Honey and Banana Beehive Cake

My little baby turned one year old this month, and to celebrate we had a little shindig.  I found this Brown-Butter Banana Cake and Honey Buttercream recipe from Zoe Bakes.  It was a little bit more gourmet than usual, but it turned out amazing.  I did use 9" pans instead of 8", so that is why my beehive is a different shape (which I ended up liking better).  I also used part of the batter for the smash cake!

For the smash cake, I used the heart-shaped pan I used for my oldest daughter's Valentine's Day 1st birthday party.  All I did was turn the heart upside-down and decorate it like a honey bee.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  I do have two small things to consider if you plan to use this recipe for a baby's birthday.  First: Grey frosting is not a great choice.  Second:  Buttercream frosting is greasy.  Allow me to demonstrate:

For the other party treats, I used honey-themed and favorite snacks.  I had some of the marzipan bees leftover from the cake, so I frosted sugar cookies with the leftover buttercream and stuck them on top.  I also tried some candy bar and marshmallow sugar cookies from Family Fun.  They didn't turn out as well as their photos.  I still don't know how they got the wings to look like that.  I guess I cut the marshmallows in half instead of just cutting the ends off?  It was down to the wire and I didn't have a lot of time, so I just left them looking a little weird.

All in all, we had a great time; and the cake tasted great.  It was a sort-of cross between regular cake and banana bread, and it was perfect for a perfect day!

Baby Mobile Refashions

Nearly a year after my littlest girl was born, I finally got around to putting a mobile on her crib.  And that's only because my mom already had the frame and animals!  To quickly personalize it for her pennant nursery, we added the ribbon pennants and fabric covering for the arm using leftover fabrics from her quilt and name banner.  It was actually a pretty quick project, and she loves to watch the animals spin around.

In my older daughter's room, we recently moved her into a twin bed, so we had to take her mobile down, as seen in the photo below:

She missed "her birds", so I used the components of the mobile, a 12" embroidery hoop, and some ribbon to create a new bird hanger for her room.

The birds are back!  This was also a pretty quick project, since I already had everything ready to go.  I made a quilt for the new "big girl" room, which I will post next with another quilt that my mom and I finished for my craft room.

Piano Bench Reupholster

I love the impact that a reupholstery project can create.  At first, I considered creating a slipcover for the outdated bench in our piano corner.  I was even going to figure out a way to still be able to open the bench with the slipcover on.  While the finer details of the project were still marinating in my mind, I found a remnant of this incredible upholstery fabric at Jo-Ann that matched our family room perfectly.  I simply couldn't pass it up.  It was nearly a full yard, which wasn't enough for my slipcover idea, but it was plenty for a simple reupholster.  Here are some before and afters:

The real trick to reupholstery is to pay attention while you are dismantling the original work, then just redo everything the same way.  Once I ripped off all the trim, it was easy to see how it all came together.

I loved this project, because it just seemed like it was meant to be the whole way through.  The end result isn't bad, either!  It makes me smile every time I see it, even if I did get a huge blister from prying out hundreds of staples.  Next time: wear gloves.

Linked up: Tatertots & Jello

Another Set of Swatches

Autumn Acorns

I love getting mail from Spoonflower!  This time around, I ordered a fat quarter of Autumn Acorns, a new test swatch of Firework Show, and an upholstery twill test of Pretty Birds (with the design scaled down to 2 inches square, 288 pixels/inch).

Firework Show

I'm not quite sure what to do with the acorns fabric.  It may have to stick around in my closet until next year.  It was fun to see what the upholstery twill is like with a design printed on it.  I can see a lot of potential for future projects there.

Pretty Birds

Note that in order to get the design this size, you will need to change the size of the design to 2 inches by 2 inches.

Modern Baby Shoes

I found a tutorial for Modern Baby Booties that I really wanted to try for my baby girl, and when I finished them today I couldn't wait to post pictures.  It sort of pushed all the other things I have been meaning to write about further down the list, but they sure turned out cute! 

The tutorial (from Tao of Craft) that I used was pretty good, but a little confusing.  On step five, you are supposed to have the velcro side of the strip facing up, but the photo doesn't show that.  Luckily, I realized that it wouldn't work before it was too hard to fix.  Also, none of the photos show the interfacing or the suede bottom pieces, which I am guessing she didn't use at first.

I pretty much made the flowers up as I went.  They are just simple spiral flowers, like these from Craft Snob, except I used flannel instead of felt.

A few things I will do differently next time:

1. Use lighter-weight leather for the soles.  I had some scraps from another project that worked, but weren't ideal.
2. Use lighter-weight interfacing.  I used some leftover interfacing from when I made my fabric boxes, but since these are relatively small it ended up pretty bulky.
3. Use more pins!  I didn't want to ruin the leather soles, so I didn't put any pins in the bottom, but things were sliding around like crazy, especially with all the curved edges.

I really do like how these turned out, and I can't wait to try it again.

Master Bathroom

I know you have all been on pins and needles since I posted the tour pictures from the master bedroom and didn't move right into the bathroom, too.  Right?  Since we still had some random finish work to do at the time, I decided to split the master suite into two posts.  After I finished the birch trees art and we finished caulking and painting some trim, things are finally looking great in there!

This is the view from the bedroom, which you can see in the mirror.  I got that shell-trimmed curtain for under $10 at DownEast Home a couple of years ago.  We also have a privacy shade over that window, for entirely obvious reasons. 

When we painted our bedroom and bathroom grey, we discovered that the builders had used non-paintable silicone caulk all around the shower and tub.  Instead of scraping it all out and redoing it, we put cove trim over it.  It actually adds another level of customization that we really ended up liking in the end, but in the end I'm not sure that it was really the timesaver we were hoping for.  Regardless, I am glad we chose adding trim over scraping out caulk!

This is probably my favorite shot of the bathroom.  We also framed over our boring builder mirror, which I love.  The tile on the counter is for me to set my flat iron on while it is hot.  My husband didn't want it to ruin the counter, so I just grabbed a six inch tile and put felt corners on the back.  Done!

From this view, you can see the door to the toilet room on the left and the closet on the right.  Neither of those tiny rooms got photos based on their sheer boredom factor.  We haven't changed them at all since we moved in.  You can see my boxwood topiary there on the counter, though.

I am still thinking of hanging something on the wall there above the towel bar, I just haven't figured out what yet.

Well, that's pretty much it for today.  Still yet to come on the tour: main bathroom, laundry room, and playroom.