I recently took a little mountain vacation, and one my favorite things about getting away, besides the lake, a local Starbucks, a cookie cutter store, great local food, mountain air....ummmmmmmmm, what was I talking about again???

Oh YES, one of my favorite things about mountain getaways besides all of the others is heading  to the flea markets.  I love scouring them for treasures, ESPECIALLY old cookie cutters! 

I have a theory that the best cutters can be found in places like this.  Lots of times all of the extra household items get taken to the cabin, at least in my family, and that eventually gets cleaned out, and lots of old forgotten items end up in second-hand bins, including COOKIE CUTTERS! 

What's even better is that since most of the tourists prefer skiing over shopping, I have an unfair advantage =)



Obviously, I'm not really particular about what they are made of.  I usually adapt them so that they work for me.

The next day brought even more luck.  My favorite find were these little beauties. It's the entire set of,"The Twelve Days of Christmas"!


 Now, normally, I don't like this type of cutter.  I roll my cookies thicker than they are able to cut.  HOWEVER, they make GREAT templates if you don't have an aversion to hand cutting,{which I obviously don't} so, I felt like the luckiest girl on the block!

I REALLY REALLY love the first five, and I already know that the "5 Golden Rings"  will make multiple cameos in my cookie adventures.



I love the leprechaun hat, and those snowmen {I really could have used those in December}, and check out the snowman I found! It already has a cowboy hat!  No special cutting!

I am also really really taken with that simple little bell.  I don't know why, but it really appealed to me!

I am glad it's almost Monday because my little vacation really fired me up for Easter.  In fact, I may have more ideas than time. 

These are last year's.  I have already set up a little idea board for this year, and have big plans to hit it hard.

For those of you who think I am organized, or have that I have all my ducks in a row, I LOVE YOU, but its not true =(

The real Callye is always behind. I am one of those gals who gets caught up in a vision, makes a huge mess and cleans it up Bernie cleans it up later.

I never sit down, and I am always doing at least ten things at once, which is strange since I don’t believe in multi-tasking.

Oh yes, and I also procrastinate in THE WORST WAY. Even on the days that I don’t, I overestimate myself and schedule 28 hours worth of work in a ten hour time span, without accounting for kids, dinner, life, small disasters…you get the point.

Mix all that in with a touch of impatience, and I guess I can be a little overwhelming, especially for the people who have to be around me.

Those in close contact with me might even call these traits annoying. Especially when I lose my keys for the gazillion-th time {right BC?} or I’m running out the door at 8:00am to get to the 8:00am appointment, much to the dismay of my poor, prompt, punctual, prepared hubby{yes, he’s ALL those “P’s” ALL the time}

Still, I hate to use the word ANNOYING.  It sounds so mean.  Its a big part of ME, and I can't change it. It's just my brain, and from all this insanity comes my best epiphanies and ideas.

Mid-baking, I decided that my vision WOULD NOT work without a folk heart.


So, I stop what I’m doing and go digging in my heart box for a folk heart, which should definitely be part of my 1000+ collection, right?

*FIRST OF ALL, the long delayed winner of my last giveaway is...helpergirl, Kelley!!!  I will be contacting you soon to arrange shipment!  Congratualtions, Kelley!*

Well there may not be snow in San Antonio, but it's a Texas Christmas to me...

That's really a song.  I promise. George Straight sings it and once back in my LimeWire days, I got the nastiest computer virus trying to illegally download it ...What an expensive song that turned out to be!

Anyway, I often wonder if anyone besides  Texans have ever  heard it.

I keep thinking of my brother off in snowy cold Utah, and I wanted it to be a Texas Christmas for him, so I made him these.

I cannot decide if my favorite is the rope snowflake, or the sand globe. A snow globe doesn't really make sense here...come to think of it neither do snowmen!


 I came up with two ways of course, the hard way, and the easy way.  For the hard way, you will need your ghost cutter (it doesn't have to be this one, as long as it's the same general idea) and a round cutter that looks proportionate to the hat.  Don't make it harder than it has to be.  You're not after perfection.  The details can be worked out later with icing.







The bad thing is, I always think of what I should have done mid-project.  If I were going to do this over again, I would probably go this route...

I mangled one of my many gingerbread men to make a rounder snowman face...then I cut him out and used a knife to finish out the details.