[EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm posting this news a wee bit early, since our site may be up and down on September 1 due to routine maintenance. BTW, if you missed that alert, you can check it out here.]
I've always viewed September as a month of change and renewal, what with all of the life adjustments that come with getting kids (and ourselves) back to school and adapting to the faster pace of the fall season. As the calendar flips from August to September, it's only fitting then that we change up things here on Cookie Connection as well. And by this, I mean swapping out our site banner and backdrop with another winning Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #13 entry!* Yay!
So, without further ado, I introduce you to this month's winning artist, Noriko Forster aka @mintlemonade (cookie crumbs), and her elegant banner and backdrop that will beautify our site through September 30.
Thanks to @Tina at Sugar Wishes, who recently hosted a Sweet Sharing chat with Noriko (read the transcript here), we already know a fair bit about how Noriko achieves her subtle and sophisticated color schemes. But, as always, we'll be delving more deeply into Noriko's cookie life in a Cookier Close-up interview slated for around mid-September.
In the meantime, please do check out Noriko's bio below . . .
Noriko Forster (aka mintlemonade) started her cookie decorating journey in spring 2012 when she happened upon a book about cookie decorating in a local shop. She was so intrigued that she decided she would cover a store-bought cake with cookies for her elder daughter's birthday to make the cake extra special for her. Noriko guessed that cookie decorating would be much simpler than making a fancy cake, but she found it actually wasn’t so easy!
Nevertheless, Noriko's decorating skills and reputation for making beautiful colors and flowers grew fast! By the end of 2013, Noriko was teaching cookie decorating classes out of her home, while also editing language-learning books and Japanese translations of English books as her primary job. Last year, however, Noriko's cookie class work ended up occupying more time than her book editing job. She taught six classes a month on average (!), which she admits was a bit too much for her. In 2016, she's had more book work than cookie classes, which feels like a better balance for her.
On a more personal note, Noriko lives in Tokyo, is married to an Aussie, and is the mother of two girls, ages 10 and 12. She studied modern American literature at university and, upon graduation, worked for a book editing company and then a publisher. After becoming a mother, she began editing as a freelancer. She enjoys being a stay-at-home mom, working at home when her schedule permits, and reading British and American novels when she's not decorating cookies.
Photo credit: mintlemonade
* P.S. Our 2016 featured site artists are all winners of our Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #13, which you can read more about here. If you would like your own cookie art to be considered for use on the site after our challenge winners have run their course (by January 2017), I would love to see it at any time. Guidelines for submitting cookie art can be found here.
