A Guessing Contest!

It's Saturday evening and hubs and I just wrapped up another afternoon of working on my studio. We've finished putting in the rest of the trim work (baseboards, trim around the stairs) with the exception of the skylight window trim. He did cut the pieces for me but I want to paint them before he installs them to avoid getting paint on my "sky" mural. Hubs also removed the ugly ceiling fan and the other two ceiling lights so that I can paint them a dark chocolate brown! I've painted one already and it looks a thousand times better. How I wish I could have prettier ceiling lighting altogether but this is a budget makeover and if I can't change the lighting style, I can surely change the color! And as much as I hate ceiling fans (see in the photo how much dust mine has collected!), in this room, one is absolutely necessary. I do have additional lighting that I will be adding to the space, and maybe even a little chandelier above my desk if hubs can make the cord longer. It's been boxed up forever and I'd love to use it).

Now about that contest! I have lots of furniture pieces that I'm making over or building for my new space. I will somehow be using this antique headboard. I bought it quite a while ago for $5 or $10 dollars. Can you believe that!

To the person that correctly guesses what I will be using this antique headboard for in my studio, I will send to them some of my faux candies as a prize:) If more than one person guesses correctly, I'll put their names in a hat and draw a winner. To make it fun, try not looking at the other guesses when you post your guess. I'd love to see what you all come up with! Only one guess per person, please, and you must include a way for me to contact you if you are the winner.

I'm keeping this contest open until I am finished revamping the headboard and probably after it is in it's place in my completed studio...that may be a month or so from now. But the more guesses, the better!

Have fun!

Oh, I forgot to tell you - I decorated my first real cake on Tuesday in my cake decorating class. Hop on over to my other blog to take a look!

Cake Decorating Class Photos

My first couple of classes have been wonderful. I really wish I would have done this sooner...it's so much fun.

I made my first real cake on Tuesday and we worked on it in class. I only got a few things filled in during class and then brought it home to complete it. I wanted this cake to be for my girls, so I really kind of over did it, lol, because 1)They love cake with lots of icing and girly goodness (that is, except for my tomboy, but she didn't complain!) 2)I wanted to be able to practice different techniques on a real cake and 3)It's just so much fun to decorate a cake!

So here is my over-the-top frosted cake for my girls. The lighting in the photos is not that great as I was in a hurry when I took them and didn't use a tripod as I usually do. You can click on the photos to enlarge them. I need a lot of practice but the girls loved it! I know I should have used medium consistency icing for the blue flowers/stars but it was late and I just grabbed and used what I had in the fridge - which was a bit thinner. Again, I figured the girls wouldn't mind so long as they could eat it! Next week in class, we make a clown cake.

Cottage Studio Before Photos

I know everyone has probably seen photos of my sunroom / office / future craft studio a million times, but for the sake of comparison later, I wanted to share some photos of my "studio in progress". We're coming up on the second weekend of work in here and I was able to get a head start on it last night and today.

By the way, if you'd like to see the *BEFORE* before photos (that is, what the space looked like months ago when I was just dreaming of a studio), just click here.

I took out the banister and carpet on the steps quite a while back, but last weekend we patched the walls as well as insulated the ceiling where the old sky lights use to be. We removed the poorly installed skylights years ago when we replaced the roof and will someday even remove the current old ceiling. The beadboard is ok (I love beadboard!) but it's the thin imitation beadboard and wasn't exactly installed with the greatest of care. So for now, we are left with recessed "patches" on the ceiling, as I call them. My solution to the eyesores was to paint a sky mural within each of the square holes to give the effect of skylights. I painted the murals today but will show them to you later:) I still have one sweet detail to add, plus this weekend hubs will be adding a nice wide moulding around the perimeter of each skylight. When the moulding is up, caulked, and painted, I'll take some photos. But I will tell you that I LOVE how the murals have turned out so far. I didn't know what I was going to do with those big ugly plywood holes, but I really think the murals were just the right solution.

So this is what the studio looked like last night. I apologize for the dark photos - I rarely photograph at night for this reason. It is a small space for sure, but I think the tall ceilings and lots of natural light will make the studio feel less cramped.





(Has anyone seen my ladder?)





What is really exciting for me is that I've finally figured out a color scheme! The walls are *not* going to be the same as kitchen and living room as I thought I would probably choose. I'm going to keep it a little secret until after they are painted, but if you have any good guesses or opinions, I'd love to hear them! I will say that the accent colors I'll be using are white, off-white, and chocolate brown (neutrals that go with just about any color, I think). Choosing paint colors is soooo hard - there are too many options!

So what colors would you choose for this space?

Studio Work Begins!

We started on my studio last weekend, and boy, what a lot of work! I'll be sure to post photos when there is something interesting to photograph:) For now, we've mainly been working on patching the walls and insulating the parts of the ceiling that weren't completely insulated. Work continues this weekend:) There were once sky lights in the studio room...and now there are just plywood "patches" that are quite the eyesores! We removed the skylights when we added a new roof a few years back and have been waiting to deal with the interior holes when we redo the ceiling. We're not ready for that, so I've had to come up with a creative way to make those square patches look like they belong. I finally decided that I would (try to) paint a pretty cloudy sky mural within each of the four squares and trim it out in a nice crisp white moulding. Hopefully the effect will realistic - we shall see! I hope to tackle that soon (this weekend or next) so I'll be sure to post some before and afters! I'm so anxious to have the studio finished because my materials and creations are taking over the rest of the house!

Hubs was also able to get around to mudding the seams of the new drywall in the hallway. Still lots of sanding, reapplying mud, sanding, etc., to go, but it looks sooo much better already! I can't believe we can walk down the hall now without seeing a single stud!

I've been experimenting with my faux creations and wanted to share one of them - a chocolate cupcake - with you...You can read more about it on my faux dessert blog if you like.











Thanks for dropping in! I hope everyone is doing well!

If a Faux Cupcake Could Be A Princess....

This is what she'd look like...











I'm really thrilled with how my first chocolate cupcakes have turned out. I've decorated more, but thought I would feature this pink sweetheart today:) This is my first cupcake using the new materials I've been experimenting with over the last couple of weeks, including faux "fondant" flowers! Since making this cupcake, I've discovered a different "recipe" for stiffer, "perkier" frosting, but I still love the creamy, dreamy look of this particular version, too. I designed the crepe paper wrapper (CupCrepe™ Wrapper) in my head a few weeks ago but wasn't quite sure how I would assemble it. It took a bit of experimentation but it finally came together! The CupCrepe™ Wrappers will be available in many delicious color:) I've found that I love adding many layers of paper liners for added color and texture. This week I've received a lot of new supplies that I'm looking forward to putting to good uses!

We started on my studio last weekend, and boy, what a lot of work! I'll be sure to post photos when there is something interesting to photograph:) For now, we've mainly been working on patching the walls and insulating the parts of the ceiling that weren't completely insulated. Work continues this weekend:) I'm anxious to have it finished because my materials and creations are taking over the rest of the house!

Stay tuned for more cupcake creations!

New Color Palette and Cupcakes

Things are really starting to take off here in preparation for the opening of my shop! I was one of the vendors selected to set up an online shop at Lollishops, a new "Frou-Frou Friendly" marketplace that is set to open toward the end of this year. So as you can imagine, I've been busy designing my product line along with a new oh-so-sweet color palette. Below is a sample of some of the the yummy colors I'll be using on my candies, cupcakes, cookies, petit fours, brownies, lollipops, sugar cubes, gumballs - you name it! And don't worry, I'll still have plenty of chocolate "flavors" as well - milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate...mmmm!




Lately in my "cupcake laboratory" I've been working on making the cake part of my cupcakes a little more realistic looking. I like the idea of a bit of the cake peeking out from under the frosting. I've experimented with both smooth top cupcakes and then those with a bit of texture, as well as varying degrees of "rise" (low, medium, and high to accommodate various designs).

Here are a few cupcakes right out of the oven (not really!) and ready for their "sugar on top":) Imagine them decked out in piped fluffy frosting in some of the colors above, along with "fondant" flowers, (in)edible beads, colored sugar, or a cherry on top!





Along with working on my products, we are about to begin work on my home studio. My dear husband will be building my workstations and shelving units and I can't wait to have a place to call my own:)

And lastly, next week I begin attending classes to become a certified Wilton cake decorator! It will take about four months to complete all four courses and my plan is to take the courses consecutively. I think it's best for me to take the classes during the fall and winter because once spring and summer arrive, my schedule seems to be twice as hectic. I've been wanting to do this for a while now and am really excited about getting started!

A Cupcake Laboratory

That's what my kitchen has become over the last few days - half bakery / half science lab! You see, I'm kicking it into high gear to really start producing my faux desserts for the opening of Lollishops toward the end of the year. More on that in a moment...

Well, I'm all better and up and at'em again! Unfortunately, after I recovered, two of my kidlets once again were sick. One (who had a fever for a day or so) complained once late at night that her ear bothered her...then her ear drum ruptured early the next morning! It was an ear infection we didn't even know she had - her first one ever in seven and a half years. The other one had a fever for several days - once up to 104.3, followed by bronchitis. She missed a week and half of school:( So it's been a tough month but we are ALL well now, thank goodness! Thank you to all those that stopped by and left well wishes - I really appreciate your kind words!

So...lately I've been dreaming about what kinds of things I want to make for my Lollishops store, and OH what fun! I went to Hobby Lobby last Saturday and had to keep reminding myself to focus on one or two products at a time...there are so many ideas spinning around in my head and it would be easy to leave a place like Hobby Lobby with a buggy load:) I picked up paint, pastel chalk, and three pretty glass cake plates of different sizes, from cake size down to cupcake size. They were half off and I couldn't resist!

I've been focusing for now on my cookies, candies, and cupcakes. I *wanted* to also be working on some sugared lollipops and sugared gumballs because they are so much fun, but there's only so much time in one weekend...*sigh*

I've used various recipes in the past for my faux cookies but haven't been completely thrilled with the cookies unless they were painted a yummy chocolatey color, which is fine - but not all cookies are chocolate. I basically needed a recipe that produced a cookie that looked delicious and natural right out of the oven and that only needed a clear coat sealer. I finally found it! I had some of my cookies on a cooling sheet the other day when my oldest daughter came home from school and she saw them and asked if she could have one, lol. (That's the tough thing about being a faux dessert maker and having kids...you do feel a *twinge* of guilt when you have to tell your kids that what they hoped was real was indeed fake, hehe. I do make plenty of real cookies, too, or else there would be a small uprising here!)

With my cupcakes, I've been trying to figure out how to make a realistic looking cupcake base - the actual cake portion of the cupcake. In the past I've used plaster and while it's easy to use and looks great piled high with yummy faux icing, I wanted something lighter weight and that wasn't flat on top - I wanted a bit of a rise like an actual cupcake. I experimented this weekend and am so excited that I think I've found it! Hubs was amazed (and it takes a lot to get a "Wow!" out of him!). I can't help but to think back to all the times I've spent pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to achieve a certain look or effect, using every product under the moon, and almost giving up. (And there will be many more times like that in the future!) I'm sure with many crafts, it's half art, half science experiment. You just never know if something will work until you try! My next "science experiment" will have to do with making faux fondant. I have my "ingredients" and tools but will have to see how it works out!

I'm also working on a new color palette. Chocolate is divine and I want to offer plenty of it, but in a place like Lollishops, there must be plenty of candy coated sweetness, don't you think? I've tested quite a few colors on some candy pieces and it looks like they are going to work! My girls especially loved the more "frou frou" looking candies. The same colors will be used on cupcakes, cookies, lollipops, etc. I've mostly only ever used red, white, cream, pink, and brown for my desserts, so I'm really excited about adding to my color palette!

On the home front, today a friend is coming to help hubs hang drywall in the hallway. Yay! One less area in our home with visible studs (and there are many!!)!!

But the most exciting news this week is that hubs gave me the go ahead last night to design my work studio! At this moment, the kitchen is slowly being overtaken by cupcakes and cookies as I work more on my desserts, and I have to have a place for all of it so that we can continue to function in there. BUT...here is the twist...

Ninety-five percent of my materials needed to create my studio will come from what we already have on hand in the garage. I need lots of shelving, a work table, seating, storage, and so on...and I want it to be pretty, of course:) So there will be a lot of trash to treasure projects to complete this makeover. I have some preliminary ideas already and hubs told me to give the plans to him when I'm done and we'll work on it together. When I'm able, I'll take a photo of the all the stuff I plan on using...from old woodend table legs to the bifold doors we removed from the dining room (you will probably think that I've lost my mind, hehe...but hopefully it will work out and also free up some space in our garage in the process!)

What I know I will have to buy is paint, some decorative trim for dressing up the shelving, and window treatments. The walls will probably be Malted Milk like the rest of our house so far and the furniture will all be white. For color, I've been dreaming about pretty long flowy curtains in a vintage or robin's egg blue. and the rest of the color will come from faux dessert displays. Ahhhh....

Wow, I wrote a novel! Thanks for popping in!

P.S

I may be having another much smaller online yard sale here in the next couple of weeks...probably less than 10 items:) Just a heads up!

P.S.S If you have haven't yet submitted your application to Lollishops, please do!