more cookies than i ever imagined

i opened instagram one day to find that i had a message from one of my friends, who'd forwarded me a post that she thought i might find interesting.  it was from someone who's a cast member at disneyland, asking if anyone knew a baker who might be available for an order of 500 cookies with a pretty short turnaround time - as in, it was a monday with delivery the following friday.  eek.

the story had already been posted for an hour, and so although i figured that they probably had already found someone i responded anyway.  because why not, right?  and wonder of wonders...they got right back to me asking for pricing and confirming that the quick turnaround was doable.  they sent me a couple of photos with the designs they wanted:

i was internally freaking out at the idea of doing 500 cookies all at once, since the biggest order i've ever worked on is probably more like 10-12 dozen.  i mean, we're talking about FORTY-PLUS dozen cookies here.  and add to that the fact that these were definitely for disneyland - because they used their official work e-mail address to respond to me.  like...WUT.

and even more amazing?  I GOT THE GIG.  the cookies were going to be given to cast members to commemorate the new lion king stage show that was premiering in the fantasyland theater, as well as the re-release of fantasmic!, which hadn't returned since the parks reopened after the covid shutdown.  because of licensing issues, they couldn't use actual disney graphics and that's why the designs they sent me are so generic-looking.  i was SO excited.

but what i haven't mentioned yet is the fact that the delivery day happened to fall on the day after the bean's junior high graduation - which meant that i was going to be working like crazy that entire week.  a week where there was some sort of school-related event or function almost every day.  holy crap.

but as i studied the photos a little more i realized that i could work on this order in stages, spreading out all of the prep work over the next few days so that everything would be ready and i could just concentrate on decorating the cookies in one sitting.  breaking it all out into little bite-sized pieces of work would make this daunting task a little less overwhelming, and i started making lists and creating a schedule of how it was all going to go.

between smart & final, costco and my local baking supply shop, i gathered up the supplies.  i've never had these quantities of cookie ingredients in the kitchen all at once before:

the next step was to mix all the dough, wrap it tightly and store it in the fridge.  this isn't even all of it!

on another day, i made a batch of royal icing - something i don't typically enjoy using because i don't think it tastes all that great nor do i love how rock hard it dries on the cookies.  but in this case, i was going to pipe out all of the lion heads onto parchment paper that would be completely dry so that all i had to do was peel them off and plop them onto the freshly frosted cookie.  kind of like making a sticker, see?

i guess they kind of looked more like winnie the pooh before i added the little crowns.

for the cookies with the moon and stars, they wanted the background to be a dark blue with a white moon and gold stars.  i decided that the easiest way to handle that was to make the moons and stars out of fondant.  on my first try, i rolled out a chunk of fondant and used my airbrush to paint it with a shimmery gold:

but that was a bust, because the "paint" made the fondant too sticky to cut out without ruining the shapes.  boo.  and so instead, i rolled out another ball, cut the stars out and then hit them with the airbrush.  luckily, this time they turned out as i'd pictured.

because it was graduation season, i had other orders to work on.  and so while i was rolling, cutting and baking for those orders i sucked it up and baked those cookies too.  i was pretty amazed that my calculations for how much dough to make actually came out almost exactly right.  i ended up with zero leftovers even after throwing in a handful of extras to account for possible errors or breakage.  woohoo!

thank goodness for the extra freezer we have in the garage, because the one in the house definitely wasn't big enough to hold all those bags of cookies.  in they went for a few days, until it was time to start decorating.  first thing that morning, i pulled them back out and mixed up the frosting while they defrosted.

once i had all of the components ready to go, i started with the first one.  and while it wasn't as perfect looking as the example they'd sent me, i think it came out pretty well:

twenty dozen lion heads later, i switched gears and got the moons and stars out and ready for action.

as i started assembling them, the hub and the bean both came over to see how things were going and commented that they rather looked like smiley faces.  and i hated to admit it, but they were right.  UGH.  the bean came to my rescue, though. after looking over my supply of sprinkles, she picked out some small gold dragees and added a few to each cookie.  of course, since she's an artist, it was exactly what they needed to look right.

the hub came in as i was just about done and snapped some photos of the action, all the while commenting on how crazy it was to see cookies covering almost every surface in the kitchen and dining room.

they dried overnight, and then after the bean's final awards ceremony at school i managed to squeeze in time to cut the ribbons and get every last one of those cookies bagged up and packed for delivery.  there were no less than five of these boxes, all filled to the brim with cookies.

i was so relieved once it was all over, and delivering them to disneyland the next day went smoothly.  i did get some feedback from my contact there that the cast members said that the cookies were cute and tasty, which is always good.  and of course, despite the fact that it was probably the most stressed i've been in a long time, i made sure to let them know that i would be happy to take orders again in the future if they found themselves in a similar situation.

it's been awhile now since that all went down, but it still amazes me that I MADE COOKIES FOR DISNEYLAND.  I DID THAT.

woohoo!  there's a bucket list item checked off that i didn't know existed.

looking for that holiday hustle

so i've been doing lots of crafting around here.  once all of those crocheted pumpkins were done and sent out to their new owners, i started looking around for what could be my next hustle.  i'm torn between raising money for the treadmill i really want and upgrading my embroidery machine, which is something i've wanted for awhile.  my little beginner-level machine is still alive and kicking, but it's so basic and i'd love to have some fancier features.  i'd love a multi-needle machine so i wouldn't have to change thread colors so often, with options for a bigger hoop to crank out larger sized items (or multiples of smaller ones in one hoop) and automatic stitch cutters and things like that.  

i thought maybe i might be able to pre-make a bunch of handmade items that might be good for christmas.  i came across this adorable crocheted gingerbread mickey and stitched out a sample.  it turned out to be quite a time suck - look at all the pieces involved:

once i got it all assembled, it was actually pretty cute.  

but it WAY too much work.  and took too long to make.  not a good hustle candidate.

i moved on to reusable coffee sleeves, which are really fun to make.  and picking out feltie designs to dress them up is super fun.  i think these would make great teacher gifts, or for anyone you want to give a starbucks gift card to, but when i posted them on my facebook page to gauge interest it didn't really attract a ton of attention.

in the midst of all this crafting, the bean decided to make a little plushie for one of her favorite friends since it was his birthday.  she'd made him one of these a couple of years ago, so she was excited to present him with mr. pigs 2.0, with his birthdate embroidered on the bottom.

have you heard of among us, the newest game that all the kids are playing?  the characters come in different colors and have all kinds of silly things on their heads and i guess it's a thing right now.  this same friend is a big gamer, so i made this for her to give him with mr. pigs 2.0:

and we carved pumpkins the other night.  i was pretty proud of mine until the girls looked at it and the old lady said "that's it?  it's not even carved" and i kind of wilted like a dead flower.  sigh.

still, she looks pretty cute next to the other pumpkins.

so, back to the hustle.  i think i found it, because i posted this on my personal facebook timeline and ended up making about 20 elf mask and sweater sets for friends:

and then i posted it on the local small business/boutique facebook page and WHOA.  i'm currently attached at the hip to my embroidery machine with the old lady helping to trim and cut because i have over 100 orders to fill.  i present to you the official 2020 elf survival kit:

if you don't hear from me for awhile, please come check on me to make sure i haven't been buried alive in fleece and thread, or somehow managed to sew myself to a hoop.  it could happen.

all about that christmas hustle

whew...it's been a pretty hectic few days!  actually, it's been hectic for a couple of weeks, but i guess that really isn't anything new around here.

i happened to post this picture of an elf on the shelf-sized sweater:

and that shit TOOK. OFF.  i bought a few elf "blanks" to use for a display, so i tried one on to make sure it fit:

and then i was doing this for a couple of days.

i'm still working on orders, with a few to ship out and a bunch to meet up with local moms for deliveries.  but at just $5 a pop, i'm also working on lots of other things too.  here's a closeup of one of those pairs of ears the girls and i wore to the 'land last week:

and look how fun this is...a cute way to give someone a starbucks gift card:

my embroidery machine is working lots of overtime these days, because i'm signed up for a table at a christmas boutique at the bean's school that's coming up really fast - december 7th.  i'm trying to crank out lots of inventory in the hopes that people will come by and do some gift shopping, and the bean is going to make several kinds of slime to sell.  she's so excited, and i hope her half of the table is super successful.

so if you need me, i'll likely be hunched over the table in my sewing room for the next week and a half.  heh.

make it work

okay, so after a week of sitting and stewing over my failed attempts at putting my embroidery machine to work i finally decided to give it another shot.  of course, the damn thing didn't magically fix itself while it had more time to sit around.  but after i did a bunch of googling to see if i could find a way to fix it, i stumbled across a blog that gave me some insight on how to check one more area i didn't think i had access to inspecting.  i'm not particularly mechanically inclined, so i don't really do much in the way of opening things up to check them out.  i'm always afraid that i'll screw something up, break off a part, bend something the wrong way, or not be able to figure out how to put it back together.

but i sucked it up, read the directions really carefully, put on the old lady glasses and busted out a flashlight to make sure i could see what i was doing, and went in.  i took out one screw, pulled off a part of the plastic cover i didn't know could come off, and lo and behold a second and a half later found a long piece of thread that was jammed in the tension discs that i never would have been able to find otherwise.  i put everything back together, rethreaded the machine and then decided to pop out the bobbin case and make a little adjustment to the tension to see if that might help too.

and whaddaya know...the damn thing worked like a charm again.  no ugly snarls of thread birdsnesting underneath my project, no issues with the bobbin thread not catching the upper thread, no funny noises - nothing but love from my machine to me at last.  i gave that key fob another try, and this time it stitched out beautifully.

i swear, i thought i was going to cry with relief.  i was so excited to get started on some fun new stuff and wasted no time in putting my hoop together with a new project.  this time, i wanted to try a zipper pouch that's constructed completely in that hoop and sewn together by the machine.  i'd already watched a youtube video that showed me each and every step in detail and after the success with that key fob i was feeling pretty confident.  i made myself go through each step slowly and carefully, and look what i managed to do:

the excitement was at an all-time high, people.  i called the bean in to see my handiwork and she just about melted from delight at that cute little sushi zipper pouch that she knew i'd made for her.

it happened to be the final day of some pretty huge sales at joann's, so we hopped in the car to pick up some supplies at rock-bottom prices so i could get started on trying another design.  the sushi pouch was made of marine vinyl, and i wanted to try making the next one using felt.  now, this is far from perfect, but it made for great practice:

as did this one.  it's a rainbow poop emoji!

we had a birthday party to attend the next day, so i decided to make one more so that i could give the bean a few choices to pick from to put the gift card in for her friend.  i threw in the matching key fob (because a 10-year-old has keys, right?) and here's how it turned out...a pb&j with milk:

there was much squealing and oohing and aahing when i presented her with her options, and after a lot of debate she finally settled on that pb&j pouch to present at the birthday party.  it worked out really well, because the gift card fit perfectly inside.

i'm kind of addicted to making these little things now.  it's so much fun, and with that time of year coming up you can probably guess what i'm thinking...

I FOUND MY CHRISTMAS HUSTLE!

heheheheheheh.  first the mermaid tail blankets, then those unicorn pocket pillows...now little pouches and keyfobs.  oh yeah.  let the games begin!