St. Patty's Day Bake-A-Thon

Because apparently having a bun in the oven isn't enough baking for my husband and because apparently he is having some sympathy cravings, my hubby thinks I haven't baked enough lately.  I reserved comment for a more appropriate time and kindly obliged this weekend (and I should note he has been very helpful throughout the pregnancy).  Since today is St. Patty's Day, I went with a theme and made Shamrock Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing and a Mint Chocolate Cake.

Shamrock Sugar Cookies
 
I've grown up using the Company's Coming series of cook books, which has a great recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing.

As always with sugar cookies, the dough is best for rolling and cutting cookies if first chilled for a while (I chilled this batch for roughly 45 minutes.)  One dozen turned out really well.  The next...well, not so much.  To fix these ones, I used one of the round cookie cutters to cut them down to size.

Its been a LONG while since I've iced cookies, but I tried my hand at it.  I went with Wilton Kelly Green colouring for the festive feel.

I couldn't find a squeeze bottle, so I had to use piping bags for both the edge piping and the flood icing.

Not my best work but they taste good and they are cute.  Turns out I could have thinned the flood icing a bit more, but I used a toothpick to spread it out.

Mint Chocolate Cake

For the cake, to save time, I used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge cake and baked it per directions.

For the icing, I made a mint buttercream icing:

4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp mint extract

Blend the icing sugar, butter and milk until smooth and blended.  Add the mint extract.  Add more to taste if necessary.  If the icing is not thick enough, add more icing sugar.  If too thick, add more milk.

Once it was the consistency I wanted, I added Kelly Green colouring.  It was really quite Irish. 

Once the cake was cooled, I just did all of my usual steps (frosting between cake layers, crumb coat, cool for 10-15 minutes, frost, cool for 10-15 minutes, use paper towel to smooth frosting).

To add some additional St. Patty's Day flair, I created a shamrock cut-out on a piece of foil and applied some icing sugar.

The hubby hasn't had any yet, but I thought it was a good mix of chocolate and a subtle mint flavour.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Its beginning to look a lot like a nursery...

I know I'm only half way (18 weeks and 4 days to go, but who's counting), but I've decided on what I wanted in the nursery.  So after a couple weeks of puttering around and only doing some of the wall decorations, I finally convinced my hubby to clear everything out so that the room could be painted.

We used the Behr Paint and Primer in One in Satin finish and, as mentioned a few posts ago, I picked "Opal Silk", which I think works for a girl or a boy.  So, finally, the painting could begin.

I decided that I wanted to keep most of the walls the current shade of brown but do a feature wall with stripes running through the two side walls.

I set about taping out the stripes and making sure everything was level.
(Note, all pictures were taken with my Blackberry, so some are not too crisp.  My apologies.)

I also decided to bravely try one of the edging devices, so as not to have tape off the corners of the feature wall or any trim etc.  The SHUR-LINE edger works surprisingly well, provided that you don't overload it with paint or accidentally smear the front edge with wet paint.

I love, love, love the Behr Paint and Primer in One products, they truly are exceptional in their ability to limit the number of coats.  I was actually happy with the finish after only one coat.

We also bought some storage bins and decals and I put those up as well.

Originally, I was going paint the closet doors but I decided to keep them white and add the decals.  I think they are too cute.  They are from the Toyland collection at Babies R Us.

Now, we just need to put the dresser, change table and crib together and I need to get a glider.  Then, all that's left is putting up the rest of the decor (which will probably include one or two more projects).

Animal Shape - Mix and Match Wall Art

I saw a lovely idea for silhouettes done with mismatched prints at Project Nursery (here).

I absolutely fell in love with this and decided I had to do something similar for the nursery.  I wanted to do animal prints and again, the prints had to be neutral - nothing overtly boy or girl.

I decided to use an alligator, giraffe, lion, monkey and elephant.  Our bedding will likely carry this animal/jungle theme throughout (especially the giraffe and monkey - I have a thing for those animals in particular).

I picked out what I think is a nice mix between vibrant and soft prints (that wouldn't clash with the wall colours), traced the animals, cut out the shapes and the appropriate sizes for the background prints, glued the animals to the background and put them into their frames.

I think the giraffe is my favourite.  

Voila - done!  Well, sort of.  I still have to attach ribbon to the back to create hooks to hang the frames from but that can wait until the room is painted.

Left over paint chips? Make wall art!

After making the mobile for the nursery, I had a tonne of left over paint chips (okay, slight exaggeration).  Still inspired, I used two sizes of punches (1/2 inch and 3/4 inch) and punched between 8-12 of each shade.

From there, I just bought a white matted frame and used the paper that comes with the frame (with the prototypical happy family/couple/child pose).  I flipped that over, and started gluing the punched paint chips into a pattern.  As it developed, I realized that it was starting to look like the sky and the ground, so I added a few lighter pieces in the centre to make it look like a rain shower.

Certainly not Dali or Picasso, but I think it turned out well.

Paint Chip Mobile - Baby Nursery

There are a million posts on the internet about how to make a mobile using paint chips.  I really adore the look of these and decided to make one to hang from the nursery ceiling. 

I used paint chips including shades of browns and greens/teals that will match the wall colours (once they get painted).

I tied some beige string to an embroidery hoop.  I decided not to paint it and left the hoop in natural wood grain.

I elected to have nine strands hanging from the mobile (a centre strand - 12 inches, 4 middle strands - 10 inches, 4 outer strands - 8 inches) and started by laying out the design and order in which the colours would be set.  I cut the out necessary pieces with a 3/4 inch punch and also cut out larger squares for the centre strand.

Each strand was made by gluing two pieces together around the strand, leaving space in between each.

Once all nine strands were ready and had dried, I tied them to the embroidery hoop and also tied string to create a way to hang the mobile.

(As with all of the nursery decor, I will post an update with pictures once the nursery has been painted and set up.)

20 weeks down, 20 weeks to go

I haven't been baking or crafting much lately, in large part due to a significant change in our lives.  I'm pregnant and haven't had a tonne of energy to do too much more than work and nap.

Ive been feeling pretty good lately and now that we're at the half way point, its time to start preparing for our soon-to-be summer baby (due in July).

I pretty much have the nursery decided upon.  Our plan right now is that we aren't telling anyone the baby's gender - it will be a secret for my hubby and I to share.  As a result, everything I've been planning is pretty neutral.

The walls in the nursery are already a nice shade of brown and we are going to paint one of the walls with a feature colour with stripes going through the other walls.  (Pictures to come once painting actually gets done.)
The current colour is pretty close to this shade by Behr:



I've decided that the feature colour will be a shade of green and after looking at what feels like a hundred colours, have chosen Opal Silk by Behr (see below).



We have also picked out all of our furniture for the nursery, all of which will be white:





Apart from painting, I still have all of the decor to pick out and finish off.  I've already selected three craft projects to do rather than purchase store bought items:

1. Mobile
2. Animal Prints
3. "Art"

I will also be making the drapes, laundry hamper, and a wall design featuring the baby's name (one of the last things to be done, so that the gender surprise remains in tact).

In the next post, I'll start by showing the mobile.