There are lots of good things about living in West Texas, but I have one big gripe. We got totally gyped on the autumn thing. 100% cheated!
Until I was seventeen, the only way I knew that autumn happened was that football season came. It wasn’t until I moved to Virginia that I learned the truth.
There IS such a thing as colored leaves. We just don’t have them here. I am not talking about the yellow and brown scrubby things that blow down my street in late November. When I say leaves, I mean leaves like these.
{My dad took this picture while on vacation in Vermont. He and mom took a special trip there a few years back JUST to see the leaves change. Turns out the leaf love thing is inherited}
West Texas has just about everything else you can think of… rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, oil wells, and every thorny plant you can imagine, but no discernible fall season.
Are you beginning to see why I feel cheated?
ANYHOW, I was so enchanted with these leaves, I spent the entire autumn of my first year in Virginia looking at the ground. I collected them, studied them, and even stuck them on the sides of candles just like Martha told me to.
Then life happened, I moved home, and those beautiful leaves were a thing of the past…until I cookie-d them.
Normally I am pretty open to interpretation when it comes to cookies. There are LOTS of different ways to “cookie” something. But in this case, the real thing is so naturally beautiful that I went for an exact reproduction. I wanted them to look just like the the leaves I remembered from my time in Virginia.
The best part is, this time exact equals EASY! All you need are orange and yellow piping and flood icing, and these magic airbrush-in-a-can sprays from Wilton.
All you do is outline and flood the cookies, let them dry a bit, pipe on the leaf design and let them dry. The next day, randomly spray them with color until they look like real fall leaves.
That’s it. My favorites are the yellow ones with touches of green…
When you mix them all together, they are almost as pretty as the real thing. Almost.
I still miss the traditional autumns I experienced in Virginia, but until I live somewhere with real trees, leaves, and maybe even a little rain, cookies will have to do. I can live with that I suppose.
I’m linking up with Lil’Luna, Tidymom, and Nest of Posies this week.
Would you please post the picture of the white cookies with the dots, tiny leaves and swirls? I would love to see your design on those and how you tied them all together! Thanks
I do not have a photo of the whole platter, I am sorry. I made these for my grandmother and I purposely covered the personal ones up.