Zoey's Anniversary Cakes!

This weekend commemorates Zoey’s one year anniversary with us.  We’re not sure if she’s two and a half or three so we’ve never known how to celebrate a birthday.  We decided the best way to celebrate having her would be to celebrate her anniversary instead of a made up birthday.  And this is the weekend!  It really doesn’t seem like we’ve only had her for one year, it seems so much longer.

She thought it'd be a good idea to help me with the cooking... by sleeping...

I’ve made her homemade dog treats before, the last time being around Christmas.  I thought she needed something extra special for her birthday so I found a recipe for a dog cake.  Not a cake shaped like a dog, but a cake made for dogs.  You can buy them in the dog boutiques around here, but they always seemed kind of gross because they’re really hard (I’m guessing so they can keep awhile).  I found a recipe that has all stuff that is good for dogs, including peanut butter, carrots, whole wheat flour, and some honey for added sweetness.  The icing is banana and cream cheese.  Pretty much this is the best thing ever that she could eat.  All of her favorites.

And here are some photos of her greatly enjoying that cake... She kept trying to eat it all in one bite.  This is why we give her small pieces and don't plop the whole cake in front of her.

I'm giving her the sign for "leave it."  She surprisingly knows that very well.  Even though she doesn't like to do it.

 And.....  nom. nom. nom.

The adults get a black forest gateau.  Sort of like a cake, but it’s French or something like that.  It tastes just as good to me.  This one had lots of steps to it, baking the cake, putting a ganache frosting on it, making the filling and icing, and then putting those on too.  This cake is not healthy in any way shape or form, but aren’t those the best?

I love how whipping cream can go from this...

...to this, in just a few minutes.

And the assembly... start with one cake.  Put some ganache on top of it.  Top with frosting.

Top with cherries.

Top with another layer.  Finish frosting and decorating!

I also made some dark chocolate trees to add to the cake.  They looked nice for awhile, but the apartment was warm so they slowly thawed.  We ended up having a few fallen trees on our cake.

This cake is definitely a keeper.  Really fantastic, but you can only have small slices at a time since it is so rich.



Etsy Sale

I'm having a sale on my purses through my Etsy site for readers of my blog.  If you put in coupon code "Beanstalk," you can get 20% off the listed price! 

RKOriginals at Etsy

You can buy purses, such as the following, for $12, after the discount, plus $5 shipping (and you'll get it within 3 days!  If not sooner!).

Future Crafting

When I was younger I wanted to be an interior decorator.  This is probably why I go so crazy for all of the crafting around the apartment now.  Here are some of the things I’d love to add to the place when I get a chance and can find the supplies.

And then I have patterns sitting in my box that I've never used, but would love to.  I just need to find the fabric somewhere.



Summer Cleaning?

The past few posts have mostly been recapping of past crafts that I have done.  I probably should have started this blog a long time ago to show all the stuff I like to work on.  But since I waited so long, I thought a recap would be a good way that I could showcase all of those items I’m so proud of.

One of the worst things for me is when I sew an outfit and then years down the line… I outgrow it.  I always hate when my clothes become tattered or shrink to the point that I can’t wear them anymore.  I have a t-shirt from elementary school basketball still and some sweatpants from middle school… though neither of them really fit me too well anymore.  When I make the clothing myself, it’s even harder to let go.  I should start a clothing exchange website where people can swap stuff they’ve made that is still in good condition but doesn’t fit them anymore… Actually I’d be surprised if this didn’t already exist.

I have a yellow linen top that I can't even fit onto the dress form to take a picture of too!

Here are just some of those pieces that are probably too small for me to wear, but I’ll keep trying anyways since I put so much time and love into them!

Do you have things you have worked on that you just refuse to throw out since you put so much time and love into them?

Wedding Upcycle!

Since I’ve been in a wedding planning mood lately, I thought I’d write about an old wedding project I did. 

When I was in college, each fall the theatre fraternity I was a part of would throw a themed costume party.  One year the theme was Famous Teams Throughout History.  I went as Envy in a group of friends who did the Seven Deadly Sins.  I wasn’t really sure how to show envy.  My best idea was to copy someone else’s costume and just make it all green instead, but that would have needed a lot more planning in advance than we had time for. 

One of the best parts of growing up was the costume chest that my parents had for us to play with.    Lots of our Halloween costumes came from there over the years.  It was filled with clothing, hats, wigs, props, etc.  One item that was in there was one of my mom’s bridesmaid dresses from her wedding.  They were a light green as you can see.  (I cut out the bridesmaid’s head for privacy reasons)

Since the dress wasn’t going to be used again in the state it was in (the fabric was shredding and falling apart), I decided to upcycle it into my costume for the dance.  I didn’t have a pattern to use, but I had just received a dress form for my birthday.  I went to work designing the new dress on the form. 

I had to remove all of the fabric that was stained or had holes in it.  I took the skirt and shortened it to knee length in the front and a bit longer in the back, while still keeping the accordion pleats.  I used the top to create a v-neck dress and a series of straps along the back.  Even as I was sewing the fabric continued to fall apart.  I had to add a line of lace under the bust to hide the holes that the seams were creating.  But you can’t tell by looking at it.

Don't worry, there is a bottom to this dress.  It just wouldn't fit over the dress form's shoulders since there is not zipper in the dress.

 The dress turned out really well, though it needed lots of alterations.  It was my first time sewing without a pattern.  I haven’t worn this dress since that dance, as there aren’t many places that you can wear something that daring.  But I guess the moral of this story is the amazing things you can do to upcycle an old bridesmaid dress.

Now I just have to do the same thing to the hot pink tube top and floor length black skirt that I was supposed to wear as a bridesmaid…

Here's my mom, grandpa, the bridesmaids, and my grandma hiding in the background!

Dressing Up

I love to dress up.  I don’t have many chances to do it though.  I guess I should just make my own reasons.  Such as wearing a formal dress to the movies. 

I mentioned before that I keep buying blue fabric… well looking at the dresses in this post it just cements that.

This is one of my favorite dresses.  It came from a vintage pattern that I found while working in the costume shop. 

I absolutely love the 1950s/1960s.  And this dress fits so perfectly into that style.  I feel like I’m straight out of Mad Men when I’m wearing this dress.  All I need is a martini, a trophy husband (I’m still holding out for Jon Hamm… ), and some of that great 1960s cooking… ok maybe I could do without the cuisine of that era…

Here was my attempt at a little black dress.  All of the dresses I make are in bold colors and patterns, not too much is just a simple dress. 

This dress was a headache from the beginning.  The pattern was not done very well.  The dress should have been knee length and it ended up more like thigh length.  I’ve worn this with tights before, but it keeps riding up so it doesn’t get out of the closet too much.  The top also had a lining that made no sense.  The fabric is stretch, but the lining wasn’t supposed to be.  So the top couldn’t stretch at all and it was too small for the rest of the dress.  I ended up just cutting out the lining and that helped the fit a lot.  I just wish it was longer… Maybe I’ll have to pick up some additional fabric one day and add a strip to the bottom of it.

I love this pattern, but have had some trouble with it too.  I first made this dress for my high school graduation.  The dress was white, since our robes were white.  But the top of it was too tight to wear every day. 

When I made this version of the dress I made sure to make the top extra big.  This helped a bit, but the slit down the front is really low.  I had it sewn together for a while, but the fabric started to tear under the stress.  I now just have it open and have to wear a camisole whenever I wear it out.

It seems as I’m writing this that any formal dresses I make have problems.  But I guess that is kind of the way it is when you are buying dresses too.  You have to try on hundreds of them before you can find something that fits.  I just have to alter mine until it fits. 

For this dress I used the same pattern that I often use for sundresses.

I hate working with silk fabric since it shows everything.  Every wrinkle, every seam, every mistake.  This dress ended up being too loose in the waist and under the chest.  I had to add in a few darts, but the fabric puckers a little at the waist.  It has a thin belt to go with it that sort of covers it, but I like to wear a thicker black belt with it to just hide all the seams there.