Fall Decorating Fury

That's the kind of mood I was in today.  I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond looking for one simple item (isn't that how the story always goes ;-) but unfortunately they had sold out of what I was looking for.  Boot shapers must be popular this time of year :-)  But, I wasn't going to waste a trip to BBB.  I ended up getting my friend a perfect birthday present along with a few items for my place.  All the fall items were out...pumpkin and cinnamon candles, leafy art work, etc.  I was "beyond" inspired to spice up my place for the fall season.  I got a few candles and headed over to safeway for a few dinner items and picked up some perfect little pumpkins! One of each shape...how could I resist? 

Here's what I came up with for a tiny nook we have in our dining area.

My next project was to wrap my friend's birthday gift.  I used some tissue paper, cellophane, and mesh ribbon.  I don't know what I would do without cellophane!

I've wanted to change our second nook in the dining area with some pictures on the wall and so I rearranged a few knick knacks and spruced it up a bit.    

Now...onto making a spaghetti dinner! Aren't I just the domestic diva today :-) 

Creations

I have this paper-source planner that I somewhat use as a journal. I like to keep track of all the crap I do during the day that seems to be of significance to me: my workouts, movies the bf and I watch on Netflix, places we go, and of course all the things I create...my projects. My planner has this nice section in it that says "do something creative this week". Now, as I was looking back into my planner and reading my daily entries, I noticed...I don't need that little section to remind me to do something creative. Creation seems to flow naturally out of me, as if it's an arm or a leg.

But after looking at that little section of my planner, I felt the need to capture my recent projects.

A lot of my inspiration lately has come from scouring Pinterest in my free time. I absolutely love and am addicted (yes, addicted) to this virtual pin board site. It's like a cork board or a more specific bookmarks folder that customizes and categorizes things into whatever you feel is important to you. For example, my boards are categorized into fashion/style, photography, recipes/food ideas, decorating/decor, etc. but with a twist on the names...Fashion = My Style Pin board, recipes/food ideas = Good Food Decisions, decorating/decor = For the New Place. You get the idea. You can customize it to no extent. Anything that jumps out at you on the Internet is fair game to pin. And what's great is the link is automatically saved to the image you've pinned. Simple as that!

So onward to some of my recent creations and the inspiration behind them!

You guessed it, these date back to the Fourth O' JU-ly. Chocolate dipped rice krispie treats! I needed something summery and yummy for a birthday BBQ around the holiday of Fireworks. I jazzed it up with my sparkly starry garland I found at Michael's.

The Dry-Erase Board

I thought it would be helpful to create some kind of weekly organizer for my desk as I'm now working from home. Something to keep my daily agenda handy and visual. I made a dry-erase board out of an old frame. I put a solid color in the center so writing would be easily seen and framed it with a cute plaid pattern.

I guess it turned into a dry erase board for daily notes to the bf ;-)

Below we have milk chocolate dipped frozen banana pieces with white chocolate drizzle. I've found that I'm my most resourceful in the kitchen when perishable items are almost to their limit. I hate to throw out food because I've been too careless to notice it needed to be eaten days ago :-/

I happened upon a similar picture on Pinterest and thought...shoot, I can do that! And it was so much easier than I imagined. The picture I found had a white base coat and I thought I'd spice it up a bit with a minty green. I think it's all about the color choices. I chose bright colors for the dots that would easily stand out on their own. I think the dark navy really pops and frames the other color choices nicely. I just started balancing the dotted trail down the side of each nail...it was all a bit haphazard and I had no real plan as I went along. So go ahead and try it, you may come up with a masterpiece :-)

Usually my baking creations are typically sweet and sugary. You know it's love when you're hopping out of your comfort zone and trying to make your boyfriend some of their favorite foods. He happens to love Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.

I tried to recreate them.

The dough decided it didn't want to rise and the final product was quite dense. Buttery goodness but dense. A meal on it's own! It's the thought that counts right?

The bf and I recently took a summer vacay to Vegas! Me being the impeccable planner that I am, every outfit needed to be styled and planned to the tee. I was short some accessories for a bright sunny outfit and I felt I had already spent enough getting a few new things for the trip (ha, a few!). So I decided to make this delicate little beaded bracelet. The best part, the bf thought it was the cutest thing that I was ACTUALLY wearing my creation. I think he finds it quite charming that I make things and wear them.

Along with the accessories, it was also about figuring out the perfect nail color to go with ALL outfits. Not to say that minty green is the perfect nail color, but it was definitely a fun color that I thought was perfect for Vegas. I got some help from a great blog, Cupcakes and Cashmere, where she used a loose glitter technique. I don't think I've perfected it. Rather than a cascade/fade of glitter... it ended up looking like a glitter french tip. Either way, they lasted a 4 day trip to Vegas for which I was grateful and didn't have to spend a thing on a manicure! And this was way more fun!

So, the bf's birthday is coming up and he loves the San Jose Sharks. He was in need of another picture in his office and had mentioned that he wanted some Sharks gear in in there too. Neither of which he's fulfilled since moving into his new office. I love to paint, but I'm in no way a painter, so I decided to draw and watercolor the Sharks logo. It turned out better than I thought it would! I'm quite proud of my work. Needless to say, I was so proud I gave it to him 2, almost 3 weeks early....oops!

I cooked the other day. Again, I think it was an act of love. Because I work from home, I came up with the genius idea that I need to use my crockpot more often. I hate the fact that you have to leave that sucker on all day, but bc I'm home all day...I have a renewed love for it! Now I'm going to defend what little cooking skills I have and say...this dish below required a lot of creation, imagination, combining of two recipes to get just what I wanted, and then trial and error as it sat in the crockpot. And holy moly was there a crap ton of prep work involved (who knew?). I thought the crockpot was supposed to cook the dish for you!

Curried Beef Cubes with Potatoes, Onion, Bell Peppers, and Tomatoes! I swear I put 5 times more curry powder than the recipe called for and it was still mild tasting :-/

I think it's become an expectation in the that for any family get togethers, dinners, birthdays, or holidays...Meredith is bringing the dessert. Well, at least that's what I expect, and I must admit, I get darn excited to provide!

So again, I was inspired by the fabulous Pinterest and saw a Cake Pop picture...but these weren't cake pops....they were Oreo Pops! Genius because they are a cinch to make. Cake pops are incredibly time consuming, so these are a great alternative. Place a stick in Double Stuffed Oreos (I used the Heads or Tails kind to get a great balance of chocolate and vanilla) and then dunked in white chocolate meltys. The picture I found had their Oreo Pops covered in sprinkles. I had to add a bit more spice than that, so I threw a bunch of mini M&Ms to mine. Place in the fridge for a few hours and WA-LA! They are amazing cold and with ice cream...or in the morning with coffee (shhh!).

I did it again, the bf's birthday still hasn't surpassed (it's not even this week yet)...and I gave him another part of his gift. Can't hold on to a surprise to save my life! I found these modern and SWEET a$$ martini glasses on Red Envelope. Sadly, I couldn't personalize them (a crime on a site that supposedly specializes in that sort of thing). I knew I could get them washed and a drink made while the bf was playing his COD (Call of Duty). I at least was able to surprise him that way. ;-) I made a delicious blueberry pomogranate martini with a sugared rim. I poured a small amount of the blueberry/pom juice over the sugar to get a pinkish colored sugar on the rim. And I thought I was classy adding blueberries (that look like olives).

I love to leave off with some great quotes, so remember... "All art requires courage" - Anne Tucker

AND

So, comment back and let me know what you've created!

Cake Pops!

Only recently have I really desired to learn how to make cake pops. It was after a baptism where they had cake pops as the party favor did I learn how freaking amazing they are! I always thought they looked extremely difficult to conquer (and I'm in no way saying they are the easiest thing to make) but it made so much more sense after following the detailed visual instructions from Ashley Stock's blog. So with her expertise, I went to town... literally.

Had to stop at Michael's for a few supplies: candy melts, cake pop sticks, and styrofoam (I'm gonna keep you guessing as to why styrofoam is needed).

Candy Melts

So you bake your cake as usual (as the box tells you), let it cool, and dump the thing in a bowl with half a container of your choice frosting. I would go with the same flavor as your cake, but but it's all about creativity so whatever floats your boat. Then mash away! Once mashed, roll the cake into 1-inch balls.

Now here is where I'm going to insert some things I've learned. Use less of a roll and more of a compact. If you roll the cake until its a solid ball, you've pretty much got yourself cake dough all over again. I didn't realize this until all my cake was in the form of highly dense rolled cake balls. So a more compacting technique may get you a cake-ier consistency which, I would think is what it's all about.

Technique tip: The balls should be somewhat small as a small carboard stick needs to withhold the cake balls weight (another reason you don't want dense balls ;-)

Confetti Cake with Rainbow Chip Frosting

Once the cake balls are formed, the sticks must be placed. So, microwave the candy melts until smooth adding a large spoonful of shortening for thinner consistency. Dab the stick into the melted candy and place in the cake ball. Should look like the picture below once sticks are placed.
Technique time: After sticks are placed, use a styrofoam base as a holder for the cake pops. The stick should be able to harden to the cake ball in this right side up fashion. Because my cake balls were so dense and large, the stick fell right through the cake ball despite the candy melt "glue" to hold it in place.


Once the candy melt glue has hardened to withhold the cake balls weight you are ready for dipping and covering the entire cake ball with the candy coating.
Now, as you can see below, I have not perfected the "covering of the cake ball", so I really don't have any techniques tips for this part of the project. However, I can tell you that the consumers have thus far loved the extra glob of candy coating. I had to dump this extra glob on so my cake ball would finally stick to the stick, but the presentation was/is awful! With some practice, I will master the candy coating adding sprinkles, colored icing, and more decortions!

So ta-dah! Here they are all set in my cake tupperware ready for my consumers at work.