Decorating Cookies Party: Book Signing and Cookie Party Dates

I would love, love, love to meet you and talk cookies (and Trader Joe's, and Real Housewives of Melbourne)!  I have three local Decorating Cookies Party events to tell you about...each one different and special in its own way.

1. November 7th: Signatures Author Series Event
This is where I'll be hanging out with Tyler Florence.  Well, we'll be in the same LARGE ballroom...does that count?  Anyhoo...this is a super neat event that one of the private schools in our area puts on as a fundraiser every year.  A bestselling author comes in to speak (they've had Katherine Stockett, Jodi Picoult, Candace Bushnell)...this year is Tyler Florence.  There's lunch, and a handful of local authors are invited to sign books as well.  I'll be there.  Come see me and we'll get brave and go talk to Tyler.  ;)  Signatures Author Series is a ticketed event. Click the link for more information.  The event takes place at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott.


2. November 15th: Book Signing
I'll be signing books at the Barnes & Noble in The Woodlands, TX from 1-3pm.  Come and go...I'll be the one at the table with the Sharpies...talking to myself.  I  might even bring cookies. ;)


3. November 22nd: Cookie Party & Book Signing
OK...this one is interactive.  Want to come decorate a cookie from the book?  Yes!  Yay!  Also in The Woodlands, Hubbell & Hudson Bistro has undergone some incredible renovations and we'll be some of the first people to utilize the new upstairs space along with the former Viking Cooking School Kitchen.  This is a ticketed event.  With each $25 ticket, you'll get to decorate a cookie from the book (to take home or EAT there), and receive a signed Decorating Cookies Party (no need to bring a book, it is included with the ticket).  To purchase a ticket, click below...must be purchased in advance (so I know how many cookies to bake.) :) 

{This button is for the Cookie Party Signing #3...NOT the Signatures Author Series event.}

Can't wait to SEE you!!!

Book Signing (and cookies, too!)

Hey, y'all!  I'm going to be doing a little book signing of Decorating Cookies just north of Houston in The Woodlands on October 20th.

A. I would love, love, love for you to come...otherwise, Mr. E, kiddo & I are going to have a 2-hour long staring contest.

B. I'll be doing a little cookie demo (spiderwebs, anyone?).

C. It's at Hubbell & Hudson Market, from 12-2pm.  If you've never been to Hubbell & Hudson, oh, are you in for a TREAT!!!  It's one of my happy places. (Bring your wallet.)

D. There will be books available for purchase. (You may definitely bring books you've already purchased, but showing H&H some love for hosting us would be awesome!)

E. If you'd like, you can let H&H know you're coming by clicking here on their Facebook events page.

F. {{I'm bringing COOKIES!!!}}

And finally....I'd LOVE to meet you.  Be warned: I blush...a lot.  And, I'll be sweaty, and do the whole nervous laugh thing.  Other than that, it will be fabulous! ;)

Hubbell & Hudson. October 20th. 12-2pm. Cookies.

The Traveling Cookbook

Today, I'm sending you over to LoveFeast Table.

Chris Ann and Kristin are doing something pretty neat to support their mission of raising $24,000 for Feed My Starving Children.  As part of their efforts, they began The Traveling Cookbook.

The Traveling Cookbook is a cookbook (I bet you guessed that part.) that travels (I bet you guessed that, too.) from blogger to blogger...each one making a few recipes from the same book.  The bloggers add doodles, stories, pictures along the way and ship it on to another blogger.

When the book is full of doodles and love, it will be auctioned off to support Feed My Starving Children.  How cool is that?!?

Well, I was just thrilled to receive the book from my friend Wendy.  You can read all about the book's time at our house by visiting LoveFeast Table.

There's cake. ;)

Team Rosie the Riveter . . . supporting Fisher House

Funny how life works sometimes.  A few weeks ago, I heard about his wonderful place called the Fisher House.  As soon as I got home, I told Mr. E that we needed to see what we could do to help this organization.

Fisher House is like a Ronald McDonald House for our soldiers and their families. 
From their website:

" Fisher House Foundation, providing a "home away from home" for military families to be close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury."

Fast forward to last week, when Ann Marie, military wife, mom, blogger, baker, candlestick maker (do you make candlesticks, Ann Marie?) and my bloggy friend, tweeted about raising money for the Fisher House!

Ann Marie, who I first met through her INCREDIBLE Apple Rosette Pie, is participating in a 24-hour walkathon to benefit the Landstuhl Fisher House in Germany where their family is based.  

*The walkathon takes place July 29th; donations will be accepted until August 5th.*

Want to show our military families and blogger Ann Marie a little love?  Here's how; visit:

• Ann Marie's post about the event
• Team Rosie the Riveter's facebook page
• Fisher House homepage

Go, Ann Marie!  Go Team Rosie!  We thank you, your husband, and all of our military families for their service and sacrifice! ♥

Faces to Love

Here's a face I love...

...my next-door neighbor and friend, Kristen from We are THAT Family.  Do you know she has a book? {I might have mentioned it....and if you're a mom, I think you might need it. It's GOOOOOOD.}

Kristen had her first book signing this weekend and I was so happy to be able to go...and so happy to call her a friend.  Y'all, she's just as funny and sweet and good in person as she is on her blog and in her book. 

{I brought cookies.}

---

Now, Kristen doesn't need a photoshop makeover, but her neighbor (me) does.

Have you heard of the I Heart Faces:  

Faces to Love, Blogger Makeover Project?

I Heart Faces is a photography website with weekly photo challenges for all levels of photographers. Co-Founders, Amy & Angie make sure you'll find great photo editing tutorials, camera tutorials, photography tips and giveaways each week.

Well, at the Blissdom conference, I knew Angie and Amy, the founders of I Heart Faces, were up to something, but they wouldn't spill the beans.

Here's the deal... Amy & Angie took photos of bloggers to use as their profile image! The are calling it Faces to Love - Blogger Makeover Project. To make it even more fun... they want to give one of you and one of their readers a photo makeover as well!

My picture was taken by the fabulous Angie (if you live in Ohio, seriously look into Angie taking your family photos...she's amazing!):

 

{Look ma, no wrinkles!}

One lucky Bake at 350 reader will get themselves made over photoshop style! Amy & Angie will work their magic on a photo you provide them. They will then send you several images to use on your blog, Facebook profile or Twitter Avatar, or whatever.  Hmm....can I take this to the DMV?

To be entered to win a make-over for your photo. Just leave a comment below! 

To be entered for more chances to win:
•  Visit I Heart Faces and leave a comment on their site. 
 •  For even more chances to win, visit the other two bloggers' sites (Cheryl & Rachel) featured on I Heart Faces today as well...and leave a comment on their blogs.

Winner chosen and notified. Congrats to The Perfect Trio!

This contest ends on Wed. April. 13th at 10 pm. Good luck!

For Japan, with love

I won't be in Austin this weekend, but my cookies will be.  Kathryn of The Austin Gastronomist has put together an incredible bake sale this Saturday (4-2-11) called Austin Bakes for Japan. There are going to be 5, yes FIVE, locations for the bake sale all throughout Austin, so if you live there, or in the area, please stop by.  (Here is the list of locations.)

To say that the images and stories coming out if Japan are heart-breaking is such an understatement, but I can't think of a better way to descibe it.  My mind keeps going back to those children waiting for days at their school for their parents to pick them up.  And it goes to the mothers who must lie awake at night worrying about the impact radiation will have on their children, and their food, and their country.

This may sound silly, but I remember getting my issue of Martha Stewart Living after September 11th.  (Yes, I looked to Martha for comfort.)  She had been in Japan during the attacks and her letter from the editor described that day there.  It touched me so deeply...I saved that letter.  Here's an excerpt:

"As we walked somberly toward the temple, the bells in the bell tower....pealed the melody of Parke W. Hewins's 'America the Beautiful.'  How wonderful, how inspiring and how utterly devastating."

~Martha Stewart, 2001

The people of Japan grieved with us, and now we grieve with them.


I hope if you're in the area, you'll come by the bake sale. Sweet and lovely Nina from Salt: a baking journal is transporting my cookies to Austin from Houston.  Thank you, Nina....such a pleasure to meet you!

My heart is in Japan, my cookies are in Austin...and I'll be sweating it out in Houston at kiddo's track meet.  Wish I could be there to help with the sale!

***update: The bake sale was a huge success!  To date, over $11,000 dollars was raised and donations are still coming in...yay!***

Blogging Buddies . . . Works For Me Wednesday

If you have a blog, have you ever met another blogger in real life?   I'm lucky enough to live next-door to a real-life blogger (and host of Works for Me Wednesday...Hi, Kristen!).  And sweet Mr. E sent me to visit Cheryl (TidyMom) this summer. And, then there was Ree. :)

If you ever get a chance to meet a blogger you love, DO IT!  Believe me, it's nice to talk to someone about blogging and not have the person look at you, tilt their head to the side and say, "huh?" 

Last week, I attended my first ever blog conference. 
{And I'm still recovering.}

Thanks to my friends at Blog2Print (you know, the company that will print your blog for you as a book), I was in Nashville at Blissdom.


The opening and closing keynotes were amazing (thank you Brene Brown & Scott Stratten...I cannot express how much I loved them BOTH).

The parties were fun...and the music incredible (yes, Michelle Branch, Mat Kearney, Chris Mann & Crystal Bowersox).  {And here's a sign you're old....you have to google all of those people, other than Crystal who you voted for on American Idol.}

 

{Here's Cheryl with Chris Mann.  Aren't they both adorable?!?}

But the best part?  The highlight of the conference?  Meeting all of the lovely ladies that I've admired from afar.  The craft bloggers, the photography bloggers, the home bloggers, the mommy bloggers....

....and yes, some FABULOUS foodie bloggers.  Here are my homegirls:

 
Kristan of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
Amy of She Wears Many Hats
Shaina of Food for My Family
Kristen of Dine and Dish (one of the very 1st food blogs I ever read!)
Aimee of Simple Bites
and, my roomie, Cheryl of TidyMom

Meeting other bloggers?  Works for me!!!  Thank you so much, Blog2Print!!!

{Have you ever met another blogger or attended a blog conference?}