Fun Nails

Today while waiting for a prescription to get filled I had a chance to take a look at all the new fun nail art that is out there, and I was lucky enough that it was all on sale. 

I found this fun little kit and thought why not give it a try. 

I am not a fan of sitting and spending a ton of time or money on my nails as they usually end up with paint on them anyways. So this was perfect gives a fun look in a short time. 

I even got the thumbs up from my boys who thought it was pretty cool.

This week my kids are back to school after spring break so I am hoping to get to some of the many projects I have going, my husband has told me the garage is getting a little crazy with everything I have going on in there. As well the house renovations are going along smoothly and hope to be sharing some more pictures on that soon.

I know I haven't been posting alot lately but I have been doing a ton in the background and soon you will bombarded with all those updates. 

Update on House Makeover

Our house renovation is coming along nicely, it really is crazy to think how far we have come and how many changes our house has gone through already.

We started off with this space, nothing to fancy. With three boys it is hard to have nice things, lol. 

With the kids getting older I wanted to make this space a more grown up space, you know where there are actual curtains and lamps. So on my travels I found a couple of these fabulous chairs for my kitchen table.  I tell the kids they are not allowed to use these ones, we will see how long that lasts for. We also traded in the ugly brown love seats and found this fabulous couch.  Finding something that suited my hubby and me was a little difficult but honestly not as hard as finding an occasional chair.  He wants a "man chair" big puffy and reclines.  I want a sleek, pretty chair that goes with the space, needless to say we haven't found one yet. 

I found this fabulous table and I can't wait to get my hands on it and change up the color.  What I love about this table is how chunky it looks and how durable it feels. 

 Notice how I have one wall that isn't painted, this is the wall I refer to as the death wall.  I am a little terrified of heights and the thought of climbing out over the stairs on a plank is really not my idea of fun. So after finally coming up with some ladders that would work on the stairs I set out on this scary plank to paint.  This is definitely a two man show.  I make my husband hold the ladder and fill my roller so I don't have to get up and down. 

 Notice all the patches on my wall this is what my whole main floor looked like, and to think these are in a space that are too high for the kids to reach.  

It is really starting to come together but I have a ton more ideas that I want to do, so I will keep you posted. 

Batman Cake

I was asked by a friend if I would make a cake for her little guys 4th birthday and of course I couldn't say no.  I believe that celebrating our kids birthdays is special and to be asked to be part of it is such a privilege.

While I love the look of fondant and I think they look so much neater and put together I realize that even the best fondant some people don't like especially kids, so it makes you come up with different ideas on how to get the look you want with butter cream icing. 

I wanted a few images on this cake, one being the batman symbol and then I wanted the cake to be outlined with city buildings. 

First I searched through the internet to find the image I wanted and then printed it in the size I was looking for.  With this image it didn't matter if I printed it regular or mirrored the image as it looked the same either way but if you do something with works you would want to mirror it before you print. 

Once I had my image I taped it down to a plate and the taped wax paper over the image. This makes sure that when you are icing nothing moves around.

Then I started with outlining the image and doing the bat and filling him in. After this was finished I put it in the freezer to let it harden up so when I put the yellow in there was no streaking.  Once the yellow was filled in I put it back in the freezer to harden once more and then did a layer of black over the entire thing.  And once more it was put back in the freezer.  I did this same thing for all of the buildings which I did individually.  This step seems long as you are spending more time waiting for the images to set in the freezer.

 Once the image is hard you can take them off the wax paper and place onto your ready iced cake.  I went back and outlined all the images after to finish it off.  Keep in mind it is butter cream and the warmth of your hands will soften it so don't play around with it to much.

Hope this little tutorial gives you the inspiration to give it a try.  

Lego Cake

 This past week was my sons 9th birthday and as I write that I still can't believe I have a 9 year old.  Every time some one says time goes by so fast it really is true.

This year when I asked Keegan what he wanted me to make for his cake I was told to surprise him.  With his love for Lego I thought that would be the way to go.  

This was a last minute decision so all the Lego pieces were made by hand. To get the dots on the top I used an icing tip and added them to the blocks.

On another note our hardwood floors are all done and look fantastic.  Can't wait to start painting the walls and cabinets. 

What fun projects did you do this weekend?

Buffet Brought Back to Life

I love when you can take an old piece of furniture and transform it into a beautiful piece. 

My sister in-law was in search of a buffet but didn't want to spend a ton on it.  We found this little beauty and the thing I loved the most about it is the detail on the doors. 

With a little TLC, a fresh coat of paint and using the same hardware you would never guess this was the same piece of furniture.  It is now sitting in its new home where it will be loved for many more years. 

Reno Update

After two weekends of working on our new flooring it is coming along.  My house may be in a state of chaos but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the flooring anyways.

Once this part of the process is done I want to cut down the raised counter top on the island and then the hubby has finally given me the go ahead to paint the cabinets.  The walls are also going to be given a new color but I haven't made up my mind on what I want yet.  

 And perhaps soon the piles of hardwood and tools can be replaced with a new couch. 

Okay now I am tired just thinking about all the work left to do, lol.  

Off Road Birthday Cake

This weekend we celebrated our sons 6th birthday which included two bounce houses, 18 kids, one happy boy and this off road birthday cake. 

This was a fun and easy cake to do, I mad the cake out of chocolate as I wanted some of it to show through for the dirt and then use some for the hill.  

We went to a local bulk store and found these fun chocolate rock candies that worked perfectly on our cake.  My boys had just got these dirt bike legos which we added.

My two youngest were home when I did this cake so they thought it was pretty cool I let them help do all the rocks and of course eat some along the way.

Although we had a birthday party this weekend we were able to get a big chunk of our hardwood flooring in, I am so excited to share it when it is all done. 

Hope you all had a great weekend.