Fireplace FINALLY Done!!!

 

 

 

 

Redoing the fireplace in my house has been a real thorn in my side ever since I bought my little house over a year and a half ago!

 

When I first bought my house (before I painted and re-did the floors) my fireplace looked a little like this (sorry the picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea)....

 

 

After my floors were done and I painted the walls, my fireplace looked really out of place (I even tired painting the existing mantle white, but it still didn't match my contemporary style)

 

The first thing I decided that I needed to do was find some really beautiful and unique tile that I would use to replace the current orange/green spanish-style tile.

 

Originally, I was set on Carrera marble in a Herringbone pattern but when I got to the tile store the choices were overwhelming! After spending hours at the store I narrowed it down to two cuts of Carrera marble and took home the samples to decide...

 

 

This was the original concept (not in the two tones, but this was the pattern I wanted)...

 

 

And this was the other sample... Also carrera marble, but cut into small hexigons and at various heights and facets (it was super textured and had a 3-D effect)

 

 



Once I saw the sample sparkle in the sunlight I had made up my mind on which one I was going to order!!!

 

 

When the tile was ordered I searched and searched the internet for the style mantle I wanted. Hours of searching and hours of phone calls later I came to the conclusion that pre-made mantles were too expensive for my tight budget :-(

 

This is when I decided to e-mail my contractor and ask if he could build me something on the cheap...

 

 

I also drew him a little picture of my current fireplace, but he said it didn't help him at all (haha).

 

When he came to my house he showed up with a pile of wood and we started to design!

 

 

 

After two long days of building and designing we ended up with this (I do have to say that he is pretty good at what he does!)

 

 

Here is my fireplace all decorated for x-mas!

 

 



Chair Makeover!

Back in college my Aunt bought me a white slipper chair from Ikea and, at the time, it was the most "grown up" piece of furniture I had in my apartment.

Now as I've gotten a little older, I've moved in with a boyfriend, adopted two dogs, moved out from the boyfriend, and bought my own house... all while carting this white slipper chair around!


Needlesstosay, the white little chair I once had was now a dingy color (even after bleaching and washing the slip cover) and covered in dog hair. This chair was in desperate need of a makeover, so that's exactly what I set out to do!

I decided that I wanted to make this a statement chair and put a bold graphic pattern on it (my favorite graphic pattern is definitely the greek key). I started off by making a paper template and then hand painting the pattern on....

I then thought that it might be nice to replicate the pattern on the seat, so I measured it out and made the pattern with masking tape...

I also decided to copy the same pattern on the back of the chair, but then realized I wasn't fond of having the large pattern repeated twice (overkill).

I also painted the bottom wood and legs silver... below is the finished project! A little paint goes a looonngggg way!

My First Aquarium Cake!

After successfully making an engagement cake and Groom's cake for my friends Ted and Christina, I knew I was going to be doing another cake when my friends Lauren and Jeff got engaged!

I knew that Jeff's Groom's cake was going to be aquarium-themed because he loves fish, but I didn't quite know how I was going to do it. So I started with the basics... an aquarium!

I first had Lauren pick up a basic aquarium from PetSmart. From there, I came up with my plan for the cake.... I wanted it to be 3-D and realistic(ish) looking! Once I got the tank from Lauren I had to remove the bottom glass so I was just left with 4 glass walls. I decided that the cake part was going to be the bottom or "gravel" of the aquarium, and then I was going to decorate it with sugar coral, chocolate shells, etc.

After making several trips to my cake store, the grocery store, and Michael's I had everything set and was now ready to start making the cake!

I thought that I should started with my most worrisome task... making the sugar coral! I was nervous about doing this because I had never done it before and was on a strict time constraint to do it (only a few days until my friend's wedding). I wouldn't have enough time to do it over if I messed it up.

I bought two bags of isomalt sugar at the cake store, added some distilled water and started cooking it on the stove. Once it reached a specific temperature I was able to add food coloring (I chose to make it a red-orange color), after I added the food color I waited for it to reach an even higher temp., and then I took it off the stove and put the pot in a pan of cold water to stop the cooking.

When the isomalt sugar got to a gooey consistency I poured it over a bowl I had filled with ice. As the extremely hot mixture melted the ice, it formed a very cool mass that resembled coral!!! I was shocked that it turned out so realistic-looking!

After picking up the sugar coral I realized how sharp it was and ended up slicing 8 of my 10 fingers! Note to Self: wear gloves next time I sculpt sugar!

I ended up doing two batches of the sugar coral in similar colors. The only thing I came to realize is that because I was making the coral on a humid night the sugar didn't harden right away (it was sticky to the touch), so I had to put it in the fridge overnight and then put it in an airtight container filled with rice to suck the moisture out. Once I did that, everything seemed to be fine.

The next task on my agenda was to make the actual cake part! Since the aquarium was more narrow and much longer than your typical sheet cake pan I had to make 3 cakes and patch them together to get the exact size I needed.

Originally when I was sketching out the plans to this cake I envisioned covering the base in candy pebbles, but since I didn't have enough time to order the pebbles online it would have just been too expensive to cover this huge cake. So then I had to start thinking of other options... I first thought of covering the base in Rice Krispies, but then I couldn't exactly decide how I could easily and evenly color them. AND THEN IT HIT ME.... DUH....FRUITY PEBBLES are already colored and look like fish tank gravel! So that's what I ended up using :-)

I then moved on to making all sorts of shells (and crawfish) out of chocolate. I got the molds from my cake decorating store and Michaels :-)

Lastly, I had to attach my sugar fish to thin florist wire to make it look like they were swimming in mid air, but was afraid that the fish wouldn't stick or would be way too fragile if I used frosting.... so I decided to attach the sugar fish to the wire with chocolate. It worked like a charm!

The afternoon of the wedding I had a friend (and fellow bridesmaid) help me set it all up. I do have to say that it ended up turning out much better than I could have imagined! The only problem is that people didn't know that it was a cake and everything in there was edible!!!

Here it is all lit up and pretty at the wedding!!!

Another cake bites the dust...

Crafting Time!

Damask Cork Board Project

I loved the damask cork board project I previously blogged about so much that I decided to do it on my own!

Originally, I printed out a beautiful damask patten I found online and traced it onto my cork board with carbon paper and filled it in with a Sharpie pen.

After I did that I realized that it would take an enormous amount of time to cover the entire cork board that way. In an effort to save time I went to Michael's craft store, found a damask stencil (one used to paint on walls), and painted it onto the cork board.

It was amazing how much time I saved and how beautiful it turned out (you couldn't even tell the difference between that and the part where I used the Sharpie!)

Cupcake Wars

Congrats to Sweet Arleen's for winning Cupcake Wars!

Before the show aired on Food Network, I stopped by Arleen's shop in Westlake Village, CA and picked up some of her winning cupcakes...

Not only were they beautiful but SO yummy :-)

I think my favorite cupcake from the show was "The Snack Attack" while Randy's was "Slush Berry Cream."

What a yummy night ;-)

In The Kitchen Again...

Christina and Ted's Wedding!

When I heard that my good friends, Christina and Ted, got engaged I decided that I wanted to make them an engagement cake...

When it was time to start planning the wedding, I thought it would be nice to help Christina with Ted's Grooms Cake (and save them some money)...

(This is the original sketch for the cake)

Ted's favorite cake combination is chocolate with raspberry filling...

I started with 6 boxes of chocolate cake mix, 18 eggs, and a few cups of oil (don't even get me started on what was in the frosting hehe).

Baxter decided he wanted to help with the powdered sugar :-)

After I "dirty iced" the cake I put some grass on.

Then I frosted the baseball for the top of the cake...

Originally the baseball was going to be on top of the cake, but at the last min. (when I saw the top layer start to slide) I made the executive decision  to take it off the top.

I had Ted's favorite video games, beer, favorite baseball team, and cat Darth printed on edible paper to adorn the cake. I also found some Storm Trooper and Darth Vader masks at my local cake store to stick on the sides.

Before the wedding a friend asked me the theme of the cake and it was easy to respond, "nerd."

The final product...

(oh yeah, Christina stole some of Ted's Star Wars figures to use as the topper. hehe.)

USNA Class of 2010

Crabcakes and Football... That's What Maryland DOES!

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted anything but I have a good reason... my little brother just graduated from the US Naval Academy and my entire family and I were in Annapolis to celebrate.

We are all so proud of you Alex!

and I can't forget to mention the cookies my Mom and I made for the occasion :-)