Creating a Plate with Meaning

I saw this wall on Pinterest and instantly fell in love with the idea!

(photo credit: Larissa Holland via mmmcrafts.blogspot.com)

I love the variety of sizes and colors of plates and how they all fit together.  I love the way they seem to creep up the wall, or perhaps they are falling down ~ depending on your perspective. I liked it so much, I decided I wanted to replicate it in my own home.

My wall wasn't created overnight.  My collection started with a couple of plates I got from my Grandpa, an antique collector.  One use to hang in his house, one still has his handwriting and price tag on the back of it and one is from a set of old dishes he had.  The other ones I purchased from random places ~ Crate and Barrel, a local antique store and Home Goods.

But since my plate wall was going up in my dining room, I also wanted a plate with our dinner blessing on it.  And I knew I would be creating it myself.  :)

I purchased a plain white dinner plate at TJ Max (on clearance for $1.50).  Measured out and drew lines (with pencil) directly onto my plate.

Took my fine tip black sharpie marker and wrote our prayer on it over and over and over.  I let it dry, began to wash off the pencil lines and proceeded to watch ALL of my words go down the drain with my lines. :(  Note to self ~ Regular Sharpie Markers DO NOT work on  glazed plates!

Since it was 11:30 at night.  I took a deep breath, gently place my plate on the counter and went to bed.

THE NEXT DAY.....

I went to the craft store and purchased the exact marker I had held in my hand the previous day when I was there, but talked myself out of buying.

Went home.  Redrew lines, rewrote my words and worried just a little when I turned the water on to get rid of my pencil lines.  I began to gently wipe them off and was relieved when they came off easily, but my ink did not!

My new plate:

Perfect for my plate wall!

Which, I will show you all tomorrow :)

Personal Massage

Um yeah, nice title.  Now my dear readers, go ahead and grab your minds and pull them back out of the gutter!

I don't know about you, but I could use a live in masseuse and besides spending $$ and going to the spa to get an actually bonafide massage or begging my husband, I have found this to be the next best thing.

What is it you ask?

Well it's this of course:

Nope, your eyes are not playing tricks, that IS your basic tennis ball.

Alrighty, lets start a the bottom and work our way up.

Feet.

See, I like to run. And it seems the more miles I log, the more my plantar fasciitis flares up.  Not fun, not fun at all!

Enter tennis ball.
Sit somewhere comfortably (personally, I prefer the couch).
Set the ball on the floor:

Roll your foot over the tennis ball ~ use as much pressure as you want.
Ahhhhh.......

Next ailment of mine ~

Hamstrings and gluteus maximus.... yep, that would be my butt.
I have a bit of Piriformis Syndrome.  If I pay attention to my running and spinning form, stretch well and massage it, I can keep it under control.  I do however find it hard to sit for long periods of time.  Anyway, enough about me. 
So, to massage those hamstrings, take your handy dandy tennis ball.  Place it on a semi hard chair

Strategically place your hamstring or tush over the ball and roll, using as much or as little pressure as you need.

FINALLY, Shoulders.  
I don't know about you, but I always seem to have a few knots in mine. 


For this, you will need your tennis ball a tall (tube) sock and a wall.

Place the tennis ball into the sock and push it all the way down to the toe area.

Hold onto the calf area of the sock and sling it over your shoulder.

Lean up against a wall and roll, roll and roll some more.  Of course, like the last two areas above, use as much or as little pressure as you need.  And be careful, you may have knots you didn't even know existed.

I will admit, I learned this trick from my sister in law. She brought this little homemade contraption to hubby's parents at Christmas and we all spent our fair share of time rolling around the wall. Quite the sight we all were :)

So there you go ~ hopefully these simple tricks help keep you loose and relaxed :) 

 I know they do for me!

Princess Cake

Smiley had decided she wanted to have a "Minnie" themed birthday party.  Just like last year :)

Then she decided she wanted a "Dora" themed party.

Then  "Princess"

Then a "Dora, Minnie Princess" party.

Ultimately she decided on a "princess" party.

I had a feeling this is the route she would take which was good, because I had "pinned" some cute princess cupcakes ~ cute and super easy!

source ~ my pinterest via Jennycookies.com

Then, I made a mistake.

I asked a 2 year old, if she wanted cupcakes or a big cake for her birthday.

Of couse she replied,  "A BIG cake Mama!"

Bring on the internet and the millions of princess cakes to go along with it!

I gave her 5 choices:

#1

Source 

#2

Source ~ Pinterest

#3

Source 

#4

(Source)

#5

(Source)

Well, which one did she pick?

# 2

I admit, #2 was probably my favorite, but I was secretly hoping she would go for #3 or #5 as I figured they would be the easiest :)

And while I liked #2, the tiara wasn't my favorite, so once again, I relied on handy dandy google to see me through!

I ended up making a gum paste tiara using the template from this website.

The process I used was pretty much the same process she used.  

I found an old utensil holder, taped my template onto it, then parchment paper over top of that.

I tinted my gum paste with pink gel color, rolled it into fairly thin "snakes" and placed it over my template. Having 2 templates is a great idea.  One flat on your workspace to guide you and one taped onto your rounded object.  To get the gum paste to stick to the parchment paper, I would dip a small paintbrush into water then paint the water onto the template before sticking the gum paste onto the template ~ it worked fabulously.

When I was finished, I set the whole thing aside to dry.  The longer you give it to dry, the harder it will become (although after awhile the color does begin to fade a bit).  Since my "snakes" were fairly thin, mine dried pretty quickly.  I let it set for about 25 hours before putting it on the cake.

I thought it turned out GRRReat!  (channeling my inner Tony the Tiger)

Now onto the cake

I did 4 layers total

2  ~ 9" round cakes one of each white and chocolate cake

2 ~ 6" round cakes one of each white and chocolate cake

For the white cake, I used a recipe I had seen on pinterest called ~ Wedding Cupcakes.  Obviously I didn't make cupcakes, but I used the same recipe.  It was a really easy recipe ~ basically you doctor up a boxed cake mix.

And the end result was fantastic!  My kids LOVED it!  They said is tasted like yummy marshmallows!  Definitely a recipe I will remake!

The chocolate cake cake was also a box mix.  I doctored it up like I typically do ~ Add follow the directions on the box, but add in and additional egg, 1 small box of instant chocolate pudding and 3/4 cup of sour cream.  The result is a super moist, delish cake!  A favorite at our house.

Between all of the layers and for the "crumb coat" before I put the fondant on, I used my very easy "go to" Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended, then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more (you can add more cream as needed to get the consistency you want)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I put the cake together with the buttercream ~ alternating layers (and no making fun that they aren't even ~ they still taste good!!!).

Then covered the 9" layers with Marshmallow Fondant (recipe found here)

And then the 6" layers.

Next, I stacked them up.

Colored some of the left over fondant with gel colors and decorated it in a similar pattern to our "idea cake", by cutting out circles and stripes, rolling little balls, and by making more "snaking" to use as trim and flowers.

The result:

A DELICIOUS cake fit for a princess!

Seriously people.... If I can do it ~ so can you! :)

Someday Crafts

Jewelry Holder

Well... I finally did it.

I jumped on the framed jewelry holder bandwagon.

I started out with:
foam core board
a roll of cork (it was really thin and I already had it)
burlap
a frame I picked up at Michael's in their clearance section for $5.
Mod Podge
Spray Adhesive
Pearl stick pins (purchased at JoAnn's)

I measured and cut my foam core board to size.

Attached my cork to the foam core using spray adhesive.

Once that was dry, I glued my burlap on top of the cork ~ and took ZERO pictures of this step :).

Stuck it all into my frame (I couldn't decide if I wanted to paint it or not.  In the end I just left it the way it was, but you never know.... I could always change my mind!)

Then I added my stick pins and my fabulous jewels 

(no reason to come over and break in to thieve it... none of it is expensive ☺)

Have you jumped on this bandwagon yet?  

If you have, leave me a link (in the comments section), I'd love to see it!

Here's where the parties are at: