meet my archnemisis

my daughter's 4th birthday is fast approaching (i seriously have no idea where the time has gone). Up to now i have kept her birthday's to immediate family only, because i am the lover of low key.

This year, as it's been a year with alot of changes for her i thought she well and truly deserved her "1st" birthday party with her friends/family. Since when asked what she would like for her birthday, Madame only request was that there was cake & that her birthday meal consist of honey garlic chicken wings (or sweet wings as she calls them), fries, peas & spinach oh and pizza (i <3 that child lol) i have "chosen" for her and i hope hope hope that she likes, as all the preparations for the shindig are hush hush.

Well apart from my archnemisis...how i dislike thee let me count the ways!!!Madame is having a circus themed birthday party. Thanks to a fab & creative friend, her invites are all ready to be sent out, but NO hold on wait a sec...I HAD to put on my "i think i can hat" lol. To finish off her circus themed invites, i thought why not do something slightly different and attempt to make a themed cookie to go with said invite, and pop her friends name on them.

Maybe this should have been my first warning that this would end badly, with cookie slivers slamming the patio window and floor below it (i have NO idea how they got there- blaming lack of sleep on that one--instead of the fairy throwing a fit lol).

i cannot for the life of me do sugar cookie run outs...they are the bane of my existence! This is my 2nd attempt at the cookie favor fiasco...and i think i am just going to have to take off my " i think i can" hat on this one. It is not my friend. I definitely did not inherit the creative genes in our family. This big tent cookies, where iced free hand using the template i cut out the cookies with. I was going to go all anal retentive, and trace them with the royal icing meticulously on wax paper , then meticulously transfer and "glue" them on to said cookies afterward, but sanity curbed that idea off the bat.

I of course used Martha's sugar cookie recipe, and after finding this blog entry on making your own cookie cutters, using a clip art file, i took the lazy lady way (and i knew i wouldn't need that many" and laminated (yes you can't take the anal out of the queen :-p) the big tent clip art i liked, and with a very sharp knife just traced around it directly onto the prepared flatten cookie dough.They worked out great, no spreading (i popped them back in the fridge to harden up a bit after being rolled/cut).The cookies are supposedly awesome (i never eat my own baking, and i am suppose to avoid dairy)

So i think it's safe to say the invites will be going out solo this week. I am actually admitting "defeat" but only for now. I am way too anal to give up without one last ditch effort.......eventually......third times the charm right?


now say it with me...." YOU WILL NOT GO OVERBOARD WITH THIS PARTY" "YOU WILL NOT GO OVERBOARD WITH THIS PARTY"....and the sad thing is i have 1001 food ideas whirling through my head for said party, but i WILL NOT GO OVERBOARD..scouts honor :-p