OMG. I miscounted!
There are 19 types of cookies in the box this year, not 20. Aaaargh! Oh well. When all is said & done, I will have made another 5 recipes next weekend to put in the boxes that are being mailed out, but sheesh. What an idiot. I was not blessed with the Asian Math Gene.
So today was all about boxing them up. MOTU and I were really cranking them out. Unfortunately, my monogram embosser is somewhere in the depths of one of our closets– The Husband forgot to bring it out– and now he’s got 2 cranky wives. Both MOTU and I are appalled by the wasted effort. I was supposed to open each box and apply a seal to the tissue paper. Notice I said was. I kind of failed to do this on the 20 boxes that I need to take to work tomorrow.
Every year, we try to make this boxing process less painful. I have so many ideas on how to make this better–I work in an art department for god sakes–but every year I hate this day. I keep telling myself, at least I have this day– it’s normally a 4-6 hour window, and last year I failed miserably because I underestimated how long it would take me.
So follow me here: My box tags (the little menus I attach with my list of cookies on them) are made of 3 layers– the card stock backing, a specialty or handmade paper of some kind (the kind you buy at Paper Source or Paper Mojo), and the printed vellum list of cookies. I can’t print the vellum list because due to time and ingredients, I may end up eliminating a cookie or adding one in, so that part is always last minute.
Each year, The Husband & I strategize about NOT working on these so late in the process, and each year, it’s the thing we are up doing at 1 or 2 am. This year I bought a Xyron machine so I could make the backs of the tags sticky instead of using glue or adhesive spray. It worked wonderfully. But this sucker is not yet templatized, and it needs to be. Next year, it WILL be. This is stupid. And it makes me hate this day. Like I said, boxing up the cookies is the one part of the cookie project that feels like work to me.
I bought about 5 different sheets of paper, but the husband only cut 2 of them, so there is no paper variety in my tags this year which also bums me out. So they all have the same paper. But they are done. And that is good. I’m getting to be closer to 2 than 3 or 4 tonight so I’m happy and can’t complain.
I’m selling 24 boxes this year, so I made sure they looked different, right down to making the sugar cookies more traditional, in green and red. The tags too, are on red card stock with a green marbled paper. Cookies are officially going out the door tomorrow, and once again, I close the door on another cookie season.
This week is not yet over for me– I have a presentation to give on what inspires me to bake on Friday, and there is a lot going on at work right now. No time to rest, but at least I know that starting tomorrow, I can spread joy in the form of butter and sugary goodness this year.
It’s getting late, so here’s my final boxes before I hit the hay. The ones on the left are the sale boxes:
