Cookies.  Cookies?  Never did I ever dream I would be a cookie baker and designer.  I don't even like to bake, or cook....just ask my husband!   But yes, cookies.  

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I've heard so many cookiers (I'm making that a word) say they never intended to start a business.  Very true with me also.  My journey started October 2012 when we were hosting a birthday party for my mother-in-law. I thought I wanted to make fall foliage cupcakes for the party and started searching the internet for ideas. Instead of cupcakes, I found The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle, cookie genius. I saw "easy" fall leaves that were cookies. They were so beautiful, and "easy"???  Well, I had to try it!  I started trying different cookie tutorials, taking the ones that turned out well to family, school and church events.  I was gradually obtaining the cookie tools I needed, too. Oh, the first sets were done with the icing flowing out of ziploc bags with a hole cut in the end.  The funny thing is that many expert cookie designers use "tipless" bags.  I spent many late nights on cookies to give away.  Many times people would ask if I sold the cookies, but I was scared to do that!  Finally, one day, my friend Amy called with an actual order for our school administrative office and would need an official invoice also.  So, thanks to Amy, I had to get busy figuring out a business name and so WD Cookie & Co. was born.

 

From then until now I've immersed myself in step-by-step tutorials, practice, advice from cookiers, blogs, practice, practice, and more practice.  In college I gained Fine Art credits with sketching, and watercolor courses but I don't have a real creative, artsy background like some cookie artists. Many of my beginning cookie sets are designs that customers found from other cookiers or my best imitation of cookies I found.  More current designs come from everywhere I look. Greeting cards, home welcome mats, paper napkins, T-shirts, and Hobby Lobby decor (do they not have just everything??)  I'm constantly taking pictures of things that would make a great cookie design.  Most of those ideas don't actually get made into cookies, but when a customer gives me free reign I go to those.  With time, practice, and experience, I am trying to find my own cookie voice as best I can. 

 

Looking through my cookie pictures brings up memories.  The USMC ones that I was scared to death to do!  That emblem....had to be perfect!  The sets I was scared wouldn't have time to dry because I'd pulled an all-nighter getting them finished!   The sets that I knew would be time consuming and then turned out to be even more time consuming the next morning for all the hand painted details.  The set that was almost finished when the customer texted that she needed to cancel.  The weekend of Cinderella, Alice and graduation fiesta sets when we had a tornado take out the electricity mid-cookie designing!  

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It's obvious that cookie creations take time, but for me there is a level of planning, patience, and purposefulness that goes into each set. I will take the extra time to mix the color again if it isn't the right consistency or is a shade too dark for the color I'm trying to match. I will check the spelling of the birthday name again and again!  And I will communicate with you (even if it is 26 emails) to be sure of important details.

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So, yes, they are just cookies.  They'll be eaten and forgotten in a matter of hours. But hopefully, there will be joy and excitement at the first glance and bite..