MSU Cake

Last month was my little cousins birthday, and he and his family are huge I mean obsessively huge MS STATE fans. It is a rare site not to see them wearing their maroon and white, and in most cases the whole family shows up to family events in their STATE gear. So, when my cousin asked me to do a cake for her oldest son's birthday, it was obvious we were going in the bulldog direction with it. When trying to thing of what I could do that wasn't sport specific and not just the words MSU on the cake, I was reminded of the headache I received the one time I made the mistake of going to the EGG Bowl in Starkville. YIKES, cow bells are awful, especially when you are for the apposing team. A cowbell to me describes this kid to me in every way, the true State fan that he is, the in your face kind of fan. Not that we don't' agg him on sometimes. :) So for all the aggravating we have done to him in the past, I felt I should do his cake justice and not plaster the Rebel in the middle of the cake with a big HOTTY TODDY! So here is what I came up with.

The cowbell was constructed using store bought rice krispie treats molded together.



All the rest of the decorations are made of rolled fondant. And just FYI making maroon fondant is a timely process and a work out for your arms. I used burgundy gel color.



Thanks to Jenny who assisted me on icing and rolling fondant on the cake. That part scared me because of all the nightmares that happen on Ultimate Cake Off. It wasn't too bad in the end.

Kitchen Remodel

I haven't been posting much this year because I have been swamped with work. Work work, house work, second job work, church work, and trying to make time for me time. The going going going is really weighing on my energy these days. I reached 36 pounds lost, but have been staying at that for the past couple of weeks because I have no energy. Back to the work discussion. We really have been working to get our house the way I want it, so that when a kid comes along, we won't be stuck where we are with the house. So I am ready to start revealing our home improvements. We have worked in both the master and guest baths, updated furniture and curtains in the living room, and revamped our kitchen. I am going to start today showing you our kitchen remodel.

If you will recall our outdated kitchen complete with old off white appliances, sheet linoleum flooring, and floor to ceiling stripped wallpaper.


We thought about removing the wallpaper, but unfortunately, well fortunately for the amount of work that lessened, there was a couple of layers of wallpaper on top of paneling that was spackled smooth. So we found a solution to painting over wallpaper, prime twice, sand seems, paint. Once we had our new appliances, we first tackled the floor, well my husband did. Then we painted out the cabinets, painted the walls, and nailed up bead board for the back splash, the cheapest easiest to install solution I found. So without anymore delay....


.....I present........




.... our new kitchen....





Complete with my favorite color GREEN, walls, black cabinets, bead board back splash, freshly tiled ceramic floors, and brand new stainless steel appliances. Our countertops look more in style now with the black contrast. I even watched a show on HGTV the other day that said that these type countertops were back in style. My budget and design are happy. :)
Shall I reveal our living area, our master bath, or our guest bath next week? Hmm... I have a decision to make.