Barnyard and Zombie Cookies Using Royal Icing

I had a customer ask me to do 50 barnyard cookies to accompany a barnyard cake. I obliged. I was a touch nervous at first, but ended up having a blast. So much so, I found myself getting up at 3:30 AM just so I could work on them. I’d like to share them now.

Here is a rooster.

Some pigs, a barn, a couple of horses, cows and some chicks.

And so, naturally, I had to take this innocent project and turn it into blood and gore and zombies. Truth: I love The Walking Dead. I’m not sure if I’ve ever publicly admitted this online, but I am a huge fan. (AND OMG LAST NIGHT! SO MUCH I WANT TO SAY!) I love the show so much, my house is peppered with TWD toys and figurines. I don’t really give a shit about zombies, but I love that show. And one day I hope to write the longwinded post as to why I love the show so much. But for now, I’ll just share some cookies with you.

These were made for our halloween block party.

They were made for kids and I only realized after setting them down on the table outside that they might be a touch too graphic and/or gross for young eyes. But then I watched my own son bite the head off of the guy on the left and well that made it all worthwhile. 

That’s all for now! I’m really enjoying blogging again. Although I’m not sure anyone actually reads anymore. :] But that’s OK. I haven’t been documenting my life much over the last several years and I miss it. So, maybe I’ll just think of it as a personal archive/diary of sorts, which is kind of funny because that’s why I started this puppy way back in 2001.

Over and out.

Murray and I Thank You!

I would like to thank you for rallying together on here, Facebook and on Twitter in order to help me get 250 votes for Mission Small Business. I surpassed that amount earlier this morning. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am. If it weren’t for you guys, I never would have had a chance.

Murray thanks you too.

My lollipop giveaway is still going on and will be open until midnight tonight. At that point, Toby is going to run a script that will pull out all of my comments, remove any duplicates, and then randomly choose THREE winners. (I upped it to three because I was feeling groovy.) I will announce the winners tomorrow. I’ll also be contacting each winner via email to get your address.

Who knows, maybe you’ll get REALLY lucky!

Anyway, I’m throwing some pictures and videos your way as a small token of my gratitude.

Many of you who helped me out are crazy cat people like myself. (Thanks, Lisa! For one!) So, here’s a short video of Elliot and Murray. These two get on very well.

RANT!

You know, it pains me that people give up their animals (particularly cats) when they have a baby. I know it’s difficult at first, but things fall into place. Trust me, it’s MUCH harder on your pet dropping it off at a shelter than it is if you just have to ignore him or her for a while as you adjust to parenthood. Your pet will forgive you. I swear. If you do hang in there, you will see amazing things start happen between your kids and your pets. Things like this happen. Or this. And my personal favorite, this.

Keep your pets, people! They are awesome companions for kids. We’ve gotten so much joy from them.

END RANT!

Here’s a video of Elliot dancing! Kid digs reggae apparently. (He dances constantly.)

Here’s another short video of Em and Elliot on the playground playing in the water. Elliot wasn’t too keen on the water. He’s polar opposite of Emory, who used to let it smash him in the face. Elliot also doesn’t like the feel of grass or sand. I have another video of him screaming for a minute and a half in the sand at the beach.

Emory has been building forts lately. He built one on our couch and then we went for a walk. When we got back, this was happening. (Inside view, outside view.) What a freak.

Thanks again for all your help! The grants will be announced on September 15th. Crossing every finger and toe I’ve got.

It Could Be Worse.

It could read “Buried Alive” or “Quadruple Amputee-ing Blizzard”.

You gotta love our media. Thank you, AccuWeather.

This Is Not A Rope.

This morning I was searching online for fonts when I got aquatinted with this one:

In the browser it looks like this:

And I’m not sure whether this person is a sick, sick bastard or just has a wicked sense of humor, so I send some iChats to Toby Joe and I’m all, “OMG THIS GUY DESIGNED A FONT CALLED RAPE AND USED ROPE AS LETTERS!” And I realize midway through this iChat that the “a” is actually an “o” and the font is called ROPE. (Duh.)

Here are the two letters side-by-side:

The graphic designer in me thinks that he could have made this a leeeetle bit clearer. 

Twitter: I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours.

I should begin by saying that I enjoy Twitter. I like seeing how people tell stories when they’re only given 140 characters to work with. But it’s a good thing that the service is free, because I do have some issues with it. 

Take a look at the screenshot from my (mihow) account. (Specifically the area outlined in yellow.)

Now, take a look at Murray’s

Notice the difference? Murray has a search field, which is pretty insane since he doesn’t even have thumbs. (Not at all insane, however, is that he has a Twitter account.)

Now, before you leave a comment or send an anonymous email letting me know how stupid it is that I even care, I’m not losing sleep over this. But up until recently, I had no idea what these # signs were all about. I’m still not sure how they work. And I don’t use them because I rarely see the end result. (Murray doesn’t log in very often.)

Similarly, I had NO CLUE what “Trending Topics” meant until last weekend whenever Toby Joe showed it me. He checked my account on his computer and still nothing showed up. We checked my settings, still nothing.

But it’s free. I can’t complain.

It is curious, though.

The New York Post

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Patrick. Resident of The Bronx

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Donna. Resident of The Bronx

Friday, November 03, 2006

Chad. Resident of Manhattan

Wednesday, November 11, 2006

Donna. Resident of Manhattan

Friday, October 27, 2006

David. Resident of D.C.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Soung. Resident of D.C.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Christopher. Resident of Brooklyn

Monday, October 23, 2006

Michael. Resident of Manhattan

Friday, October 20, 2006

Sutrice. Resident of Manhattan

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Alton. Resident of Brooklyn

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Anon.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Jill. Resident of Brooklyn.

Thursday October 12, 2006

Raymond. Resident of the Bronx.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Chelsie. Resident of Manhattan.

Monday, October 9, 2006

Ryan. Resident of Manhattan.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Charles. Resident of New Jersey.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Ann. Resident of Sweden.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Dennis. Resident of Brooklyn

Friday, September 29, 2006

Zal. Resident Manhattan.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Tom. Resident of Queens.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Moises. Resident of the Bronx

Friday, September 15, 2006

Sven. Resident of Midtown.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Steve. Resident of Upstate New York.

Friday, September 8, 2006

Lauren. Resident of Manhattan. Byrant Park.

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Laticia. Resident of Chelsea. Public Library Steps.

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Edward. Resident of Queens. Union Square. 6 PM

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Myron. New Yorker. Grand Central Station Terminal

Monday, September 4, 2006

Tobyjoe. New Yorker. Bedford Avenue. Williamsburg

Friday, September 1, 2006 (Two today)

David. New Yorker. 41st Street

The New York Post, its front page, and the people who read it.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Sam. New Yorker. Grand Central Station. Main Concourse.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

S. Kim. Visitor from Korea.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Wayne. New Yorker. Bryant Park. 9:28 AM

Monday, August 28, 2006

Bruce. From Upstate New York not Hell.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Larry. New Yorker.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Harvey. A New Yorker.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Eric. New Yorker. Liked Top Gun.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

New Yorker and a childhood friend who was minutes away from shipping back to Iraq.