Other Sheep I Have

I pinned these really cute cookies months ago.

source

I thought they might come in handy while teaching the New Testament this year.  Well, this is the week I decided to make them (we're in John 10).

I had to dig around in my cookie cutters a bit, but I found my old Tupperware flower cookie cutter.  I used the lid from a little jar of sprinkles to cut out the centers of the flowers and the circles of  chocolate cookie dough that went in the middles.  

The two colors of dough were achieved by saving out some of the original dough and adding a couple of teaspoons of cocoa powder and a smidgen of black gel coloring.  

I rolled the chocolate dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap, so as not to get any extra white flour on them.

Mine are slightly different from the inspiration cookies.  Most notably in the feet area. I think the originals are probably a little sturdier, but I like the look of mine better.

Notice how even my little dough dots are for the eyes and nose? I used two different sizes of drinking straws to punch out the circles, then gently flattened them with my finger. The larger eye dots were made using regular drinking straws and the smaller eye dots and the nose were made using an IKEA drinking straw.

A Little Joy

After a busy Thanksgiving, I decided to enlist the help of my faithful servants, erm, children. The tree and all the trimmings got delegated to them. I was quite pleased and relieved to share the load with them. In fact, I was motivated enough to work on my front porch.

Thanks to Pinterest I had more than enough inspiration. The Joy sign was first, the tomato cage/ garland was next, the wreath was a natural fit, and the sled was an awesome Goodwill find. I loved driving up to my house and seeing the cheerful welcome.