Cake Pops

My kids received this wonderful book from our cousin Abbey this Christmas:

Ever since then, my kids have been pouring over the book, picking out their favorites, begging me to make some. Well, an opportunity finally presented itself, and for Audrie’s tenth birthday party, we decided to take the plunge.

Now, I have a confession to make. Every time I embark on a confectionary venture, I have these thoughts that I’m going to be fantastic at [insert pastry challenge here], and be forced to start a business because of my extraordinary talents. I don’t know why I think my creativity will translate into food, but I do, and about five minutes into my endeavors, I have to face reality and my little pipe dream fades away.

Knowing this bit of information about myself, I decided to try one of the easier looking cake pop designs:

Audrie decided she wanted blue and white cupcakes, so we gathered our supplies, and got to work. After getting through the brunt work of baking the cake, mixing in the icing, and forming cake balls, I was feeling okay. Once we reached the point of shaping the cake balls into cupcakes, I realized my cookie cutter was a little big for the job, but it didn’t deter those dreams of confection perfection from creeping in.

When the first round of dipping began, I was surprised to find that it didn’t end in disaster. I began the second round of dipping with all the confidence in the world, and watched as it slowly waned with each successive pop. I also witnessed in the eyes of my children, the disappearing aspirations of one day having pops in the shapes of robots, or owls, or even balls.

It was at that point that I decided that cute shaped cake pops are overrated, and cake blobs should be all the rage these days.

Though they didn’t look like little cupcakes on a stick, they tasted fantastic, and were more popular than the actual cupcakes. [renewed confidence]

If it takes the rest of my life, which it very well might, I will one day master the art of the cake pop.

xo

nessa dee

I promised news

so here it is…

Remember back when I posted this picture:

Then I asked if you would be so kind as to vote for it in the NASA-Etsy Spacecraft Contest. Well, as a result of your kind voting, my picture is now in the final round  of the contest and will be sent off this weekend to be judged. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Muchas Gracias!!

nessa dee

I see the light

at the end of the tunnel. I am relieved to announce that almost all of the big projects I’ve embarked on lately are in the final stages of completion. While the sigh of relief that accompanies the end of these endeavors is only momentarily enjoyed before I enter a new “tunnel” of projects, it feels good to be making progress. Of the things I can cross off the list, I think the biggest has to be the staircase:

Before:

After:

This was a doozy of a project, but I’m glad we did it. While the before wasn’t bad, I’ve never been a fan of blonde colored wood. [As to why we bought a house that was filled with it, I don’t know] With the addition of the dark floors, the blonde banister looked out of place, so being a huge fan of black painted anything, it took no convincing on my part to change the look. And I love the results! I might have killed a few brain cells inhaling fumes while sealing this sucker, and worn my nails down to nubs removing the tape, but I’m so happy with the result, me no care I not smart and got no nails.

I finished and hung Audrie’s curtains:

I painted Finn’s chest of drawers:

They’re old and a bit beat up, but they were free and I sure do like that price! Finn even helped to stage the picture:

And yes, the drawer pulls are a bit crooked. I aim to fix that, but it’s not at the top of my list. Plus, it kind of fits with the crooked, antique look of the piece.

Last but not least, I give you a sneak peek of the much anticipated [on my part] shelves:

+ 

They are getting filled as we speak, and once they are, I’ll show you the whole thing.

I’m so excited to have a place for all of our books, and I’m trying to not get too caught up in their arrangement. I find that I’m wanting to only display our prettiest books, but if I start hiding books under the bed again, that would defeat the purpose of having the shelves.

Now, it’s on to tackling the gameroom mess. I like to think that a tornado came through and created the mess, but it was me and my lack of focus who did so. I thought I’d try to reorganize the whole upstairs before finishing my other projects. As a result, we are currently living in what looks like a hoarder’s house until I can find the time to finish what I started. But, on a positive note, my game closet looks amazingly organized! Too bad it’s behind closed doors.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some news to share!

xo

nessa dee

I Heart Y’all

This message greeted us upon entering Audrie’s room to tuck her in bed:

It made my day.

xo

nessa dee

Crafty Friday: Scribble Art

This is a pretty easy craft and a lot of fun. It puts the imagination to good use. All you need is some paper and a set of writing/coloring utensils. We chose markers for our art pieces.

The first step is to create a scribble, like so:

Then add a bit of imagination, like so:

And you’ll end up with beautiful works, like these:

It’s so easy, you can do it again:

And again:

And again:

Happy Crafting!

nessa dee

Head Rest

I don’t understand this dog’s idea of comfort.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

xo

nessa dee

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Hey there! Did you miss me? I missed me. I apologize for being a bad blogger lately. The truth is, I haven’t been doing anything new lately, so I didn’t want to bore you with the same ol’ “I’m still cold” and “I’m still working on the same three house projects that I have been for the past few months” bit. On top of that,we’ve been dealing with a variety of ailments, and I haven’t taken many pictures lately. You know me, I can’t blog without pictures. The most interesting recent picture was this dangerous tennis ball:

Other than that, it’s been school and house projects, plus colds and stomach bugs this past week. So why pop my head in now? Well, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve listed a few paintings, and will be getting some new prints in soon. In the meantime, look for these three guys in my shop:

Talk to you soon!

xo

nessa dee

My toes is froze

We are experiencing some unusually cold weather here in Texas, and Baby, it’s cold outside.

[The kids have been fascinated with this ice. It’s been frozen since yesterday.]

So what’s a cold-blooded, icy-handed, frozen-footed girl like me to do? One word: Layers.

Under these lovely pair of sweater footies, I have a lovely pair of striped woolly knee-highs. Sadly, my feet are still like ice cubes. I don’t think my body circulates blood through my extremities. Oh well, it should be warming up by the weekend. In the meantime, to keep my mind off of being cold, I’m tackling the tedious job of painting the banister. Here’s what I got so far:

Isn’t she purty?

Well, I’m off to go stick my hands into an open flame to thaw them out.

xo

nessa dee

What I got for Audrie’s birthday

thanks to the help of my dear, sweet, very skilled in-laws.

I still need to prima and paint the trim, but I’m super excited and can’t wait to fill these with all of our books!

Thanks so much for all of your help, Popsie, MiMi and Uncle Chris!

xo

nessa dee

Ten

My daughter turns ten today. TEN! Cue panic attack.

 

I knew this day would come, [especially since I got a constant reminder from the birthday girl of her impending age change], but I just didn’t realize it would come so soon. Double digits. I can’t believe it. It just doesn’t seem possible that it would happen this fast.  She’s a tween. Her stuffed animals and dolls will soon be replaced by lip gloss and jewelry. Mom and Dad are going to be uncool all too soon. She’s only three short years away from being a teenager. hyperventilating Before I know it, she’ll be packing and moving away to college, leaving me, her momma, the one who nursed her all those sleepless nights, who fixed her boo boos, who comforted her when she was sad, and rejoiced with her when she was happy. I need a paper bag Why would she leave me? Why can’t I go with her to college? tears

Ok, I know I’m being ridiculous. Maybe I’m just a little sentimental because I watched Toy Story 3 last night. But kids do grow up, much faster than you want them to. And we as parents get the extraordinary job of raising them, loving them, teaching them, and preparing them to one day go out into the world on their own. It’s not easy, but it’s what we signed up for.

For now, I’m just going to cherish this age. I get a whole year to do so before I have another panic attack.

Happy Tenth birthday my sweet love.

My how you’ve grown.

xo

Mom

Progress

Yes, that’s right. I’m making progress. I’ve taped off most of the staircase and am playing around with some paint colors. Though I tried to start some other projects in the house, I quickly got back on track because I’m trying to focus. Focus, Vanessa, focus.

You can get a glimpse of the floors in this photo, but I’m waiting to get pretty pictures when I have my baseboards installed. As you can see, the floors are pretty dark. That’s what I’m trying to match our blonde staircase to.

Audrie’s bookshelves are slowly getting filled with books and knick knacks. Here’s a pic, but keep in mind that I haven’t caulked the edges, touched up the paint, or vacuumed the carpet. I promised pics, though, so here goes:

I also got a good start on Audrie’s tablecloth curtains. I think I bought the tablecloths back in June and the poor girl has been waiting patiently ever since. All I have left to do is sew on the tab tops and hang the suckers. Staged pictures of a clean and organized room will follow.

Then I can finish the staircase, paint a mural in Finn’s room, paint the kitchen cabinets, recover some old wingback chairs, build a banquette in the breakfast room, remove wallpaper in the bathroom, organize the studio, paint the gameroom, and so on, and so on, and so…. Prioritize and focus, Vanessa, prioritize and focus. I should probably paint that ugly chair in the picture first.

xo

nessa dee

Happy New Year!

I hope this post is finding everyone enjoying 2011. Can you believe it? It’s already 2011!! It seems as if I was just getting used to the idea of being in the year 2010 and now I have to reset my brain for the new year.

I apologize for my absence lately. I wish I can say that I was super busy taking advantage of our time off from work/school and getting lots of projects done, but mainly I was just being a lazy bum. However, we did on a whim decide to cover our house with dust again. We had plans to sand and repaint our blonde wood banister to match the new dark floors over the holiday, but we kept putting it off, that is, until yesterday…the day before Jonathan had to go back to work. We made the mistake of thinking that we wouldn’t recreate the dust bowl of the thirties, and because of this misjudgment, we found ourselves cleaning the floors, surfaces, and carpets well into the evening. But now our banister is sanded and awaiting prep for painting. Once it’s all pretty, I’ll take pictures and show you. I also have to take pics of the new floors, our newly painted dining room, Audrie’s installed window seat shelves, the new office color… I have to get myself in gear! In the meantime, I’ll show you this blurry picture of what’s to come in our living room…

As for resolutions, I just have one…focus. That is, whatever I set my mind to accomplishing, I need to focus and see it through. I am very easily distracted, and have a tendency to start projects and never see them fulfilled before I start another one. So this year, I’m determined to focus and accomplish the goals I have set for myself years on end.

That’s it for now. I’m going to put my camera around my neck so I will remember to take pictures.

xo

nessa dee