Mohegan Strider's 40th Anniversary cake

Last week I finally got the chance to get back to doing something artistic. Every year our running club has an annual summer picnic and every year my mother in law, sister in law and I make a cake. This year was the 40 year anniversary of the running club so we were asked if we could make something this year that celebrates that milestone. In past years we have always had a ton of left over cake so we opted to make cupcakes. My poor mother in law spent countless hours making 72 chocolate 40's and with only 2 molds it took her way too long. Once I baked and frosted the cupcakes she topped them with the 40s boxed them up and they were ready to go. For a statement piece we made Hermes sandal with wings going back to the original logo. we also made a chocolate Wolf which is our current logo and a chocolate sign showing our 40th anniversary patch. When all was said and done we couldnt have been more pleased. Here are a few detail shots of the finished set up. 

the banner with the cake set up

Hermes's Shoe and the wolf

 40th anniversary patch made in chocolate

close up of the wing detail

the final set up 

Teapot bird house tutorial

This project came about as a gift for my husband's Great Aunt Virginia's 80th birthday who loves birdhouses. When her birthday rolled around this year it wasn't so much of an issue figuring out what I wanted to give her but more so how to not give her the same old bird house. I already built her a traditional bird house and hand painted it a few years back so it had to be unique. As I was hand painting a tea pot for my daughters birthday I thought why not use a teapot for a bird house. A quick google image search I found a few ideas. I liked this format using the lid for bird seed and having the teapot on its side but I did not like the look of wiring the tea pot down so I figured I could modify it a bit and make something like it that was more clean looking. Now I love playing with power tools so this project was right up my ally but dont be afraid if you are not a wood worker you can still have a teapot birdhouse in 2 simple steps. One: pick a teapot you like like. Two: hang it by the handle on a Shepherd's hook throw in some moss and your done. Doesn't get an easier then that. For those of you who love your power tools like me.. here's how I went about making mine. 

First I started wit my board and I cut it on the table saw

Next I pre drilled my holes for the screws

now scre the two pieces together in an "L" shape

once you turn it over it should look like this

Now as you can see here my tea pot wasn't a flat bottom 

mt origianl plan was to drill a hole in the bottom and just screw it to the board but that wasn't going to happen so I used the bandsaw to cut a circle that would fit in the bottom of the teapot.

Now I screwed the circle onto the board Also note the small hole I drilled with a butterfly drill bit (if thats even what its really called) I made sure it was big enough for the top of the teapot lid

now I added 2 hanging screws to the top of the board

now you are going to need some clear epoxy 

Cover the circle with the epoxy and place the teapot over it and let it dry. then do the same with the hole place the lid in the hole filled with epoxy and let it dry 

Once I finished with that I threw some Spanish moss inside the tea pot for the birds

I decided I didn't like the plain board so I oped to cover the boards with the left over spanish moss. I felt it gave the final project more of a woodsy look to it. So here are a few pictures of the finished project. 

Dinosaurs

I feel as if its been forever since I've had a chance to sneak away and make anything never mind find time to blog about it. The other day I was at the store and saw this really cute dinosaur fabric. Knowing that the kids have a dinosaur party to attend this weekend I figured I would grab a yard of the fabric some accent fabric and make them outfits. Mighty ambitious of me seeing as how I haven't used my sewing machine to actually make something from scratch in 3 years. I have used it to re purpose things but that's about it. I also figured I would give using a serger a try seeing as how I haven't used one of those in over 15 years! Now I don't have a serger and going out to buy one isn't going to happen. I asked my sister in law but she was going to NY so I quickly put out a post on Facebook asking if anyone was willing to part with their serger for a day. Before I could blink my neighbor Nancy posted she had one and I could come grab it. Mind you this is at 10:30 pm. See what I mean when I'm always saying how great my friends are. So I ran over and grabbed it. The next day I got to work cutting and sewing. Now me and the serger we are not friends. I was having a ton of issues with the tension and I must have retreaded that machine at least 20 times. There was a lot of taking apart putting back together sewing things backwards.... that's what I get for lining my top with the same fabric. Not that anyone would notice. I'm defiantly not known for being good at sewing but in the end I was  pretty proud of how it turned out. Once her dress was done I had to make matching tie shirts for her brothers. Now using the heat and bond and sewing the ties way harder then it looked. I was planning on making them for Bella's party so I was really glad I got a chance to practice. Lets just say I need to work on  those more. Last thing I did was throw together some bows with the scrap fabric. Now that I am done with that... time to move on to baking cupcakes. Here are a few pictures of the kids in their outfits.

Bella in her dress

matching hair bows

Tristan rocking his tie

Aedan showing off his tie

Pineapple Rice pudding

This past week has been a crazy one. My little 4 month old son came down with pneumonia, my husband is still sick, and baby girl now has a fever. Needless to say I haven't had much time to do anything. I even had to miss my moms night out, I was just to exhausted to go! So when Sunday rolled around and my son had his annual pool party for his karate studio I went into panic mode. I had been so wrapped up in everything going on I didn't prepare something in advance for him to bring.  Knowing I didn't have much time and I had to make something I went through the cabinets and looked for anything quick and easy I could make. I had seen a recipe for a pineapple rice pudding when looking up ideas for the moms night out and decided I would make something like. Now I didn't have all the items I needed to make it from scratch but I did some things that I could use to make an instant version. Here's what I used and how I threw it together. Now I didn't have any whipped cream to top it off with so its not that pretty but if you like rice pudding and you like pineapple it sure was yummy! 

Ingredients: 

1 cup pineapple juice ( you can use water if you dont have pineapple juice on hand)

1 cup instant rice.

4 cups milk

2 pkgs instant vanilla pudding

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

1 can crushed pineapple drained 

Boil the pineapple juice (or water) add instant rice, cover and prepare according to package (dont add salt) and set aside. 

I a large mixing bowl add the 4 cups milk and the instant pudding mixing until pudding is firm. Fold in raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, pineapple and the cooked rice. Place in the fridge for a few hours and let it cool an set. Serve cold and if you want top it off with a little whipped cream and a dusting if cinnamon sugar.

Doesn't get much easier then that... enjoy! 

3 easy steps to hand painting Minnie's Tea Pot

Wow has the last week been super busy. Between trying to catch up on my seriously neglected garden,a few cakes, a couple extra kids for two days, my nieces birthday this week and trying to get into full planning mode for Bella's 2nd birthday I feel a little behind! I did get started on one of my craft projects and hand painted a small tea pot for her party. I think its cute. The small pots are going to be used for decoration but they were also a trial for the larger tea pots if I am able to find some white ones at a reasonable cost. Otherwise we will use a mix of decorated teapots. After I did the first one and realized just how simple and easy you can make a customized pot, I figured I would document the second one using a different pattern for all of you here. So here is what I did.. super easy and simple....

 First you will need to pick up a few supplies.

For this project I just have a small white tea pot, ceramic water based non toxic paint (you can get this at wal-mart or any crafting store), cotton balls ( you might even want q tips for fixing mistakes) and paint brush.

Step one: wipe of the surface with rubbing alcohol. Make sure you do not skip this step because any fingerprint or sticky residue from a price tag will be there permanently once you paint.

Step two: paint your design. I free handed mine but you can also use a stencil. 

QUICK TIP: if you make a mistake use the q tip and some rubbing alcohol to remove the unwanted paint. 

Step three: Place the painted ceramic item in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes and allow to 

cool. 

And there you have it supper easy. Now I just have to do this on some more tea pots, 36 cups and 

saucers! Easy right?

The evolution of a Skyrim Cake

As I sit here waiting for a cake to finish baking and wishing I was at Comic Con back home, I figured I would feature the Skyrim launch cake. This cake came about as a big I'M SORRY to a friend of ours Allen. For 2 years my sister in law and I promised Allen we would make him a birthday cake and for 2 years he went with out for one reason or another. So this past year we were not about forget him and this cake had to be epic! As it turned out right around his birthday the GameStop store Allen works at was going to be having a huge midnight launch party for the game Skyrim. So the idea was hatched to make a Skyrim cake for Allen and if he wanted he could take it to the launch party. I took way to many pictures of the process because so many people ask us how we do things I figured it was a good cake to have a photo book from start to finish.... so enjoy 

I forgot to take a picture of his rice cake base but here is Skeletor with his fondant covering 

(yes we named each head as we were making them)

This is the carved base for Orc boy

 covered in fondant

Here is Normans carved rice crispy face

covered in fondant

Here are all three side by side ready for details and painting. 

My sister in law work on Norman... this was her first big fondant detail job

She was too funny worrying about how he looked. In the end she did a great job.

sill working out all the details

Here is Norman fully painted and read to go

Nex onto Orc boy. I worked on him and I think I took a ton of pictures because the camera was right next to me and he had the most detail work.

Strated his head detail with ropes just like his nose 

here they are once I finished the detail

Now I added lips and teeth

Now he is ready to pain

here he is after I added his mowhawk and paint job

side view

My mother in law did skeletor here he is all finished. 

 now we started to add them to the base

next we started on the hatching dragon egg

My mother in law did an awesome job painting and working out the details 

here i am making the dragon hand 

once we added the dragon egg we threw on some hand painted silver and gold fondant coins and blood

Here is the finished cake

Here is the cake at his launch party

Here is Allen with his cake. I hope the two years he waited was worth it!

And this is how we went from a batch of cake and rice crispies to an orcs head on a sword...happy gaming!