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Happiness is Cookie Decorating Videos

I am becoming obsessed with cookie decorating videos on Facebook. I assume other social media is loaded with these, too, and if so, find them. They’re absolutely meditative. No, I will never make these cookies, but they’re lovely to watch.

What made you happy this week?

74 Responses

  1. Happiness is books and sharing this love with the my loved ones, having a hubby who never seems to get annoyed over me gushing about the books I read and love (or -rarely- dislike), of having found friends over a shared love for books and stories, broadened my horizon quite a bit through books a d book friends.
    A big chunk of happiness is due to a handful of suthors who imspire(d) their readers that much that they found each other (Dunnett) or even better, authors who gave their readers a place to find you and each other – you, Jenny: a huge THANK YOU for that!!!

    1. You know, that honestly is my pleasure. I love this group, just all of reading and discussing things together, everybody treating each other with respect. I think in the twenty years I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve had to pull two comments. That’s incredible and a testament to all of you.

  2. There was finally a break in the cold weather and I was able to get my tulip bulbs planted. I also mulched my garlic. We’re back to freezing temps and it’s snowing today, so I’m glad to have finally finished my fall my fall gardening tasks.

    A friend and I bought our flights for our spring trip to Vancouver Island. Last year, we went to California together and had such a good time that we decided to make it an annual tradition. We’re going to spend a few days driving around the Island, starting in Victoria.

    I had dinner with a friend at a local bistro. We text often but she has a demanding job so we don’t see each other very often. We had a great meal and chatted about her recent trip to India.

      1. I’ve been to Victoria once when I was a teenager. Looking forward to visiting more of the Island.

        1. Definitely check out the Hand of Man museum. It’s like a giant Victorian cabinet of curiosities except with respect and cultural sensitivity and context.

  3. It’s 20º on my patio thermometer and the threatened/predicted snow storm has not arrived. It is overcast, so it may be coming.

    Do those videos make you hungry, Jenny? I’m not a big fan of sugar cookies, so I don’t think they would make me hungry.

  4. Thankfully I don’t find most cookies all that tempting. Chocolate, on the other hand… I do love watching the Great British Baking Show, although I would never attempt anything I see made on it. The closest I get to baking is making my mom’s old rum cake recipe, which starts with a cake mix that already has pudding in it (the ancient original they had to be added separately), and adds complicated things like rum, eggs, water, oil, and pecans. Made in a Bundt pan, it actually turns out a bit fancy.

    I’m happy that I made it through Thanksgiving, which was a bit emotionally challenging this year, and that my cat who has lost weight is eating better again, albeit still intermittently. Not thrilled by the cold and snowy weather fronts which are ramping my fibro pain up to defcon 3, but it is a lot worse other places, so I’m trying not to whine. I wine instead.

  5. I was happy to wake up in my new neighborhood and when taking my dog on the first walk of the day , found the neighbor across the street had plowed my driveway all the way up to my car! We got over 10 inches so this was huge. I just moved in late October so this will be my first winter here. Apparently he and his son do this for several neighbors when we get these big snows. I already loved my new neighborhood but I feel so lucky to have landed in such a friendly neighborhood.

    1. Oooh! Thats the best neighbors.

      We once shoveled our neighbors driveway during a 2 foot snow storm so they had someplace to park when they returned from a trip. And I was so glad we had when they arrived followed by an ambulance that would have been blocked if they had had no place to park. (We only did enough to make room for the car and we had a teenager so it wasn’t as heroic as it might sound.)

      1. I’d say, bake a cake for the neighbor man and his son. (Unless cupcakes would be more sharable? Anyway, bake something as a ‘Thank you, neighbor!’

  8. I had a whole week off from work! So nice to sleep in and take naps and get stuff done and not think about work (much)

    We had a nice Thanksgiving, though I’m definitely getting my family to help more for Christmas.

    I got 50k words in nanowrimo as of yesterday. I’m not sure what I wrote, but I like it.

    I took a selfie for them to use for the local book fest (in April, if you’ll be anywhere near Sacramento) and it came out ok, not too deranged.

    It’s time to start pestering my family about what they want for Christmas and we’re not cash-strapped (where does that tell come from anyway?) so they might get some of it.

      1. Etymologies by logic are often wrong, but I’ll nonetheless note that you could use “constrained” in about that meaning and strapped can mean that. It is evidently known that fired from a job comes from discharged and discharging/firing a gun.

    2. No one seems to know but one possibility is “stripped” as in stripping the cow of the last drops of milk when milking.
      I don’t think I can get that image out of my mind any time soon.

  9. I’m collecting lots of recipes for desserts as I read Trisha Ashley but I don’t see myself baking much this holiday season.

    But I found a family treasure of sorts—the book of directions my son made in preschool for all his friends to know how to make paper airplanes, helpfully interpreted by the teachers. He was passionate about making them, and we had cardboard boxes full of them, but apparently even he got tired of being asked by the other 3 and 4 year olds to make them planes so he made this booklet. Finding it made me very happy.

    I am also happy that my older niblings are turning to me for financial and life advice —it’s great to feel trusted and respected.

    1. Paper airplanes! I remember coming to the discovery at a tender age that if, after folding a sheet of paper in half vertically, you not only folded back the corners, but then folded that back a second time, you got a more swept-back wing and the plane flew better.

      Many years later, I discovered, I think in Trollope, that there were paper airplanes before there were real airplanes. They called them paper darts.

      I also discovered in fairly recent years that the game Telephone existed before telephones. It was called Chinese whispers or Russian whispers.

      2. Never heard of the telephone game, Patrick; it’s still Chinese whispers (though I’ve no idea what the Chinese have to do with it. Maybe that just signifies ‘foreign’ – i.e., you’re liable to misunderstand the words).

        2. If you go to the Wikipedia article, it agrees with you, Jane, that Telephone is only the American and Canadian term, and elsewhere in the Anglosphere, Chinese Whispers. But if you look at the names of corresponding articles in other languages, Telephone is mostly at least part of the name, at least in Roman and Cyrillic alphabets .

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_game?wprov=sfla1

      1. When I think of that time, I was crazy busy but I loved doing that kind of stuff with the kids and somehow I found the time to do it.
        Now, I think that’s something I’ll do if I have grandkids when I am retired!

  11. Happiness is almost finishing my Christmas shopping, with only a few odds and ends left, and also almost finished repacking my new kitchen cupboards, and rewatching Heated Rivalry (now two episodes) again…and again…

    1. Tammy, I started mine, and have the distant grandchildren and the granddogs taken care of. I used to have all that stuff done by Thanksgiving. This year is different.

      1. The problem with ‘finishing’ is that then you start thinking of other people you could buy a little something for or see other gifts you could get people you’ve already bought for…it’s honestly endless.

    2. My goal is only getting stuff from charity shops but I have barely started.
      I did get a Devon Air ambulance helicopter for my great nephew though.

      2. I usually make a theme for thrifting Christmas. I find it narrows down the field. Everyone gets a book, or a cute mug, etch.

  12. I hadn’t had cookies in a long time before Turkey Day weekend but I then overindulged on a local delicacy available in supermarkets in recent years, Otterbein chocolate chip, and now I don’t want to think about cookies again for a long time.

    Besides other food indulgences, I lately read a lot of absorbing books, many recommended here. I’ve got some written up for GBTh and am working on others. I may get 1 done today.

    Chore list is not getting items checked off very fast, however.

  13. When I see a cookie decorating video in my feed, I usually skip to the next thing. As often as not, it seems, the next thing is a story about someone finally fed up with being the family ATM/wallet/servant and how they ended it.

    When the outdoor temps drop below freezing, the basement drops to the upper sixties. The thermometer on the main garden racks said, “69ºF!” I unshelved a space heater and plugged it in. Now the plant room is back up to 72ºF which peppers and tomatoes prefer. The lettuce was perfectly happy at 69ºF. You can’t please everything.

    For myself, I unboxed a throw and threw it between sheet and bedspread. Layers works for sleeping, too.

      1. Yes, I know. The algorythm also feeds me stories of service workers dealing with entitled/ignorant customers behaving badly. People who forget the “In matters of taste” part of “the customer is always right” because the second half feeds their sense of entitlement.

    3. I’m looking to use my aero garden seed pods to grow small sweet peppers and Caribbean coriander. Do you have any tips?

      1. No real tips. It has taken me years to realize that the Sprouts and Harvests are for short plants. The seeds I choose are for very short plants.

        Pepper Joe’s Patio Fire and Ice Pepper Seeds – Pack of 10+ Mild Hot Chili Seeds – USA Grown – Ornamental Pepper Seeds for Planting. Heat level equal to a midling Jalapeno. Very pretty.

        AeroGarden Mighty Mini Cherry Tomato Seed Pod Kit. It says “six inches,” but expect eight to ten. I have three in fruit and two more just sprouted.

        Orange Hat Micro tomatoes grow to ten inches (the claim was eight) and produce lots of cherry tomatoes.

        I have one jalapeno from an AeroGarden “Salsa” kit. I know it will grow too tall for my AeroGarden units, even with a height extender I bought on Etsy. I will prune judiciously.

        If I were trying to offer tips, I’d say “Plan to transfer to soil and use an inexpensive grow light.” That’s not what *I* do, but I no longer buy tall plants.

  14. Happy is a four-day break from work during which I’ve eaten well, spent pleasant hours with family and DH, and decided to make the onion tart again sooner rather than later. Everyone loved it.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DRkOZRtDgyg/

    Holiday gifts … well, I’ve got Mom & Dad covered but the other three people in gift-giving range are a problem. 🙂

  15. My brother was up for Thanksgiving and we had a good weekend despite illness and a few total cooking disasters. We wouldn’t have any desert if not for an emergency Marie Calender pie.
    I would have most of my shopping done except for a few vendors that won’t ship to APOs. So I am looking for alternatives. I am having fun picking up little things for the folks that will be here at Christmas.

    First snowfall of the season. It didn’t stick but it is the start. Sigh.

  16. Is anyone else not getting emails notifications anymore? Mine seemed to have stopped in the last week or so, after initially not showing up until a day or two late.

    1. Mine seem to have stopped. I check this everyday. Like Pixie’s routine, I don’t need a reminder for this.

      1. Do we mean Argh post notifications? I still get them, usually a day or three after the post. It hardly matters to me – I check Argh Ink religiously to read everyone else’s posts here.

        I just got a notification that my scheduled December 2025 Farm Report posted at midnight. It was a perfunctory post, no pictures or videos, nothing much different from the November report. The heater in the gardening room raised the temperature to 73.5ºF and the new tomato plants love it enough to ripen some reds for me. I hope the jalapeño starts to thrive.

  17. Nice Thanksgiving dinner with my cousins at a family owned restaurant. Then home.

    I’ve been pacing myself, getting things done. I decorated some outside and am going to keep the inside stuff to a minimum. And sending out some holiday cards. No shopping as my sisters and I finally decided to stick to birthdays and drop Xmas. We pretty much have everything we want.

    Next week is all holiday parties.

  18. Happiness today was finishing work and knowing that not only did I have two whole days off in a row, but that I get to go back to night shift next week and won’t have to set my 0350 alarm until next Tuesday. Sleep ins here I come!

    But the bigger happy was attending a friend’s birthday party in the middle of my week of early shifts and still being able to function the next two days. Good heath is a blessing and I’m so grateful for mine.

    1. Ugh! My sympathies. I had two years of rotating shift years ago and it was not fun. Nor did my shift-change hours involve any getting up at 3:50am. I think it must have been more like 5:30am, since shift change was at 7am.

      1. I used to have to start work at 4am whenever baker #1 had the day off and the sadistic supervisor gave me three different shifts in the same week. That was my schedule every other week. Needless to say, my production suffered.

          1. Brutal.

            Our legal minimum between shifts is 10 hours and that turnaround is awful. I can’t imagine doing it every second week.

          2. We’ve got 11 hours between shifts and the employer can be fined a painful amount if they neglect to oversee this. Also, we’re nor allowed to work more than 10 hours and (at least on paper) HAVE to have breaks of a certain amount of time. So, if I don’t take ghosf breaks or stay longer at work, I gift my boss my time as it will not be recorded.
            Ah, and we get reminded in JuneJuly to plan our free time and submit our vacation plan (i.e. when we want to take time off). Which is good because some colleagues kind of “forget” about it and it’s no fun to substitute someone for 25 days on end (i.e. 5 weeks) an dskip wxam period when ALL of us are meant to take on 3-4 supervision shifts.

          3. My employer is great in recording overtime (we can take that time off) as there are plenty of companies that just expect you to not work overtime (or work for free). One real perk.

  19. I find furniture repair and refinishing videos to be very soothing. I will never do it, and some of them make me nuts because they make choices that I don’t like, but a really good saving of a vintage piece is so fun to watch. When they scrape old paint off like too much icing and there is beautiful wood underneath…

    I am mostly just happy that we made it through one holiday pretty much unscathed. I’m tired. I am happy to be back at my day job so I can get some rest.

    1. I also follow vintage furniture restoration videos, they are so satisfying. To see the amazing wood grain under 100 years of paint!

  20. We are getting our first snow today. It started as a dusting on the ground, but now, everything is white, and sleet is predicted. I used to enjoy the first snow, but now it brings the possibility of falling. It’s beautiful, but dangerous. Luckily, I can enjoy it from inside, today.

  21. I was very happy to have Kid 1 home for a few days. Thanksgiving was nice, and we took some good walks and a hike over the long weekend. Kid 1 will be back again for winter break in about two weeks, which also makes me happy. And then she’s into her last quarter before she graduates! Not sure what she’ll do after that—she has thoughts about looking for a job in the EU (or Canada if they’ll have her), but she’ll come home for a bit, at least…

    I need to finish getting stocking stuffers for my friend I exchange stuffers with today and get them in the mail. She got divorced this year, so her kids’ dad is definitely not doing her stocking this year. Not sure what decorations she got in the split, so I want to find a couple cute things to include. I hope she got to keep all the CVS Santa dolls I’ve sent her over the years! Anyway, it will be fun to find things for her, and maybe I can take care of a few other gifts while I’m at it.

    We saw a golden eagle while hiking this weekend—I knew they were there but hadn’t seen one yet. And we saw some more salmon in the local creek. They’ve been making a comeback over the last decade, now that people are regularly cleaning garbage and blockades out of the creek, but them being there is still unusual enough that people are very excited about it. It’s a nice community builder.

  22. Spending Thanksgiving with my out of town nieces and nephew in law made me very happy. I don’t get to see the one who lives in Minneapolis very often, so that was a very big treat. Her ringlets are now mostly white instead of gray, but she is still gorgeous and creative, funny and loving. Her best friend since first grade dropped by and it was a huge trip watching them interact. They are both short with soft voices and look very innocent. But they have been known to talk about some very gruesome topics when nobody is listening.

    Yesterday I tried to deliver some pumpkin cheesecake to my pals in retail and the sidewalks were an enormous mess. It was so bad that one store owner decided not to come to work at all. But today all the sidewalks I tried were shoveled, which I really enjoyed. I was able to walk to PT this morning and even arrived on time. So that was a definite improvement. Now the temperatures are going to take a nose dive so that combined with the 10 to 12 inches of snow we just got, this year may finally reverse the string of mild weather we had earlier.

    1. Chicago knows to expect snow and is good at removing it quickly, unlike Baltiwash, where they invest less in equipment and often just wait for it to melt as soon as the temperature goes up. Local forecast this time was first for snow, changed to prediction for sleet, and what we got this time was just rain. But it’s not even officially winter yet.

      1. Chicago may be good on the major roads and in the busiess districts, but takes a long time to get to the side streets. They are not touched until day 3, by which time much has frozen over and many cars have been plowed in. Fortunately, I now live 2 blocks away from the el, which is the most reliable form of transportation.

  23. I enjoy quilting and cat management. My cat is enthusiastically unhelpful and insists on lying about anything I want to move or hides in the middle of things scaring the hell out my me when I pick things up.

    Just finished Rocky Start. My hubby has it next.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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