Dear Christine . . . Thank You | Manu

Dear Christine, thank you! As simple as it is.

Thank you for four years of inspiration, sharing, learning to use tools, using new media, applying techniques, thinking ouside the box, FUN creating cookies and making connections with fellow cookiers through the comments to each entry!

I missed the first year of your challenges, as I wasn’t yet familiar with Cookie Connection, but I caught up soon, once I started cookieing. Participating to your challenges helped me a lot in my cookie journey. Also, I started to write my first mini tutorials in the comments to my entries, because the challenges are all about sharing.

For this cookie I picked the techniques from the Roses - Challenge #16 and the Lace - Challenge #21, because they are the most meaningful to me in different ways. The Challenge #16 was out the day before I had a surgery. I wasn’t sure how long it would have taken to recover and be able to knead again and especially to pipe roses which I had never did before. But it happened. And I remember big and heavy tears of joy on a Rome-Milan train later, when my entry was featured. Not only because I earned the little “I was featured on Cookie Connection” badges, but because an awful period was through.

Thanks to that challenge I connected with @Ryoko ~Cookie Ave. and I designed for her, and just for fun, a cookie inspired by her two Rose challenge entries. Little I knew that she would cookie-ed it flawlessly.

The other element of this non-entry  cookie is coming from the Lace - Challenge #21. In that occasion I purchased the SugarVeil Needlepoint Mat and learned how to use edible lace, inspired by the work of Julia M. Usher.

Since then I used it in many many of my cookies, as it is too difficult and tiring for my eyes and therefore time consuming for me piping perfect lines like Christine @Sweet Prodigy, the new host of the challenge, would do!

So thank you again Christine @Bakerloo Station, and welcome Christine @Sweet Prodigy!

So so perfect, Manu! Just beautiful!!! I love your blast from the past pictures as well as you sweet thoughts and sentiments! Well done my friend!

Gorgeous.

Oh wow, dear Manu!! Everything about this entry of yours is so full of gratefulness and love. Your cookies is so beautiful and perfect -as always. But sharing your heart and all you have achieved through the years and the hurdles you’ve overcome in the process, are so inspiring! Thank YOU too!!❤️❤️

Kim Damon posted:

So so perfect, Manu! Just beautiful!!! I love your blast from the past pictures as well as you sweet thoughts and sentiments! Well done my friend!

Thank you, dear Kim @Kim Damon. I loved every single challenge that Christine @Bakerloo Station designed for us, the learning experience and every single connection I made (you are one of them!). I enjoyed this journey so much that sometimes I wish I could go back in time and start it all over again 🤗🤗🤗

LisaF posted:

Gorgeous.

Thank you, Lisa @LisaF!

Manu posted:

Kim Damon posted:

So so perfect, Manu! Just beautiful!!! I love your blast from the past pictures as well as you sweet thoughts and sentiments! Well done my friend!

Thank you, dear Kim @Kim Damon. I loved every single challenge that Christine @Bakerloo Station designed for us, the learning experience and every single connection I made (you are one of them!). I enjoyed this journey so much that sometimes I wish I could go back in time and start it all over again 🤗🤗🤗

Precious! And thank you, and I feel the same way!

Heather Bruce Sosa posted:

Oh wow, dear Manu!! Everything about this entry of yours is so full of gratefulness and love. Your cookies is so beautiful and perfect -as always. But sharing your heart and all you have achieved through the years and the hurdles you’ve overcome in the process, are so inspiring! Thank YOU too!!❤️❤️

Thank you, Heather @Heather Bruce Sosa. Although there is a big “Thank You” embroidered with royal icing on this cookie, I felt that those two words were still not enough. 🤗🤗🤗 That’s me.

So perfect 💕

Oh Manu, this is so perfect as always!!! ❤️😘 Simply wonderful!! Especially I love your roses and your thankful comment for Christine!!! Tears come to my eyes ...
@Manu biscotti decorati

This is so pretty, Manu. 🌹 The grids do take a lot of time to pipe, but they are only a blank canvas. It takes true artistry to turn them in to works of art, which is something that you have most certainly mastered. 💙💙💙

Alma Landa posted:

So perfect 💕

Thank you, @Alma Landa 💕

Icingsugarkeks posted:

Oh Manu, this is so perfect as always!!! ❤️😘 Simply wonderful!! Especially I love your roses and your thankful comment for Christine!!! Tears come to my eyes ...
@Manu biscotti decorati

Thank you, Gabi @Icingsugarkeks! I had to practice my piping also for this challenge. For the entry to the original rose challenge I used the toothpick method and a tip 101 for the roses in the vase (a tip 101s for the roses in the background). I think those are the best roses I piped ever, as they look so natural.

For this entry I used the rose nail instead with a tip 102 as I couldn’t find my 101 tip anymore! Now I have a stock of pink roses for future use! 😊😊😊 Also, all the leaves in the entry to my first challenge are transfers!!! 😱 Which means that I piped them on wafer paper and then glued one by one to the cookie. It was my first time also at piping leaves and I didn’t want to mess up the cookie. After four years I am confident to pipe on the cookie.

The cookie “looks” perfect and probably is the closest to “perfection” I could get right now, but I want to pass this message: Don’t let perfection kill you! .

I made this cookie twice, because I wasn’t happy with the cross stitched lettering, as I used a PME #1tip . The cross stitch work looked too dark and massive to me and especially the T and Y were “too fatty” once embroidered on the cookie. So I made it again with a PME 0 tip, a lighter grey icing, and only a row of stitches in the T and in the Y. I suggest to strain the eye and always look at the cookie the next day and with fresh eyes. Am I happier with this second cookie? Probably I would move the “o” of 1 row to the right next time. But for now I am happy. Usually I glue the needlepoint on a piece of paper and see if the design works, but for some reasons (probably too much confidence) , I didn’t do that this time. Also, I don’t ruin a cookie in that way!

Sweet Prodigy posted:

This is so pretty, Manu. 🌹 The grids do take a lot of time to pipe, but they are only a blank canvas. It takes true artistry to turn them in to works of art, which is something that you have most certainly mastered. 💙💙💙

Thank you, Christine @Sweet Prodigy. Yes, piping perfect lines would take way too much time for me! 😊 And as you said It takes time also to figure out the design and make it fit harmoniously the cookie. It takes a lot of “planning ahead”, like the real needlepoint/cross stitch. Sometimes the design looks perfect on paper but once piped somehow it doesn’t work. When I say “paper” I mean  “photo editing softwares”. So I can draft the pattern on the “virtual cookie” image by filling in the squares of the grid.

As I said to Gaby, above, I often glue a piece of edible lace grid on paper to see the result before piping on the cookie (which I didn’t do this time). I love the cross stitch effect but it is tricky. Some designs works out better with the piped dots. 

Amazing! 💗🌸💗

I love your toothpick method for small roses. I saw you working on this few years ago and I was astonished about your quick way in doing such tiny and flawless roses in only ten seconds.  You also give them a special, unique bend.... just magical!

It has been so beautiful reading this post, I still remember your first steps into the cookie world; since your first work I understood you are not only super talented and genial but a sweet person full of positive vibes with lots of love to give. This cookie proves what I’ve just written, such a lovely tribute to another wonderful cookier that I love very much: Christine.

I hope to find some spare time during this week to give my poor contribute too to this beautiful Challenge!

So pretty and such a sweet note!

Evelindecora posted:

Amazing! 💗🌸💗

I love your toothpick method for small roses. I saw you working on this few years ago and I was astonished about your quick way in doing such tiny and flawless roses in only ten seconds.  You also give them a special, unique bend.... just magical!

It has been so beautiful reading this post, I still remember your first steps into the cookie world; since your first work I understood you are not only super talented and genial but a sweet person full of positive vibes with lots of love to give. This cookie proves what I’ve just written, such a lovely tribute to another wonderful cookier that I love very much: Christine.

I hope to find some spare time during this week to give my poor contribute too to this beautiful Challenge!

Thank you, Evelin @Evelindecora for the kind words about me, I hope to deserve them.
There are so many memories and stories interlocking behind each cookie, and connections made during the path! We have lived in the same area for a while, but I didn’t know anything about cookie decorating and got to know about you once I discovered them and signed up to Cookie Connection! I am so happy to have had the chance to take your classes, just in time before moving in another country! I wish I met you earlier. 💕

Julia M. Usher posted:

So pretty and such a sweet note!

Thank you so much, @Julia M. Usher! 

Such a wonderful entry, Manu! So full of appreciation and beauty ❤️❤️❤️!

Oh Manu @Manu biscotti decorati, I absolutely love this post and your lovely,  kind and thoughtful cookie!! As always, you've beautifully put your thoughts into words . How fun to revisit some of your past work and read about the inspiration behind it. 

I was deeply touched by your words about what the challenges have meant to you.  I completely agree that Christine @Bakerloo Station has added great value and has helped so many of us to grow as cookiers.  If it hadn't been for the challenges I might never have reached outside my comfort zones to learn some wonderful new techniques!

I have watched your talent blossom with great joy Manu ! You are so gifted and have taught many new techniques through your awesome tutorials that have greatly helped to improve my work.

 Like you,  I eagerly anticipate the new challenges ahead with Christine @Sweet Prodigy! 

Hugs... ❤❤

Oh manu, your cookie is sheer perfection !!! The square itself and the cookie anyway !!!
Ha ha ... I have to smile ... I also like to use Photoshop as a "sample"!
You really have a certain idea of what you want! And sometimes you have to improvise ... You are not just a "baker" with this hobby. One is so often a baker, mathematician, architect, decorator, carpentert, bricklayer, painter, biologist ... together !!! And you learn and learn ... Yeah Manu, we have a wonderful hobby !!  @Manu biscotti decorati

That says it all beautifully! 

So perfect and so gorgeous as always dear Manu @Manu biscotti decorati. 🌹🌹🌹 And such a beautiful Thanking note. ❤

Really you said it so beautiful dear Manu with so much love and care as your lovely entry ❤️❤️❤️❤️

This is a very sweet.  It looks very fragil. Wonderful Job. I love to do cross stitching.

so lovely work