Playoff Canucks Cupcakes

I am not a baker.  I repeat... I am NOT a baker.  I pretty much ruin everything I bake, but after being off of work after a car accident, I got antsy and bored and decided to make something intricate (for me).  I wanted to make some cupcakes for the playoff games, but couldn't find any inspiration... So I decided to just wing it, and here is my "canupcake" journey.  :D

First, I made some green royal icing and did the outline for my Canucks logos

 Then I made some white royal icing and did the insidey part of the logo.  This is where I started to get frustrated because they were already looking like a dog sat on them.  =(

(I'm also quite aware that this picture is upside down!)

 But I kept on truckin' on and whipped up a batch of blue royal icing to fill in the blanks.  Now to impatiently wait (and wait) for them to dry...

 So while we waited, my daughter made a batch of green cupcakes, and I made up some blue icing.  We had to stick with the Canucks colours! 

And finally, after what seemed like FOREVER... The Canucks logos were dry enough (mostly) to peel off the paper and plonk on top of our delicious cuppycakes!  

I'm quite impressed with these as I really haven't made anything creative baking-wise, ever. 

Now here's to hoping that the Canucks make it through the first series this year because so far we're 0 for 2, and I've got about 100 Canucks icing logos made for playoff parties, dammit!

A box of free!

One of Lance's work buddies gave him 2 boxes full of old stuff from his Grandfathers bar.  I was stoked!  I went through the box;  giving everything a good clean.  It's definitely made me want to have original pieces in our bar, rather than cheap knock-offs.  Here are a couple of pictures so far...

 I think this can be restored with a light behind it!

 I love this!  Lance, not so much but that's ok because it's going on the wall anyway!  

I just need a couple of old looking glass hurricane shades!

 Here are two smaller coats of arms and a bunch of vintage ashtrays. 

Not too sure what we'll do with the ashtrays, but I don't have the heart to throw any of it out.

 We were looking to buy some mirrors, but they were all so bloody expensive!  

Now we have five of them!!! =D

We also found a shuffleboard table and an Easton air hockey table on Craigslist.  Score!!!  We just need a floor and the room is pretty much complete!  Hooray!!!

Gigantic Picture = Awesome!

I saw this craft from Sugar Bee Crafts and HAD to try it!  The picture cost me under $7, the foam was $11 and $7 for spray glue.  Mandy from Sugar Bee has the tutorial on her link.

The only thing I can say about this is that our picture didn't come out as clear looking as hers seemed to have, but I took my picture with an iPhone, and I imagine that she probably used a decent camera.  Our picture of Coby (our Lab-Retriever) is grainy, but it actually looks good still.  My boyfriend loves it and can't get over how big it turned out.  Well, it is 4x3ft long!  Hahaha.

(The picture looks grainier in this picture.  It looks pretty decent hanging out here in our living room!)

Ok, so I'm impatient and I haven't actually glued the picture down to the board yet, but I still have to paint the foam.  I just want you to see how flipping big the thing is, and warn you that if you want a clearer picture, use a better camera than just your phones camera.  Hehe!  Also... The foam board... It comes in a 48"x96" piece, and I didn't plan for that so I had to cut it down to size at the store just so that I could fit it in my car.  Thank god I carry a utility knife with me for such emergencies!  Hehe.

Next time, I will make sure to use a proper digital camera and bring the truck to the store because I can definitely see myself making a few more gigantic pictures for different rooms in the house! 

Going crazy with old frames!

I just had to post this one too!  I went to Home Depot this morning and raided the paint chip section.  I totally felt guilty doing it, especially when the paint dept. lady came and asked me if I needed assistance while I had 40 paint chips in my hand.  Lol!  To justify my thievery, I did buy an awful lot of other stuff this morning, we're talking a full cart of things! 

Anyhoo... My daughters room is bright green and purple.  It actually looks really good.  :P 
Ok, so... I made her a dry erase calendar with all of my "borrowed" paint chips and she LOVES it!  Here it is...

And here's a picture of her room just to show you how awesome green and purple look together!   
 

  

Home Made Dry Erase Boards

Another craft I found online were these cute dry erase boards.  They were so easy that anyone can make them.  I have been commissioned by my daughter to make one for her.  Hey, if it helps her become more organized, then I'm all for it!







These cost me $5.00 for both as I already had the paper so I just had to buy the frames, dry erase pens and I also bought the "Menu" stickers, but I really didn't need to.  Hehe.  Surprisingly, you can buy some decent glass frames at the dollar stores! 

All you need to do is take whatever scrapbook paper you want to use (depending on what your dry erase board is going to be for) and decorate it with anything that you don't want to be erased all the time.  "Menu" and "I love you because" are actually on the scrapbook paper.  Put the frame back together with the decorated paper behind the glass, and Huzzah, your very own homemade dry erase board! 

I did a torn-paper design on the menu board because the frame is 11x14 and one piece of scrapbook paper just wouldn't cut it.  I hope you enjoy making and using these.  I'm already thinking of a gazillion other places in the house where we could use them.  Shopping lists, household chores, school/activity schedules, graffiti boards for kids rooms, honey-do lists... I could go on.  Hehe. 

And here's where I got my inspiration from!  


This is the original menu board
 
The original "Love Board"

What did I do before Pinterest???

I tackled my linen closet today.
My only regret is that I didn't take a before picture.
Our linen closet isn't very big, but it sure held a lot... I could barely close the door.  Nothing was organized.  
I got this idea from Pinterest!

 So basically... Sort out your sheet sets into sets, then fold them all into one of the matching pillow cases.  Now all I have to do when I go to change the bedding is grab the pillow case I want and it's all in there!  No more endless searching for the missing pillow case!!!  And look, I can close the closet door now!!!  I soooooooooooo <3 Pinterest! 

I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot more crafts/organizing soon! :D

From dungeon to bar!

When we bought this house, it had a huge 31ft long rec room!  Awesome!  What wasn't so awesome was that nothing had ever been done to it since the house was built in the 60's.  Lance and I wanted to turn the room into a cozy Irish type bar/media room. 

Lance, being Lance... Did not take a before picture of the basement (of course), but you get the idea.  The ceiling was seriously outdated and probably carcinogenic!  The door to the back room was in the way so that back wall was pretty much unusable.  Oh, and you can't do home reno's without double fisting two beers!  :P 

We decided to move the door to the back room.  I found out that drywalling is a horrendous job.  It's not fun at all. 

The ceiling was a huge job, but it looks beautiful!  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that ugly old fireplace. 

A few coats of paint later and I can feel the cozy factor already!  It does make the room feel a bit smaller though, but that's just fine.  :)

Here's Lance and my Daughter and the beginning of our bar!  Now I'm getting excited!!!

It sort of looks like a tiki bar right now, but not for long...

There we go!!!  We put the 2nd shelf and lighting up last night.  We made the bar top ourselves and I just love how glossy it is!  It's a bit dusty from all the shelf-drilling we did, but even with the dust, you can still see the reflection of the shelving in it!!!

And here's a view of what it's like with the shelving lights on and the big old pot lights off!  So pretty. 

We still have lots (and I mean LOTS) of work to do in this room, but we're chipping away at it.  :) 
We might even be able to have our housewarming party soon!!!