When Life Gives You Lemons...

When Life gives you lemons what do you do. . . . (this is where you would say LEMONADE) but nope.

You make a cute gift for someone who always makes lemons into lemonade.

How to:
Find a cute man to nail a hole into the lid. (mason jars 4 for a dollar at the thrift store... WASH them first)

Add lemon drops. (98c at Wal-mart)

And straws, purchased at Gygi's. Use code bridgeywidgey10 at check out to get 10% off your entire order

Coca-Cola Cake

Doesn't the title sound so good you could eat the words right off the screen. MMM.... I do have to warn you ahead of time this cake does use 3 cubes of butter. (eek)

What you need:

CAKE:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup Coke (not diet)

2 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup buttermilk (see picture below for dried buttermilk)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS: (pictures below)

Mix flour and sugar in a large bowl. Melt butter in saucepan, add Coke and Cocoa and bring to a boil. Stir in to flour mixture. Blend in buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Pour into greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Sprinkle with marshmallows and bake an additional 3 to 5 minutes until melted. Cool cake completely and frost with Coca-Cola frosting (below)

FROSTING:

1/2 cup butter

6 tablespoons Coke

2 tablespoons Cocoa

3 1/2 cups powder sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter. Add Coke and cocoa and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and mix into powdered sugar. Add vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy. Spread onto cake.

 (I like this for buttermilk because I rarely if ever have buttermilk on hand. My cute neighbor recently introduced me to this and its FAB! all you do is add water to give you instant buttermilk and it last for 3 years in the fridge. It tastes the exact same, you will never know it was a powder form. I bought this at my local Wal-Mart)



Start off by melting the butter.

Then add the most important ingredients...

Bring it to a boil

Then stir it into the flour and sugar mixture

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan

 (can anyone guess my last name lol)

 after 33-35 minutes add some mallows to cover the whole pan (more than picture shown)

Take out of the oven once the mallows look like this

Frost with the Coca-Cola frosting

and admire it for a minute. . . .

Then eat it! MMM

* another warning. I ate that wonderful piece you see in the picture above and I am not one to drink soda or caffeine and just that small amount kept me up past 12 pm and I am normally a 10 pm girl. Then again, I swear if I just look at a bottle of diet coke I will be up past 12 :)

Chalk Board Framed Sign

I know you have seen this before so I am not claiming my trademark on this or anything but I thought I would still share :)

BEFORE: (frame purchased for 3 dollars at a garage sale)

AFTER:

WHAT YOU NEED:

• primer and you have to get Gildden Gripper because it will go on glass. 
• what ever color of spray paint you chose
• glaze. (not shown in picture. I use Raulph Lauren faux glaze.)
• chalk board spray paint. (I wasn't in love with the spray, next time I would buy a paint on kind)

Light prime over the frame with Kliz primer... MY FAV.

Paint 2-3 coats of primer all over the glass:

Spray paint and let dry for a couple hours  and then glaze the frame: click HERE for tips on glazing

if you feel you glazed too much then do another quick spray of your paint. I then finish it off with some semi-gloss sealer.

AND YOU ARE DONE!

Cupcake Stands

How to make your own cupcake stand.

you will need 2 round tubes of Styrofoam like these:

Then wrap that with whatever color ribbon you choose. Do this to both Styrofoams.

then get 3 cardboard circles that vary in diameter going from large to small like these:

cover them how you would like.

now glue them all together AND wha-la (imagine me saying that in a magician's voice)

Then top them with cupcakes.... DUH!

Rubber Ducky Party

 This party was very simple. My friend didn't want to go over board on all the small details and so it was hard for me to stop myself from convincing her to do this and that. I feel like we made a good team because she kept me in check and she was practical where I thought everything could use a banner or sign, or a little more decor. 

 I often get asked how much I charge for parties and it varies. Some just want to rent my decor, some want me to JUST decorate, some just want ideas (obviously free for that) and some want me to do the food, cake, cupcakes, and all the decor and just enjoy their party and let someone else plan the party. (All my parties do include a copy of all the pictures I take at the parties/showers.)              

     This party was easy for me because I just brought the decorations, did the set up, made the banner and favors. My friend did all the food including the cake so this party is perfect for those who are willing to put in the time to save money and keep the party simple. If you look at the graduation party, ice cream party, and the pirate party then you should expect to pay a little more since there is more details to party. 

I used my baby's bath tub for drinks.

Rubber Ducky ice cubes. (it's all about the details)

Thanks for "waddling" over party favors
(some bubbles and rubber duckies)

I hope the birthday boy liked everything. Let's see. . . . . . .

nope not so much :)

to see the cake click HERE

Rubber Ducky Cake

Last weekend I helped decorate for a close friend's  one-year-old boy's birthday party.

 More decor pictures will come later but until then here is the cake. . .

Tutorial on how to make the cupcake stands coming soon.

 The birthday boy

He wouldn't dive into it so his dad tried to put his face in it.

Poor Ducky, he never saw it coming.

To see the rest of the decor click HERE

Where Have I Been?

I know I have been behind on posting any projects on my blog. So you may ask what have I been doing? Well, this is it....

JUST KIDDING!!!


Summer can be crazy. . . or I have just been lazy. . . not sure which one to pick, I'm too lazy to decide :) Well I have done a couple fun projects but I am finding as my baby now is very mobile I am limited on my crafting. I get two 2 hour naps and that is when I also have to be cleaning so blogging has been slacking. ( I love how I am apologizing to all of my 37 followers, ha . . . there needs to be a sarcasm font. Hey, while on this subject, if you like what you read please become a follower and no you will not get emails in your inbox)

 So far I have done 2 parties, refurbished 3 pieces of furniture, my office is done, well as done as my budget will allow. Made a chicken wire frame, decorations for Jaxon's party (yes in Sept.), and a chalk board sign.  So, my point is, I will get back to posting pics asap.

 Another reason for my slacking is because of all the fun summer activities. One of which was my family reunion where I get to see this cute cousin who has THIS amazing blog.

At the family reunion it is a must to have homemade root beer from my uncle.

We also always have it at my parents who have a awesome ice cream machine and my mom made these cute cones and placed them on sugar so they wouldn't stick if they started melting. Plus it made the display that much better.

I also had my 24th birthday

We got a new computer, so transferring all my photos has taken a long time.

Does that recipe look familiar :)

Taking care of this boy...

Shopping with my boys at home depot for stuff for my future projects. (hopefully they are in the near future)

Best of all is vacationing in California