Mistakes happen ... or prying the cookie corpses off your cookie gift trays

So, when a 24" snowpocalypse had me homebound the weekend before Christmas and it was too late to shop on Etsy anymore without some serious postal fees, I thought it would be a good idea

(ie cheap and easy)

to make a few cookie trays to give as last minute gifts.

I had been to Williams Sonoma a few weeks back and picked up some icing tubes and holiday sprinkles that I thought could make my cookies look amazing plus I really wanted someone to see them. My daughter and hubby are both salty snack people and I really wanted some oohs and aahs .. plus I was short about 4 gifts this year.

My cookies always smell amazing and usually taste pretty good , but are not always servable to people who can actually see them - something always seems to go wrong with the presentation plus I have some serious cookie makers in my family who make cookies that smell, taste and look good, so I always face some serious cookie challenges.

I chose a recipe from the Martha Stewart website listed as easy that did not require a mixer or a cuisinart or any of the other appliances I do not own since I never bothered to piece together a wedding registry

(how many years can you be married and are still allowed to do this anyway?)

So anyhoo, my cookies smelled good, they looked good and they tasted .... well, let's just say I had shoveled in enough cookies to require an afterschool purging and family intervention if this had been a Lifetime movie, before I realized that they actually ... didn't taste all that good...

But, the important thing was that they looked good

(this is America and 2009 and looks are all that matter anyway plus no one actually eats the cookies people give them, right?)

and I gave them out proudly on my little repurposed trays on Christmas and heard the oohs and aahs I had waited all these years to hear

... until ....

3 days after Christmas, the cookie emails began to come in

(tales of cookies permanently adhered to my repurposed trays, tales of chisels being needed for removal, tales of chipped teeth, tales of pretty little cookie corpses)

from friends and I use that term loosely feeling the need to remind me of that one time that their kids caught salmonella or had their stomachs pumped or something silly like that after a summer barbecue

(some people need to pick up a Bible and learn about forgiveness for pete's sake)

So, anyhoo - I am determined not to let this get me down because it is the thought that counts and some people should just be happy they got gifts that were not made of cork or car parts (finally) this year, if you know what I mean.

Wishing everyone a tummy full of amazingly scented, colorful and tasty cookies in the New Year (next year mine are shipping out with chisels and mouthguards and they will still look damn good).

mERRy ChriSTmas!!

I am de-plugging myself for a few days and will be back after the holidays, unless something incredibly amazing (or incredibly awful- which can be amazing, too actually) happens that I just have to rant about.

Wishing everyone a warm and wonderful holiday! xox

Thankful Thursday and yes, I know it is actually Friday

It's not like I think no one knows what day it is (except me), but this week flew by so fast that it still feels like Thursday and I am old enough to not be thankful for fast flying weeks

except maybe the week before, the week before, Christmas

not sure if that just made any sense at all now that I read it back, but I have promised myself to stop editing this blog so much, so I will just keep typing and hope for the best

Grateful 1 - I am very grateful for all these free little address labels I receive this time of year

(sort of)

I used to just get these from the American Lung Association who would send me about a gazillion teeny tiny ones adorned with cute little cardinals.

(the birds not the Catholics, although when I was a kid they used to encourage us to pray for the cardinals and I never knew if they meant the birds or the ball team and was so disappointed when I found out we were supposed to be praying for the men in the red robes- although now that we know what some of them were covering up- I really wish we had been praying for them after all)

And what exactly do birds have to do with healthy lungs? Cigarettes do a lot of bad stuff, but I have yet to see a smoker cough up a cardinal.

Confidential to Philip Morris- could you please make this happen?

So anyhoo, this year everyone from the Susan G. Kohman Foundation to the VFW is sending these to me. I think that maybe instead of mailing gazillions of address labels, they should just use that money to, well, um, support their causes.

I mean, does anyone even send letters anymore?

Maybe next time these charities will send me some cutting edge Betamax tapes or 8 tracks or some horses for my feudal plantation.

Gratitude 2 - My front door is not broken.

Last night bringing home some take-out, in the dark and the cold- I was standing on my front porch clicking my car remote at my house door to get it to open and thinking - dammit - my front door is broken

and well, I'm just glad it isn't

<---(note- this is not actually my front door, but let's just pretend it is- it's much cuter than mine)

Gratitiude 3 - It is almost Christmas. And even though my family has pledged no gifts

(bah humbug to them all I say)

and half my family (the half that can cook unfortunately- I really miss you Randi) has moved away - it is still almost Christmas and people are happier (yes, even in New Jersey) and kinder to each other and smiling more often ... even me.

I still really, really want to see someone cough up a cardinal though ...

Time Out Tuesday or stuff to check out while you eat your tuna on an everything bagel

I've been a bit AWOL from this blog lately what will all my decorating, caroling, shopping

(have got the shopping part down, just not the shopping "for other people" part)

wrapping, baking, visiting schools, nursing homes, hospitals- your basic do-gooder holiday schedule that I have every year

(well... I did sing Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer yesterday to an old lady at the grocery store until she tried to silence me with a can of Raid- not very eco-friendly these old ladies now a days)

so, now seems like a good time to take a time out and see what the wonderful web has offered up for us in the way of inspiration and maybe even some last minute gifts

(but don't count on it because this stuff is awesome and is probably sold out)


This hidden bookshelf allows your books to just kind of float on your wall- love it.


Rural Chinese farmers are growing Buddha pears - these are a little scary, but very cool.


Now, I trip over my own shoelaces (actually I have even tripped over other people's shoelaces) all the time, so this Shoelace Rug has a special place in my heart.


This camera can punch out a picture anytime, anywhere- yup, I said punch out a picture- me thinks me likes it!


A seesaw (that spelling looks wrong) for grown-ups recycled from bike parts- what more can I say about that.


Now when my hubby dances with our daughter he steps on her feet, so we would need these reversed for us.


I think I am obsessed with resting my books- but I love these, too.


Yup- that's 3604 coffee cups in 4 shades using various amounts of milk and coffee!


The most brilliant use of your extra cords- had me searching my entire house for extension cords- just brilliant!


French footlong marshmallows!


A new way to look at design that I just love.




The gorgeous furniture collages of Jennifer Mullin- I want to live in her rooms and yes, she has a locket!



How cute are these.

OK, back to work- just a few (couple) more days of chaos. I've been slowly adjusting to my return to real life like a diver coming up from the darkest depths of the ocean, although an ocean that has been littered with unwashed bowls of Lucky Charms, laundry, unopened mail and a very sad little Olive needing a walk and some brushin'.