If You're Going to San Francisco...(December 2013)

So, the busy holiday season was here...Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas all coming together in one hectic jumble (as always), but a co-worker of mine announced that she was moving to San Francisco because of her husband's job.  She had less than two weeks to wrap up things at work, pack, and move across the country.  As always, our department tries to coordinate a nice get together to wish the departing co-worker well, but I wanted to make it personal with cookies.

I had been brainstorming with people at work, but I finally thought of something that was fun, a little abstract, but that I could definitely whip up in a weekend...flowers.  As in the song, "If you're going to San Francisco...Be sure to wear flowers in your hair."
Ok, a bit before my time, but still fun.

For the hippy chicks, I struggled with what cookie cutter to use until I settled upon an elongated pumpkin shape (hence, the somewhat unattractive double-chin...at least from some angles).  But, that shape let me add the hair and vine strands where I wanted...

you know, giving out that ethereal vibe.

 

The mini pink flowers were my favorite flower creation so far.  I alternated petals (three at a time) with 20-second icing, making an interesting texture without all the outlining and filling-in.  They were quick, easy, and cute.  I will be using them again.

The mini "bouquet" cookies were inspired by Sweet Sugar Belle's flower cookies, although mine tended to look more like stars than flowers.  In the end, the effect worked and were fairly simple to do.

And, I couldn't resist attempting one cookie of the Golden Gate Bridge.  (That was definitely the vote/challenge from my co-workers.)  Although I was happy with how it turned out in the end, those birds were placed there only after 3 separate attempts at printing a "good luck" message in the sky.  I guess you gotta know when seagulls are enough.

Definitely one of those batches I made just for fun, but it let me really stretch my imagination...and for a great cause.  

Wishing good luck on the relocation and many happy returns to Chicago!