Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, yes, I know.

It is an empty, sad, commercial, possibly chauvinistic "holiday" that the florists lobby made up to force hapless guys into buying bunches of long-stemmed red roses at the exchange rate of gold. 

Still, we are supposed to get chocolates as well, which is one thing I can't find fault with. 

So... may your admirers provide you with yummy treats today!

One way or another... 

Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!

Get out, Devil! Come in, Happiness! 

- Traditional Setsubun formula

Granted, the traditional Japanese wish may sound a tad dodgy, coming - as it is - from one who picked a mischievous li'l fire demon (*) as her online persona (and who isn't even Asian, for heaven's sake!)

But, well, I kind of like the whole Setsubun symbology. And since I haven't posted anything on New Year's Day, I will blatantly exploit this holiday (as well as the beginning of the Lunar Year of the Horse three days ago) to catch up on the kind of stuff that normal people post on January 2nd. And no, I don't mean "detox" or "skinny" recipes. Ewwww, the very idea!

(*)  Have you seen the new pic in my profile btw? It's by one of my favourite DeviantArt members, and I love it more than I can explain. Isn't it the sweetest thing ever?

Image belongs to YamPuff @ http://yampuff.deviantart.com

 Now the reason why I commissioned a (literally!) sparkling new avatar, is that I am now seriously considering baking for a living. Not as my primary job maybe (not yet, at last), but hey... why not? 

 

I won't go into my working situation here, because it would be a long ramble which wouldn't probably even make sense to those of you who live in a less ludicrous country than Italy, but I have reasons to fear that the company I work for will undergo some serious pruning two years from now. Mind you - I say "fear" because this job is still my main source of income at the moment, but I almost hope for the worst to happen, since I'm too chicken to willingly quit a position I despise, and that is slowly seeping every ounce of energy, joy, and creativity out of me. 

 

So... for the time being, I am proceeding at baby steps. I am now a member of Con.Pa.It, the Italian bakers' federation. I am gathering information about the legal requirements for opening my own business. And above all, I'm slowly working up my courage.  

 

This very blog, unassuming as it is, has been a huge factor in my attempt to build up my confidence. At the same time, though, there have been times when the mere thought of having to dig out my camera, stop every few minutes to snap WIP pics, clean the mess on my table for the "hero shot", and edit the photos afterwards - it has been enough to dissuade me from trying some new idea right away. 

There might be a problem there because, you see, if I ever take the plunge and turn my hobby into a proper job, I'll have to deal with the "boring" stuff - administration, balances and what have you - on a daily basis. Which, knowing myself, might very well kill all the passion I put into baking. 

 

So, what am I going to do? Wait and see, as they say. 

In two years' time I will be turning 40, and that sounds as good a time as any to change my life for good... 

Hogswatch 2013 report - part 4

(Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3)


Writing from London right now, and once again picking up from where I left off yesterday - which means, the SAUSAGE SUPPER!
Of the three pubs in Wincanton, we had been assigned to The Dolphin, a charming blue-and-white building...

I'm dreadfully sorry I took no pics of the sausages themselves (which is so unlike me, now that I think about it)... but, to be totally frank with you guys, I was too busy eating them. What can I say? They were delightful, and well worth the wait! 
I got a flagon of a really nice dry cider too, while poor sweetie touched no booze at all, since the legal blood alcohol level for driving in the UK is an uncompromising 0% - plus, he's getting pretty paranoid about driving "the British way" tbh!

Right afterwards we hopped back to The Bear for a couple hours of naughty fun! 
It was nothing too ribald, really; just plenty of adult jokes. The main hostess of the show was bubbly and bodacious and all around awesome - I have such a huge girl crush on her!

This morning we relished our last breakfast at The Half Moon Inn, and by now we were pretty much aware of our fellow vacationers' identity. Some of them we had seen cosplaying even!

And, as always happens when I must leave a vacation place I've loved, I felt a little heartbreak right there. I snapped some more pics to remember it by, and the guy at the bar was nice enough to present me with a bag of pork scratchings (LOL!)

The other chips I bought myself btw. Expect a T&T post soon(ish)!

The last day of the convention run pretty smoothly, with everyone in town by now accustomed to guards and wizards and barbarians running to and fro, or the sight of DEATH's scythe propped casually against a wall.

Some of the guys we had met yesterday brought us on a tour of the nerdiest block in Wincanton, where even the street names mirror those of Ankh-Morpork...

...then there was more acting at the Memorial Hall, plus the Charity Auction that was a real delight to watch, if nothing else because the auctioneer was the only Brit I had no trouble at all understanding. He was also nice and funny, and really turned what might have resulted in the most boring event in the program - the one you wish you could skip but don't dare to, because Ewwww, come on, it's for charity! - into a veritable highlight. 

After that we headed back to The Bear - for the last time, alas! - where I got the most delightful pumpkin soup with a hint of curry, but still no pie. Sigh!

It would have been time for us to drive back to London if we were to return the rental car on time, but the next scheduled event was going to be a cake competition, and... well, you understand. 
 Plus, uncontrolled voices floating around were hinting at the chance of another visit by The Man Himself... and I knew how much meeting him meant to hun. To me as well, of course, but he'd been so crushed at our missed opportunity yesterday (although he'd sooner lose his tongue than admit such a thing), and anyway I had been vieing for a way to throw him in Mr Pratchett's general vicinity. 

So, in short, I kept rambling about teh cakes and how we owed so much money to the rental already that we could as well pay for an extra day. And, sure enough, we stayed.
And, weeeell... 

OhmygoshIcan'teven. 
I am SO glad I was a little manipulative - fine, fine, let's make it a lot - because we now share a happy memory that I daresay will stay with us for a very long time. Just look at the two of us, the huge grins on our faces! 

This would be, I suppose, the point where you're expecting me to tell you about when and how it was that I read my first Discworld novel, and what meeting my favourite author felt like. Only I won't, mainly because it's complicated. 
My first literary brush with Terry Pratchett is a bit of a vexata quaestio. And, technically, he's not my favourite author; that would be Neil Gaiman - whom I met twice and in both instances approached with respect and trepidation, as the one that in my eyes incarnates perfection in writing. 
Gaiman is, and will always be, my favourite writer - but Pratchett, he's one of my favourite people in the world. I stood speechless with sheer admiration in Gaiman's presence, whereas in Pratchett's I was tempted to give him a big hug, and maybe cry a little on his shoulder. Neil is the master I look up to; Terry is the wise old uncle I wish I had. One made me a better critic, as well as an even more passionate reader; the other played a huge part in making me... me, for better or for worse. 
I'm not sure I can explain it any better than this, nor that I'd want to anyway. 

It was getting truly late though, so we reluctantly gave up on the closing events, greeted our new friends, and went to recover the blasted rental car. Turns up we'd been fined for leaving it parked for longer than we were supposed to... but honestly, we were way past minding at that point!

We are now staying in the tiniest hotel room ever - seriously, there's no room to swing a cat in, as the locals are fond of saying - and we're feeling rather peckish. 
So we're planning to look for an Indian restaurant or something, then go stick our noses around King's Cross station - it's where Platform 9 3/4 is supposed to be, folks! - and have a nice sleep, to recharge our energies for the long trip back tomorrow...


 

Hogswatch 2013 report - part 3

(Part 1 - Part 2)

It's beginning to look a lot like Hogswatch for sure!

But, before delving into this day's recap, I need to tell you what we did yesterday evening, after we came back from Stonehenge.
Which was, basically, heading back to The Bear Inn... where I ate another fish & chips (which was good, but not as delightful as the one I got from The Bridge IMHO) and sampled a nice pint of red ale while waiting for the reading to start. 

Eating at a pub in the evening is a different beast altogether btw, nothing at all like our restaurants in Italy. For one, you can stay for as long as you wish, even if you're done eating - I saw a lady who was happily knitting a scarf, and no one bothered her at all about that. 
Also, people you don't know in the slightest will think nothing of sitting down at your table and chatting away... which was real fun on the occasion, as all the people in there were obviously Pratchett fans, but - well, it takes some getting used to. 

The "Cautionary Tales" turned out to be a fun reading of a choice of short stories from A Blink of the Screen - good think I was already familiar with the collection too, because my grasp of spoken English is - how to put it? - somewhat disheartening for one who's been studying the language for most of her life. Ouch!

We left before it ended though, because we were so darn tired both of us... 

...which brings us back to the current day!

Our B&B in Horsington has filled up nicely for the weekend, so much so that we've been moved to a larger room for breakfast this morning - could it mean that all the (apparently normal) people around us were fellow geeks? We surely were wondering... 

Once in Wincanton, we had another go at The Cat Cafe - hun had a grudge against their fudge cake, I guess, since he was determined to demolish another chunk of it - then got ready to rock!

Unsurprisingly, the Discworld Emporium was super crowded, and the first brave cosplayers were in full regalia already... 

...but, we were done with our purchases (my budget's dwindling!) so we went to see the Makers Market instead. I've taken no pictures of it but, in a nutshell, it was an area where the artistically inclined were selling their Discworld-inspired creations. 

I bought tons of stuff from a two-people-company called Cowleys Fine Food, specializing in historically correct food i.e. meat and fish jerky, fruit leathers, and anything dried or smoked. 
They had "rats on a stick" for sale, both plain and ketchup-flavoured (LOL)... but also a whole line of horse jerkys under the hilarious name My Brittle Pony, dried llama strips - you can bet I got those, too! - and more yummy things such as absinthe-spiked marzipan. Squee!

Back to The Bear we went, for lunch - alas, no chance of a pie for today... - and Discworld-inspired games. 
Turns out those evil masterminds from the Emporium had set up a table in there too, so even while I managed to stay away from the shop itself, I still ended up buying more stuff. But hey, I'm not complaining - I was able to purchase a Vetinari miniature, so all is peachy indeed!

The other highlight of the event was Mr Peter Dennis, the guy who illustrated, among other things, the Ankh-Morpork guide and its even geekier counterpart, the iPad app (gotta LOVE IT btw!)

The picture alone won't suffice to describe it - this guy was just sitting there, at his impromptu art station amid all the craziness, blissfully inking a super-intricated, oh-so-detailed drawing while chatting away with fans OMG!

I could have watched him for hours! As it were, though, we had to run to the Memorial Hall for the main events, including the cosplay parade, some sort of variety show, a lecture about The Folklore of Hogswatch - and a chance to meet Terry Pratchett himself!

By that point the convention was in full swing, with lots of cosplayers...

...and, uh - chances to make new friends?

Well, anyway. The costumes were great fun. You'll have to take my word for that, unfortunately - I gave up trying to photograph the parade because of the time it took for my crappy camera to put things into focus.

What followed was a super-concentrated recounting of every Discworld book up to now, and God help me, it was so spoiler-dense I just turned off the language-processing part of my brain there and then, and tried my best to just sit still and make bubbles until it was over.

The variety show was fun, too! The Seamstresses' choir especially made me giggle a lot, because I have the mind of a twelve years old and rejoice in double entendres. 
(I kind of hoped to upload it here for you all to enjoy, but buggy Blogger won't let me. Drat!)

But, what of Sir Pratchett? 

He was there indeed, and was so nice as to invite fans to have a little personal chat with him. Only there were so many of us that there was no way he could talk to everyone, so all we saw of him was a retreating top hat... 

Still, it felt strangely touching to even catch a glimpse of him, and the audience as a whole plainly shared the feeling. 

I've been to quite a few conventions in the past, mostly SF-centered (oh what the heck, I'm talking trekkies, 'nkay?) but the athmosphere here was completely different. 

TV fans approach their idols with an aggressive, almost proprietorial attitude, as in: "You're someone because of the likes of me, so shut up and humour us!" Here, on the other hand, the crowd practically radiated gratitude, concern and, well, love. 
At the risk of sounding mushy, I have to say I couldn't imagine another fandom being this considerate. I am SO proud of my fellow nerds!

The following conference, by a prof. Jacob Loefgren - whose writings I will make sure to keep an eye upon - was short but utterly fascinating, dealing with a topic which is close to my heart: fandom as the most fertile grounds for the establishing of "folklore", as humans in general love to share traditions, and  geeks in particular are the quintessential mythopoeic beasts. 

Now what else is in store for us? 
...Why, the SAUSAGE SUPPER of course! And later on, some naughty fun with the Pink Pussycat Cabaret!
I can't wait! I mean, sausage and innuendo aplenty... What else could this girl wish for?

Hogswatch 2013 report - part 1

So you read the header and are itching with curiosity already, aren't you? 

Geez, hold your horses, pard! Because the Discworld convention's technically starting tomorrow. 

Thus for now, I'm just going to ramble about food, me and sweetie, food, and my first glorious day in England. But mostly FOOD.

Are you thrilled or what?

First of all I want to show you the place where we're staying - the Half Moon Inn in Horsington, a delightful little B&B with an appropriately quaint name. 

See? Very picturesque!

(OMG am I sounding like Twoflower already?)

The best thing about the place, though, is the pub! Of course, of course!

See what I mean? It's to die for!

 The fireplace! The dried hops wreaths! The comfy sofas!

And well, yes - the beer!

We ended up in this place simply because all the hotels in Wincanton were fully booked already, but I'm so happy about it! 

The rooms are clean and super comfy and the breakfast buffet, while somewhat on the frugal side in comparison with some other places we've stayed at, includes homemade orange marmalade, which is one of my favourite things in the world...

...as well as the traditional egg-and-sausages, if you're so inclined!

I didn't dare starting off my day like this, but sweetie did, and looked quite happy too!

Me, I fully mean to lose my English sausage virginity at the Hogswatch feast on Saturday - and gosh, this sounded way worse than I actually meant it to. 

Sorry for the mental picture, peeps! 

Well, since I grossed you all out just now, I'm going to show one more yukky pic...

Now this is actually not gross at all, as the bathroom was spotless like the rest of the room.

But, apart from the lack of a bidet - which I won't dwell upon, as it already is the butt of too many jokes among us debauched Continentals - I want you to notice how hot and cold water come from separate faucets (something I haven't seen in use for almost 3o years), and how the washbasin is placed at crotch height. Feel free to draw you conclusions - ewwwww!

(Once again, the brain bleach is on me...)

Right after breakfast we thought we could take our smart Italian arses to Wincanton and secure our picks from the Emporium before the con madness starts. 

Alas, the shop was closed! We could see the personnel inside, dusting shelves and getting stuff ready. I was so giddy with excitement that I didn't even curse that much, and was content with simply snapping pics of the outside for the time being. 

Apart from its geeky connection with everything Discworld, Wincanton is a lovely little rural town, so quintessentially English - like everything around here!

 It boasts many interesting buildings, like the old Town Hall...

...plus it comes with three pubs, a Chinese and an Indian take-away, an Italian-style cafeteria, a butcher...

...and a real British bakery OMG!

Of course I got my foodie shopping done right away (while I still have some money left, as you might be guessing...)

(Right, I'm buying booze. Sue me!)

Then we got ourselves some proper, honest-to-God fish & chips from The Bridge in Templecombe, which is famous around here for its fried fish fares. Yay allitteration!

(Sweetie actually did a thorough online search and compared feedbacks. No kidding!)

Somehow I had picked up the idea that it would be fish nuggets, so the huge battered fillet scared the heck out of me. But it really tasted wonderful, and in the end I cheerfully devoured it all!

(Sorry for the crappy pic btw - it was taken outside, late in the evening with my cheap camera's flash. That was because the fried oil smell was so powerful that hun squarely refused to go eat it in our room LOL)

And now, to bed we go. Tomorrow's when the fun starts for real!

To England!

Yes, yes, yes, I know. I was prattling about mudcake skyscrapers and Spider-Man cakes only yesterday, and now... I'M IN ENGLAND! For the first time ever! Wheeeee! 
Who's excited? I AM!

Our adventure started this morning, when we tried taking the bypass that connects Rogoredo station (which is conveniently close to hun's home) to Porta Garibaldi. 
Because we got here by train. From Italy. 
Seeing how airplanes, you know... it's not that I hate them for real. I have only one gripe with them - namely, the fact that they fly. 
However. 

The bypass train had some kind of problem, so we had to call a taxi to get to the correct station in time. But, we did it! Nothing else could possibly happen, right? 

WRONG!
Because once again, our train had some sort of mechanical hiccup - and dumped us all at some unheard-of station among the French Alps, waiting for a replacement train to pick us up.

Can you see the snow? Geez. SO COLD!

What was left of our first leg went smoothly afterwards, with our train crossing mile after mile of featureless French landscape... 

...until we reached the Gare de Lyon in Paris. 
Now before you ask: we did not see anything at all of the Ville Lumière - not that I, personally, cared in the least about it - as we had to madly dash to the Gare du Nord by mean of yet another bypass, which was horribly crowded, but thankfully punctual.

Even while the unexpected stop earlier on had eroded much of our time, we hopped on the next train just in time and enjoyed the ride under the English Channel and... 

...TO LONDON!

Now you must understand I've been reading (and fantasizing) about London for so long that the town's largely a literary construct in my mind. Sherlock Holmes and Peter Pan and Harry Potter and Jack the Ripper, oh my! 
Actually being there, if just for a few minutes until we picked up our rental car - which was, by the way, a tiny cramped thing, and with the steering wheel on the wrong side as far as we're concerned - it felt, well... awesome. 

I squealed at each and every sighting of a familiar location - King's Cross! And Baker Street OMG! - while poor sweetie struggled to come to grips with Great Britain's utterly alien driving system. 
I am sorry to say we did damage the rearview mirror first thing. Boo!

Reaching our final destination, deep in the rural Somerset region, took a further two hours, and we were mighty sleepy by the time we got here, super late on our estimated arrival.  
Not that the fact prevented us from sampling our first ale right away, mind you! 

I'll tell you more tomorrow about this gorgeous place where we're staying - and stuff... 

I make no excuses...

...I am a lazy, useless slob.

Then again, I told you as much from the very start.

What I mean is, at this point you'd expect me to put on my best drama queen face and go screamin' "OH MY GOSH IS IT MAY ALREADY?"

Only, weeeell... to be totally honest I've been very aware, all this time, that I was neglecting my blog.

And I wish I could tell you it was because of some deep personal reason, good or bad.

But, no.

What really really happened is, I was feeling sluggish and exhausted and just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to write a post.

I didn't even bake all that much over the last 3 months. Shock and horror, I know.

Has the Efreet burned out, then?

Hell, NO!

I still love baking. I love it more than I could tell.

And I've spent most of my almost non-existant free time browsing my fellow foodies' blogs and daydreaming about all the good things I'd bake, as soon as my lethargy spell would go away.

Also I have given this whole blogging business some consideration, since this virtual soapbox of mine is nearly one year old already, so I suppose a healthy measure of self-criticism is compulsory.

Did I meet the goals I set up for myself?

...Well, for one, my photography still sucks. And it goes without saying that I'm never going to be a regular poster, duh.
But, I am letting by crazy true self shine through whatever I write on here. And, as far as building my online presence goes... I still won't go anywhere near Facebook, no matter what - and yes I know full well the sheer amount of traffic it could get me; I just happen to hate the bloody place so much, I am perfectly fine giving up a crapload o' potential clicks - but I am reasonably proud of my Pinterest boards, and I am opening up to the vibrant, art-loving community that is DeviantArt.
Basically what I'm saying is: I may disappear for a while - for as long as I need to get back my steam, as it is - but I'm not giving up on the blog.
Not ever.

This much I can promise.

Thanks for the wait, peeps! Hope to make it worth your while!

Happy Year of the Snake!

Best wishes to all of you Snakes out there... and to my Asian readers, have a joyful New Year celebration!

...See? I remembered! 

(Seeing how I, like, totally forgot about Setsubun one week ago... Sigh! And it's one of my favourite international holidays too...)

Another sad post

(This is going to be a rambly post. I apologize in advance for this. 
I can promise you, if nothing else, that unless something unforeseeable happens that I don't really want to talk about, this will be the last "personal tragedy" entry you will get from me for quite a while.)

 

I have been very lucky in that I've reached age 37 before experiencing the loss of a close relative. Sure, I've seen quite a few acquaintances passing away, and a beloved pet; it hurt, of course, but the loss of my Granny less than 3 weeks ago - as prepared as I might have been to it on a rational level - was a blow of a totally different magnitude, and one I didn't care to experience again any time soon. 

Yet, once again, here I am, venting my feelings about a new bereavement in my family. 
My last surviving grandparent died today; she, too, had been ill for a while, and although her physical and mental decline was not as steep as my other Granny's, we knew it was bound to happen any time soon. Still, losing them both in less than a month feels weird - I've been so used to them, for lack of a better word, that it comes as something of a shock to be suddenly left with neither around the place (as for my Grandpas, the one on my mother's side passed away two years ago; my Dad's father died long before my birth.)

My two Grannies were as different as they could be. Whereas the other one had faced hardship in life, turning into a stubborn, practical, slightly cynical woman, this one had it relatively easy. Born into a bourgeois family, and married to a chemist later on, she never lacked the moolah, and was allowed instruction and a comfortable lifestyle. Despite this (maybe because of this) she had a tendency to see the world through rose-coloured glasses - if some fact of life was ugly, sad, icky, or simply inconsistent with her rather bigoted ideas, she simply refused to acknowledge its existence, and that was it. She had no opinions of her own, happily deferring them all to her husband; she never got a job, never tried earning her own living, never felt a need to assert herself in any way - to me, such a thing is unthinkable, but I realize she thought the same about me yearning for this sort of challenges precisely.

I was never as close to her as I was to my other Granny. It seems a mean thing to say now, and I'm feeling slightly guilty because of it, but it's still true and I won't lie about my feelings.

Still, she was part of my family and an important presence thoughout my life until now. From her I learned that people are different, and there are times when no amount of affection will coax them into seeing things the same way - but it's all right, because this is what makes the world an intersting place.

When all is said and done, I know she loved me (and my brother and my cousins), and I'm sorry she's gone. For real.

(OK, rant's over. Thanks for sticking with me, you unknown friend - because if you did, then you are. From now on it's "back to the yummy geeky fun" - pinkie swear!)

Peppermint Kiss Sugar Cookies, or: Is Xmas over yet?

There is one little thing you need to know about me: I do not care about "seasonal".

I am known to fancy persimmons in April, rhubarb in December, pumpkin in June or what have you. At any given time my freezer drawers will be bursting with ingredients I squirreled away months before, so when one of my ill-timed cravings hits, I am ready.
This arrangement works especially well for me since I'm broke most of the time (wanna try being a foodie on a CSR's budget, hmm?) and it's cheaper for me to grab the leftover seasonal goodies after the holiday's over and the prices plummet.

I won't deny, of course, that my main reason for despising seasonality in food may be that I got the "Mary Mary, quite contrary" bug pretty bad.
Take peppermint, for instance. It's one of my favourite things in the world (and hands down my favourite when paired with chocolate), and I would gladly eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day of my life - except in the week-or-so that goes from mid-December to Xmas. You know, when everybody and his dog is baking candy cane-flavoured anything, as if there's a global-level flash mob going on or something.

This is why I baked my test batch of these cookies in mid-October, with candies I had bought back in January, and kept sitting in my fridge during the summer months.

They were delicious (why, of course - we're talking peppermint sugar cookies here, gents!) but not perfect. In retrospect I think I overbaked them, because they ended up far crispier than your average crinkle cookie.

And I'm baking them again now, with Kisses I ordered online and had shipped all the way from the other side of the big pond. Talk about a time-consuming mise en place!

Once you can get you dirty paws on some of these elusive Peppermint Kisses (and, possibly, the baking chips Hershey makes in the same flavour around Xmas, so you don't have to unwrap another bunch of them just to chop them up), the recipe's actually very easy. 

You can get it HERE, by the way! 

It's weird how I still am unable to automatically associate the colour red with anything peppermint-flavoured. 

I mean, the rational part of me knows it's because of candy canes, only... every time I see the iconic red-and-white stripes, the first thing that occurs to me is strawberries and cream, because these are the flavours I grew up associating the colours with. To me, mint candies must be green or white, or both.  
Oh well...

Sugar crinkles are yummy and cute enough as-is, but pressing an unwrapped Kiss into each warm, soft cookie is what makes the magic happen. The candy will melt slightly and go all creamy inside and shiny on the outside... 

...See? It's magic, I tell you!

As with all good sugar cookies, these have a slightly crunchy surface and a soft, crumbly heart. They're wonderful with coffee, or hot cocoa, or with your balsamic infusion of choice - and even more so on their own, so you can concentrate on the different textures and colours of the cookie and candy.

On a side note: sugar cookies freeze exceptionally well as a rule, and these are no exception. Only once they're thawed, the Kisses will have lost the creamy quality and gone back to their pristine condition of hard chocolates. Sad, really...

Now, about my manicure. Isn't it adorable?

If you want to treat youself to candy cane nails too, here's a video tutorial for you...

The idea of painting my nails to match the cookies I'm serving would never cross my mind normally, but this tutorial was so easy and fun, I just couldn't resist!