About

What is a Smith-O-Lator? 

 Smith-O-Lator is a play on my fondness for mid-century made kitchen wares especially the appliances with silly names assigned to them. There is a sense of playfulness and space-age humor to the names like these: "Kelvinator", "Dice-O-Rama", and "Toast-O-Lator". I am also drawn to these objects as they remind me of the matriarchs of my life; my grandmother and aunts. These women who utilized these well made "tools" and would bake the loveliest pies and cakes for each holiday, each birthday. I feel kinship with them each time I pull the hand-me-down Pyrex bowls out of my cupboard and I get to mixing up a batch of cookies.

Like my grandmother, I find joy in baking as a part of the celebration of a loved one's special day or even simply "just because". For my grandmother her specialty was pie. Lemon Meringue Pie-Oh MY! As for me, my specialty has always been cookies. It started out as drop cookies until one day I came across a blog that featured a tutorial on how to make royal icing and how to decorate cut out sugar cookies. They made it look easy enough...My first attempt was on Christmas cookies in 2010. My husband, my daughter, and I tried it together. We had fun making a mess. We gave all the cookies out as gifts and our friends and family delighted in eating them and politely said they were lovely. I wish I had pictures of them to show you. People will tell you whatever you want to hear when you give them a cookie! From then it has become an obsession you might say. 

I blogged a little bit about my attempts here Cookie Addiction  and started a business in 2014 here Smitholator.com . I hope that I've improved a little since 2010! 

Long story short I am The Smith-O-Lator; measuring, mixing, rolling, cutting, baking, mixing some more, and playing with icing. Making cookies for you to enjoy, to share, to give, to send to your Grandma to thank her for making you a birthday cake every year in her snazzy kitchen.

Photo by Studio Moirae Photography