I have no shortage of ideas floating around in my brain at any given time, and most of them are pretty out there. I think a lot about projects I’d like to build, or something I’d like to make, or how I’ll finally find the time to do x, y or z. When I was decorating cookies the other night I remembered a long ago pretend-scape I had related to cookies. It’s a little embarrassing for me to actually write about, but then I thought, why not? Maybe you all have some hidden little fantasy about how you’d really spend your days or find creative fulfillment. So I’ll go first.
Making and decorating cookies is really enjoyable to me – the only part I don’t like about it is the late night time frame that I have to squeeze it into. Pulling out all the ingredients and equipment and supplies at nine o’clock at night can be a bit of a drag, but once everything is going, I’m really in a happy place. When I get there, I start thinking about how I can stay there, and that’s where this idea came from.
I dreamed of opening this charming little storefront somewhere, preferably near a school and a library, and I’d call the place Storybook Cookies. All the cookies in the store would be based on book characters and storybook plots. There would be cozy places to curl up with big picture books and oversized cookies. It would host birthday parties centered around a child’s favorite book, and book authors and illustrators would come in for readings and signings and eat cookies that looked like replicas of their artwork. Kids would come in after school and drink tall glasses of milk and eat cookies related to books they were reading in school while they worked on their homework or took cooking lessons in the back.
I’ve spent many hours thinking through all the details, the shop and the kitchen, the signage, the business cards, the invitations for parties held there. Forget the fact that I can’t even fathom how you’d deal with all the copyright issues, or that I’d likely never have the actual patience or stamina to pull it off. It’s still a favorite little pipe dream – icing dream – of my own, when I’m working at the table, late at night, by myself. Tell me I’m not alone in my thoughts…
F, 2014
E, 2008
