the cookie kiln

once again it has been months since i have blogged.

and again, not because we have had nothing worth blogging about, 

quite the opposite actually. our life has been beyond busy.

on a daily basis i think about multiple things that i should blog about, 

not because anyone else would want to read about it, 

but because i know that someday i will want to remember it.

so today i had a little down time and i decided that i would do a little blog update.

several months ago, with a little (actually, more than a little) encouragement from my husband,

 i decided to open a part-time, custom sugar cookie business out of our home.

my husband came up with the name,

 'the cookie kiln', 

which i thought was rather clever, 

as a kiln is just an extra-large, extra-hot oven for baking pottery.

i created a facebook page, 

www.facebook.com/cookiekiln

so that i would have somewhere to post pictures of the cookies that i had made

and to have a place to direct anyone interested in seeing my cookies.

i honestly didn't think that i would get many orders at all, 

and in a way i hoped that i wouldn't get many,

 as i am fairly exhausted after working 50-60 hours a week as a nanny to 5 very active children.

but i thought that i would just give it a chance and see what happened.

i have been overwhelmed with the number of orders that i have gotten, 

mostly word-of-mouth by friends and family.

it has been a very fun, tiring, and incredibly exciting few months.

i honestly never could have hoped to see this kind of response 

without actually marketing my little business in any way...

 facebook and friends are amazing things. haha.

we are praying about the next steps to take in growing this little business. 

but for now i am just enjoying all of the fun, creative orders that my clients have been sending my way.

i will post a few of my favorite orders from the past few months.

i actually made these little onesies for a baby shower last fall.

it was after this shower that my husband really started pushing me to try to make a business out of my baking.

i LOVE paisley!!! 

so i made these for a sweet mommy who was  in the hospital on bedrest,

awaiting the arrival of her baby boy.

these little paint palettes were for a 6-year old's art-themed birthday party

i thought that these little birthday cake cookies were pretty fun.

and a great option for those who dislike cake.

i had several easter cookie orders. 

they were a little time-consuming because of all of the colors, 

but they were SO much fun to make.

and these guitars were for a highschool student's senior thesis presentation.

he actually made that guitar, which i thought was really awesome! 

i had 2 bachelorette party orders the same weekend. 

i thought that they were pretty fun. :)

and i never would have imagined that an upside-down heart-shaped cookie cutter 

would have made such adorable lingerie.

these cute little mommy and baby giraffes were for a baby boy shower this past weekend.

mother's day cookies-

 i did a mother's day cookie give-away on my facebook page.

i ended up giving away 3 dozen because there were too many deserving moms nominated

that i felt like i should give more than one of them an opportunity to win.

another mother's day cookie set

and this was probably one of my favorite cookies that i have made.

i love paisley, and turquoise and seafoam are my favorite colors.

so that is a little bit of what has been going on inside my kitchen walls.

there is so much more going on in our lives beyond the walls of my kitchen,

but i will stop for now.

and just because i am feeling extra generous this year, i thought that i would give away one more set of a dozen cookies on my blog. 

send me a comment either on the blog or on my facebook page telling me about a mom 

(either your own mom, or a friend who is a mom)

that you think should win a dozen cookies.

i will have the random drawing wednesday evening.

giveaway winner and wedding cake

first off, i would like to thank all of you for participating in my first giveaway!

i had a lot of fun doing it and i hope to have many more in the near future. 

thank you so much for entering and for sharing it with your friends.

&

the computer chosen winner is...

'melissa!'

please send me a note with your address and what color necklace you would like

 and i will send you a fun little package.

{several of you have asked if you were not the winner if i would be willing to sell you a necklace.

 i would happily sell these little pretties. they are $14 each. just contact me with your color choice and address and i will send it your way... 

i am hopeful to have them in my etsy shop in the very near future as well, but am not making any promises}

this month my husband and i celebrated our 1st anniversary. i must say that i never could have imagined a more perfect first year of marriage. we had so much fun and God taught us so many things about ourselves, each other, but most importantly about how much we need Him in our marriage.

 i have been so incredibly blessed!

 i also had NO idea that a year could pass so quickly.

 it seems like i was just planning the wedding.

i love traditions (old and new), so i really wanted to keep the tradition of saving the top layer of the wedding cake for our first anniversary.

our wedding cake was SO delicious!

it was a keylime-coconut cake.

and from the looks of things, i was not the only one that thought that it was AMAZING! 

i was so extremely lucky to know an incredible cake baker quite well

 {my very talented mother}.

she experimented for weeks to come up with a recipe that we all loved. 

not only did she make our wedding cake during the crazy wedding week,

but she told me that instead of saving our top layer of the cake and pretending to enjoy eating frost-bitten cake on our anniversary in the name of tradition, that she would just make us a fresh cake for our celebration. 

so this weekend we got to enjoy this cute little anniversary cake!

thank you so much mom. :)

and i think that it may have been even better after a year. ;)

if you would like the wedding cake recipe, <------ this is the link to my mom's blog.

and i was also excited to be able to use our cute little 

cake toppers

that i blogged about last year. 

i am so excited to make a set for our friends marianne and david for their wedding this summer!

i can't wait to share many more fun celebrations with you in the future!

my first give-away!!!

a giveaway!

so i have to admit, i have been rather ashamed at myself for my inconsistency with my blogging. 

i honestly intend to blog fairly frequently. i take pictures of things fully intending to post them... and life... procrastination... laziness...and exhaustion get in the way. but i really am going to try to blog at least once a week.

 so, in an effort to encourage myself to have a little more accountability with my blogging, i thought that i would do my first little giveaway. 

so, to each of my 11 followers, your odds should be pretty high! haha. ;)

i am giving away one of these cutie little pom-pom flower necklaces that i showed in yesterday's post:

{i will let the winner request the color of their choosing.}

the random computer drawing will take place at 12:00 PM on

monday, april 23, 2012 

{one week from today}

how to enter:

1. you can get one entry by becoming a new follower of my blog.

*if you are already a follower, just comment on this blog post to be entered.

2. you can get a second and third entry by sharing a link to my blog on facebook and/or twitter

(just let me know that you have shared it in the comment box below

 or else i might not know that you have shared it).

and hopefully this will help give me a little encouragement to be a little more consistent in my blogging.

"may the odds be ever in your favor" ;)

can't wait to hear from you.

~ norajoy ~

Jones Design Company

My cousin just shared this blog with me this morning and I absolutely love it!!

http://jonesdesigncompany.com/

I love so many of the ideas that she has on her blog. She is doing a giveaway right now. If you sign up for her e-mail you are entered to win a bunch of beautiful things from her shop. :) Definitely worth signing up for! I will try to link a button to the giveaway, but if you go her website there is a link on the left sidebar. Enjoy!