Train Cake

If you ever told my 20-year-old self that I would be staying up until 2:00 in the morning making a train cake for my 5-year-old, I would have told you that you were nuts... and yet many, MANY years later here we are. 

Re-wind to last year when I found this train cake pan at Jo-Ann Fabrics and decided to make my husband a cake for his promotion.  I made a train cake with dollar signs on it and put some bacon sticking out of the train car because he was "bringing home the bacon on the money train." It was the VERY first time I actually decorated a cake with with a tube set and it turned out quite well because it was so easy. I used box cake mix and mixed food coloring in with store bought icing. 

So this year, for the first time, I decided to make my son a birthday cake. Last night,  the night before his party, I realized I forgot to start the cake the day before to let it cool. Oops. So I quickly got everything out and started at 8:30 PM. This was the first time I was going to try the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. I bought 4 packets of color/flavoring but only used 2 cans of white frosting, so the color was a little darker and the flavor was a little stronger.


To tell you the truth, I wasn't really paying attention when I grabbed this particular box of cake mix off the ACME shelf because, that day, I was worried about my soon to be 5-year-old having a melt down in the super-market. Instead of getting the regular chocolate cake, I grabbed the first thing I put my hands on. At the time, it didn't seem that important because I just wanted to get the heck out of there... WARNING this is what happens when you use SUPER MOIST cake. Another oops!!

AT this point it was almost 10:00 and there was no way in heck I was about to go to back to the super-market and re-make the cake, so I mixed my frosting and I figured I would just load the icing on the train wreck and make it look as train like as possible. Only problem was, my cake wasn't 100% cooled down... This is what happens when your cake isn't cool, your frosting starts to melt. Oops number 3. 

All my icing was just sliding off the cake, the re-construction was even a bigger mess!!! So I had to throw that sucker in the freezer for 20 minutes. Something I should have done BEFORE I started icing the cake.

The front was just so mangled that the icing just wouldn't be able to re-construct an ENTIRE train front. So I ran around the kitchen trying to find something edible to hold up the icing. I found marshmallows!!! I just started shoving it under the icing that was sliding off the front of the cake. It actually looked pretty good! The marshmallows also happened to make good looking smoke too! 

Lets be honest, I'd never make the cut for a Food Network Cake Decorating Challenge or you'd never see me on an episode of Cake Boss, however, I did save money and my son thought it was great so that's really all that mattered. 

Grade: C
Skill Level: Moderate-High
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Frustration Level: High (don't start a cake at 8:30 at night!)

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations was a big hit, He couldn't keep his fingers off!

Sun Catchers for Dad

Doesn't dad have a pile of ties and mugs from Father's Day past?

Wouldn't it be nice to give dad a gift created by the kids that didn't take space in the junk drawer? I was looking at my sun-catchers and decided that simulated stained glass project is the perfect gift for Father's Day. I have included print outs for you so that you can make them too!




You can always find plastic packaging around if its in your recycle bin or your trash can. There are several types of plastics that can't be recycled and those are the best kinds to use for this project. 

1) Wash the plastic with dish soap to remove traces of dirt and oil. Dry thoroughly.

2) Rub the side of the plastic that you are going to write on with sand paper then wipe with a damp cloth.

3) Slowly trace the plastic placed over the printout with Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Markers. My 8 year old did this and really did a wonderful job.

4) Cut out plastic.

5) Spray with clear sealant for fade resistance. This step is optional.

6) Use pin to push through the plastic to create holes for fishing line.

7) Tie on fishing line. This was the absolute worst part of the project. Tying all that little, thin, slippery string was very frustrating. I will have to find some alternative to fishing line because it is a bear to work with. Actually, I'd rather work with the bear.

8) Add plastic beads to make it pretty. You can find these at any craft or 5 and 10 store.

9) Cut out another piece of plastic (clear or colored) to make the top. I used a clear plastic bottle sliced in half and cut and inch and a half thick, so that it gave the final product a curved look. You can see it more clearly if you click on the big picture at the top of this blog page. 

After my 4-year-old son saw the finished product he wanted to confiscate it for his own. I'm sure daddy will let him keep it in his room!

Grade: A-
Skill Level: Easy 
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate
Frustration Level: Moderate (Oooooo, that fishing line!!!)

Make sure you check out the print-out below!!!

Print Me

Chickens

This is the story of a boy and his chicken

We started raising chickens last year and I have to tell you they are the best pets EVER. They stay outside, you feed/water them once a day, they make wonderful fertilizer for the garden, they weed the garden and you get fresh eggs.  What other animal will do your gardening chores? And if you really never tried a fresh egg, you really must, its wonderful! 

To start your chicken adventure, you really only need a storage container, heating lamp and bulb, bedding, food and water. Local animal feed shops carry day-old female chicks and all the material to start your urban farm. You can also order chickens and chicken materials online. 

It is very important to make sure you select the right breed of chicken for you. We go for the gentle tempered breeds so that the chickens, the kids, and the bunny can all play together peacefully (mostly).  My Pet Chicken actually has a search engine to help you find the right breed. Would you like some chickens and don't know where to start? My Pet Chicken also has a helpful Chicken Care Guide to get you started.

As your chickens grow and start hopping out of the box, you have to get them outside and into housing. I would love to let my chickens roam free, only we have a serious chicken hawk problem. I lost 4 chickens last year to birds of pray. I would say the most difficult and expensive part about chickens is the housing. Recently I've found several people on the internet who re-purposed old children's playhouses into coups, very creative and very easy and less expensive. I wish I thought of that!!!

Urban gardening has become quite popular recently, probably because its very easy and the benefits are so high. You would be surprised how many townships allow chickens! 

This year, our friend gave us some eggs to put under our existing hens to hatch and boy was that fun for the kids, but it drove me crazy. Every day, for 21 days, the kids asked me if the chickens hatched yet. When they finally did (23 days later) we were over the moon with our new little peeps! We decided to do a photo shoot to capture the cuteness!!! Now if I could just get the kids to corporate for their photo shoot as easily as the chicks!

Make Thyme for Mom!

As you can see from this blog, we really love giving and getting plants! What better way to share a plant with someone than by personalizing your gift with something you did yourself!  Mother's Day is coming up so I am adding a clever saying on this one to make it memorable!  

 Materials:

• Terracotta Pots (I used 4 inch)
• Acrylic Paint in your choice of colors (I used one 2 oz bottle to do 2 coats on 7 of my pots)
• Paint brush/ paint sponge
• Black Sharpie Marker or paint pen
• Water proofing spray for your pot (you can use a Thompson's water sealer or a clear acrylic sealer. If you are going to plant edible plants, then it is important to use a nontoxic sealer.)
• One penny per pot to cover the hole to keep in the soil but still allow for drainage
• Soil
• Thyme plants or seeds
• Paint Mask

Directions:

Rinse your terracotta pots with water and let completely dry.  This will wash away any clay dust that will get into your paint. I usually let them dry overnight.

Put a white/cream/light colored primer coat on your pot.  This helps the color go on smoother and remain more true to color.  Since this is your primer coat, only one coat is necessary, don't worry about streaks.

Paint your base color.  This will require two coats. Allow your first coat to dry (this happens pretty quickly maybe 10-20 minutes. An exact time is not able to be given due to temperature and humidity conditions as well as the thickness of paint that effect this time, but you will know because the paint is no longer glossy.)

Paint your accents!  Always use two coats with dry time between each coat!  If wanting to write something or add certain details, you can use a Sharpie or paint pen to help make this easier and neater for you!  No need to try to fight with a brush for this step!  This should be fun and not stressful!   You can also use Q-tips or the eraser on the back of a pencil to make your dots or cut sponges to make shapes with your paint.   Get creative!!

When you have allowed your project to dry/cure for 24 hours, it is time to waterproof your pot inside and out.  Follow directions on the label of your product.  Remember if this is a planter for an edible plant, you need a nontoxic water sealer to prevent chemicals from leeching into your soil and then your plants.

Put a penny, rock, piece of broken pot, or other item in the bottom of you pot to cover the hole and help with drainage without soil loss, then fill with soil and plant your seeds or plant!  Now you have a one of a kind gift that everyone will love!


If you want to make the watermelon pot, I used Apple Barrel Light Pink for my base and then painted Folkart Extreme Glitter Neon Pink over it.  I then used Apple Barrel Sage Green with the Folkart Extreme Glitter Peridot.  Then Black Sharpie Marker for the seeds and writing!  Using a Sharpie was a lot easier than trying to paint the seeds and write with a brush and black paint!  One tip to remember though is to make your seeds random and this is a case of less is more!  

The most fun I had with this project was using the Extreme Glitter paint!  I love it!  I see a lot of sparkly things in my garden in the future!  I really loved this product!  Happy painting!

Grade: A
Skill Level: Easy to Moderate
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate
Frustration Level: Mild

Turning Trash Cans Into a Work of Art

If you have animals or enjoy feeding the wild birds then you always have an issue with where to keep the food/grain/seed. If you keep it in your garage or shed, you run the risk of getting bugs and rodents. According to my local feed store.  the best way to do it is to keep it in a galvanized trash can outside. However, that galvanized trash can is ugly (U-G-L-Y ugly, and it ain't got no alibi cuz its ugly) and most importantly, it doesn't go with the decor in my outside living space.  Eventually, I had to give into the ugly can when a brigade of crazy squirrels, high on pesticides, ransacked my garage and ate through the rubber maid container full of chicken feed.

I bought 2 cans of Rustoleum spray paint and some lace doilies from the dollar store. 

1) Painted my can and some other garden metal things blue so they would match.  I waited a few days for everything to dry, 

2) Used painters tape to tape on the lace doilies,

3) Spray painted green over the doilies then removed them,

4) Waited 2 hours to dry, put the seed in the can and placed strategically in my garden along with the other blue painted items.

Grade: A

Skill Level:Easy

Difficulty Level:Easy

Frustration Level: Mild

OOPS!!! Next project: Painting the cement driveway.

Here is a bigger view!! So cute!!

Preventing the Abuse of Couch Cushions with a PVC Tent

Don't you hate it when you walk in a room to see your entire couch dismantled because your kids commandeered your furniture to make a fort? Me too. Furniture is for sitting, not for a tent city re-creation. But kids need a hide-out so I decided to create a PVC tent that could easily be put up and taken down with minimal fuss and less furniture damage.  

Materials (get at home improvement store):
2 - 10 ft. 3/4" PVC pipe 
6 -  3/4" Tee PVC connector
8 - 3/4" 45 Degree elbow spig X slip PVC connector. (one side of the elbow will be smaller than the other because you will slip the smaller side directly into the tee.
Saw


Directions:
Measure and mark one 10-inch PVC pipe for 3 pieces that will be 32 inches and 1 piece that will be 24 inches. The other PVC pipe will be marked for 3 - 24 inch pieces and 4 - 12 inch pieces.

This way you will have
   3 pieces of pipe that are 32 inches, 
   4 pieces that will be 24 inches and, 
   4 pieces that will be 12 inches. 

You only have to saw the PVC pipe half way through and you can bend it the rest of the way with your hands so it will snap and break. Very easy to work with and a bit forgiving, so if your measurements are a little off, you can still work with it.

Next you take your 45 degree elbows and your tee connectors and fit them together as shown in the picture. This will create 2 pieces for the roof of the tent and 4 pieces to connect the sides.

The 4-24 inch PVC pipe will be put into the elbows to make the roof of the tent. The 4-12 inch PVC pieces will be used to make the sides of the tent as shown in the picture. You have now created the front and the back of the tent. 

The 3 - 32 inch PVC pipe pieces will be used to connect the front and back of the tent through the tee connectors.

Give all the connections a good squeeze before you flip it on its side. I found no reason to glue it together, I like being able to take it apart and shove it in the closet when company unexpectedly shows up.

Throw a blanket over it and viola! Tent!

I really have to say that I enjoyed playing with the PVC pipe. They remind me of  giant tinker toys.


I know there is some left overs in the picture, but you won't have that, I'm making other fun things with this stuff in the future !!!

Grade: A 

Skill Level: Medium

Difficulty Level: Medium

Frustration Level: Low

Price: $ 

The Brick Wall

I'm pretty much fed up with weeding the edges of my vegetable garden.  You shouldn't mulch or put down chemicals on plants that you plan on eating, which makes vegetable gardens a particular challenge. So when I saw my friend Jeana selling her old EP Henry locking bricks on the internet for only a buck each, I thought this would be a great opportunity to create a wall border for my vegetable garden to reduce the weeds.  I was so lucky that her bricks matched what I had at home.

I convinced my sister that she needed half these bricks for her yard also. So I convinced her to split the workload with me (ha ha ha sucker.) This was a great deal for me since these blocks are usually $1.85 each at a garden center, and it was a great deal for Jeana because my sister and I moved over 300 bricks out of her yard and into our cars. It took about 3 trips filling our 2 trunks with so many bricks, that we drove all the way home on 2 wheels (shhhhhh, don't tell our husbands).

What is really nice about these bricks, is that they have a lip on the bottom so that you can lock the bricks in place so you really don't need to use adhesive if you are doing a wall only 3 bricks high. They also have a nice little place to put your hands to reduce the chance of slamming your finger (true for most people but probably not myself since I am always injuring myself.)

Carrying the bricks is the most difficult part, the rest of the process is pretty easy:

1)Dig out a trench for your bricks about 3 inches deep.

2)Dump sand in the trench. I used sandy soil since my yard is full of it and it is free.

3) Rake the sand to what seems to be level

4)Place the brick in the sand and smack the brick with a rubber mallet. 

5) Check it with a level to make sure it is actually level. I found this free bubble level app for my smart phone, boy is it neat. I'll never loose my level again because this one has a GPS tracker. If brick is not level wiggle it around until it is. Once it is in the right place, put another brick next to it and you can feel with your hand if it is the same height as the last brick you put in. This step is very important so you don't have a crooked wall.

6) For places that will be under the dirt you can use cinder blocks instead of  the pretty bricks.

7) Once you are finished the bottom layer, start piling the rest of bricks on top and push them so they are flat, with the lip hanging over the edge in the back (this is the locking feature that makes it so easy to work with). I would not recommend going past 3 bricks high without some sort of brick adhesive.

Keep in mind I am not a landscaper, I'm a mom who want's an inexpensive brick wall that I can put together quickly. It works, it keeps the weeds out, it looks good and its still standing, that's basically all I need from a brick wall.

Best thing about this project is that it looks great!! The worst thing is that I injured myself (see picture below). I really have to remember to use gloves!!!

Grade: A 

Skill Level: Low

Difficulty Level: Easy

Frustration Level: Low

Injury Level: High

Price: $$ 

I made a brick "sammich" with my thumb. oooouchie. I hope the nail doesn't fall off.

Next time, I'm going to remember to wear my gloves!