Chuck E. Cheese Cupcakes

My little cousin was turning 5 and he needed some cupcakes for is birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, well his mom needed them. She wanted to stick to the Chuck E. Cheese theme since he was sharing his party with another boy in his class, how sweet right? I had been seeing other cake decorators create the flat layered cupcake toppers, and wanted to give it a try. So here is what I created.
And here they are on the cupcakes I made for him! Yummy!

These were so much easier than I thought. I just created the image in photoshop, separated the colors and printed each color. I then used those as templates to cut the fondant out with a razor, and while still soft I put in the stick. If you are considering this, give your pieces a full day to set so that they will stand when you stick them into the cupcake. You don't want droopy fondant.

Guest Bathroom Remodel

We finished our kitchen in time for Bunco, but I still had one room left I really wanted to completely redo. That was the guest bath. With three weeks between Bunco and Easter, I pressured my sweat hubby into getting the guest bath complete so we could host Easter this year. My plan worked. He loves hosting get-togethers, so he got our tub refinished, the tile down, the old fixtures out, and the new fixtures in, with my help of course, in three weeks! I painted of course. :) So if you don't remember what our bathroom looked like before here is a reminder.
Our bathroom was complete with pink toilet, pink tub, and pink wall mounted sink that was enhanced by the exposed plumbing underneath. We were also blessed with yellowish linoleum flooring and again floor to ceiling wallpaper which was blue with pink flowers. When I decided that I would start to tackle this bathroom, I thought to myself, "I wonder how hard it is going to be to take down that wallpaper." So, as I was thinking this, I snuk to the bathroom, and grabbed a piece and yanked it. The entire piece came off in one pull, and I had the bathroom wallpaper free in 30 minutes. That really got me rolling, and this is the final product.
We got rid of all the pink, and replaced the toilet and added a black vanity with white marble top and brushed nickel accents. We added porcelain tile floors and painted the walls. We added a new vanity light fixture, but by compromise only did the large mirror stay. I am thinking about framing it out with a ledge like a window, painted out black. I love it. It feels spa-like, yet it could be changed with a new shower curtain and accents to be a kid's bathroom, which it is getting closer to being since I am so close to having the house the way I want it. :)

Sorry no tub shots yet, we still have to put back the fixtures. :)

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.