Home Reno 3.2

It's been two weeks since I last posted an update on our front entry closet and numerous family members have been pointing that out to me.  Sorry that I have been a bit behind, I have been very busy and, while John did work on it last weekend, the cabinets didn't really change a whole lot, so I thought that I would wait until there was more obvious progress, which happened this weekend! :)

I'll begin with what happened last weekend.  Last Saturday we got up, did some measuring and went to Home Depot to get some supplies for the day (not unlike the two weekends before this...we tend to live at Home Depot while working on projects).  We got all the facing boards and the veneer and hardware for the doors.  When we got back, John got to work getting the facing boards up.  While it may be an obvious difference to most people, the facing and really hidden a lot of the screws and nails and has just made it look more finished overall.  We also decided to get some crown molding for the top of the cabinet, which gives it that "grandeur" feeling.  Here is the outcome of that weekend...

The bottom is on, making it look a lot closer to be complete!  

Crown molding is up.

Facing board on the bottom.  It covered up
a lot of the screws and nails John used to
put the whole thing together.

John also completed one of the doors last weekend, which I veneered, but I did not get a picture of it, mainly because I was tired and forgot.  But it does look pretty nice.  I will be a pro at veneering at the end of this!

This weekend we made more progress.  Friday night while John was at his softball game, I veneered the front of the shelves in the cabinets.  It turned out pretty well.  

My veneering job.

This morning, John got to work on another door and cleaning out the cabinet so that I could stain.  I got to work staining while he was going to finish the doors.  Only thing we had not thought about was how he needed to measure the doors against the opening and how I was staining those openings and making them wet.  John quickly decided that he was going to need to work on the doors later!  Instead he helped get the staining completed.  We had the staining by lunchtime and after supper we put one coat of varathane on, as we decided that we only needed one coat of stain.  They are really starting to take shape now!

Adding some trim to make the bottom look a little bit nicer.

That's it for this weekend.  We're hoping to get another coat of varathane on this week and then John will work on the doors and move onto the coat rod and the shoe rack.  Seems like the work is never done!  

Cake Decorating Class #4

Last Tuesday was my final cake decorating class.  I have been so busy since then that I haven't had time to be able to get another blog out about it!  Finally I have decided I just need to sit down and do it or else I won't get to it until next weekend!

This class we were decorating a cake, which we needed to have filled and iced before the class.  I did this Monday night and then found out that because I made a double layer cake, it would not fit in my rectangle Wilton cake carrier...well it fit but the top of the cake was smushed up against the top. :(  So the first thing I did when I got the Micheal's on Tuesday was drop everything off in the class room and then go and buy a round Wilton cake carrier.  It was the easiest solution I could come up with, when I thought about how I was going to bring my fully decorated cake home! 

The class began with us mixing colours.  I didn't really have any ideas of what colours I wanted so this meant I took a little longer because I had to decide as I mixed.  I came up with a pink, purple, yellow combination, which was nice.  The only thing we learned this class was how to make a ribbon rose.  All I can say is that it is NOT easy!  I had trouble getting the icing to come out of the bag consistently because I wasn't applying consistent pressure, plus I think my icing was a bit too stiff.  That and having to spin my flower holder at the right speed proved to be a challenge.  My friend said that they looked a bit more like carnations because the petals weren't smooth, but was bumpy.  Here are pictures of how they turned out.

My first ribbon rose.

Was starting to figure out how to make the petals open by the end.

After making the four, I was starting to rethink my cake idea for the evening, as I was going to have to make another 8 roses for it!  In the end I just made them because I couldn't think of another idea.  Here are how all the roses turned out.

 

My hand hurt so much by the end of making all of these!  I can tell you that I do not want to make any more any time soon.  Our teacher told us that class 2 focused on making more of these ribbon type flowers, that made me decide that I needed to take a break before signing up for another class!

Once the flowers were done, I started attaching them to my cake and adding the rest of the decorations.  Here are pictures of the progress and the final creation!

In the background you will see the certificates we received for
completing the course.  Yay!

I made the cake to take to work as our articling student was finished her articles this past Friday.  I took it early because she would never had waited that long for the cake!  She has been bugging me all month since I started the course to bring in what I made!  I think she was quite pleased with it in the end.  

Now that I'm done, I plan on practicing what I've learned over the summer and then maybe signing up for another class in the fall!  Stay tuned!

Home Renos 3.1

John's been working on the cabinets all this week and weekend to try and get the cabinets fixed and finished.  He ended up taking all the framing down Tuesday evening and cutting all the pieces to the proper length.  Unfortunately it took him the whole night to redo what he had done on Saturday, but at least it looks better and I think he is a lot happier in the end with the result.  Here's some pictures of the new depth.

Wednesday night John began putting the plywood over the frame to start filling in the cabinets.  This was a bit more fitly to get the pieces in around the frame tight, so while he didn't get too much done Wednesday night, it still started taking shape!

 

Thursday he ended up working late, so he didn't get a chance to work on it then.  He was able to get some work in on Friday night.  He continued on getting the plywood pieces cut and put up.  He got the bottom completely finished. 

On Saturday, John spent the late morning/early afternoon finishing the "cover up".  He got all the plywood cut and attached, along with the shelves in place.  It's starting to really come together now!

That's it for this week!  Thanks for reading.

Cake Decorating Class #3

Tuesday night was my 3rd cake decorating class.  This week we decorated cupcakes and learned out to do some flowers.  We had to have at least 3 colours mixed along with some white and then fill at least 4 bags and have extra tips out to switch on the bags.  It was the most intense class in that respect.  Fortunately I had coloured icing left over form last week, so I didn't really have to mix up any colours other than green for leaves.  Of course that meant I was finished before everyone else and just waiting to get started so maybe not that fortunate....

We started off practicing making flowers and different shells which are used for borders.  I found them all fairly easy except for the last shell.  I just could not figure out how to do it properly.  I think I'm just going to have to keep practicing at it.  Here are pictures of my practice boards.

I had a lot of difficulty with this one, I was starting to
figure it out at the end once the teacher came over
and gave me some tips.

Next we started on our first big flower which we used the flower stand for.  After getting the templates on and the tips all figured out (which was harder than it sounds as we had them on the bags and had to figure out which tip was on what bag!), the teacher showed us how to do it and we got started.  I found that they were that difficult to make at all!  Although my icing was fairly soft, which made it a little easier to get the desired affect, but it did pose a bit of a problem once we had to transfer them to the cupcakes!

The base and center of the flower completed.

First completed flower.  You can't really tell in the picture, but the center is teal and the rest
is blue.

My friend was having issues with her icing being too stiff,
this is her pile of messed up icing.

Two completed flowers!  The one on the right started looking
more like a sun than a flower.

My friend's flowers...her icing would not co-operate with her.

Next we moved onto learning and practicing making leaves.  My green icing was a little too stiff, so it was not really giving the desired affect, as it would not end in a point but just end, although part of that may have just been me...

Next we moved onto learning to fill the cupcakes!!  I was very excited for this.  It was really cool.  We have a very long tip this you put on the bag and just stick it in the cupcake and push until you start to feel it expand, then left go and lift out.  The teacher was talking about the need to be careful when doing this because she's had cupcakes explode on her and then I asked her if someone in her class always makes a cupcake explode, which she said usually yes  The class was real "happy" that I asked that, since we were all only about half way through filling our cupcakes :) Luckily no one made their cupcakes explode!  

mmmm lemon filled cupcakes, with one chocolate one for my
sister :)

Next we moved on to decorating the cupcakes!  First she showed us how to make the nice swirl on top which you see on professional cupcakes.  My icing was too stiff so it wasn't really turning out well.  I would be able to get it start out alright, but then it would just start to clump.   At least know I know how to do it now.  After this the teacher showed us how to make a pom-pom flower.  By far, the easiest flower to make, you just make 3 leaves and then use this tip that makes the icing look like spaghetti noodles and layer it on.  They turned out pretty well!

The pom-pom flowers and the swirl cupcakes on
the right.

After this, she let us decorate our cupcakes however we wanted, showing us how to use some what we had learned this class to decorate the cupcakes nicely.  Here is my final products...

Used the shell shape to make it looks like flowers all around the cupcakes.

This is the chocolate filled one for Keren.

I was able to transfer the flowers I made earlier to the cupcakes by using these little plastic scissors that go underneath the flowers and then you close the scissors and pick up the flower. My icing was a little soft so I smushed it a bit, but I was able to just fill in around it and fix it up.

The hard icing that turn out well and the extra icing I used
to try and fix it out...I think it's just made them more sweet in the end!