Big Boy Room Re-do...

I have been busting my butt as of late, call it spring cleaning, nesting and cleaning for house guests, the bottom line is that my house is ridiculously clean and organized.

The coming of the new baby means one more person living in our already somewhat cramped home. We had to get rid of our craft/office/junk room and actually turn it into a bedroom, to make our house what it is, a 3 bedroom home. We sold some of our furniture that we couldn't use and bought some that were more appropriate for what the room was supposed to be, a toddler/little boy room. This is only one of the HUGE projects we have got going on or that are going to take place in the next few months.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest, getting ideas, pinning things I like, I want to make or things I want to explore. I really think that site is great, it provides one place where you can keep things instead of adding a bunch of favorite web pages to your bar. 

When we first moved into the house, 4 years ago, everything was painted beige/tan. Which was good because it's a neutral color and meant we didn't have to do a thing if we didn't want to. For the first kid, we had the nursery in the smaller of the two rooms, we of course got the master.

The nursery was all the same color with white chair rail. I decided I would paint the bottom half a darker beige/brown color, It was in the same color family as the beige and I absolutely hated it. Not long after we welcomed the second kid which meant we moved the nursery to the larger of the two rooms and turned the smaller room into our "whatever" room. We knew one day we would need to separate the kids and with the arrival of number three coming soon, it gave us the perfect opportunity to do so.

Nate and I are definitely black, white and grey kind of people with bright colors as the accents. All of our bedroom furniture is black, in fact all of our furniture is black with the exception of the girls room which I will post later, our couch which is sage green and our kitchen table top which is brown. Maybe we should expand a bit... or maybe not. Anyhow we were more than excited to repaint and get our project on.

So without further ado, Sage's big boy room.

Breakdown of the room:

Top wall color - Filtered Shade in satin by Valspar,
Bottom wall color - Rocky Bluffs in semi gloss by Valspar
Bed - Malm by Ikea
Dresser - Malm by Ikea
Play mat rug- Ikea
Ribba picture ledge - Ikea

Small table and chairs- Ikea

Rock climbing light:

Gyllen wall lamp- Ikea
    Plexiglass from Lowes and cut to size & lightly spray painted white
    Rock climber silhouette, made with my silhouette machine
White curtains and rod - imagine that Ikea
Duvet cover - Target
Pillows - all made by myself using a simple envelope style, fabric from fabric.com
White toy chest - handmade by myself with lots of sweat and tears
3 square shelves in the corner - Made by myself also with lots of hard work
No skiing sign - as per my husband

It should be apparent by now that Ikea was our go to store. We don't expect all of this to last forever, especially since it's a boys room, but it is what fit our budget and our style. It should also be obvious that this room, the rock climbing theme, had a lot to do with Nate. He however... actually put forth zero effort into redoing this room, other than hauling the boxes from Ikea. Sorry Nate, have to rat you out, it was a lot of work for a 7 month prego lady but well worth it. We all love this room!


And in case you were wondering, here is what the room looked like right before. The "whatever" room with the nasty brown bottom.

Speckled Egg Cookies...

Since these are so darn good I couldn't resist making more. Plus I had left over royal icing (if you read in the Earth Day cookie post, the royal icing can be stored for up to a month, wow).

Since I haven't been a successful baker in the past, my supply of cookie cutters is limited to circles, a spring set and a snowflake set, nothing special. Since I have a few circles in various sizes, and Easter just have passed, (of course I make them after). I decided to take one of the circles and shape it into an egg.

Thus the speckled egg cookie.

After I made the cookies, I opened my left over royal icing. I had taken everything left over from last time and mixed it all together. Blue, green and a thick white, the color ended up being a dark turquoise, not exactly what I wanted for robins egg color, but I thought it would still work... until I tasted it. Since I had mixed in my thicker white, which had a lot and I mean a lot of powdered sugar in it, the whole thing ended up tasting like powdered sugar and wasn't too great. I almost gave up right there because I didn't want to make anymore, but I didn't want to waste all these little cookies. So... I made more icing!

I half-ed the cookie recipe again and half-ed the royal icing since I had so much last time. I made over 7 dozen of these little guys and had plenty of icing left too. Made them just like the earth day cookies, let the border dry, then flooded the inside. I left the two the same consistency and then I speckled them with a little water and brown coloring. Once they were finished, they were perfect not only to look at but to eat!

Just to show you how bite sized these were. We were eating 5 or 6, maybe 12 of these in a sitting. They are just so small that roughly 3 of them made a normal cookie... YUM

Green Party Popcorn Mix...

Super easy and super yummy popcorn party mix.

I have seen a few recipes for this floating around so gave it a go and boy was it good!!!

Here is what you need- 7 cups popped popcorn, 1 cup pretzels, I bag white chips for melting (or you can use colored candy melts), 1 Bag semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts, 1/ 2cip green M&M's, (I obviously bought a bag and picked out the green ones),decorating sprinkles (I used green sugar and a few white nonpareils ), food coloring (I used wilton coloring). You can change this recipe to what ever color you need.

To start, I melted my white chocolate in my wilton chocolate melter. I always seem to have a problem melting chocolate in the microwave, I over cook it and then end up throwing it away, very disappointing to say the least. Anyway, melt you chocolate and dip half of the pretzel in, place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with colored sugar. I put some sugar down before so both side would have sprinkles.

Next pop your popcorn, however you do it. Some people color their popcorn, I chose not to. I used about 6 cups (I'm sorry, I'm really bad at measuring and usually go by eye and wing it, this would probably explain why I am not a great baker... I gave measurements above but apparently I didn't go by them, I literally just added until I thought it looked good...)

Once your popcorn has been popped, spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spread you m&m's and honey roasted peanuts.

I had white chocolate still in my metler so I used half of what was left and drizzled it over the mix with a spoon (if you add a tiny bit of oil it makes the chocolate a bit easier to drizzle and super glossy). With the remainder of the white chocolate I added some of the wilton green coloring, mixed it together and drizzled that over the mix. While the chocolate was still wet I sprinkled with the white nonpareils. Next I melted my semi sweet chocolate, added the tiny bit of oil and drizzled it, while that was still wet I sprinkled it with the green sugar, then added the pretzels.

Once the mixture hardens, break it up and serve in a bowl or a plate. You could even bag it for a cute little party treat.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what order you do the chocolate, you could use all white, only dark, or add the colored chocolate last so you can really see it. And as I am sitting here snacking on it the day after the party, I'm thinking it's even better the next day!

Its a great little snack of salty and sweet and this is coming from someone who doesn't like popcorn, shocking I know!

A Disney "Cars" Birthday...

This is actually less about the birthday and more about the cake!

The cake that I baked two days in advance

kneaded and rolled fondant for, one day in advance

The cake that took me hours to decorate

The first cake I have EVER decorated

The cake that I am so flipping proud of!

My sons second birthday Cars cake!

The cake is not perfect I will admit that. But seriously for a first timer, I think I beat some pro cake decorators out there. Want me to decorate a cake for you? Bring it on!

Okay I'm a little stuck to myself but I honestly was so surprised that it turned out as good as it did. I frequently have these ideas in my head, I can see how I want them to turn out and then when I get to the finished product I am utterly disappointed that it looks nothing like my vision! How sad, but this was not one of those times!

I am not a baker, in fact my husband told me last night I am a terrible baker. We were having a conversation about food. I told him I didn't want to make some friends food because I am a terrible cook. He turned to me and said "No you're a good cook, you're a terrible baker". Hurt? not really, I already knew I was bad.

I've tried countless times to make the perfect sugar cookies, pies and cakes and come up short. My project end up in the can! So this was a cake I was determined not to mess us. I made one from the box!

Here at the Johnson household we don't like the traditional white or choco, we like funfetti!

Super easy, a little extra oil in the mix for moistness and the cake was perfect.

I wasn't too sure how many rounds I was going to need. I ended up doing 3 6" and 3 8". Turns out 6 layers was really big, so I cut it down to 2 a piece and then made 2 other small cakes from the others.

Some things about frosting a cake are pretty easy... Level it off duh! I figured the cake wouldn't sit pretty if I didn't gut that bubbled up part off.

After my cakes were baked, as per box instructions, they cooled, were cut, layered and then frosted with buttercream for a crumb coat (a thin coat). I think I ended up letting this sit out for a good 4 or 5 hours to harden up a bit before I slathered them with another thicker layer of buttercream.

While the coat was drying and what I do have pictures of is the fondant process. I have big plans for cakes coming In March for my husbands birthday and a really big one in April for my daughters first birthday! I'll make sure to take pictures of everything then.

Anyhow. Fondant is easy, store bought is kind of weird. I've used it before for small circles on my sons first birthday cupcake cake. I wanted to be adventurous, since I wasn't on the cake baking itself and make my own.

I had seen on blogs how to make it, some require gelatin, some just use marshmallow, powdered sugar and water. Thats the route I went. Simple simple. I had a friend who decorates show me how to do it and I was shocked it was that easy.

1 large bag of mini marshmallows and 5 tsp (i think) of water melted in microwave until creamy smooth. Once melted, slather counter with crisco, dump melt on counter and start mixing in 1 bag powdered sugar until dough like consistency. Some add the color to the melted marshmallow some add to the dough form. I did dough and let me tell you, black is RIDICULOUS. My hands were purple all day and all the next day for the party!

I will make a tutorial on this I swear, but for now... go here to Make it and Love it. Seriously it's that easy!

So I got everything done, cakes prepped, fondant made and I got to work creating this masterpiece.

I really had no idea what I was doing I just kind of went with it. I find thats how I am with most things. I will see a tutorial online and I wont read through it all. I just think, "oh I can do that" and I go and do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Thats when I think "I should have read the whole thing". But this worked!

Below is one of the rounds I didn't use that I made into a smaller cake. One I let him use to blow out his candles. I am sure everyone at the party appreciated that he didn't spit all over their slice of cake and the other, this one, I used on the actual day of his birthday.

I will throw in a few details about the party, it was Cars themed, obviously.

There were plenty of toy cars, lots of candy dishes full of red and yellow goodies, a delish slushy punch (I will post recipe for this). I also made some pendant banners with checkers on them to hang about, as well as some lightening bolts.

And if people didn't want the best cake ever, they could have a cake pop. I have tried my hand at these multiple times and failed every time. No, not the baking or rolling part. The dipping part. Mine just kept falling off or breaking apart. Anger! I got smart this time and bought a Wiltons Chocolate Melter. Saved some serious heartache! I love it! Go buy one!

I'm thinking right now why I post things... Why post this?

Well, I love looking at other blogs, for ideas, inspiration, tutorials. Sometimes I just get in this rut. I can't create anything fantastic (everything I create has already been created anyway) and I'm stuck. Every morning I get on the computer and head on over to the craft world. I could spend hours on end looking at craft blogs. So why do I post?

Because maybe what I am posting will give you an idea. Had I not searched the internet for Cars cake ideas, I wouldn't have come up with this, a collaboration of multiple cake designs I was in love with. Had I not been browsing on Make it and Love it, I wouldn't have been inspired to make a cake in the first place.

So hopefully, I inspire someone somewhere and if not. That's totally fine too, I like documenting!

Happy V-Day...

Hope your Valentines was filled with lots of love... and chocolate!

Valentine Re-vamp...

Remember the Valentines re-vamp the I signed up for?

(Just incase you need to know who I am for the re-vamp list, I'm Mallory from Sage K and Co... obviously)

Well it's come and gone... sadly I didn't win and I really wanted to, maybe next time

I had the hardest time deciding what I want to do, what I wanted to re-vamp. I mean I have so much junk/stuff that I probably could have made anything. However I wanted it to be really really nice. My partners wedding anniversary is on Valentines so I felt a lot of pressure to make something really "lovey" cute.

I had been browsing ideas and was well into making something else when I came across this... I about died. My Crafty Friend Jen made this tutorial over at Crafts Unleashed.

I fell in love immediately and new I wanted to make one for myself. So I set out making one from things I already had, because I'm cheap and didn't want to go spend money to make the "exact' same one. Once I had made it, I LOVED IT, however I thought my partner might love it too. So I decided I would send it her way and didn't make a second for me, how could I?

Like I said I didn't buy anything for this and it was the perfect re-vamp for me (considering our house is all torn apart in our "getting ready to sell" phase.

The details...

I used a cardboard box I was going to throw away for the back, black and cream damask fabric I turned into paper, cream and red cardstock. We had a bunch of twine in the shed from our fence we made, black sequence I picked off of another project gone wrong and of course I had oodles of ribbon and tulle laying around. I Mod Podged the fabric and red cardstock to get the sheen I wanted, I guess to give it some texture. Oh and I didn't have a cutter for the letters, hearts and cream cardstock shape. I cut them all by hand. Not too bad.

I used little jewels and tulle just like in the tutorial but made some variations to exactly what I did.

Although mine differs just a bit from the actual one done in the tutorial, I still really like it and was kind of sad to send it off, should have made myself one, now I am a bit mad. Hopefully she didn't see the tutorial and decided to make one, so that she now has two and I really hope she liked it!

If you are interested in seeing what everyone else made/received check out the link here. Your bound to see some really good stuff!

Free Paint Sample...

1,000 for 100

Valspar is giving away 1,000 samples of paint A DAY for 100 days.

I heard about this back in mid January, I don't remember where. But I thought it would be a good little deal to get on and get a free sample. I mean 1000 a day is a lot.

After a few days of getting on randomly mid day to get my sample and being turned down I finally read that the "store" re opened at 12am CST. To me that meant 1 in the morning, which may or may not be possible for me. Some days I don't go to bed that late and some nights one of my kids is bound to be up around then.

Well one night my daughter got up at 1:30. After taking care of her, I got online, went to the store and was turned down yet again!

It had only been opened for a half an hour!

Then next night I tried once again and read they had changed the stores opening hours to 9am CST. That was the most exciting thing! That meant I could be awake, normally and be near the computer come 10am for me.

I got on, got my sample ordered and was content. I thought it was be fun to order one for a friend. Tried to get back into the store at 10:07 and it was closed.

1,000 samples gone in less that 7 minutes. Seems like everyone must know about this deal.

Well my sample came... and I am pleased.

I was just expecting a little paint sample, which is what I got, but I also got a mini roller,

and coordinating colors... pretty cool.

I couldn't wait to test it out and I have no idea what I am going to use it on... but I am excited!

Thanks Valspar and lesson to all of you who still want a sample, get on right when it opens..

oh, I also don't know how much longer the 100 days goes for, I imagine another month or so.

One Project a Month...

I am determined from this point forward to do one project a month.

I'm not talking about little projects, I do plenty of those a week.

I am talking about large remodel type projects.

Why?

Because we are moving in a year and I gotta get this house ready!

Upon blog hopping and hearing what family and friends have said, its apparent I need to "upgrade" some things. Others are things I think someone in the market is going to look for.

I am going to try and do this all on a small and I mean really small budget and show you exactly what it cost me, exactly what I did (before and after photos) and then let you be the judge!

Since January is over, well almost over I'll start in February!

Here is my tentative list for getting this house ready to sell...

February - Laundry

March - Main Bathroom

April - Yard

May - Master Bedroom

June/July - will be spent vacationing, yeah!

August - 2nd Bedroom/office

September - Master Bathroom

October - Kids Bedroom

November - Kitchen

December - Living Room

Depending on the circumstance these may be done out of order... or even in the same month as another. Why paint the bathroom and bedroom the same color in a different month?

So now I need some advice before I get going. What do I need to do to sell my house. Things you had to re-do to sell yours, things you want to see in another house. Things you think should be done anyway or things you think are a waste of time.

Examples would be "I don't think paint colors should be dark, or teal" and My grandma would put it, in regard to my main bathroom.

Or maybe even switching out all of the light switches and outlets that were previously painted white... yes, the last home owner painted cream colored switches white to look more "updated" Needless to say they have peeled the 3 years we have lived here and now look ridiculous, so yes we are replacing them!

Give me your feedback, I am eager to hear!