"All Time Low" cake

My Morgan asked me if I would make a cake for her classmates 16th birthday party.  The party girl wanted a cake with her favorite band "All Time Low" as the theme so this is what I came up with...

My little figures all seem to start out as heads ..... these little guys are going to be the band members :)

And then I add the bodies. 

I know they aren't really realistic but I do try to add some of the characteristics of the person...

I should mention that I am NOT a sculpter!

And then I added some hair

They have to sit and harden so I make them a few days in advance.

The cake was pound cake with MMF
I hand painted the top layer, which actually looked really neat and I sprinkled on some black disco dust to add some sparkle.
I also hand painted on the All Time Low logo....nerve wracking (because what if I messed up!!!) but it turned out well.

The birthday girl loved her cake and I realized how much I've missed this hobby :)

Thanks for looking
Bronwyn

Whew!

Another semester of school (for me) winding down but the summer session begins soon so I just wanted to share some of our recent adventures, and my pictures, with you.

I have been so busy we really haven't done much but I've tried to make myself take pictures because its a creative outlet for me....

We went to the State park recently and the boys played on the playground and the swings and even in the water.  They had a blast and I forced myself to just breath and enjoy their enjoyment.

And then yesterday we went to the near by Six Flags.  The kids had a blast there too.

 As you can see they had a blast and even displayed their talents at drama. 

Thanks for looking.

Big Smile :)
Bronwyn

Chair CPR

My friend had these old metal chairs sitting in the yard of her hair salon....they sat there through the sun, rain, snow and ice for who knows how many years.

I would see these chairs and think....they could be fixed...they could be brought back to life!!

But I kept walking past them

Finally, one day, I said to my friend, I would love to fix your chairs....and she told me I could have them. (I would have been happy just to fix them for her but OK!!!)

So I brought them home and put them in my shed...where they sat for about a year.

The other day I decided to pull the chairs out of the shed and sand them down....

Here is the before shot of one of the chairs....

And so I sanded....and sanded....and sanded....and I removed most of the old paint and rust but couldn't get the chairs completely smooth so I said what the heck...this is good enought (plus my hands were begging for mercy!!)

So I painted them with primer and white rustoleum....

And then I went to the craft store and got some light and dark blue paint and painted a design on the chairs and sprayed them with a top coat of clear Rustoleum..

And Voila!!  Here are the finished chairs!!

Now all I need is a little table :)

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous weekend!!

XOXO
Bronwyn

Hello again

It sure has been a while since I posted anything and I am sorry about that.  This little blog is one of my creative outlets that have been neglected as of late because of my other priorities.  Another one of my creative outlets, as you may know, is photography.  I was able to do a night time shoot (my husbands suggestion....Thank YOU Casey) of the Inner Harbor at Baltimore from the top of Federal Hill.

I had so much fun using my tripod and playing with the shutter speeds and zooming in and out during the shot.....

anyway, I just wanted to share with you a few of my favorites from that night....

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Smiles :)

Bronwyn

Oreo Cookie Pop Bouquet

I have seen some pics of Oreo cookie pops and thought...."Hey, that looks easy!!"
and what a great idea to make a bouquet of these cookie pops for my friend Joni, since the kids ate all of her cupcakes :)

In the process of making the cookie pops I learned some valuable lessons.....

Lesson #1....if you want to make something, do a little research on what worked for others

(had to disassemble cookie to put stick in....dipped stick in melted chocolate)

Lesson #2....if I had done the researching I may have found out that double stuffed Oreos are probably easier to make pops with.

(let the chocolate inside harden before you dip the cookie)

Lesson #3....when trying to reassemble the cookie....don't use any pressure or you will crack the cookie...

(again, I wouldn't have had to disassemble the cookie if I'd done my research!)

(I used a foam block to stand my pops up until the chocolate dried)

Lesson#4....have kids handy to eat broken cookies

Lesson #5....Good friends don't care if your project didn't turn out perfectly!!

Voila!! 

Happy (Belated) Birthday Joni :)

And remember guys, try double stuffed Oreos, or see what has worked for others because I still haven't done my research :)

XOXO

Bronwyn

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have been busy studying..and studying.... and studying....but yesterday when I took a break from studying I decided to try a new recipe.  My original plan was to take a few of these cupcakes to my good friend Joni because I know she loves red velvet cake....and because her birthday was last month and I haven't given her anything special for her special day yet...

note to Joni....they didn't last long enough....I'm so sorry....I will make it up to you :)

Both of the recipes for the cake and the icing were found on Cakecentral.com.....I love this site by the way....you can get tons of great ideas!


You take some butter and sugar and vanilla and eggs and mix it all together and that sounds yummy already....oh and add the sour cream too....

Then add the red food coloring....I added about half of the bottle...I guess I should have added more but was a little worried about adding that much extra liquid...

I added the milk and the flour/cocoa and baking soda alternately

And then I put some of the batter into cupcake tins and some into an 8x8 inch cake pan....I think this recipe will make about 48 cupcakes because I made 24 cupcakes plus the little cake.

And then when the cupcakes were cool I whipped up some cream cheese icing.... YUM

And the kids came running :)

Here are the links for the recipes.....enjoy

Red Velvet Recipe

Decorator Cream Cheese Icing

XO,
Bronwyn

Homemade Pancakes

In the past I've always made pancakes from a box mix....the easier the better.

But I found this recipe for homemade pancakes in my moms recipe box and I've been making these for the last few months.

They are fairly easy to make....

Some flour, egg, oil, sugar, baking powder and  a little bit of salt

then I add some vanilla to add extra yum

Mix it all up until moist....will still have some lumps and thats fine

Now I was suprised at how thick the batter is but it turns out fine..

So heat the frying pans and I usually keep the flame on medium

I melt some butter in the frying pans and then add the butter but if you want to lighten it up you can spray the pan with cooking spray.

They cook up really fluffy and yummy :)

Then of course you have to top it off with some maple syrup or whichever kind you like....and the options are endless....can add some chocolate chips, or blueberries, or small apple chunks to the batter....as I said, the options are endless.

So here's the recipe I batch yeilds about 6 pancakes (depending on how big you make them) so you can print it if you'd like

Homemade Pancakes

1 cup flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

Enjoy and XOXO

Bronwyn