A Fondant Frenzy

I love to bake, anyone who really knows me, knows that baking for me is relaxing and creative all the while appeasing my sweet tooth.  I also love to see the reaction of my friends as they taste my creations. Now before I had moved out on my own, I had trouble baking things for my friends because of transport time of the baked goods, but now thanks to living on my own, I have the freedom to bake as much as I want.
The first thing I really wanted to dab into was making a fondant cake.  Luckily my Catherine was having a birthday soon so I had the perfect occasion to bake a cake.  I decided to make a 2 tier Victorian vanilla sponge cake with strawberry jam and buttercream frosting.  I never made it before so it was a little daunting but I knew I could make it.  Now the party was also on the night of the Academy Awards so I decided to decorate the cake with an Oscar theme in mind.  And with all that planning done, I was off to start the baking!

making the cake

Craft Recap: Balloon Pop Painting

So, I'm really excited about the fact that I am trying hard to commit to posting a new blog entry once a week, even if it's something really simple and small, the consistency of it will hopefully make this blog last longer.  Over the past year I've created so many things that I really wanted to share with everyone but never had the discipline to sit down and blog about until now.  I was smart enough to gather photos throughout the year in case I was ever able to commit to posting them- and this would be the day.

The next few posts I'll be putting up will be a quick review of all the things I've done in the past that I found worth blogging about.  Let's start off with some of last years paintings I painted.

Wallis filling up the balloons with paint

Coming back from Europe I had a lot of inspiration to create things and the first thing I really wanted to do was some balloon painting!  It was a simple enough craft to do and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun- especially with some friends.  I gathered up the necessary materials needed:

-a 16x20 stretch canvas (or any canvas really)
-tape (we used painting tape)
-acrylic paint (I got a bunch of cheap ones from the craft store)
-balloons (dollar store)
-sewing needles (ideally you'd use darts but I didn't have any)
-straws (to act as a blowdart with the needles)

A Happy Housewarming!

So after a whole year break from blogging I finally decided to get this blog back up and running.  Before it was meant as a means to showcase my adventures in travelling Europe but as I have been back home already for a year I am using it as a base to display my many creative creations. From different recipes I've learned and tried to different types of DIY art work I've made, this blog is now going to be a collection of the little things I do/create to make my life good.  Plus I'll throw in some tidbits/updates of my actual life that hopefully tie in with these projects as I also use this blog as a means to communicate my thoughts and experiences.  So let's dive in and get started!

After arriving from Europe I found myself itching to move out of my parents place and finally get a place on my own.  I figured if I could plan and execute a whole 3 month trip across the ocean, moving out to a different city just a 40 minute drive away shouldn't be that bad right?  So after months of saving up and working I finally moved out last February to a quaint 450sq ft apartment in the heart of the West End in Downtown Vancouver.  Now the first thing I really wanted after I unpacked was host my very own housewarming with some of my friends.  I thought that a Carnival theme would represent the celebration of moving out and the fun of the unknown quite well so a few internet searches later and ta da! a Carnival themed house warming was created!

 I started to think of some games I could play that revolved around the whole Carnival theme.  The first thing that came to mind was a simple and inexpensive jellybean guess!  Where everyone would have to guess how many jelly beans there were in a jar without going over the actual amount. Using just a simple mason jar and a couple of bags of jellybeans, this game added  a quick game of fun. 

Next up I used an idea I got from surfing Pintrest on making felt bowties as a take away from my housewarming.  So I got some felt, folded them into a bowtie shape then using a hot glue gun I stuck them onto a bamboo skewer  to make a little gift to all my guests.  All my friends know I love to wear bowties so having these as a takeaway I found very appropriate. 

For decorations, I thought that keeping the colour scheme of the party to the 3 simple and bright colours of Red, Yellow and Blue would be best, especially since Carnivals are all about the use of colour to attract visitors and guests.

I had acquired a really nice wine cabinet from my parents when I moved out that is situated in the corner of my apartment where I decided to focus the majority of the decorations on.  Using tissue paper and string I folded yellow, blue and red tissue into giant pompoms that I dangled around the cabinet as a festive decoration.  Again I got the idea from Pintrest.