Scotch Bottle in Crate Birthday Cake

A friend of mine recently turned the big 4-0. I had to do something special! He's a scotch lover so I had originally thought I was going to bake him a cake/cupcakes made with scotch. But when I was looking for recipes on Pinterest, of course, I ran across the wine bottle in a crate cake. I thought, "this could also work for a scotch bottle." In the end, the cake didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped/wanted, but I was still pretty satisfied. I always forget to take pictures during the creation process, but, for the most part, I just followed the instructions on the video linked above, with a few modifications. I've outlined the process below.

Scotch bottle: I used 3/4 gum paste, 1/4 fondant (I'm frugal and knew that the bottle would still dry hard even if it wasn't completely gum paste, so I used some fondant as a filler). This particular brand of scotch is in a clear bottle with the liquid being a gold/yellow color....which is pretty much the hardest color to replicate...at least for me. Originally I attempted to do a marble look by kneading together different colored balls of gum paste (in shades of yellow and gold), but it didn't really work out very well. Oh well, I used it anyway. I covered a similar shaped scotch bottle (Macallan is bloody expensive...no one I knew had one of those bottles!) in saran wrap and a layer of cornstarch, then laid the rolled out gum paste onto the bottle (laying on it's side - I put a tea towel under the bottle so it wouldn't roll around as much). Once it was molded nicely, I cut the gum paste about midway up the bottle. Then I let it sit on the bottle for a few days. This is very similar to what was done in the video. The only difference is that I used a scotch bottle instead of a wine bottle.

After it hardened for a few days, I sponge painted on the orange coloring. This was done with small amounts of Wilton orange icing color mixed with vodka. I am definitely not an artists, but I like the way the coloring turned out. It was definitely better than the color it originally was. Finally, for the gold seal, I mixed lots of gold pearl dust with vodka and painted on a few coats in order for it to show really well.

As for the label, I cheated. I don't have a printer to use for edible printing, so I just printed it on a piece of paper and glued it on with water. I know some grocery stores can do edible prints for you, but it usually has to be non-copyrighted material....which this wasn't. In the end, no one was going to eat the scotch bottle, so I didn't think it'd matter too much (and it didn't).

Crate: Surrounding the cake itself is the 'wooden' crate. Now, this didn't come close to what I had attempted to do, but still thinks it looks pretty, so I was fine with it. I didn't have a wood imprint, like she does in the video and found a tutorial on how to make wood planks out of gum paste/fondant. So I followed the tutorial, but I think where I went wrong is that I rolled out the 'snake' vertically (thus spreading out the wood grain), rather than horizontally (which I think would have caused the wood grain to come out better). I had to roll out the gum paste pretty thin (because I didn't start with enough colored blocks...eek), so drying them for 3 days was very important.

Assembly: I iced the sides of the cake a bit more than a crumb coat, but you don't need to gob it on. It's also ok if there are crumbs cause it's going to be covered. I liked that...I'm bad at not crumbing the icing. I did use quite a bit of icing for the top, though, since I thought it would be seen. In the end, it was entirely covered with coconut so it wasn't necessary, but in terms of eating the cake, it's nice to have a bit more than just the filling. Finally, I put the bottle mold on top and surrounded it with toasted coconut. Voila!

Utilizing a Small Space for Organization

I am admittedly a pack rat. I hate throwing things away that "could" be used for a craft I haven't thought of yet. I also tend to do projects that require tools that will hardly be used for anything outside of that project. Luckily, what keeps me from moving up to the hoarder level is my need for organization. But when you live in a 960 square foot condo with not much storage space this is difficult.

With that said, tell me, how is a pack rat, DIYer supposed to store all of her tools without a garage? I'll tell you, that question has perplexed me (and cluttered up my place) for the last 5 years, especially as my tool stockpile has increased. Thankfully, I have finally figured it out. The answer is PEGBOARD!

"Pegboard outside of a garage?" Yes.

"I've seen some pegboard set ups in kitchens, but let's be honest, they aren't exactly pretty. Do you have a laundry room or something?" Nope. I have more of a laundry closet with very little room for any sort of pegboard.

"Then, where on earth are you installing this pegboard for your tools?" Great question! I have a small room off my patio that holds my water heater. And within that room is a bare wall. Perfect for an unseen, tool organizing pegboard.

So, without further ado, here is the bare wall (can't you just hear it begging to be used for some organizational purpose?):

And here is the same wall, now much happier (and useful):

Isn't that so much better?! I can't believe I was able to remove all that from my daily living space. Too bad that means I'll probably fill the space vacated by this stuff with other clutter. But that means I'll have another project for another day. :)

What's sad is that once it was complete I couldn't wait to share my win with anyone and everyone. Am I the only one like that?

Pinterestmas 2014

This year I decided to make all my Christmas gifts for my nephew, 3 nieces, two brothers, and parents. Thanks to Pinterest I had a ton of inspiration, which actually stressed me out a bit. I'm planning on writing up more about all the gifts soon, but in the meantime, here are some pictures.

This advent calendar made completely of toilet paper rolls (along with the TP roll star) and tissue paper is where it all began. It's a la Price is Right punch game. Punch the tissue paper for the treat or small gift. Note for anyone interested in making this, not a lot of gifts are small enough to put into toilet paper rolls. I went with a lot of stamps and stickers.
Next came coasters made of more TP rolls. My brother lives in Eugene, hence the Duck logo. The other one is a bit hard to recognize, but it's the Seahawk's eye.
The Pièce de résistance was an "igloo" for two of my nieces. It's about 4 feet high and 4 feet wide. Due to transportation issues, I had to build it in two pieces and assemble it on location.
Next, my nephew has started watching Doctor Who (the best show on the planet!!) so I made him a hand-bound River Song journal and a Kindle/tablet holder complete with its own Tardis (the "painting" on both have much to be desired).

I made another hand-bound journal with a painted L for my niece Laine.

For her, I also made a jewelry holder as well as some jewelry made out of buttons. I love buttons!

For my other brother, I transferred a printed image onto canvas.
Finally, for my dad, I gave him a box of rocks...made into garden markers.

Clock painted on the wall

I recently cut the cord on my cable service (figuratively, of course). Before doing this, though, I purchased NHL Gamecenter so I could watch my hockey and got an indoor antenna so I could watch my football. However, I didn't think about the fact that getting rid of my cable box effectively got rid of the only clock I had in my living room. Surprisingly, this was more annoying than not watching live TV anymore.

I am, admittedly, obsessed with Pinterest. As of today, I have 4,026 pins. How many of those pins have I actually used, though? Probably less than 50. Lets assume I've done 50. That means I have a 1.24% conversion rate. :)

Losing my living room clock gave me an opportunity to increase that conversion rate to 1.26%. And so I did. Having first seen a wall clock on the Martha Stewart site, I knew now was the time to channel my inner MS.

I still want to find, or make, some cheap clock arms that are larger than the ones I used, but they work for now. The diameter of my clock (from the bottom of the 12 to the top of the 6) is about 29".

For some perspective of how large a 29" clock is, here it shown next to my 42" TV.



P.S. I'm hoping to add the method I used soon.

Grate Earring Holder/Art

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has a problem with earring storage. As of late I put them all in a little Express bag and stuffed it in my drawer. That was all fine and dandy until I was going to wear a pair and it took 5 minutes to just separate out the ones I wanted.

Then I saw this:



beautyriot.com

I love it! But has anyone else noticed that you can only buy really fancy cheese graters these days?! What happened to the $5 piece of crap, all metal cheese graters? They're all $25 for basically the same old grater with an elaborate rubber handle. In the end it's just going to scrape up your knuckles like any other cheese grater! I guess I'll have to stop by a thrift store one of these days and see if I can find an "old fashion" one.

In the meantime, I decided to alter this idea a bit and make mine a piece of wall art.

I got a $5.99 flat grater from Bed, Bath & Beyond and used Rust-Oleum spray paint in Colonial Red (Satin finish). I tied a bow at the top to hide the nail I used to hang it. That's it!

My mouth is oh so happy!

Which would you rather have on your counter or under your sink? A large mouthwash bottle (think Listerine) or a 23 ounce water bottle?

I don't know about you, but when I used the mouthwash cap to measure the necessary amount of stinging, yet tasty bad breath killer I found that the little bit of excess liquid left in the cap would run down the bottle, causing a sticky mess on my counter and on the side of the bottle for my hands the next time I grabbed it. I know it's minor, but because of this I hardly ever used it anymore. But from someone who likes their breath minty fresh, I wanted to use it.

My genius (if I may say so) came when I forgot my water bottle when going to the gym. All they had at the gym was Arrowhead, which isn't my favorite, but I like the Sport Cap when I'm doing my cardio. And then it hit me. This could work for my mouthwash problem. And it did!! I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier.

I know it's so simple, but man, my mouth is minty fresh day and night now. I love it! I don't have to measure anything. Just take a swig. I don't have a mess on my counter. And it's much smaller than the big bottle, which I now keep with my excess product stockpile. I know it won't revolutionize my life, but every time I take a swig a small part of me thinks I may just be able to bring order to my life after all.

Bra Organization

Does anyone else have a problem knowing where to keep all your bras? I know my brother does. Ha! Thank you...my first blog joke. Horrible? Yes. But that means there's nowhere to go but up!

After a few bra shopping sprees at Nordstrom, I found myself with too many bras to logically keep in my sock and underwear drawer. I also usually shower at night, so I ended up finding all my bras on my floor after a while. No, I'm not the cleanest person...but I'm getting better. :)

So, where to keep my bras? After seeing the picture below on Pinterest, it gave me an idea. Why don't I do something similar to this, just for my bras?

So, I went to Home Depot and got a simple 24" towel bar and installed it in my closet. The best place for me was near the door right under the light switch. Similar to the necklace towel bar, I got shower curtain double hooks, so I can hold double the bras. I can also hang my camisoles, which I wear to bed. It's perfect! The finished product looks like this (sorry for the horrible picture):

As you might be able to tell, I'm a big Betsy Johnson bra fan! Not only is this a great bra holder, it's also where I hang my bras to dry after washing. It's brilliant if I might say so myself!