Thanksgiving Figurines and Cookie Cutters (of course!)

Happy Thanksgiving!   Thanksgiving means roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, fresh hot rolls and best of all, our families all together!   Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for our country and the opportunities  that are available to so many of us.  And of course, to remember our forefathers who set the stage for all of us.

I enjoy decorating for Thanksgiving; my favorite decorations are my Pilgrim and Native  American figurines!  They are not antiques, but are only a few years old.  They are all made of resin.

This Pilgrim couple is designed to look like a primitive wood carving, and is my favorite!

This pilgrim couple is a miniature version of the faux wood carving design.

According to legend, the Pilgrims may not have survived without the assistance of the Native Americans. This couple is also a version of the faux carved wood.


In preparation for Thanksgiving, I also made some Thanksgiving cookies for my friends and family.  I used the above cookie cutters for the larger cookies.

My kids gave me these cookie sets (fruits and vegetables) which I used for the cornucopias.

Cornucopia

Tom Turkey

Cherry and Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving Dinner- Turkey Drumstick, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Peas and Carrots.

Pumpkin Pie and a piece of pie ready to be eaten!

Native Americans and Pilgrims

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration!

Cookie Cutters.....yes, more Cookie Cutters!

About 2 months ago, on June 11, we traveled to Duluth, Minnesota to attend my niece's wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding in Leif Erikson Park overlooking Lake Superior. 

My niece and her new husband decided to use the colors of the peacock for their wedding colors.  Peacock feathers were in all of the table decorations and corsages.  The arrangements were beautiful; peacock feathers mixed with wild flowers, pink calla lilies, and snake grass.  So unique! 

The colors were vibrant, the bridesmaid's dresses were so pretty with matching shawls, and the bride was absolutely beautiful...all this from an unbiased aunt!  Oh, and yes, the groom was very handsome, too.

Our family always has a "family wedding shower" for anyone getting married.  It is a fun get together where everyone is invited, we have lots of good food,  the  engaged couple opens gifts, and there's lots of talking and catching up.  But, my niece lives a few states away and is a teacher.  She just couldn't get away in the middle of the school year for a trip to have her shower.  Also, she needed her spring break for wedding preparations.  So, she asked if we could have the shower after her wedding, during the summer.  Which is what we did.  Her husband is a baseball fan, so the night before the shower, we included a game at Tiger Stadium, (officially called Comerica Park), and had 35 family members in one of the party suites.  My nephew is a Twins fan, but I think he was able to cheer for the Tigers for one night.  It was hot, but it was lots of fun!!!

The next day, we had their wedding shower at my cousin's home,  the official party house!  My shower duties (that I volunteered for) included:  making the invitations, bringing homemade jam for party gifts (surprisingly, quite a few of us make jam and we had a nice selection), bring 2 kinds of salad, 4 dozen hard rolls, Chocolate Trifle, "Opera in the Park" Raspberry Bars, and sugar cookies.  I really wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them with the "Peacock Theme" in mind.

My Cookie Cutter collection does not include Peacocks, so I had to purchase a couple of new cutters.  The cutters I used included:  (Top L to R) Paisley or teardrop, bridal gown, scalloped oval, (Bottom L to R)  Bird, and Peacock.

Voila...decorated sugar cookies for my niece and new nephew's wedding shower!

Here is a closeup of one of the Peacocks.  I didn't take pictures prior to taking the cookies to the shower, which I have learned is a mistake.  I would have taken more pictures at home, because I would have had more time.  Oh well, live and learn!

My niece and nephew...looking at Lake Superior. 

I tried to decorate the bridal gown cookies to resemble her dress.  So, when she was looking at the tray of cookies, she said, "Look, it's my dress!!!"  I was very, very happy!!

I saw this Peacock Cookie on-line and just loved it.  I thought it would fit the "peacock theme."  I got the idea from Montreal Confections.  Her cookies are amazing and just prove that I need a bit more practice! 

 

I used the scalloped oval as the center piece for the new husband and wife.

Another peacock..so much fun to decorate!

A peek at the reception...a couple in love...

Ready to begin their life together...

These cookies were a lot of fun to decorate, they were appreciated by the family and new husband and wife, and were gobbled up ....can't wait to make them again!

Have a wonderful week!  Enjoy the hot, wonderful days of August!

Cookie Cutters for the 4th of July

This past month has been a very family oriented month.  Also, a really wonderful month.  Number 1- My family and I drove to Minnesota to attend my niece's wedding on the shores of Lake Superior.  It was beautiful, the weather cooperated, and Duluth turned out to be a great place to visit.  There was so much to do and see!  Number 2- Then we headed to the "Thumb" for my nephew's (really cousin's) wedding.   Again, it was a beautiful wedding, the weather was perfect, and the reception in Bay City was great.  The best part was seeing so many members of the family.  My daughter, who lives in NYC, and my son who lives in Detroit, were able to come to both weddings.   In fact,  my daughter was able to visit Michigan for two weeks, actually 2 very fast weeks!  Number 3- We headed to the middle of the state for the 4th of July to celebrate my MIL's birthday.  Number 4- Then my daughter and I traveled back to another area of the thumb to re-connect with my aunt and cousin on my dad's side.  Number 5- Finally, we (my daughter and I) headed to Ohio for a few days to visit aunts and uncles and many cousins.  It was a lot of traveling in a month, but we had fun, and of course, we laughed and laughed!

Our 4th of July Party was a "potluck," and my  daughter and I decided to decorate some cookies for the occasion.  Now, that we're having so much fun with cookies, we are taking every opportunity to make cookies.  So, we pulled out the cookie cutter collection and decided on the following cookies:

My daughter designed a "pinwheel" cookie from the square cutter.  (She is very talented and creative!)  We had to make a hot dog for the 4th of July, because what is the 4th without a good old American hot dog?!?  Besides, my son loves hot dogs.  We decided on making ice cream cones, and sky rockets (using the birdhouse again and a small star that we bent a bit).  We used the small circle to make a few baseballs, mainly for my GREAT nephew who loves all kinds of balls, and the larger circle to make a flag symbol.   Oh, and last, but not least, a star.

We made the cookies and spent a couple of hours making the piping frosting and flooding frosting and ended up with a lot of different colors.  Next time, I think we will cut down on the amount of colors!  Then, it was time to decorate.  It took us quite awhile, but we really enjoyed ourselves, and we think that the cookies turned out pretty well...(yummy, too!).

Happy 4th of July!  As you can see, we tried to cover a real 4th of July celebration!

Ice cream cones!  Strawberry, orange sherbet, lemon, chocolate, raspberry, chocolate chunk, fudge ripple, and cherry swirl!  One of these days, I want to use different extracts so that the cookies taste like what they look like...if you know what I mean.  We found out that I really like to decorate the "food" cookies, and my daughter really likes to decorate the non-food cookies.  Can you tell which ice cream cone she decorated?  It's like those puzzles where you have to find and circle the object that is different.

A "close up,"  Can't you just imagine that it tastes like strawberry?

Hot Dogs!  Come and get your hot dogs!  I really had fun decorating these.   I tried to make a Coney Dog, but it looked as messy as a real Coney Dog...not so good for a cookie!

A "close-up" .... Mustard, ketchup, onions and relish..yum!

Here's my nephew ready to gobble up his "dog." 

Here are a few of our "sky rockets."  The "flares" were attached with Royal Icing and craft sticks.  The flag symbols were made from large circles,  and my daughter made the beautiful red, white, and blue exploding fireworks by "dragging" the flooding icing.

A "close up" of one of the rockets.  This one was made by me, the other two by my daughter.

As I said earlier, my daughter came up with the idea for "pinwheels" and made the pattern.  Then, we both had fun decorating.  She made five of them, I made one.  Can you tell which one?  (I made the one with the red dots and the the blue stripes).  This is her first time piping and flooding, pretty amazing, huh?

My GREAT nephew seemed to like his pinwheel cookie.  The stick definitely made eating it a bit easier!

More cookie "close-ups."

Yup, he definitely seems to be enjoying his cookie sitting with his "Noni."  He is soooooo cute! 

My daughter made the baseball... we actually had to look up the stitching design on the computer!

"My Pinwheel"

"Mmmm  Mmmm Good!"  (I had a hard time limiting my pictures of this little guy, to three!)

Here is a platter of the "Red, White, and Blue" cookies.

Finally, a mixture of cookies that shouts, "Happy 4th of July!!!"

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and were able to spend it with close family and friends!  Summer is here...time to swim, cook out, read books, go to the beach, and enjoy every minute!  Oh yes, and time to eat hot dogs, ice cream cones, and cookies!