Lucky Moon Graphic

This post probably would have been more appropriate for Halloween, but I just came across it in my archives.  It's been a long week so I will just leave you with this.  You computer techies might be able to do something with this image.  I think it is very cool.  I hope I remember this next fall when I need something with a fabulous moon.  Have a wonderful evening.

Peppermint Madness: Martinis, Peppermint Bark, Peppermint Cupcakes

My daughter Stephanie went a little crazy with her peppermint experiments this year, but all of us enjoyed her laboratory (kitchen) experiments and they were delicious.

To make the Peppermint Bark, use one package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 12 oz.  One package of white chocolate chip morsels, 12 oz., and 12 candy canes.

Put aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  Heat chocolate semi-sweet morsels in microwave, then spread evenly on aluminum foil with a spatula.  Place in freezer.  While that layer is in the freezer, place your candy canes in a plastic bag and crush the candy canes with a rolling pin or object of your choice.  Make small, small pieces of the candy cane.  Once that is completed, heat your white chocolate chip morsels in the microwave.  Heat all chocolate a half a package at a time and check after a minute and a half.  Once the white chocolate is ready and melted, stir in peppermint crushed candy canes.  Take the frozen semi sweet chocolate out of the freezer ( make sure it's frozen) then spread the white with a spatula over the dark.  At this point Stephanie  says it looks kind of funky and you think it's not going to look good so place the whole thing in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.  Let it cool at room temperature or put in freezer until firm and ready to break.  This is the best peppermint bark I have had so far and everyone asks for the recipe.

To make the Candy Cane Delight Martini, use 2 ounces Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, 2 ounces Pinnacle Whipped Vodka to one ounce Peppermint Schnapps and about 2 ounces of heavy cream.  Use Grenadine for color if you would like to make it like a candy cane.  Stephanie bought the peppermint rimming sugar  and all other ingredients at Total Wine.  Rim your glass with the Peppermint rimming sugar.  Wet the rim of your glass and dip it in the sugar.  In a shaker mix the rest of the ingredients except the grenadine.  After the martini is made, pour it in the rimmed glass and do a splash of grenadine in a circular motion to make a swirl and garnish with a candy cane swirl.  Enjoy and please drink responsibly.

For Stephanie's cupcakes, she used regular cake mixes and used a cake decorator tip to swirl the frosting and then crushed the candy canes into pieces using a rolling pin or a mallet.  (a food processor works too.)  Sprinkle the crushed candy cane onto your cupcakes.  They look so festive and taste divine!  We consider ourselves cupcake connoisseurs since we live so close to Sprinkles and Crumbs cupcake shops.  I enjoyed hers just as much.  They were truly beautiful and were a fraction of the price.  Besides, cupcakes make the perfect serving size.  She served them on a pretty paper doily and then surrounded them with the peppermint bark and some holiday candy kisses.

Tarnished Silver Twig Wreath

 The other day I stopped at my friend's shop in Westlake Village, California, Hoot n' Anny Home, for a visit.  I love to visit her shop.  It is full of such creative ideas.  I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.  This wreath is a wonderful example of her talent.  A simple grape vine wreath adorned with tarnished silver and pages from whatnots.  She attached some of the items with burlap ribbon.  I just love it and am glad I am able to share it with you.  She has attached candelabras, salt and pepper shakers, a silver vegetable bowl, a silver tray and a silver tea pot just to name a few things.  How original is this? 

Bed Cornice

One of my most recent posts was Spoonful of Sugar and I told you I had another project in mind for the rest of the table my board came from.  Well, here it is.  This table was 36 inches wide so this would fit a single size bed.  Great for a little girl's room.

When I picked up the table from the auction (I had no time for the preview so bought it without seeing it) it had two broken legs, a busted cracked top and was generally trash.  Since I am a junker at heart, I immediately saw two projects and neither one of them was a table.  I had my husband remove the legs in the back.  The front legs he left some of the detail of the leg up near the top.  I had two old finials that had been painted white that were scrapped from another project a few years back.  I actually keep a finial box so I can grab an odd one or two of them every now and then.  He doweled my two smaller finials into what was left of the detailed portion of the original legs.  I added a furniture applique to make it look feminine as I always think of these things draped with beautiful fabrics and they always add a feminine touch to any bedroom.

I had Steve paint the whole thing white and then we went back in with my light gray paint to two-tone it.   Since I am selling this, I didn't want to put a lot of money into fabric and Velcro because I think whoever purchases it will want to do their own thing with it so I had a scrap of white gauzy-like fabric that was just enough to fold in half and then I hand gathered it and took some upholstery tacks we took from another project and tacked it in.  Now the fabric is easily removable but at the same time it is in there for as long as anyone would like.  To mount it on the wall, use strong straight reinforcing brackets that will not give way and leave some of the screw holes exposed at the top to screw it into the wall.  Of course, toggle bolts are a must.  It can also be drilled right into the wall with toggle bolts and then the screws could be touched up with paint.

Spoonful of Sugar 2

Alright.  I seriously think Mary Poppins is messing with me.  I posted this on two different blogs today and the images are there and then they are not and they keep "popping in and out" just like she does.  I will try this again.  The original post was posted on Saturday, December 10.

I created this sign from a broken table top that normally would have been discarded.

I used regular latex paint as that is all I had on hand that was the color I desired.

The image came from the Graphics Fairy.  Don't we all love her?  They way I transferred the image was with my art projector and I traced the image lightly with pencil and just painted the silhouette light gray then lettered the sign.  I will re post this with a different blog title and see if I can get these children to the party on time.  Thanks for bearing with me.

Vintage Typography Graphics

This first card is actually an antique card dated 1890.  I love the eagle and the graphics.  The color is wonderful too.

 Not sure how old this following card is but the coloration is wonderful.  I love the St. Nicholas 95 Cent Store.  I really do wonder how old this is.  95 cents at the turn of the last century was a lot of money considering today we have the 99 Cent Store discount shops.

 The print styles on this next one are great.  Lot's of variety. 

Thanks for visiting.

Spoonful of Sugar

My inspiration for this sign was an image posted by The Graphics Fairy.  Hers was a black and white and I wanted mine to be a bit lighter so I used gray.  I originally was going to make this a children's bookstore sign, but the theme took me in a different direction so I just went with it, plus I love to host and attend whimsical tea parties myself.
The board for this sign started out as a broken table I purchased sight unseen from an online auction.  They did list the table as "as is,"  but they didn't explain what the as is was.  The legs were broken and one of the top pieces was cracked and busted.  I used the table top for another project I will show you next week, but for the broken half of the table I knew immediately I wanted to paint a sign on it.  My husband sheared the bad part off and made it even for me and painted it with a satin white paint I had on hand.

 I made a reverse copy of the image from The Graphics Fairy and reduced it so it would fit on my board with my artist's projector.  I projected the image onto the board and lightly traced the image with pencil.  All  I had to work with for gray paint was some old latex paint  that was nearly gone.  I wanted to save myself a trip to the craft store to save time.  Also I am a firm believer of using what you have on hand.  The latex paint worked just fine.

 As always, I map out my lettering ahead of time on paper.  This may sound like extra work, but it saves so much time and re-doing, it is worth it.  I figured out the spacing of the letters and then I could easily figure out the exact placement on the piece.

 Here I used three different stencils to do the lettering.  After it was all done, I thought it was a little too pristine for my taste so I shabbied it up a little bit.  Here is the finished product.