T Shirt Scarves

I know I said way back when that I wanted to do a post about the t-shirts scarves that I found on Pinterest and made for Christmas presents.  I have put it off because, even though I made several of them, I only made one style for my presents.  There are several variations that I wanted to try and make, but I have been so busy with other things the t-shirts for the new projects continue to sit on the shelf and call out to me.  I definitely want to make more scarves, as well as some other ideas I found, all using just plain old t-shirts.  I have had several people who check in on my blog ask about the scarves, so rather than keep everybody waiting on my schedule to clear, I decided to go ahead and at least share the first scarves with you all.

 
This is pinned to my Pinterest Board "Christmas Present Ideas"

If you look thru the "Christmas Present Ideas" as well as my "DIY & Crafts" boards you will see some of the other scarf ideas that I still want to try.  It will happen!!  Just not exactly sure when.........

This is hands down the easiest project I have ever done!  Seriously only took like 5 minutes to make.  I did cheat a little bit.  I knew this was gonna' be one of my Christmas presents to all the girls and while I was wandering the aisles of Michaels, my favorite store ever!  I came across some strips of t-shirt material.  I wouldn't normally buy it because at regular price I could very easily by 3 t-shirts, cut them up myself and have at least 6 times more strips of material to work with, but these were on clearance for $2.49 and I knew that plain t-shirts at Walmart ran about $3.49. I assumed you would get about the same amount of strips to work with but after buying the shirts and cutting them up, I found that you get almost double the strips from a shirt. Oh well, lesson learned.  

I got out my t-shirts and started cutting.  The strips I bought at Michaels were about 1/2 inch wide and I knew I wanted to make all the scarves relatively the same so made sure to cut the t-shirt at the same width, but you can cut them any size you like.  Some of the info I read said that the wider you cut your strips the fuller the look of the scarf.

I mentioned before that I could not live without my rotary cutter.  It makes so many of my projects 100 times easier and this was definitely one of them.  But if you don't have one, this project can still be done easily enough.  Will just take a little longer.

The instructions said to use XL to XXL shirt so that your strips will be longer, but if you wanted it to be smaller, you could use whatever size shirt you want.  Once all the strips are cut, you just gather up your strips. Again, since I had pre-bought the strips and there were only 12 strips in the packet, I stuck with that game plan and only used 12 strips from the shirt even though at 1/2 each you have at least 6-8 more.  I will use the extra for another project at another time, but you can use them all for yours.  Grab the inside of the loops and stretch as far as you can.  The edges immediately curl for you!!  All you do then is just tie them all together.  I cut off a strip from the arm and used that to tie them.

I did tie them all with the t-shirt material first and that looked great as is.  You could totally be finished at this point if you wanted.  But I decided I wanted to add a little extra.  These are some that I had found some pretty broaches and pinned them over the area where I tied them all together.

I also had some leftover ribbon from another project that I used on some other gifts.  Sorry didn't get pictures of those for you, but you get the idea.

If you would rather purchase the scarves, the picture from my Pinterest board is from the Etsy shop "BlueEyesAndBareFeet" they are for sale for $19.50 each and she makes the pretty flowers to put on hers.  Also, if you do some checking on Pinterest, you will find many different ways that you can wear these scarves.  The pictures I took of mine are with them doubled, but I have seen them used in several different ways that are equally cool.

                                 I would definitely recommend you give this project a try!!
There are LOTS more scarf ideas - vests - dressed up tee's and MUCH more!!  I want to do them all and most certainly will - just not exactly sure when..........

                                                     Just a plain old t-shirt - who knew!!


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Nana Day Lunch

                                                             Time to Feed the Kids!!

Well, it was Nana day and of course the kids always have their favorite foods and I always try to keep most if not all of what they like on hand. Hey, I'm Nana, it's a big responsibility!! Anyway, thought I would try to steer them a little outside of the box and try some recipes that I had found on Pinterest.




Both of these are posted to my board "Food & Recipes"

I was at the store buying the biscuits for my last post, "Biscuit Makeovers" and saw the crescent rolls.  I had remembered seeing a recipe that used them, so decided to buy them and used the recipe at a later date.  When it came time for lunch, I decided to try it out but I didn't have string cheese or pepperoni.  I'm thinking, if I make another trip to the grocery store I will end up buying three times more than I planned, because of the cute little faces looking at me and saying, "Nana, PLEASE, can we have that?"  So.... I looked in the fridge and found turkey slices and American cheese.  They like these two and have made them sandwiches, so decided to give it a try.  I put the turkey and cheese on the crescent roll and thought it needed a little something extra......... ranch dressing!!  They love it on everything!!

                                                     I baked them just as the recipe said......

Looking Good!!

Ok, so now for a little accompaniment!  I am a huge fan of "Cheez its"  I convince myself that I'm buying them for the kids, but if I'm totally honest, the kids eat a few and after they go home, I devour the whole box!!  They are SO good!!

I found the recipe on Pinterest to flavor the oyster crackers and one of the ingredients is "Ranch Dressing Mix".  Since the crescent rolls also have Ranch, I thought these two would be a good lunch for the kids.  I followed the recipe exactly and they were very, very easy to make!  The were really good, but I have to say, they pale in comparison to a Cheez it.  Oh well, continue the search at another time.

It makes quite a bit and for another use on these.  A couple of days later, I had taken out some pork chops and was gonna' make my version of "Shake n Bake" pork chops.  Rather than buying the mix, I just season my own bread crumbs.  But when I get ready to cook dinner, I had no bread crumbs in the pantry.... Hmmmm.  Ah Ha!!  I crushed the seasoned crackers and used them!!  It was pretty yummy!!

OK, so lunch for the kids.  I plated them up.

And gave them to the kids

The final word on lunch from the "judges".  Landin liked the oyster crackers.  I asked him if he liked them better than Cheez it's, he actually said that he did.  However, Allie, didn't like them at all.  As for as the crescent sandwiches, neither one was impressed.  Danny and  I liked them, but not enough to go to the trouble of making them rather than just making a turkey and cheese sandwich. 

Oh well, moving on to the next recipe experiment!!  I might try the crescent rolls again, but with the Pepperoni and string cheese - maybe......

Cork Crazy!

                                                      Corks, Corks and More Corks!!

My 2011 New Years Resolution was to finally start an online Arts & Crafts business and make and sell all the things that I have been making and giving as gifts to friends and family for years.  Everyone has been bugging me to do this and I finally got up the courage to give it a try.  Well, I have been in business for a little less than a year now and it's slowly beginning to become a profit making venture.  Either on my online Esty page, at local Arts and Crafts Bazaars and my sweet hubby has
even shared some of his man cave with me so that I am able to have a display of all of my goodies for customers to drop by and check it out.  What a guy, right!!

Among the many things that I make and sell are hand painted wine glasses, cut and engraved wine bottles and misc. products made out of corks.  On occasion, I have been asked, "Do you drink all of  that wine?"  I kinda' have to giggle at that one.  Don't get me wrong.  I do enjoy a good glass of wine or two, but The answer is no, well, not all, I do save all of my bottles, jars and corks, but I also have friends and family who bring me bottles and  my best friend works at a restaurant that serves wine so she collects all of their corks and gives them to me.  Since my cork collection has been growing in the last few months, I've been trying to come up with some new ideas for corks.  So, where else would I go, but to my faithful and never disappointing Pinterest!!



These are both pinned to my board "DIY and Crafts"

The first picture is one that my daughter, Danielle has requested.  It's on my list Danielle, I promise!!

Since Valentines Day is right around the corner, I thought something to do with hearts would be a good idea and I had seen several cork/chalkboards that others had made on Etsy.com.  So using all of these ideas I came up with my own. WA-LA!!

Will soon have this for sale on my Etsy page, but if you wanted to make your own, it's pretty simple really. All you need is a simple wooden board, whatever size you like, then just paint the entire board with chalkboard paint.  I had some that I had bought at Walmart, but I have also seen on Pinterest, recipes to make your own chalkboard paint in any color you like.  I will definitely be trying that out one day soon.  Ok then just a few wine corks.  For the border, I cut the corks in half and glued them all the way around the edge.  Then for the heart I stood them up end to end and glued them into the shape of a heart.   I did get a little glue here and there on the chalkboard as I was gluing on the corks, no worries.  Just touch up with a little more paint!!

Here are a couple other ideas I have come up with.

Christmas Ornaments

Candle Holder

A friend was also telling me that she had strung corks for garland on her Christmas tree!!  I have seen lots of ideas and I still have lots more corks to work with, so be assured that I will be going to Pinterest for more inspiration.  Well, right after I get Danielle's jewelry board made.

Recycle those corks!!  Even if you don't want to use them, bring them over!!!! 

I will find a use for them!!

Biscuit Makeovers

                                                 Plain Old Biscuits?  Who Knew?

This post actually contains two "Nana Days".  I knew I was gonna' have the kids so I went onto Pinterest to get some ideas for goodies and craft projects. I actually found two different recipes for goodies that I was curious about and they both started with ready made buscuit dough.  One recipe miraculously transforms the dough into fresh, warm donuts and the other was a take on sticky buns.  They both sounded SO yummy that I had to try them!!  Also, I have been told as of late, not by grand kids but by my kids that my goodie stash has been soarly lacking as of late, so thought this would be perfect for both grand kids and agitated kids with sweet tooths.

These two recipes are pinned to my board "Food & Recipes"

Ok, so, first things first!  On "Nana Day" one, I made the donuts exactly as the recipe called for.  The recipe said to heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil so I decided to use a small skillet (1) to save on a large amount of vegetable oil and (2) so that I could do these in smaller, more manageable batches.  Thought this would help on having less mishaps.  Anyway, I didn't have a regular round hole cutter, but I did have the small heart shape so decided that would be perfect!  I am making these for the most perfect, most loved grand kids in the whole world right!  Hearts it was!

Got the oil heated up and got to work! 

It went a lot faster than I had anticipated.  About the third batch, I burned a couple of them a little bit, but all in all it was WAY easier and faster than I thought it would be! 

I followed the recipe exactly as they said and used butter, then dipped both sides in sugar and cinnamon.  Four of five grand kids and hubby said they were way better than store bought!!  I was thrilled and actually surprised!  In the back of my mind, I was a little afraid they were just gonna' taste like a biscuit with sugar and cinnamon on them, but they really did taste like fresh donuts!  Fresh, warm donuts!  Mmmmm.  Definitely making them again next Nana day with a few more ideas.

As far as the craft project I had planned, well, it kinda' got taken over by 4 and 5 year olds.  All they wanted to do was play with more salt dough!  Seriously, need something to keep the kids entertained - make salt dough!!

So...... on to "Nana Day" two!  We decided to make it a sleepover, so I knew I was gonna' make the "Sticky Bun" recipe with the biscuits and then for in the morning I wanted to make more of the donuts.  Landin arrived before Allie, so we got to work on the sticky buns.  I read the recipe and the blog about the recipe and the girl said that she had used the "Grands" biscuits and had learned a lesson and would use the regular ones for the next batch.  So, I used the regular ones and followed the recipe exactly.  It easy ingredients and easy to assemble, but I have to tell you, I wasn't impressed.  First of all, after baking, they stuck to the pan.  Now, this may have something to do with the "New Formula" Pam No-stick spray, because I am so Not impressed with that either!  Don't buy it!!  I have NEVER had anything stick when using the regular Pam spray.  I bought the new formula and so far have had everything stick so far.  Ok, I digress, anyway, even after I got them out of the pan, not so pretty I might add, but out of the pan and on a serving plate.  These actually did taste like dressed up biscuits.  I'm thinking the lady that used the "Grands" biscuits had the same problem I did, so don't think it has to do with the size.  Also, I like sticky buns that are actually sticky.  These seemed dry.  So, all in all, would not recommend this recipe.

See, they even look dry........

The sleepover was awesome, as always!!  We wake up in the morning and I knew that it was going to take some convincing to get Allie to eat donuts rather that her all time favorite Nana breakfast - blueberry pancakes.  This is no joke!  She NEEDS her blueberry pancakes!  On the last sleepover we were laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep and Allie snuggled up to me and said in her sweetest voice, "Nana, will you make me blueberry pancakes in the morning?"  Hello!!  Of course!!!  Snuggles and sweet voices get me every time!!  I told her that I wanted to make them some donuts, but if she still wanted her blueberry pancakes afterward, I would still make them. 

So, this time, I followed the same directions, right up to the cinnamon and sugar.  Allie's favorite donut is always chocolate with sprinkles and Landin doesn't like regular chocolate, but he does like white chocolate with sprinkles.  I've got it covered!

I used white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips and added a little butter and milk and melted them in the microwave at 30 second intervals.

I skip the butter this time, the chocolate seemed to stick better without it.

Ummm - the non-sprinkle ones are for me and Danny.  Hey, we have to eat breakfast too!!

They were a hit!!  From Landin I got a raised eyebrow and a "Nana, can you make these everytime we come over?"  and from Allie I got the sweetest smile ever and a "Nana, I love you."

Definitely will be making these again and again!!

You will have to wait in anticipation to see the craft project we started.  It's a work in progress, but it's gonna' be great!!

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Alaska Northern Lights

Ok, so this is kinda' stretching it on my Pinterest inspired blog, but this has been an exciting day for me that I just had to share!!

I guess I should back up and tell you what this story is all about.  Back in May, I had done a 4 foot by 4 foot painting of a Poppy field for my best friend and had taken it to the UPS store to have them package it and mail it.  While I was there, a lady saw the painting, 4 foot by 4 foot is kinda' hard to miss right?  Anyway, she saw it and told me that she worked at the local art gallery and she had never seen a painting like mine.  I do a lot of three dimensional accents to my paintings.  She said that I had to bring some of my work into the gallery!  It was a huge compliment and I was completely shocked and thrilled, and frankly, a little scared.  What if they didn't like my work.  I'm just now beginning to feel like I might be able to do this, what if I got shot down.  Would it destroy all the confidence that I had started to build when it came to my talents?  All of this was running thru my head and even though I knew I would eventually get up the courage to do it, I kept putting it off. 

In October, my daughter-in-law, Jayme, had ask for a painting of the Northern Lights for her birthday present which was coming up in November.  I hadn't even planned to do a painting for her this year, I know she loves my paintings, but I kinda' felt like I might be overwhelming them with paintings.  But she ask for it, so, of course, it was hers!!   I painted it for her and I have to say, I thought it turned out pretty good.  Jayme said that it was her favorite painting that I had done for her so far. 

                                                                               
That gave me the idea that I should do a much larger version to take to the Art Gallery.  I made the decision to try and get it painted and to take it to the gallery in time for Christmas shopping.  It was exciting to work on it, but I had to keep reminding myself to relax and enjoy it.  I was putting way too much pressure on myself to make it perfect.  Finally,  I finished it and I really do think it turned out really good.  But, still, I couldn't bring myself to take it to the gallery.  Those nagging insecurities got the best of me.  I have to say in my defense that I did proudly display it in my own little art section in Danny's shop!

So, today, a friend came by to visit that we hadn't seen since last April.  He was out in the shop with my husband, Danny and he came and told me that Ken was here visiting.  As always, when he comes to visit we have to go have lunch at our favorite Thai Restaurant.  Before we headed out though, I told him that I had stolen a portion of Danny's Man Cave for my own goodies and to come up and see.  I took him up to look around and he saw my Northern Lights Painting.  He said that he loved it and wanted it!!  I just looked at him and said, "Really?!"  He laughed and said, "Yes, how much?"  He bought it!!  Holy Moly, he bought it!

Everyone tells me that I shouldn't be shocked when people want to buy my work, but, honestly, I hope the thrill of knowing someone likes my work enough to pay for it never wears off.  It's exciting and humbling at the same time.  I know I still have to work thru those nagging little voices of insecurity, and believe me, today helped me move in that direction!!   Thank you Liz and Jayme for your belief in me and my work!!  I am very honored that God gave me this talent and I'm also very proud that I am trying to use it to the best of my ability. 

Hey!!  This does connect to Pinterest, because I also use a lot of the photography for inspiration for other work that I want to do and I found one that just might be my inspiration for my next painting of the Northern Lights.  I do need to do another Northern Lights painting after all.  And who knows, maybe this one will actually make it into a gallery.


What do you think?


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A Tiny Tutu!!!!

As you know by now, my youngest granddaughter, Ella, turned one last Friday.  I had found several Tutu instructions on Pinterest so decided she would make a perfect little princess wearing a tutu while she opened the rest of her gifts on her big day.   I had to make her one!! 

This is pinned to my "DIY & Crafts" Board

Ella is a tiny little thing, she just had her one year check up and she only weighs 19 pounds.  Most of the Tutu patterns were sized 2T and up, but I could just picture her opening her birthday presents wearing her tiny tutu.  Adjusting a pattern like this was not big deal, right?  A couple of days before I bought all the material needed, she came over for a visit and I measured her waist size as well as the length from her waist to the floor.  Her waist measured 19 inches while she was fully dressed.  Didn't think that was a big deal since she would probably wear the tutu over her other clothing anyway.  From her waist to the floor was only 12 inches.  The pattern I had chosen said the tutu would end up measuring 12-14 inches long, I  thought that would be perfect, a long flowing tutu for our little princess!
For Christmas presents, I also had made all three of the youngest grand kids shirts with various decals ironed on and used fabric paint to put their names on them.  They were some of the very last gifts I made before Christmas Eve and apparently I was pretty tired and made Ella's backwards!!  She has a shirt with a cute little heart & crown that says "Princess" and her name painted on the BACK of a shirt! 

We all got a good laugh from that one and just a little teasing from my kids, since they always say that I lock myself in the Art room for an entire month before Christmas.  So, since her birthday was so close to Christmas, I decided it would be perfect to make her another one, taking care to make sure it was on the front, of course,  and also to match her new Tutu.  A whole little princess outfit for the Birthday girl!  Perfect!!

The pattern called for 4 1/2 yards of tulle.  I knew I wanted to make it two colors.  I had two of my older grand kids with me and off to the fabric store we went!  We found the tulle and my 9 year old granddaughter and I thought the extra sparkly tulle was perfect!  We picked out a pale pink and a white and Lainie carried it over to the cutting station.  Luckily, we weren't the first in line, so we stood and waited a few minutes and while waiting, we found that the "extra sparkly" was definitely not the best choice for a one year old!  Lainie was COVERED in glitter!!!!  Her coat, her shirt, her face, it was even in her hair!!  Not only her but even Landin, who didn't even hold the tulle had it on him!  We were cracking up, talking about how Aunty J's house would be covered in glitter,  and headed back over to pick out a less sparkly tulle for the project.  Got the fabric and the rest of the materials needed and headed home.

The pattern called for 27 inch strips cut 3 inches wide.  Knowing that it needed to be 12 inches long and I would be doubling the fabric, I cut mine 24 inches long instead.  I have to tell you that if you don't already have a rotary cutter, I would highly advise investing in one!!  I can't imagine doing some of my projects, this one included, without one!!

I got all the strips cut and unattached them from myself!  Tulle attacks!!

  In the instructions it had said to just tie a knot in the elastic and measure to the child before sewing, but I didn't quite follow that part.  I had already measured after all, right?  I had also noticed on the pattern the lady said "I use extra tulle because I like my tutu very full".  Sounded good to me!!  Nothing worse than a flat tutu!!  I started knotting the pieces to the elastic as per the instructions. Like I said, there is a lot of static in the tulle, that was the hardest part for me, just trying to keep it from clinging.  A premonition of what was to come?  Maybe.  I got into a rhythm and it moved along pretty fast.  I had also decided that I wanted a satin ribbon around the top to cover all the knots and the elastic.  The original pattern I used did not have that, but it was pretty easy to go back onto Pinterest and find instructions for that too.  Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest?

I finished it pretty quickly and was happy with the results.  My granddaughter, Lainie, came over and saw it.  She said it was super cute but the waist seemed "kinda' big".  I'm still thinking that with clothes underneath it would be perfect, even though with all the "extra" tulle the lady had said to use to make it "extra" full, it was as wide as it was long.  I still wasn't deterred!  She was gonna' be adorable!!

Her birthday arrived.  Our baby is now one!!  She ate her birthday cake and enjoyed it thoroughly!  Her Mom took off her cake covered clothes .  Since it was time to open gifts anyway, I pulled out my gift bag, my vision of her opening gifts in her new outfit dancing in my head!!  She put it on and first of all the elastic was WAY too big, even with clothes underneath, her mom took the satin ribbon and tied it around twice to keep it from falling off.  Also, it really was EXTRA full, she couldn't even see the floor!!  Not such a good idea, especially since she is just learning to walk!!

This is the only picture I have of her in her new tutu because she only wore it for less than a minute!  She couldn't reach her other gifts to open them and it was so full and clingy she kept trying to push it out of her way!!  Oh well......we will save it for when she's a little bigger and can tame the beast, so to speak!!  At least her new shirt has her name on the front!!

Even though this didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned I know there will be more tutu's in my future. I still think it was super cute, just not right for Ella.......yet!!!   I learned a lot this time around!!

Better gifts to come Ella!!

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Alabama Crimson Tide!!!!!

I had to make an extra post to my blog today!!  After watching the BCS Championship game last night I had to definitely celebrate our victory!  Afterall, one of my boards on Pinterest is "Crimson Tide" afterall!!  This picture is from my Pinterest board called "Crimson Tide"!



I was born and raised in Florence, Alabama.  Football in the south is, how should I put this, passionate, yes that's a nice way to put it, passionate!!  The bleachers even at the High School level are always packed with people, but the real love is at the college level.  The cheerleaders, the bands, the pep squads.  You definitely have to experience it first hand to truely understand what a big deal football in the south really is!!  My son, Chad had to go to Mississippi for a 12 week course for his job this past summer and he got to finally experience what I had been trying to explain for years!! He called me after watching his first game and told me, "Mom, now I understand".  There is nothing like it!

Most of my family cheered on the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide.  There were a few relatives who would root for the "other" team.  But for the most part we were all Tide fans as far back as I can remember.  One of my very first "football" lessons was right after I had returned home from a week at Girl Scout Camp.  One of our projects while there was to make a doll.  It was a fun project and I chose orange yarn for my dolls hair, I still remember how she looked.   I braided two ponytails and chose a blue material for her dress.  I was pretty proud of my new creation and after coming home I brought it with me to show it off at one of our family gatherings.  My Papaw (grandfather, for those of you not from the south) picked it up and says, "it would be a lot cuter if it wasn't Auburn colors".   He wasn't being mean, he even laughed, but I was shocked!!  I learned a lot that day (1)Football pride runs deep in the south (2)Auburn is not the right team to root for in our family (3)Auburn colors are Orange and Blue.

A few other fond memories of growing up in the south!!

One year my parents decided to drive our motorhome to one of the home games is Tuscaloosa.  It's only a couple hour drive from where we lived.  All three of us kids and my great aunt Goldie piled in and headed for the game!!  We parked really close to the stadium.  My parents turned on the TV and left us kids with Goldie!  They had only bought two tickets for the game.  We got to watch it on TV!!  It wasn't so bad though.  They could have turned on the TV in our living room and had Goldie watch us there, so the parking lot was definitely a better option!  I can still remember watching the game on TV and still being able to look over at the stadium and hear the roar of the fans!!  We won that day and I remember all three of us kids watching out the window as all the fans piled out afterwards.  The excitement was amazing!

Another time, my brother and I snuck into the stadium to try and watch some of their practice.  Those of you that don't know, this is a big no no.  Security kicked us out pretty quickly, but it was a thrill just to have been there in the stadium with the team for a short time and see them practice!  And, of course, the sneaking in part was pretty cool too!

Once, my Aunt Gladys brought a picture to show to the family.  It was of her with the famous, Bear Bryant.  The best football coach that ever lived!  I remember, as a child, looking at that picture in awe.  My aunt went to movie star status in my eyes that day!!

Over the years I remember lots of Sundays after church at my grandparents house.  All the adults huddled around the TV cheering on our team and yelling at the refs and us grand kids if we got in front of the screen!

Still, to this day, I can't watch the classic movie "Rudy" without crying!

I have talked to some of my family in Alabama today and the excitement of last nights game is electric!  People standing in line at the stores wanting to buy the new T-shirts and Championship memorabilia!!  They can't go anywhere without the topic of football coming center stage!  I wish I could be there just to feel that excitement again!  The pride can't be measured!!

Danny and I are hoping to make a trip back and visit my family either this spring or fall.  Even though I know Danny is hoping to hit a Nascar race, my parents home is not too far from Talledega either.  I, personally,  would love to be able to make it to a college game.  Honestly though, if that isn't possible, even a high school game would bring back fond memories of football in the south!

A few weeks ago, my neice ask me to do some paintings for her.  They are all her favorite images of the Crimson Tide.  Luckily I finished them just in time for her to see them before the big game.  She texted me after the game last night and now wants to add another painting to her new collection - 14th Alabama Crimson Tide Championship!!  I can't wait to get started!!

                                                                         ROLL TIDE!!!

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Happy Birthday my Son!!

As promised, I wanted to show you Chad's birthday cake!  He and his daughter's  birthdays are January 6th.  My daughter-in-law, Jayme had asked for a specific cake for their daughter who loves rubber duckies right now, but for Chad she said to do whatever I want. Ahhhhh - creative control!!  What do do, what to do!!!!

I had made their wedding cake when they got married in November several years ago, it was a gorgeous winter wedding, the cake was all white with this beautiful shimmering dust that I put on to look like icicles.  Ever since then I had wanted to expand on the idea of winter cakes.  Since his birthday is January, definitely winter time, it was my perfect opportunity.   I went to Pinterest for a little extra inspiration!

This is pinned to my board "Inspiration"

I had seen another cake a few months ago, that I didn't pin, but thought was beautiful, it was a dark blue fondont and had shimmering pearls all over it.  The thing I liked about the cake above was the dimensional snowflakes on the bottom left cake.  So with those two ideas in my head I got to work!

On the day before their birthdays, I made the decorations out of "Royal Egg White Frosting" out of one of my old "Wilton Cake Decorating" books.  Use 3 egg whites (room temp), 4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar.  Beat it on high for 7-10 minutes.  It is a nice consistency to work with but will dry hard within 24 hours.  I used a small round frosting tip and got creative!  My biggest concern was to be able to pick up and decorate with the snowflakes once they were dry.  If I made them too fragile they would shatter before I even got them to the cake, so, knowing me and knowing my luck,  just for "backup purposes" you understand,  I made more than double the amount that I thought I would use.

You might notice the yellow blob in the top right corner, well that was my attempt at seeing if the rubber ducky would be better as a royal icing ducky rather that a gum paste ducky.  Not so much!  Didn't look anything like a duck, so that idea was ditched almost immediately!

Oh and have to give you another little tidbit that goes into the "mishap" category.  I got the decorations made and started working on making their birthday presents (more on those in a later post), after all, I only had one day left before they had to be finished.  Started working on them and the power went out for 3 hours.  I got shut down for the night!!

So now, It's the big day and since I had lost a few hours the night before, I got up extra early and got started!  The cakes were baking in the oven by 8am!  I used 3 layers of 8 inch round cakes.  Chad's favorite cake is white cake with white frosting.  I used a regular cake mix for the cake but made homemade buttercream frosting.  It's SO much better than the storebought!!  I used blue food coloring and got to work!!  You have to do a "crumb coat"  It's just a thin layer of frosting, then I put my cake in the freezer for a few minutes to set the frosting.  That way you don't have crumbs showing on the final frosting of the cake. 

If you notice the glass of water and knife, I have a little trick I use to get all the lumps and bumps out of the frosting.  You could also use the special spatula's you can buy for decorating a cake, but I find a simple butter knife works just fine.  Just dip your knife in warm water and smooth over the cake.  Perfect!!

Once it's all smooth, I added a simple border with a flower tip and added the snowflakes!  Remember I told you about the sparkles that I used on their wedding cake, I also added those and found some Christmas cookie decorations that were tiny snowflakes, so added a few of those also. 

Also, remember, I told you that I had made "extras" of the snowflakes, just in case?  Well.........

It was a VERY good idea!!!

The royal icing recipe made LOTS, so I had more than 1/2 still left even after all the decorations.  I didn't want to throw it out, so..........

I made the kids little candies they can enjoy on our next "Nana Day"!

Happy Birthday Chad!  I'm so very proud of the Husband, the Father, the Man you have become.  Love you and pray that the best for you is still yet to come!!