In case you were wondering if I am still alive…the answer is “yes”!  I’ve been traveling quite a bit these last few weeks, which has kept me very busy.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our Laurie-pooh has been rockin’ and rollin’ with her fundraising activities.  I figured that it was time to get ball rolling for me too, so I am proud to announce the subject of this blog- “Baking for Boobs”. 

Based on Laurie’s research, it seemed that the “fruity” cupcakes had been a hit, so our first trial run was strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing and lemon cupcakes with lemon icing.  The critics gave us a big thumbs up! 

Since the cupcakes were so successful, we decided to move forward with the cookies…  Laurie found an awesome ribbon cookie cutter, so we gave that a shot.  We found that it was extremely difficult to work with the cookie dough.  Despite the well floured surface and rolling pin, the dough stuck to just about everything.  If that wasn’t challenging enough, it would crack or fall apart when we tried to “cut” it.  Because of the challenges, and because of the amount of dough required to make each cookie, we only made about ten of them.  Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Aren’t they cute?!  We decided that these adorable little guys required a level of patience that neither of us posses, so we switched to regular “drop” cookies with pink icing.  They came out really well, and were given the stamp of approval from our quality control supervisor; Taylor:

Several hours later, we have 4 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and 10 pink ribbon cookies plus two more dozen “drop” cookies.  I’ll be setting these up on my desk tomorrow, and I’ll take lots of pictures to share with you!  More to come!

I had a pretty successful giveaway on La Vie de Laurie this month in conjunction with the Ultimate Blog Party. I had mentioned that I’d like to do one here too in April, but I just can’t wait! Let the giveaway begin! This time in addition to a Save the Ta-Tas t-shirt, I am also giving the lucky winner a Breast Cancer goodie bag filled with over $25 in free breast cancer related merchandise! I made Nikki a similar bag today, but the one I’m giving away for this contest will be even better.

There were some wonderful posts from bloggers last time around, so I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with this month. I am amazed, heartbroken and inspired by the stories of loss and survival. I hope that you will continue to share those with us. Our walk is going to mean so much more if we carry and tell others about your experiences during our 60 mile journey.

WIN A PRIZE: Want to win a Save the Ta-Tas tee AND a Breast Cancer goodie bag? Leave us a comment on this post for one entry, link back to our blog and this post for five entries, and make a donation (ANY amount) to my 3-Day for twenty entries (even $1 will qualify you). If you do all 3, you’ll get 26 entries. The winner will be drawn on Saturday, May 3 and will be e-mailed for sizing info and a mailing address. Good Luck and thanks for your support!

Visit the Bloggy Giveways carnival for more great giveaways across the blogoshere!

There are tons of people doing great things for Breast Cancer Awareness causes. Here’s one I came across: NotMyBreasts.org. If you visit and pledge to take a simple action to protect your breasts, $1 will be donated to the Breast Cancer Fund by the site’s key supporters. Pretty cool, huh? And you get this widget to display on your website or blog! Go check them out and pledge your support today. It’s FREE for you to do!

I am protecting my ta-tas because cancer sucks. I will save the world one breast at a time by creating a healthy home.

Come back and post yours in the comments!

Here are tips the site gave me to protect my ta-tas by creating a Healthy Home: REPLACE HARMFUL HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS that contain bleach and chlorine with cheaper, nontoxic alternatives like baking soda, borax soap and vinegar.
LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES TO CHEMICAL WEED AND BUG KILLERS - many contain toxic chemicals that accumulate in our bodies.
AVOID PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) plastics which leach hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates into the substances they touch.

The Breast Cancer Fund’s mission is to identify and eliminate the environmental causes of breast cancer and prevent the disease.

Wednesday night I finally broke down and bought a KitchenAid mixer. I have wanted one for the longest time. I’m not a big cook, but I have always enjoyed baking. I know I am going to use it a lot this year since I have been wanting to make goodies for my 3-Day, and I don’t want to bother LeAnn every time I have a fundraiser.

Immediately after I brought it home I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting. They were DELICIOUS! I got a pretty good response at work too. I sold them for $2, which does seem like a lot for a small cookie. Once again though, I am hoping that everyone feels good about donating to the cause. Next time they will be bigger since I will be using the ribbon cookie cutter that I purchased from 3-Day Gear. I think $2 will be a little more reasonable for those. I made about $40 though, so that wasn’t bad.

While I love the pink Cook for the Cure edition mixer, I went with the red one since it matches everything in my kitchen. I feel like my kitchen is more complete now. $50 from each purchase of the pink mixers goes to Susan G. Komen, so check out all the KitchenAid Breast Cancer items on their website. If you don’t need a mixer, there are lots of fun gadgets available in the pink line too. A portion of their sale price also is donated to breast cancer research.

Tonight I’ll be making several batches of cupcakes, so come back tomorrow to see and hear about the results!

Yesterday morning I organized a thank-you breakfast for Jo’s team (and my team) who helped me raise over $200 my first week of fundraising. I went out and bought donuts, a fruit tray, and juices. Angela and I also blew up balloons and put out a donation jar and I raised another $20 from that. Several members of that team continue to bring up donations which is amazing. I was happy to do something nice for them because they have really been so supportive and kind in my efforts.