Kiki's graduation

My sweet baby Katelyn graduated from kindergarten on thursday!

Black and White Cookies

I just LOVE black and white cookies. I found this great recipe and thought I would share it with you!!

yield: Makes about 8 cookies

active time: 25 min

total time: 45 min

These dramatic cakelike cookies are a New York City favorite — and we think they deserve a wider audience.

Ingredients

For cookies

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg

For icings

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 to 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preparation

Make cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Spoon 1/4 cups of batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

Make icings while cookies chill:
Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.

Ice cookies:
Turn cookies flat sides up, then spread white icing over half of each and chocolate over other half.

Cuff Bracelets

Last night I was cleaning my sewing room and found a bunch of supplies I had purchased at one time but forgot about (shocking!)

One of those things were metal cuff bracelets. So, I decided to stop organizing and make bracelets instead. (ADD is a wonderful thing! ha ha)

I had an old pair of jeans lying around that I cut apart to make these little denim sleeves to feed the metal cuffs into. For one of the bracelets I used demin on one side and chocolate suede on the other side. Then I started digging through my supplies looking for stuff to decorate these bracelets with. I added a fabric flower I made a while ago to one of the bracelets and I strung some buttons and washers to hemp cord for the other bracelet and waa laa!!

I should probably get back to organizing the sewing room now! ha ha

Adventures of the TOOTH FAIRY

I may be the WORST tooth fairy ever! My little Katelyn lost her very first tooth  yesterday and I made her the cutest little monkey tooth fairy pillow, we made a big deal about putting her tooth in the pillow before she went to bed, I got them all tucked in last night and then I went to get some work done on the computer. I was up late and pretty exhausted.

This morning Katelyn comes running down the stairs screaming, "Mommy, I don't know if the tooth fairy came last night, let's go check!!" ..........All I was thinking was "CRAP!!!!!!!! I suck at being the tooth fairy!!!" So I said to Katelyn (while I was digging in my purse for quarters), "You need to go potty first, and then we can go check!" She said "Mommy, I don't have to go potty!" I said "Katelyn just go potty first" As she rushed to go to the bathroom, I sprinted upstairs like a mad woman and flew into her bedroom and grabbed the tooth and shoved two quarters in the pillow. I turned around and ran out of her room and Ava is flying up the stairs after me, then here comes Katelyn.

This is where I could probably  win an Oscar.....I said (out of breath at this point), "Let's go see if the tooth fairy left you anything" .....We went and looked and sure enough she was absolutely delighted to pull out two shiny quarters from her tooth fairy pillow! she said "Mommy, do you think that people will think these are regular quarters, or will they know that they are tooth fairy quarters??" lol She said, "I thought I heard that little fairy come in my room"...........maybe if the tooth fairy sounds like a herd of elephants running up the stairs! ha ha

That was WAY to close!!