Sunday, February 27, 2011

11/50 - Easter Wreath

Found a pretty wreath on whipperberry while browsing pinterest and told my mom I'd love to make some for Easter with her.
She had her paper all cut when I got to her house, however the night before I wasnt sure if I still wanted to do mine with the mod podge. So we decided to do hers the same way and mine different (and actually ended up doing hers a bit different still)
I helped her mod podge strips of paper...
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I've still got glue on my nails!

Then we needed to paint the base wreath but stopped for a pic together
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Then painted
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While they dried mom worked on her strips and I cut mine
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Then it was time to glue everything together YAY HOT GLUE GUNS!!
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Just need to add some Easter goodness
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ta-da!
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I didnt glue any of the Easter stuff in, instead I picked the colors my place is decorated with so I can use it for other holidays by just adding cute things.

I currently have it hanging in my window but will eventually have to find a better spot for it (its hard to see any detail with the lighting)

Momma started a blog and wrote about hers here.

I also made some Cream Cheese Cookies from Bake, Sew, Sing last night to contribute to dinner with my neighbors.
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However, I didnt have quite enough sugar so I added a bit of brown sugar and ground up some fancy sugar to coat the outside of the cookies. I also added a touch of almond extract. I like how they turned out! Very moist inside and a nice crunch on the outside, I did have to bake them closer to 9 minutes though (recipe calls for 7)

Cake Mix Cookies

Easiest cookies EVER

Found the recipe on Stephanie Cooks who got it from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 oz.) box cake mix (I used vanilla cause its what I had on hand)
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used a whole bag of mini's)
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Directions:
-preheat oven to 350
-mix cake mix and baking powder
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-add eggs and oil
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-mix until well blended
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-stir in chocolate chips
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-scoop balls (hehe) onto cookie sheet
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-bake 9 minutes
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-let cool for a bit on the sheet before transferring to wire rack

then NOM
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Saturday, February 19, 2011

10/50 - Earring Holder

I live in a studio, it has a small bathroom. Luckily it has enough room that I've been able to add containers for storage.
One thing I didnt give myself enough room for was my earrings.
This is what I had been using...
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It just wasnt cutting it!

I had some ideas but was adamant about not buying anything for this project.

Then I looked at my craft table...
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AHH! How'd that happen?

Dont worry, I fixed it! (just dont look at my bed)
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I had these little cork boards I got at the dollar tree and spotted them while cleaning and decided thats what I'd use!

Cork, wire, and pokey thing...
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Drew some lines
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Poked some holes then put the wire in
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(The back is ugly, but it doesnt matter)

Then I just had to hang and fill them up!
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The great thing about it being cork is I can store my studs on it also!
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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Banana Cupcakes

I've actually been calling these Banana Bread Cupcakes... Cause thats what they are like!
I got the recipe from Cheesecake for All (see recipe there) - I didnt have buttermilk so I did the Milk/Lemon thing.

Got all my ingredients together (except for the cream cheese frosting, that was out of the picture but still on the counter)
Banana Cupcakes - Ingredients

It has a few steps to it so I needed 3 bowls
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mmm all mixed up! (the batter tasted good!)
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I didnt take a pic of the tin filled, but I filled them almost to the top, they didnt rise too much so that worked out well

Then bake!
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Now for the Cream Cheese Frosting

Butter and Cream Cheese
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Vanilla
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Powder Sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting

Nommm
Cream Cheese Frosting

Ta-Da!
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Monday, February 14, 2011

9/50 - Cupcakes!

WOOO CUPCAKES!

Now, I normally wouldn't count a cupcake as a 'project' but I used the stove for a couple things making it a whole new world for me! And as I said in my first post about projects... new things in the kitchen are going to be projects!

I used the recipe from 'What's For Dinner' - Its a Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream (a whole new-to-me kind of buttercream! made with Granulated Sugar!)

While I was at my moms last weekend we were watching Cupcake Wars and I was like "UGHGGJUHGRFJ! I WANT TO MAKE CUPCAKES!" she said "WE SHOULD!!" and then it happened!

While she went to the store to get milk and liners I started what I could. I got the cocoa mixture ready and started the dry ingredients... She got back right in time!
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I got everything together and was about to add the cocoa when...
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THIS ISNT LOOKING RIGHT!

Then I realized "Crap! I added the butter! oops!" (butter was supposed to be for the frosting, NOT the cupcakes)

So I started the batter over and it looked great so I was able to add the cocoa mixture
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messily fill cups
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and bake!
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(dont they look nice?!)

So while they cooled I made the frosting... You have to mix the milk and flour until its kind of the consistency of brownie batter, add vanilla, then let it cool to room temp. While it was cooling to room temp you beat the crap out of sugar and butter. With exception of scraping down the edges sometimes I literally had it mixing the entire time it took the flour/milk/vanilla to cool...

I read the comments on her blog and some had problems with mixing so much it then separated... so I dont know what I did but it worked!

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NOMMM
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So the cake part is very moist, exactly how I like it, light and very cake-like. The frosting is SUPER light, like whipped cream light! and its got a very light taste, not very sweet, but enjoyable. My personal preference is more sugar but it was def. nice for something new!

Also Mom and I decided we're going to try some bakeries around and just share what we get... so we went to a place today and got some kind of raspberry chocolate cake.
The cakes frosting tasted EXACTLY like this, except it had a raspberry flavor to it.

I guess I should take pics of what we get from now on cause we totally graded it.

We went to Piece of Cake in Sellwood
I guess this is what we got:
Chocolate Raspberry Buttercream Ganache
Layers of chocolate cake filled with raspberry, iced in buttercream & topped with dripping ganache.

We gave the bakery a C-
It was very cute inside, you can see the whole kitchen, but the only things that had labels were the cupcakes. So we had to ask about each cake... which was difficult because the woman there had an accent and talked SUPER soft. I literally leaned into her and had her repeat herself, even with no accent I would have had to have her repeat herself.
She gave us a menu but there are no pictures... so it was very hard to decide, and they kept the cut cakes out of sight, so you couldnt even get an idea from looking at them. It kind of killed the experience.
She also didnt ask if we were eating there or taking it, she just put it in a to-go box... so we brought it back and ate it. We didnt even see what it looked like til we got back!
We both agreed if we saw the cakes inside neither one of us would have decided to get it, a very unexciting looking cake.

The cake itself got a C
It was ok tasting but super boring. The raspberry flavor was too faint.

So I dont know that we will go back again just because the way its set up was too difficult to be visually stimulated. (Which is how I pick what I want!)
This was very disappointing cause I always pass this place and was very excited to finally try it... WOMP WOMP...

WHEW LONG post!

Monday, February 7, 2011

8/50 - Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

My mom and I have been talking about getting hardware on her cupboards for quite a while now.
I kept telling her we needed to go pick some stuff out and she kept asking me when I was going to do it.

Finally she said "will you come over Saturday and get the hardware on my cupboards?"

So finally it was set! This was going to happen!

I ended up going over on Friday after work. We went to Home Depot and found that most of their selection is by order, and the selection they do have in the store is minimal. We even asked to take home the store samples so we could pick one. (They said no)

We picked out two then headed to Lowe's.

*cue heavenly sounds and sparkly lights*

Their selection was HUGE and they had so many on sale! We picked out eight to ten more (I didnt get any pics)

When we got back to moms I got to work figuring out which looked best while she was working on something else. She finished and came down, I had four picked out that I liked and had her hold them up and see what she liked also. I talked her into my favorite one so back to Lowe's we went!
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Now came the measuring (there were some issues but I eventually figured it out!)
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I was able to finish 1 row of drawers before heading home for the night.

Came back a little after noon on Saturday to finish it up!

Had to take down the hard-to-reach cabinets
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Moving along
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And after some time... DONE!
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Mom loves and, and so do I!