The boring random number generator

The random number generator has spoken! The boring one this time, the cute RNG and her mommy have been too busy this time to come up with something creative. Anyway, this is the result:

20

Random numbers generated Dec 20 2011 at 20:21:0 by www.psychicscience.org
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.

So the 20th comment is the winner!!! Let's see... Heidi, congratulations! email me your address at maaike@mjammiekoekjes.nl and I will send you a really nice package!

Cookie sale!!!

The Funky Xmas Market was fun, but sales didn't go as well as planned. Which is a good thing for you, because now the snowflake cookies and the birdie cookies are on sale! The are six of each in the shop, for six euros per box, incluiding shipping. And if you buy them before five, they can be shipped the same day!!! Yay!!!

So let's all head to the shop for some Mjammie koekjes!

Glitter and glamour

Next sunday Mjammie will make its first appearance at a market! We will be selling cookies at the Funky Xmas Market at the Westergasterrein in Amsterdam. So i have been baking like crazy since tuesday to finish my cookies and cupcakes. I made some new ones that are not yet in the shop.





Hope to meet you on sunday 18-12!

Flowers and cake design

Since I didn't have anything better to do (whahahahaha), I decided to complete my Wilton cake decorating courses with the last course (for now, there will be a fourth course in April). I had my Final class last saturday. It was the Flowers and cake design course and the final cake had to have some of the icing flowers on it that we learned. So I made an apple blossom cake.




Next up: something Mjammie!

Dutch Swappers Advent Calendar snowflakes and giveaway!

This one is in dutch, sorry for all my English readers! But I am sure you will get the point!

Vandaag ben ik aan de beurt voor de Dutch Swappers Bloghop Adventskalender! Ik vind 'm erg leuk, ik hoop jullie ook! En ik hoop ook dat mijn bijdrage in de smaak valt.

En wat ben ik blij met de Nieuwe Truttigheid in craft-land! Want vandaag halen we de naalden uit het vet en gaan we lekker... Borduren! En dat dat niet alleen truttig en fout hoeft te zijn hoop ik te laten zien met mijn sneeuwvlokken moodboard!



Borduren hoeft niet alleen op stof uiteraard. Je kunt gaatjes boren in een plankje, prikken in golfkarton, of mooie naamkaartjes maken. In verschillende stijlen en technieken.



Voor de sneeuwvlokken gebruik je deze templates. Het makkelijkste is om ze uit te printen in het gewenste formaat en de template op je materiaal te leggen. Prik daarna met een naald of prikpen door de stippen heen door je materiaal. Gebruik een scherpe naald om met naaigaren of borduurgaren de ster te rijgen. Als je van puzzelen houdt kun je er voor zorgen dat de sterren aan de voorkant en de achterkant precies het zelfde zijn! Zo kun je er zelfs een slinger mee maken!





De kruissteekpatroontjes kun je op aida stof maken (dat is stof met hokjes, te koop in handwerkwinkels en de meeste hobbyzaken zoals Pipoos) of op evenweave (stof met draadjes die mooi recht ten opzichte van elkaar zitten), maar je kunt ook een ruitjespatroon prikken in een stukje papier of karton. Dat geeft weer een heel ander effect!




De patroontjes kun je maken met elke kleur garen die je wilt. Op elk gewenst materiaal. Of je naait een mooi stukje stof na het borduren op een mooi kaartje en hangt het aan he kerstcadeau voor je lief. Alles kan en mag!



En dan kun je natuurlijk ook "gewoon" borduren. Iedereen die mijn blog wel eens leest weet van mijn voorliefde voor scandinavisch design (ja, ook Ikea).



Geïnspireerd door zweeds handwerk tekende ik twee sneeuwvlokken die je gewoon op stof kunt overnemen en borduren. Gebruik je borduurring ook eens als lijstje!




Binnenkort meer toepassingen van de sterren. Ik ben er nog lang niet klaar mee!

Ik hoop dat jullie minstens evenveel plezier gaan hebben met de patroontjes als ik!

En voor degenen die bij deze enorm lang post het einde hebben gehaald... Mocht je een willen proberen te borduren, reageer dan op dit bericht. Op 14 december kiest mijn inmiddels beroemde Random Number Generator een naam uit en die persoon ontvangt een pakketje voor het borduren van alle bovenstaande dingetjes, inclusief patroontjes, stofjes, een setje naalden, borduurgaren en een borduurring!

Advent

Yesterday was Sinterklaas, so we all got presents! One of them was a Playmobil advent calendar. What fun it was to open the first five boxes! I wish you could share the joy...

And now you can! Here is a calendar for anyone who wants one... Full of crafting ideas and tutorials and giveaways! Enjoy! I do apologise for anyone who doesn't speak Dutch...

The weather

Summer sucked on our side of the world, so we have high hopes for winter. Since I am not one of those meteorologic optimists, I have started making snowflakes. Crochet this time. More snowflakes soon!





These patterns are from a Japanese craft book that I bought on Etsy. If you google "crochet snowflake chart pattern" you will find plenty of snowflakes you can make yourself!!!

Neglect

I am so sorry for Neglecting you! With a capital N, no less. Being busy is no excuse.

Right now I am planning our Sinterklaas party, which takes a lot of shopping and playing with stressed out kids (for our American readers, it's like Santa Clause but without the christmas-part) and planning for my first cookie-class on 10-12 with De Taartwinkel which is sold out. And in the middle of all this, I am figuring out what cookies and cupcakes to sell at the Sunday Market christmas edition on december 18.

If you celebrate Sinterklaas and if you have kids that are running around, being stressed out and fiddly, you can make this Zwarte Piet mask with them. Print it on a A4 paper and color it, cut it out and add a rubber band and let the fun begin!



For anyone wanting to join us in a cookie workshop, there is another one on Januari 7, 2012.

Green icing!!!

The last Christmas cookies. I promise. From now on, they will just have a winter-theme or no theme at all.

This year we will be serving glittery Christmas trees!



These are twice as big, but that has never been a problem with my customers...



Small ones, but nice too!



And finally, the first sign of spring... I just wish we could skip winter, and go straight to spring. That would also mean skipping my birthday, yay! I have tried hibernation but it didn't work out...

Anyway, some pretty cookies with handmade royal icing apple blossoms!



These would be pretty with a white or light blue background too!

They will all be in the shop soon!

Sssssssht.... Secret project...

Really, I feel like an undercover agent. I am currently working on a secret project for an international organisation. But I can't resist a sneak preview...

Gingerbread men, beware!

They will be in the shop tonight!

Cristmas cookies and more

Christmas is coming near and of course there will be festive cookies in the shop! These are still test cookies, but I wanted to show them anyway.







Meanwhile, these will make their appearance in the shop this weekend. Everybody walk the dinosaur!!!



Hope you like them!

If all goes well, Mjammie will be selling cookies an cupcakes live at the Sunday Market in Amsterdam om december 18. Wouldn't that be cool!

Hangin' around

I am sorry that I am such a slacking blogger, but we spent a week on holiday in Volendam. We had so much fun! We even dressed up to have our picture taken! Hilarious!

Before we left, I was working on my Christmas cookie collection. I will show you some samples tomorrow.

Meanwhile, have a good laugh about this one!

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!!

Finally I can say I am happy with my chocolate cookies! So as of now, you can find my ultimate PMS remedy in the shop!

Happy halloween!!! Oh wait, that was yesterday... ;-)

Happy belated halloween! These two milk teeth are just too cute to be true... You should really go meet them!!!

Check out Icle and Lardee here!

Indian summer

How crazy is that! While New Jersey is having the first snow storm of the season, we are having better weather than we had all summer!!! While writing this, the little man is playing outside, walking around with his bare feet, in the back yard.

The munchkin is not having so much fun. She is sleeping, trying to adjust to daylight saving time, sleeping off her no-travel jet-lag And trying to recover from an eye infection. Poor thing!

Mjammie, koekjes in Flow magazine!!!

While at the supermarket, I spotted the new issue of Flow magazine. You know, the one they wanted the pictures of my cookies for. So I opened it, and to my great, great joy...



Oh yes! How cool is that! I know it's really, really small, so just in case you missed it, which I can completely understand, I will show it a little larger.



I am soooooo proud! Now let's see how many orders it will bring...

Indulgence...

in·dul·gence  (n-dljns)

1. a. The act or an instance of indulging; gratification: indulgence of every whim.
b. The state of being indulgent.

2. a. The act of indulging in something: indulgence in irresponsible behavior.
b. Something indulged in: Sports cars are an expensive indulgence.

3. Liberal or lenient treatment; tolerance: treated their grandchildren with fond indulgence.

4. Self-indulgence: a life of wealth and indulgence.
a. Something granted as a favor or privilege.
b. Permission to extend the time of payment or performance.
c. Patient attention: I beg your indulgence for just a few moments

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/indulgence)

Today we are visiting my friend Cindy, so our kids can play together and we can catch up. That calls for cake.





I made this cake just because I felt like having cake. Sometimes you have to indulge, especially on days that the sun doesn't seem to exist. Like today. And yesterday. And probably tomorrow, too.

While making this cake I got a really yummy idea....

Cinnamon crunchies tutorial (or recipe?)

Do you want to make these yummy, crunchy cinnamon cookies? They are soooo good, and easy to make!



Cinnamon crunchies

1 egg
200 grams white caster sugar + 2 tablespoons for the topping
200 grams butter or margarine
400 grams flour
1 packet baking powder (16 grams, supermarket)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Mix the egg, the butter and the sugar in a bowl until it looks nice and creamy. Mix the flour and the baking powder. Stir the mixture in with the butter-mix and knead until it looks like a nice dough. Roll out between two sheets of parchment paper until it is about 0.5 cm thick. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
Mix the tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon. Use a brush to brush some water on top of the dough and spread out the cinnamon and sugar mixture on top. Cut small strips (about 2 cm by 8 cm) and lay them on a baking tray. Bake the cookies for about 14 minutes on 180 degrees until nice and brownish.

These light, crispy cookies are especially good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

What do 220 cupcakes look like?

What do 220 cupcakes look like? Well, boxed up with 16 per box, it looks something like this...





It's hard to see how tall this stack is. So for the purpose of a reference, I am calling in my trusty assistant.



Of course her little brother had to join in the fun, posing like a pro.



Do you see where this is going? Disaster?!?



Thank god these boxes are empty! The cupcakes left this morning, in neat boxes, and these are just the ones that I used for storing them!!! How much fun can you have with empty boxes?





It lasted well into naptime!!! They had a blast!!!