Johnson Park in Marble Falls... Halloween charity sale

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a group called Ride-On which does therapeutic horse training with vets with a group called A Place of Hope who give free medical care to vets who do not have insurance or can't afford treatment. I had so much fun working on these designs and actually doing Halloween cookies for change. If you're in the area (Marble Falls) and want to stop buy, come on down and take a look.

Hogsback Half Marathon cookies :)

I just shipped out cookies for the 2013 Hogsback Half Marathon taking place this weekend in Colebrook, CT. I was so excited to work with Kelly over at Sonic Endurance (sonicendurance.com) on these because she pretty much gave me free reign to have fun and do something unique for their event. 

If you haven't checked them out, take a look at their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hogsback-Half-Marathon-Goodwin-Dam-Colebrook-CT/102580726503140). The charity they work with is www.runningforrescues.org. These guys are an awesome cause out there doing what they love and trying to save lives of countless dogs and cats at the same time. 

Keep up the good work guys, I hope you enjoy the cookies!

EA Games... Giving Back :)

My cookies for Austin Bakes for West (Texas)

All done and ready to be packed up :) I really wanted to keep with a Texas pride theme. I had a million ideas but these won out and I'm thrilled with the way they came out. Four dozen full sized cookies and five dozen minis, I could of done more but sleep won last night. I hope they all sell out along with all the other wonderful donations that are going to be there... If you haven't already, check them out AustinBakes.com or Facebook @atxbakes.

Austin Bakes for West

I am baking for West :) If you are anywhere near the Austin area and want to stop by and buy some super delicious treats, check these guys out at Austin Bakes for West. Some people may remember the Austin Bakes for Bastrop sale a few years ago... I cannot tell you how many tasty treats I wanted to buy when I dropped off my stuff (I still went home with an armful of baked goods). They are going to have 8 locations around town, so you're sure to be near one if you're anywhere close to Austin. I'll be donating cookies at the Whole Foods Market Gateway location and will post pics of my cookies when I get them done but so far I'm super excited... it's going to be a busy week but well worth the hard work. (http://austinbakes.com)

If you can't make it and still want to help out, check out www.FirstGiving.com/Fundraiser/AustinBakes/ForWest for information about donating. Thank you very much for look and for all our support. The Bastrop sale was one of the first things I did when I started decorating cookies so I am honored and blessed to be able to participate again.

Austin Bakes for Bastrop... the final tallys

I was absolutely humbled today by the amount of love that was baked into sugary treats this weekend to help the victims of the Bastrop wildfires. The event had set a goal of $10,000... that's a lot of money for bake sale but we were determined to reach it. At last count we were at $12,561.79!! Wow is all I can say. I started looking around at the fellow bakers from my sale and then going online to see what everyone else brought to the party. All I can say is it's a good thing we spread out or I would of bought one of everything I saw :) My final tally at the end of 4 very long days were: 18 Texas Flags, 12 Double layer Sunflowers, approximately 36 fall leaves, 6 pumpkins, 6 acorns, 18 red, white, & blue star "bites," and 36 texas "bites" with hearts. I am trying not to fall asleep as I type this because I really wanted to get a post in today. So much work but soooo worth every minute. I met a lot of very nice people today and got to try a new recipe, Brown Sugar Spice with Maple frosting, and they were delicious!

(Sorry about the pictures, it was really early in the morning so I had zero light to work with other than my flash and an incandescent overhead light)

Bake sale preview... round 1

Last night I finished 18 Texas flags, 12 stacked sunflowers, and about 4 dozen Texas cookie "bites." Tonight is going to be fall leaves, something new :) I'm getting excited about dropping these off on Saturday, I hope it turns out to be a great sale. If you're interested in attending the sale, check out http://austinbakes.wordpress.com/ or their twitter page @austinbakes.

Get Russ to Kenya

So we have a friend that is working with CTC International (a world community outreach that enables less fortunate areas of our world experience something better) to teach art skills at a local orphanage and help them find ways to create income using their creativity. He's going to be filming a documentary while he's there and I am so excited for him that he is going to get this opportunity to go and help. Since I don't have the cash to donate, I told him I would make him cookies and he could try and sell them at work... any money he gets goes toward his trip. I found this flag cookie cutter and wanted to do something that related to where he was going instead of something just fun. I hope everyone likes them and they can bring him a few dollars to help out. If you are feeling generous and want to donate, or if you just want to learn more about the program, here is a link to the CTC and Russ's team.

More cookie pictures here.

Update: He got enough money :) After much work and wonderful friends, Russ raised the money he needed for his trip and is all set to go sometime in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone who supported his cause and congrats to Russ, have a blast and do some good for a change ;)