Vendor Round-Up

Today I want to share some vendors that I've been using and very happy with. I have about a gazillion cookies to show you too, but I'm just not in the mood to watermark my photos today ;-)

I ordered hand-painted gorgeous glasses from Renee at Kudos Kitchen By Renee on Etsy. Oh they are beautiful!!! One of my favorite cycling friends was getting married and I just knew I had to ask Renee to make me the perfect wedding gift to give to them.

 Aren't they INCREDIBLE! Just like my friends John and Molly. I loved how she even added their hair color and their bike color. Everything was so personal and special. I gave Renee a few details and knew I wanted something with a bicycle and she just started formulating all kinds of incredible ideas! Oh to have that kind of talent!

 I asked Renee to add a pink tree. Okay I strong-armed her into adding a pink tree...

So I sent her this picture 

and this one to help her see that it would be beautiful. Besides I knew my friends would EXPECT there to be some pink in my gift!

Thank you Renee for the absolutely perfect gift! You're such an incredible artist and my friends absolutely loved the gift. I felt like the best person in the world to give such an amazing gift thanks to YOUR talent!

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My son's leaving for college in 15 days. Fifteen days. Yes, I'll keep saying it. Maybe it will help me to get ready for it. ugh... We are going to have a going away party for him. It will be a nautical theme party since the mascot for his college is a river boat pilot. So I will get to make lots of fun nautical theme cookies. I also ordered these nautical theme cupcake toppers from Shelly at Sweet Sambolina Etsy Shop. Aren't they so cute! Shelly shipped them super fast and the best part is that she customized them for me. Since my son's school color is purple, she took away the regular red & blue theme and made it purple for me. I asked her if she could add in a few other nautical items and she was glad to do it. What a sweetie and beautiful work! I can't wait to see them in the cupcakes!

You should check out Shelly's Sweet Sambolina Etsy Shop and see all her fun animal print party decorations! Fun!

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And I ordered another Lazy Susan turn-table from Paul's Specialties Etsy Shop. I told you about his wonderful turn-tables before. Now I have two of them so that when my daughter is able to come and help decorate cookies, she is all set too. I used to have the large Wilton turn-table, but I didn't like that I had to keep moving my cookie constantly and so I sent a message to Paul asking if he would consider making me a smaller turn-table and he was more than happy to make me an 8" lazy susan and I never have to move my cookie and it spins so nicely. You can see a video that I made about my turn-table here: http://www.cristinscookies.com/2012/05/today-lets-talk-about-couple-things.html

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As you know, last month we celebrated Nick earning his Eagle Scout rank through his Court of Honor. One of the many touching moments is when the Eagle Scout is presented with a flag. Nick received two flags. He had one presented to him from the troop and they had flown it over the Nation's Capital. The Troop Committee Chair teared up a little when she presented the flag to him. It was very sweet. Then he was also presented with my dad's flag. I wasn't able to say anything without falling apart into a puddle of tears, so my husband presented the flag to Nick and he got choked up too. My father lost his battle with Cancer 4 years ago and this is the flag they put over his coffin from being a veteran serving in the Air Force. 

I ordered this brass plate from Mindy at AwardsEtc. Etsy Shop. She has done a few beautiful plates for us. She also made the one that is attached to the benches that Nick built for his Eagle Scout project which he dedicated to his grandfather.

Thanks Mindy! Your work is always impeccable!

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Nick and I made a cookie baking video to share with you, but I'm having a difficult time getting it to show both audio and video so it needs some more tweaking. In the meantime, I'll pacify you with this gorgeous little girl :-) 

Back to work on cookies...