Time to Get Back to Normal
Or at least normal as normal gets in my world.
*clock section inspired by one of my favorite new year cookies designed by the Partiologist
Soon after my last post {a whopping MONTH ago} and about a week before Christmas, the flu made it’s way through my family. Someone made commented on my Facebook page that, “unless you are praying for death it is probably not the flu” and I will remember what she said for life. What an accurate description. I have never in my life been so sick and I never ever want to be that sick again!
Once we finally recovered it took me a long time to get back into the groove. I might have grown a little accustomed to a clean kitchen and cuddling on the couch with my kiddos every night, but after a bit of R&R I am finally ready to dive back into the royal icing.
Thank you everyone for all of the messages {another thing I have neglected} and well wishes. I am so very touched and will continue to work on my already broken resolution to keep up with email better.
As for 2013, I am excited for the year to come.
When I began writing this post the plan was to line out my goals and the direction I’d like my blog to take the year to come, but as I typed, I realized that what I really want to hear is what you as a reader would like to talk about in the coming year.
So that’s it. I’m alive and excited to get back into cookie mode and I’m waiting to hear from YOU. You can leave a comment or message, it doesn’t matter as long as we’re talking cookies.
Here’s to a cookie filled new year.
Happy Baking!
So glad to hear you and your family and feeling good! Welcome back, my friend! I missed you and your sweet COOKIES! xo
Thanks God, you feel better. I’m Waiting for a new, beautiful cookies 😉 :*
Hi Callye, good to know you are now well after the flu 🙂 Wishing you a very happy 2013!
from your new fan,
Aikko
Glad you’re feeling better and getting back to the groove. I’m not a cookie maker, except shortbread, but I love coming here to see your beautiful work. Hope 2013 brings you happy surprises.
Please, please…. pleasepleasepleaseplease… please. Do a tutorial on the classical pediment-fronted temple clock tower. Please. That’s so cool!!!!
Glad you’re feeling better! And the cookies look so good! The details to them are amazing 🙂
Welcome back. I was so worried about you
Glad you are back and feeling better. I checked everyday to see if you had showed up. I know you did Spiderman cookies for Valentines before, but could you give us something for little girls also?
So glad to have you back, Callye! We were thinking of you 🙂
Welcome back! These are awesome!!
I am so glad to see you back in commission. I love the time themed cookies. Very
different and very unique!
Welcome back! You were greatly missed! So happy to hear that your prayer was not answered..and that you are alive and feeling well!
This year…I want to see more of your cookies…they always make me smile.
And more of your simple tutorials…they always make it look like even someone like ME can make beautiful cookies!
Tell us HOW you do it…how do you balance cookies and a family….many of us have full time jobs…HOW do you do it?
Welcome back!
Kim
The Cookie Puzzle
glad you are feeling better, life sure is crummy with the flu.
Calleye
Welcome back. I was so worried about you. I looked every morning to see if you was back.
This morning when I see you had posted I did a double take. I was so happy to see that posting.
Again WELCOME BACK
I appreciate the step by step instructions. I have been making cookies for a couple years now but have not been able to replicate the professional look you achieve. I am always intrigued with the way you use different cutters to make a unique cookie (like bats as holly leaves) as space is an huge issue at my house and I have about 200 cutters already! I enjoy the cookie ideas that are related to the month but not necessarily a specific holiday. Any decorating ideas are always appreciated and help jump start my creativity. Thanks and glad the flu has exited your home.
Soo happy to see you’re back! I’ve been on a cookie making extravaganza over here and I missed your updates! You are so wonderful and talented and a real inspiration to cookie decorators everywhere! Glad to hear you and the family are feeling better! I was honestly hoping you were out because you were working on a cookie decorating book! Maybe one day in the future huh?! Keep up the awesome work!
Welcome back! I’m so sorry to hear that you were so sick…that must have been terrible 🙁 and so, so glad you are back at it. You have been such an inspiration to me on my cookie journey so far. I can’t thank you enough for all the great advise and tutorials 🙂
Shannon from All Whipped Up
Welcome back! More of the same is fine with me! 🙂
HEEEEY Stranger, welcome back to the land of the living! We’ve missed you. My mom is driving me nuts, she’s addicted to making your ribbon roses and is calling me everyday excited with her new creations! My dad thanks you because she’s leaving him alone! Glad your starting to feel better, wishing you all the best for 2013! Maybe some hints on using the 1.5 supatube, mine clogs like every two minutes but I think the granules in my meringue aren’t dissolving??
Callye is back! So, so glad to see you’ve returned to us….I was truly concerned. I totally understand your conflict with keeping the people you love and the things you love to do in balance. I’m selfishly thrilled you want to continue to enlighten us with you wisdom and wit.
I would love to learn more of what I call the Triple T’s…. Tips, Tricks and Techniques. For instance….how do you always get your royal icing so smooth? Mine sometimes looks like a lumpy mattress…..and sometimes its silky smooth……I haven’t quite figured it out but I’m determined to master this. Does your icing always turn out the way you want it to? I hope so…..because then I know it can be done. Please continue to blow us away with all of your wonderful designs…..you are truly a gifted artisan…..you visualize then create……and then let me copy you! By the way…..your photography is exquisite! Thank you so much for all you do for us and for being so willing to share your secrets.
Welcome back! We missed you! I’d love to see more flower projects and of course the holiday themes. I also found the post you did on cookie pricing to be extremely helpful.
Hope you & your family have a great 2013!
Welcome back to good health Callye, hope you remain in it throughout the year! Those clock cookies are fabulous!
Welcome back! I missed you dearly and glad you are feeling better! And as long as you’re talking, Calleye – I’m listening!!! I check your blog every single day and many times more than once a day. You have a captive audience!
One thing I have been trying to do and can’t seem to get it right is how do you cut out a miniature inside a cookie? I tried it before I baked them and it just closed up and I tried it after baking and it was impossible to remove the little piece out that I cut. Should I have just left it alone until it cooled completely?
Also, I work a full-time job and find it nearly impossible to do all the decorating that I want to do because it is so time-consuming to keep the icing “fresh” after it is colored and in the bags and bottles. After only one day it starts to separate and before I can even start decorating again I have to do the whole process of re-mixing and re-packaging everything so it is so time-consuming. Do you have any tricks to keep the icing from separating? Should I refrigerate it? I’ve found that kneading the bags can bring it back to life reasonably well, but the bottles are just hopeless!!!
Thank you!!!
Welcome back friend! We have all missed you. So glad everyone is feeling better.
These cookies are fabulous. I check your blog first thing every morning just to see what great cookies you have posted. You would think that I wouldn’t be so anxious to see cookies when I make them all the time, but your’s are always such an inspiration. One of my favorite things are your “tips”. There are so many things as decorators that we just do and just assume others know those tips and tricks. I like that you give the tips with the tutorials….brushes for tiny lines, craters, etc. It’s always been a great help in me growing as a cookie decorator. Thanks Callye and welcome back!
Welcome back. Glad your health is restored. I love your blog. It has helped me so much. I am new to cookies and love all your tutorials. I would love to see more tutorials with the KopyKake and creating character cookies. Thanks for everything.
Welcome back!! Soooo glad you are feeling better. Missed your positive attitude!! I love themes. They give me a place to start when I’m creating. I love flowers, gardening and gnomes. Looking forward to a great year!! –Katy
I am glad you are back!! it is always good to have some time off, to rest and enjoy or kids or maybe going to bed at a normal time.
We are looking forward for another year enjoying your beautiful cookies.
I’ll join with everyone else to say how glad I am that you’re feeling better and back online–I was getting ready to put an APB out on you 🙂 ! Sorry to hear what a miserable flu you had, but a good thing came out of it–lots of snuggle time with your family. Thanks for making my Every Morning Routine fun and inspiring, I love logging on to see what you’ve created for all of us to enjoy (love the digital clock, by the way). Happy New Year to you and may cookies follow you all year long.
It can’t be said enough, I missed you too and I’m so glad you are well and ready to start frosting again! If I could only choose one thing to work on this year it would be to improve my fine detail skills. I don’t put as much detail into my work as you do because I am not especially artistic. I love to see your work, but I simplify mine quite a bit. I still have a desire to do very thin lines or very small dots. I continuously work on the icing consistency and tip size but can’t quite get to where I need to be. Maybe I can include lettering as well. I really can’t do beautiful printing or script with icing : (
Thanks for your dedication to your blog – I love it!
Missed you so much – glad you’re back in the saddle again! And what a way to start the year with cookies as only you can do!!
So glad you are feeling better. Miss you posts. You are amazing.
Yeu!!! Finally you’re back!!!
Glad your feeling better…. my goal for this year is to bake and decorate more cookies… I’m a beginner so by the end of this year I want to be advanced .. lol if that makes sence 🙂
Yay!! So glad you are back! I’ve checked daily and even told my husband last night all about missing my cookie mentor. I find your video tutorials incredibly helpful. I really want a Callye “subscription” so I can continually add the tutorials and cookie photographs to a big binder. I would pay a hefty price to have everyone of your cookie posts printed out. Could a company do this and all of your loyal fans purchase the archives? I will be your first customer!!! God bless you in 2013.
Awww I’m sorry to hear you’ve been sick!! Your Christmas cookies were so pretty I had to stay along and follow your blog! These lil clocks are cute!! I’m sick now too, but it’s luckily not the flu…darn winter!! Continue to feel better!!
Welcome back! It’s definitely something going around- everyone I know is getting sick also! I love these clock cookies, and I can’t wait to see what else you have in store for 2013!
I’m glad you’re feeling better! I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you balance living a creative life and being a mom.
glad you are back on track. Can’t wait to see what you have coming up in the new year.
Welcome back Sugarbelle!!!! Glad you and your family are well again.
I’m always telling my husband how I love your blogs and that you and Lila
loa are soo funny!!!!He thought of a clever idea to start a blog from the hubbys
point of view….you know …sleeping alone… large cookie product deliveries on porch…
wife stressed for any reason until cookies are out of the house. Funny huh?
Your cookies are amazing!!
Yeah!!!! You made my day. So happy to see some new designs. So glad you are feeling better!
I’m so glad you’re back! I only started reading your blog a few months ago, but now I’m here regularly.
Happy New Year!
Oh my goodness, I am so glad you’re back. I was starting to get super worried and all panick-y! Sorry to hear about the miserable flu. It sounds awful. Welcome back!
Yay! I’m so glad you’re feeling well and getting back into the swing of things. I’ve been procrastinating getting a flu shot this season, but got one last weekend after hearing more and more friends coming down with it.
I love your color posts. You always have great color palettes for cookie batches. More of that type of posts would be inspiring to me. 🙂
Hi Callie! Welcome back! Missed you!!!
So glad to hear you are okay. I kept checking back every day to see what you were up to, even when we took a trip overseas I was stalking your blog all the way from Taiwan! Can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve this year. You are truly inspiring and have really got me into cookie making. Happy New Year!!
Yea! So glad to see a new post, I have been checking daily for almost a month…and was also getting worried that something very bad happened. Glad you are feeling better and can’t wait for your regular posts to return!
So glad you’re better Callye!
You know what I NEED to learn better? Color. Any posts on how to achieve certain colors would be priceless! You know – when you need to match a color. I’m always lost. I just don’t “see” what I need to add and if I do, I’m not sure what to add to get there. If you could help with that, I’d be forever grateful! 🙂
That didn’t exactly make sense. LOL! I meant that I don’t usually see what I need to add. Sometimes I do see that it’s too this or too that, but I’m not sure what to add to correct it.
Yay…so glad you are back and in good health! You were missed 🙂 I am new to the cookie world and really enjoy to see all the neat designs you come up with using or combining regular ‘ol cookie cutters.
I’M SO GLAD YOU ARE BACK! Sorry to scream but I’ve grown accustomed to reading your posts almost everyday – I’ve been having physical withdrawals!! I’ve only been decorating for a short time but you give me so much inspiration. Thanks, and I’m glad you and your family has recovered.
Glad to see you are back! I’ve missed your posts.
So glad you’re feeling better!
And I’m super impressed by these cookies. 🙂
Is it weird that I was worried about you? Someone I’ve never met? Who I cookie stalk? Well, if its weird I guess that’s just gotta be okay because I was super worried about you and the family! Glad you’re feeling better and back on line. As for cookies, I’d love to see how you plan out your designs. How you go from inspiration to fruition. I have a million ideas but just can’t figure out how to get them out. Also, how you manage balancing this cookie habit with raising kids. Any advice about how to best mange those conflicting demands? When do you find the time?! Not to mention the blog, FB, and all of us. Did I mention we missed you?
I think I’ve already told you a 100 times but I am so glad you are back. I was having withdrawals & in a funk while you were gone. You are the one person that gets my brain thinking. I was getting so worried.
I would like to go inside your brain but that’s not possible so I would like to know how you never run out of ideas. What inspires you. Also, like others said how you manage your time so well. I don’t have kids & I’m a mess. I can’t keep up with all that needs to be done in a day.
A day in the life of Callye!
Dear Callye,
I’m glad you are back! Missed my weekly posts of the most beautiful cookies! Hope your family is better now.
Radhika
What do I want to see in the coming year? More of your gorgeous cookies Callye! I’m so very glad you’re back and feeling better. We were all so very worried about you. You are such a huge part of the cookie community that it felt like there was a gaping HOLE. Glad you’re back to cookies. Your clock/time cookies are AMAZING. Absolutely incredible details!!!! Hugs! Cristin
So glad you are better and back ! I never gave it a thought that you might be ill. I feared you was gone from blogging your fantastic cookie creations. Welcome back and THANK YOU for your blog,
Glad you’re back and feeling better! Missed your blog postings. SInce you asked what your readers would like to talk about…. I have always had issues with black royal icing. Do you start with brown icing and add black or do you just add a ton of black to white icing? Also, is there anything that can be done about the taste???
I’m so so glad you’re feeling better! I was worried, it’s true, I’m a stalker. I hope you and your family’s health continues to improve!
My cookie topic question: I see at least 15 color/consistency combos in your clock platter. How do you do that? Is it that you worked cookie magic or did them over several days? When you do only a few of each cookie, how do you know how much of each color to make? Do you plan out each cookie in advance? Teach me your ways, wise one!
Thank you so much for your time and dedication to your blog. You are wonderful!!
I am so glad you are back and feeling better! I have missed your posts and your amazing works of art!
This post just came into my e-mail, so I decided to read it again – you know I never can get enough of you! Anyway, this time I saw that you linked to my clock cookie – what a sweetie you are! So I wanted to take TIME to say thank you! xo
A month without you was boring and sad made worse by knowing you were suffering!
I’d love a video that shows how you piped the numbers of your clocks! I can’t seem to do ANY letters or numbers that are small. Either the icing is too thin and the words turn into a horizontal blur or it’s too thick and squiggles out of the PME #1 or won’t come out at all. I can seem to find the right combination of consistency and tip. This is also a problem with fine lines or any lace work.
Another video (or series) to wage war on craters. I know we can’t always win but I’d sure like to reduce them. Especially in piping line, dots and filling small spaces.
I LOVE your photo tutorials for showing creative cutter use and how to approach the incredible designs you create. But when it comes to technique, it is immensely helpful to be able to watch you work! I can see where I go wrong and how to do it differently.
Welcome Back! I’m so glad you’ve recovered and have been able to come back to your blag. My email has felt empty with out your updates. Now to the cookies. I love how you can think outside the cookie cutter so I’d love more on multiple uses for standard cookie cutters. I just love all your tips and tricks. I have used your tutorials so many times to make cookies, you’ve been an invaluable resource. Thanks for all the time you put into this blog, I know we all really appreciate it.
So glad you’re feeling better!!
I just discovered your website over the holidays. It turned out that a lot of the cookies I was looking at on Pinterest had one thing in common- you! So I didn’t realize your long hiatus was out of the ordinary and am excited to be able to follow you now! I’ve been doing gingerbread for a few years now, and it has me by the throat! I’m an architect, so I love applying my model making skills to intricate gingerbread replications and buildings. My last project was so well received (brag: King Arthur Flour “Standout Execution” winner) that I am starting already to think about what I can do better and different next time. Your cookie designs, especially your use of various textures, have me totally jazzed up! So if I’d want to see anything, more tutorials on the various textural techniques that you use.
I’m glad you’re back. I was concerned ….so unlike you. I’m sorry to hear you were sick but I’m relieved that all is OK. I look forward to your designs this year. Take care, Joan
I can’t tell you how much you were missed! Seriously, I almost wanted to check the newspapers or call the Emergency Room where you live….but I don’t know the town! Anyway…Welcome back to our world!! I’d love to see your tricks with very small icing tips….I still get terrible clogs with a #1 tip that I am constantly removing and cleaning, as if that will solve the problem….but sometimes I really need something smaller than a 1.5.
So happy your feeling better!
So glad to have you back my friend!! Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us! What would I love to see more of? You!
Love this post …and the cookies!
So glad you’re feeling better! I struck out for cookies for a New Years party and ended up with chocolate chip because they’re something everyone seems to like, but the clocks are truly inspired!
I am constantly looking to your blog for inspiration and direction…and I thank you for that!! I was wondering if there is a way to color piping icing metallic gold?For example, if I wanted to pipe fine details on a Wedding cake cookie favor that are too small to use luster dust.
You are sooooo amazing at what you do!!!
Hello, I would like to see the actual recipe on the “Time to get back to the normal” cookies, how you decorate them. I have having a Mad Hatter Tea Party Baby Shower & want to have these cookies has party favors. Saying Eat Me on them I like the old fashion clock.
Pingback: Decorated Black Eyed Pea Cookies for New Year's Day