a great joy to me to create them and to share them on Etsy. With my most recent batch I have been experimenting with staying within a certain color palette. I think the effect is quite pleasing.   

In the last year, I found myself  drawn to butterfly imagery and ideas. I have been creating collages, hair pieces and needlework all of butterflies. For many years I seen myself in the lovely creatures. It is only now that I see it is not just me, but all women. As we go into fall, I am creating butterfly head combs to remind all of us of the beauty within. The ability we have to change is always there - it is our constant state and through every hardship or triumph, we always emerge a more beautiful butterfly.

Where were these birds? Why did they no longer need their feathers? I mean it’s not like I order chicken feathers that are a a bi-product of the meat industry.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that some of the feathers were coming from China - and I am sure they come from poor circumstances. I began to feel guilty about supporting such an industry and, more importantly, I felt it was very contradictory to what I am trying to create with my headbands. Many of my specialty feathers like parrot and peacock have come from  safe source. Where the bird molts the feathers annually. I decided that I would like to source the rest of my feathers this way also. I made contact with a hunter who hunts pheasant for food and I  purchased two pheasant pelts, complete with thousands of feathers. Thousands of feathers that I am going to pluck myself for my craft.

I began last night, and let me tell you I have a new respect for the generations of woman before me. plucking a bird is challenging. It takes a while to get into a rhythm, but it’s worth it. I feel great about the cource of these new feathers and the quality of the feathers is unbeatable. I will continue to use up my previous supply of feathers, but my primary feather creation focus will be shifting from head bands in to headpieces =) I hope you will enjoy the unique creations about to come to my Etsy store!

This past week I followed a recipe for pizza dough in the classically Canadian magazine Chatelaine. It was my first time ever using yeast and making my own bread (other than banana, of course!) Eating the end result was so satisfying. I cannot wait until next year when not only will I have made the dough, but the pizza will be topped with items from our garden.

Simple Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp (15 mL) liquid honey
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) or 1 pkg traditional yeast
• 2-1/4 cups (550 mL) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil

1. In a small dish, stir honey with 1/2 cup (125 mL) lukewarm water. Sprinkle with yeast, but do not stir. Let stand until foamy, 5 to 8 minutes. Place flour and salt in bowl of a food processor. With machine running, pour in yeast mixture, then oil and remaining 1/4 cup (50 mL) lukewarm water. Whirl, stopping and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. If dough is too thick, continue whirling and gradually add more water, a tablespoon (15 mL) at a time, until dough cleans sides of bowl and forms a ball. If it becomes too sticky, gradually sprinkle in an additional tablespoon (15 mL) flour through feed tube while machine is running.
2. Form dough into a ball. Place on counter or a cutting board lightly dusted with flour. Flatten into a disc. Loosely cover with plastic wrap. Leave on counter at room temperature to allow dough to increase in size by about one-quarter, 25 to 30 minutes.

I did purchase a few great items to use in my upcoming creations and I was definitlly inspired by the people I saw. Despite all the wonders of the city, I found it to be too sterile (even though it was covered in garbage) to be a place I would want to call home. I did not hear the roar of the ocean, or see the ridge of the mountains, and for me, that is what  I need to feel truly inspired.