I'm back..

I kind of feel bad for not blogging for several weeks now. And it’s not because nothing is going on – it’s because I have way too much and had not enough time to write it all down. Of course I took lots of pictures along the way. I have several projects running at the same time and before I finish one, there is already a next one lined up.

Here is the first project I was working on, and now I’m feeling really bad – I made some bridal shower cookies for my friend Liz, not to mention that event took place in February and by now they are happily married and already back from their honey moon. I can’t believe I haven’t posted in two months. But here are the sugar cookies on a stick. I gave some to Brian for Valentine’s day as well.  

I made sugar cookies from scratch, attached a plastic stick in the middle of each heart and baked them for about 12 minutes. After that, I let them cool down, colored them with glace in pink and white (http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/tutorial-glace-icing-and-cookie.html), and let them dry again..

and wrote some sweet things on them. After they were completly dry I wrapped them in single wraps.

Congrats to Liz and Mike!

Project number two: Since Easter is around the corner I blew out some eggs (two holes on each side and omelets for dinner), dyed them in different colors, put glue all around each egg and sprinkled glitter. Oh I love me some glitter. It was about everywhere in the kitchen! But now we have a fun colorful Easter nest sitting on the mantel. I found this idea in the Martha Steward Craft book.  

Here are some pics..

After that, let’s see. Brian had a dresser, and besides the beech color which didn’t go well at all with any of our other furniture, it was in pretty bad shape. I took it all apart,

sanded everything down with our new sander, and started to paint.

After about four coats of stain, it finally became as dark as I wanted it to be. I assembled all pieces together, attached glue to everything and now it is fitting right in with all the other furniture.

Then, when Brian was out of town for three days, I got a new decorating idea from this cool lady, check out her blog! http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/2011/03/flower-balls.html I went to my favorite store Michaels to buy some Styrofoam balls, a flower punch, some pins with red and pink pearls. (its cheaper in the sowing aisle than the wedding)

 I went home to start punching out red flowers.

I put two flowers together, attached a pin in the middle and attached the flower to the ball. Repeated that for about 300 times until three cute flower balls were done

I don’t know if you heard about that, but the bookstore Borders is closing about 50% of their stores. In Atlanta I believe there are only two stores staying open. None of them close by. When we heard about that, we drove straight there and bought about the whole store. Books not as much as furniture. So far we ended up with three Slat walls for the garage, bought the hooks for it as well and now Brian can have some tool time! :)

I was planning on building a dining room table for the longest time now and just could not figure out how, and could not get over the price for wood panels in 4”x8” dimensions. Every table I have seen so far was over 1000$. So while at Borders, we walked around and there was this library table, beech color, covered in books and no “sold sign” on it. That’s it, that is my table!!! I found a table which I can still re-do and make it my own. We went home and measured again, to see if it will be working in our dining room and drove straight back to buy it! Last Saturday we picked up the table and I have to say it is HEAVY. Yikes, I was not able to pick it up, so at 8.30am on a saturday morning we had to call a friend to help us out. We put it straight in the dining room, so we dont have to carry it any more than needed. We sanded it down (I had to clean for 3 hours to get all the dirt out of the house!)

..and put a pre-coat on it.  

that's after three coats of Bombay Mahagoni stain. Every coat has to dry for at least 5 hours, so the process is kinda long.

Last night I gave it one more coat, and tonight I will sand it for the last time before we put the finish on. I'm so excited that we will have a cool "home-made" dining room table finished by tonight!!

Still thinking about Borders though, we bought some more hooks, a hand truck, two tiny serving trays, a ruler, a stepping stool for the kitchen, AND three library ladders. We are talking about building built-ins in our formal living room. It has those beautiful French doors and a built-in bookcase would just fit in perfectly. Brian fell in love with the ladder the moment we first walked in the store. But of course those are so expensive that we waited, and waited.. and discussed.. Early last week he went back again, and they were reduced in price and still some available. He called me to ask if I would be ok, if he would buy not only one ladder, but actually three, since Borders is not selling them separately. You will have to buy the whole section. Mmh.. I guess we can sell them and keep one for us. So now, we have three really cool library ladders in the basement with all the other furniture which need to be re-done. Has anyone of you ever built built-in bookcases?
Other than that.. some more baking..

I found a recipe on the internet of a reeses butter cup cheesecake cupcake, which I needed to try out. It was so easy to make and soooo good! 

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Minis

Ingredients

Crust: 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 
4 tablespoons sugar 
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted 
12 bite-size peanut butter cups

Filling: 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature 
1 cup sugar 
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract 
2 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup of a standard muffin pan.

To make crust: In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter until crumbs are moistened. Press crust into bottom of each muffin cup. Put 1 peanut butter cup into the center of each crust.

To make the filling: Beat cream cheese with a handheld electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, flour, and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Spoon cream cheese mixture over peanut butter cups and graham cracker crusts. Bake until just set, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

There was also a Jeans purse which I started to sow. I even put a liner in it, sowed everything together and got stuck, because it just didn’t look as I imagined it. I need some time to think and for now just put it away.

My German friend Miraya who lives in Smyrna and works in the same company as I do, gave me some white curtains which she didn’t need anymore and right now (I mean not this exact second) I’m working again on a new pillow. There are some felt circles involved and it will take about forever to finish. But I will finish! I hate putting things away half done.

I guess that’s it for now. :) 8 Mil. projects in one post,  and 30minutes ago, there was a new one on the list, which I will tell you a little later about.

Have a great week everyone!

Your German Girl,

Carina