Decorated Sugar Cookies

I've always wanted to try to decorate sugar cookies.  I'm not talking about gingerbread cookies-each year I post pictures of my gingerbread cookie decorating activities in which I try to maximize the amount of candy I can adhere to the surface of each cookie. I mean, really trying to NICELY decorate sugar cookies.  So, here's a recap of my attempt.  

I decided to break up the task into two nights. I made the sugar cookie dough and baked the cookies out on the first night, then made the royal icing frosting and decorated the cookies on the second night.

I started practicing decorating cookies for a baby shower I'm helping to throw later on this year. I thought that these looked pretty good. Not as fancy or sophisticated as those seen on Martha Stewart's website, but decent for my first attempt. 

 I don't know if decorating sugar cookies are easier or making cake pops....Maybe I need to learn the art of patience. I am often trying to determine the most efficient ways to complete tasks, and decorating cookies is not a very time efficient task.  

After spending hours in the kitchen decorating these mini flower cookies, I told Mike that I never want to open up a bakery that sells cute cookies.  But I figured out that my problem was that I was decorating little cookies. I think that if you decorate larger cookies, than the task does not seem so daunting.  These 1" cookies were a wee bit too small for my comfort.

The decorated sugar cookies did not win this battle! I am still going to give it one more chance. This is what I will do differently:
1) I will not be lazy and make only one color of frosting at each time.
2) I will only decorate larger (~3") cookies.
3) I will find a better sugar cookie recipe that is not so difficult to work with.
4) I will find a partner in crime to help me assembly line the cookie decorating process.