Monday, October 29, 2012

Yummy Homemade Devil's Food Cake

I made this cake last week for my nephew's 21st birthday.  He's a chocolate lover, so it's a homemade Devil's Food cake, made with dark cocoa.  Talk about rich!  You need a gallon of milk per slice!!




I used a chocolate fudge frosting, also made with dark cocoa, to cover the cake, then decorated with butter cream frosting, chocolate filled rolled wafers, white and dark chocolate shavings and raspberries.

Happy Birthday, James!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Silver Rosette Cake

I'm still practicing on rosettes for the wedding cake I have coming up.  My grand daughter didn't care, as long as it was silver!  Of all the colors to pick from, she chooses silver!

So here it is:



Here's a close up that shows the silver better:


I used Wilton Color Mist for the silver.  It was my first time to use it.  It worked pretty good, all except for the fine layer of silver dust all over my kitchen!!

Happy Birthday, Nicole!  Can't believe your already seven!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Home Organization Week Seven - The Linen Closet

What I call my linen closet, really isn't one at all.  It has very little linen in it.  It's basically a closet we built when we moved in this home.  

When we moved in, the only closet, besides in the bedrooms, was a coat closet.  It's arrangement  divided the living room and family room and created an entry area.  We decided to take it out to open up the area.  So that left me with no closet whatsoever.  Since the family room was very large, and we were going to be using it for a dining room anyway, we took five foot off one end and divided it into two closets: one for linen/storage and the other for a walk-in closet in our son's room.  So that gave me a four and a half by five and a half foot linen/storage closet!  We put the shelves that were in the family room in this closet.  You would not believe the amount of stuff that closet holds!  

When we put together our walk-in pantry, it created a giant shuffle.  I was able to move all kinds of stuff out of my linen closet to the kitchen, leaving me with a very empty space.

Here's my closet before the shuffle:




A large portion of my space was taken up with dishes!  It's my good dishes that we use for special occasions.  And since I have a weakness for beautiful dishes, inherited from my mother and grandmother, my collection keeps growing!  I just recently added two more sets.  

Anyway, this collection took up almost half of my storage space.  As you can see in my kitchen/pantry post, I now have a space for all my dishes in a kitchen cabinet.  That definitely freed up space in this closet!

Here it is now:






We have a lot of games!!  Didn't quite realize how many until I organized these shelves.  The highchair on top is used frequently by my three smallest grandchildren.



I still have some kitchen type items in there, mostly my canning jars and vases.  And some cupcake stands and such that I will eventually make room for in my pantry.  And the fourth shelf down holds paint cans, which I like to keep in an easy to get to place for the many projects I have going.  Maybe someday, I will be finished with all my projects and can send the paint cans to the shop!

You might have noticed the floor.  Yep, that's the sub-floor showing!  That's the one thing we didn't get done before we moved in five years ago.  We are getting ready to add a fireplace to our home, and when we do, the linen/storage closet door will have to be moved to another wall.  Hopefully, when that happens, we'll get the floor covered.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Home Organization Week Four: The Office (Several Weeks Late!)

abfolbutton




office: n :  place where business is transacted.

And, believe me, there is an awful lot of business transacted in this office!  Some fun, some not so much.

We live in a double-wide mobile home in a mobile home park owned by my dear father-in-law.  Since he lives miles and miles away, our family's lot in life is to keep the place running.  And the office/book work is my part to play.

When we moved in this home five years ago, my office was in the room that is now my walk-in pantry, just off the kitchen.

When my youngest son married in 2009, I took over his bedroom as my office.  It was so good to spread out a bit. The room had red walls, and a light cream carpet.  It was down the hall, so it wasn't a great location for the first of the month rent collection.

But I repainted the walls and set up shop anyway.

The idea of adding an exterior door to the room began forming in my head last winter.  It would be sooo convenient if tenants could come into an office to pay rent instead of having to be in my home.  I drew it all out on my trusty plan drawing program and presented it to my dear hubby.  And he made it happen!!

In the following pictures, we had already begun the work.  I'm terrible about taking before pictures.  Bookshelves are emptied, and a metal cabinet is moved out of it's spot where the new door is going.
Note the cream carpet. Not a good color for a high traffic area!







Bookshelves gone and a window and door cut in.




My oldest son, hard at work!




My hubby hard at work!



My youngest son, trying to get the place secure for the night.




This is what my office looked like when I walked in this past Monday morning.  A great space, but look at that desk!  I am terrible about putting off filing.  Why is that so hard??????








I have THREE computers. The one I work with now, replaced an older one which was about to crash, which replaced an older one which was about to crash!!  Neither of which have actually crashed . . .  All the important book work has already been backed up on the old computers, and all that is left are thousands of pictures!  Procrastination again!!

My plan is to have the newest older computer cleaned off and set up for my gran kids to play educational games on.  Another project.

This door was painted white. But, as in most mobile homes, most everything is built cheap.  These doors were a wood look, which means the wood grain was actually just paper glued to the door. After I painted, it started peeling off.  So I finished the peeling and, as you see in this picture, I need to paint the door again.  But if I waited until I had time to do that, this post would be months instead of weeks late!




And note the HUGE computer monitor!  Don't you just love the flat screens we have now?

So, here's my office cleaned up.  Desk cleared, junk put away, etc.  Still lots to do, but that'll have to do for now!!






My hubby got fancy on me and put these on the trim above the doors.



We used the "lick & stick" vinyl tile for the floor since it is such a high traffic area.  It's holding up great so far.



And here's a picture of  the "kitty" as two of my youngest grand daughters call it!  My mother-in-law painted all three of the paintings I have hanging in here.



So, as you can see, we've done a lot of work on the office, but there's still a lot to do.  Hopefully, life will slow down a bit after the beginning of the year and I'll get all my projects finished!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

First off, let me explain:  these are not the best photos, but since everyone, including myself, forgot their cameras, these are all I have!  They were taken with a phone camera.  What did we ever do without phone cameras, anyway???

This cake was made for my grand daughter's second birthday.  She ordered Hello Kitty, but since I have a wedding cake coming up with these roses, I need LOTS of practice.  So, we added a Hello Kitty to the cake and decorated with Hello Kitty, and had a Hello Kitty party with a rose cake!!




Kami didn't mind a bit!



She's just a little excited!!




Happy Birthday, Kami!!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

More Fall Leaf Cookies

 I tried a different technique on these Fall Leaf Cookies.  I saw it on this blog earlier in the week.





Mine don't look quite as good as hers, but I have the whole autumn season to perfect it!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Fall Leaf Cookies

 Fall Leaf cookies I made for my mother-in-law's birthday!






Hope you had a wonderful birthday!!