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.

My Burst Disc

I decided to give a personal update so anyone that cares to know what's going on in my life will be informed.
The past 3 weeks have been three of the most difficult and painful weeks of my life. After struggling with back pain off-and-on for the past 6 years, I am rather accustomed to random, unpredicted flare-ups, so when my lower back started hurting three weeks ago, I just assumed that I was in for more of the same. Was I ever wrong. Recovery has previously required 2-6 days of rest, some pain medicine, and a few days lying on the sofa on my back before I would return to my normal self. This time I immediately got prescribed a steroid pack to try to heal it a little faster. After about 3 days on the steroids I was feeling slight relief and feeling a little stir crazy, so I did a few little projects and some cleaning. The next day I still felt better, so my boyfriend and I met some friends and went to the Saturday market held downtown Greenville (where we picked up some of the ingredients for the salsa from my previous post). That didn't go so well. I actually ended up passing out in front of the Westin Poinestt Hotel, which proved rather embarrassing, but comical. Glad I have a good sense of humor and found it hilarious that my boyfriend had tucked the cabbage, which I bought at the market, up under my skirt to keep me from flashing the hundreds attending the market, as my legs were elevated. I joked that I had birthed a cabbage patch kid at the farmer's market. :) I rested that afternoon and felt so much better by that evening that I entertained a few friends for dinner. That night my back pain returned in full force. By the next morning it was so bad that I actually got stuck on the livingroom floor for 3 hours unable to find any position that would offer relief. I was misdiagnosed with SI band disfunction on Monday morning. Tuesday morning my boss who is an orthopedic surgeon told me that he thought I needed an MRI, but that I would have to start with x-rays. I had the x-rays and a round of physical therapy. Then Wednesday morning I had the MRI. It was torture to lie on my back, but I endured the 25 minutes in the claustrophobia-causing tube. The MRI showed that I had a burst disc in my back and that a piece of the disc is sitting on a nerve bundle- my sciatic... causing intense shooting pain all down my leg. Thursday morning I went in for an epidural shot which was supposed to ease the pain within 2-3 days. I lay here now almost 2 weeks later, on a double-strength of Percocet and I am still without relief. Surgery has been recommended at this point to remove the piece of disc that is on my sciatic nerve so that hopefully I will be able to walk and sit again soon. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow (Wednesday) to find out the details of the surgery and get a surgery date. I am praying that I will get scheduled this week. I am so tired of being in pain.
All of that update to say that I have been working hard to find activities to do as I lie on my stomach on my parents livingroom floor, which has been the only comfortable position for 2 1/2 weeks. I have found quite a few crafts to do. And since my boyfriend and I are planning to get married next Spring, with his approval, I have started gathering ideas and working on projects for our wedding. It has been so much fun! It will be nice to have a few things completed that I may or may not have found time to do between now and then. I will try to post some of the things that I have been working on.


This is me and my sweet puppy, Paisley, lying on my yoga mat... where I have been for 2 1/2 weeks.


This is my boyfriend, Topher and Paisley visiting me on the livingroom floor. (aren't these the 2 prettiest sets of eyes ever?)

My parents have been so kind and thoughtful by letting me stay with them and waiting on me hand and foot. I couldn't have gone through this without them. I have amazing help! I am so thankful to the Lord for the wonderful, loving parents that He has given me. I am so blessed.