Happy Birthday to Me...

My Birthday was on the 16th and I finally got around to 

making my birthday cake last week.  

It turned out great and was super easy to make!  

Tutorial to follow later this week!

Little Miss Sassy Pants....

My rotten little girl...

It's here...Keurig Vue House Party

 I received my House Party Keurig Vue Party Pack today 

and I'm SUPER excited!!!

Not only did I receive a Keurig Vue, I also received 84 Vue Cups, 2 mugs, hot/cold cups, napkins, cookies and mints and coupons to share with my guests for 40% and 25% off a Keurig Vue.  I received all of this for FREE for being a House Party Host

Who's ready to try out some amazing coffee!!!

Paint Refinishing Fail...

You've seen a couple post with me using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, well I wanted to show you some bar stool's I painted with just plain old flat paint from Wal-Mart. 

Bar stool's before painting them with flat paint from Wal-Mart

After 1 coat of flat yellow paint from Wal-Mart

 Bar stool in the front has had 4 coats and bar stool in the back has had 2 or 3. 

As you can see from the pictures using your plain flat paint doesn't cover very well and it left brushstrokes like no other.  I will be sanding these bar stools down (to get brush strokes out) and will be repainting them with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in English Yellow.

I'd happily spend the $37.95 on a quart of AS Chalk Paint and only paint 2 coats vs painting 5+ coats of flat paint from Wal-Mart!!

New picture of HOOCH

Hooch is around 4 months old now and has DOUBLED in size from a month ago when we got him!  He has "pointed" at several things including Diesel our Mastiff/Sheperd Mix and loves chasing our cats around the yard!  He is in fact a Pointer and has caught several mice and likes go venture up to the Gilead Store to visit people! 

$15 Coffee Table + AS Chalk Paint = GORGEOUS

I am loving Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!    

Here is my coffee table I found on a Facebook Buy-Sell-Trade group for $15!  Before painting and yes I forgot to take a before picture because I was so excited to us AS chalk paint, the coffee table was medium/dark stained and has a glass insert on the top.  I painted 2 coats of AS chalk paint in Old White, letting each coat dry.  After the 2nd coat, I let it dry overnight and distressed it the next day and then added the AS clear wax

Stay tuned for more updated living room pictures! 

Monster Cake

Now most of you have seen photos of my kids birthday parties and yes I know I go a little crazy, but I love doing it!  Everytime my kids hear the word "Birthday" they automatically ask me if I am going to make a Birthday Cake.  Since my birthday is coming up next week, I decided to post some of the birthday cakes I've made, starting with Liam's 2nd Birthday Monster Cake!

 

With making a decorative cake there are a few things you are going to need that you won't think about, the most important other than cake pans, decorating bags and tips is a Cake Leveler, to cut off the dome shape on the top of your cake.  Next your going to need a metal Spatula, these are a must for smoothing out your icing.  Then your going to need a Turntable to make decorating your cake easier!  

The icing recipe I use can be found here Extra Special Buttercream Icing.  It has a nice flavor and texture to it.  For coloring, I use AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste coloring that can be found at Hobby Lobby or Cake Specialty Stores.

I didn't take pictures of putting the Monster Cake together before icing, so I'll have to post another tutorial on that later.  

The cake itself is made of 5 layers of cake with icing between each layer.  The cakes are made with Pillsbury White Cake mix (yes I use box cake mixes on my cakes, I've found if I use a homemade recipe they are too moist and don't hold up as well). 

This is the base of the cake (4 leveled layers of cake and the top layer is the leftover cake cut off to form the rounded part)  I then put a layer of icing on cake.  As you can see I didn't get it really smooth because I knew I would be covering it up with piping.  

 

I piped a band at the bottom using a 1M (large star) tip then using a 5 (small dot) tip I started adding the Monster fur!  With the fur I pushed the tip in the iced cakes and pulled out while squeezing the icing bag until it was the length I wanted it, before you pull away stop squeezing! 

  

The Monster fur took about 3 hours to pipe!  And my hand hurt and was purple afterwards!  For the Eyes and Mouth I used Wilton Ready-To-Use White Rolled Fondant and used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Black for the mouth and eye balls.  For the eyes, I used a cookie cutter and the mouth I free-handed using this fondant cutter.

Happy 2nd Birthday Liam!