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Showing posts from 2013

Caramel Bundt Cake

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So, for now, let's take a break from nursery project posts. I'm pretty sure some are starting to get tired of them. Plus, I have some new recipes to share. This is one of Mr. C's favorite cakes. I am actually surprised i haven't already posted this recipe. It is a good coffee cake, for those in the world that actually like coffee. For people like me, it's a good cake to eat for breakfast with a nice glass of milk. Cake Ingredients: 1 box of yellow cake mix (I use Duncan Hines) 1 tsp of vanilla extract 1 cup of water 1/3 cup of vegetable oil 3 eggs 1/4 cup of flour Caramel Glaze Ingredients: 1/2 stick of butter 1/2 can of Eagle brand condensed milk (7 ounces) 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup of light brown sugar To start, work on the cake first.  Here I have most of the ingredients laid out on the counter. Mix together the cake mix, eggs, water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and flour. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray.  This will help

Nursery Project: Assembling the Ikea Henmes 3 Drawer Chest

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Have you ever heard people say that assembling Ikea furniture will test your relationship?  Well, I have, and that is certainly true.  Good news, we survived the test! We took pictures as we embarked on this adventure. This tutorial is meant to provide a visual supplement to the Ikea instructions. It in no way serves as a replacement for the actual instruction booklet that came with the product.  The instruction booklet has no verbal instructions, just illustrations, so you may find this helpful. The best thing to do when starting on a project like this is to lay out all of the pieces grouped together by likeness. This will help you count to verify you have all pieces necessary to put together the furniture, but also helps to identify the pieces in the instructions. Not all companies are kind enough to label the parts and pieces as they are labeled in the instructions.  The first step was to lay out all of the legs, known as pieces L1, L2, R1 and R2. Then screw in the screw f

Nursery Project: More Wooden Art

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Here is another wooden art project I wanted to do for the nursery.  I found this one on Pinterest too.  Here is a picture of the Pinterest inspiration.  It is from the Make It & Love It blog, a link to it can be found here . For this one, I used large flat cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby and a 24" x 24" piece of 1/4 inch thick Oak sheet from Lowe's.  We decided against using the beadboard as shown in the original picture because the sheets of beadboard were so big.  We did not have another use for the remainder of it if we were to use it, so we chose another wood product. Mr. C was so nice to spray paint the board black for me.  I used the same white acrylic paint used on the first wooden art, found here , to paint the cardboard letters.  Once everything was painted, we let it all dry for a day. Then, I placed the letters on the black wooden square to determine placement.  With a hot glue gun, I attached them to the square.  Be generous

Nursery Project: Wooden Art

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I really enjoyed the book and movie "The Help".  I especially loved how the character Abilene Clark chanted the mantra "You is kind, you is smart, you is important" to the young Mae Mobley.  This is such a positive message to pass on to children to build their confidence.  There are so many negative forces children encounter outside the home, it's good to surround them with positive messages they can internalize in the home.  That is what I want to do for our son. Ever since I read that book, I thought, "I am going to tell my own children that same thing".  However, I wanted to teach them the mantra, making a few grammatical corrections.  Instead of saying "You is", I say "You are". I decided to create art using this message for our son's nursery.  I found a wooden plaque, wooden letters and used acrylic paint to create it.   First, I laid the letters on the plaque to get an idea of how I wanted to place them.  Have

Nursery Project: Newspaper Art

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This was a project I saw on Pinterest.  It originally appeared on the Southern Belle Soul, Mountain Bride Heart blog and can be found here .  I knew I wanted to try it for the nursery. We decided to go with an inspirational quote I saw on Pinterest as well, "Wake up and be awesome".  It seemed fun and motivating, perfect for a little boy's room. For this project, you will need Mod Podge, a sponge brush, canvas, newspaper, peel and stick letters, acrylic paint and a yard stick. First apply a coat of Mod Podge to the top of the canvas with the sponge brush. Put the newspaper on the canvas, pressing firmly to get rid of air and creases.  It works best if you start on one end and then slowly move across to the other end. Flip the canvas over and apply Mod Podge to the sides and back of the canvas along the edges.  Wrap the newspaper around the edges. Carefully wrap the corners so they do not bunch up.  If your newspaper bunches up, this