Fire In the Soul

Fire In the Soul
"Fire In the Soul" From the Merka series in The Elves of the Woodland Realm

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Let Them Eat Cake!

As a hobby and just because I like cake, I have over the years tried my hand at various cake and cupcake artistry. I've had no formal training, but any opportunity I get to try something new or perfect a technique I go for it.

Here are some things I have tried.
R2D2 cake for my kid'd Star Wars birthday party 2009
Little Mermaid birthday party 2008
Strawberry themed 1st birthday party 2009
Candy themed birthday party 2010
A beer and donut birthday cake for my husband 2010
Some homemade, hand picked apple pies just for the heck of it. 2010
Traditional primary color birthday cake 2011
Gluten free individual cheese cake for a vintage
Alice In Wonderland birthday party 2012
Tiny regular cheese cakes for party guests
Butterfinger Cupcakes 2013
Butter cake filled with homemade caramel, frosted with vanilla buttercream, and garnished with a mini Butterfinger candy bar and Butterfinger crumbles, drizzled with homemade caramel sauce. One of my most popular flavors.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Seeing Something Beautiful In the Not So Beautiful

I have always been one to use what I have. Mostly due to budget. I also like the challenge of it. "How can I make this Early American Ugly couch look like something I actually want to sit on?"


I also like to see how things works, how I can accomplish the same "look" on a piece of furniture, how can I create the same effect and so on. WIth this in mind I had a cheap, not necessarily ugly piece of furniture that I wanted to make into something that I could actually use and was strong and substantial. I also wanted to try Amy Howard One Step paint that can be purchased locally at Woodstock Antiques and Consignment


So with my pile of pallet wood in hand I got to work, on a few pieces actually...

Here the before of the piece I had wanted to do. It was one of those cheap press board bookshelf things. This image is actually nicer than the one I had, I had forgotten to take a before of it. But you get the idea. 
After 2 coats of the One Step paint (no prepping needed at all!), and a light distressing. Then added some pallet wood trim and some old fence finials that have been hanging around my project bin for YEARS. 



Since we are moving, I'm not really going to be able to use it right away, but you get the idea. I LOVE it and it will work well to organize my finished products for my products in my online shop. The paint itself is wonderful. I believe it is my fave for non-porous surfaces. The texture of the paint is silky and divine. As it sits open it gets thicker. It cover extremely well. 
Here are a few other projects I worked on. I used Them Two Birds milk paint, Amy Howard One Step and regular acrylic on these based on the colors I needed/wanted.

                   Before                                                  After

These are glass and resin and the paint stuck like I was painting raw wood! 
                  Before                                                  After


What I did with one of the candle sticks.


I have 3 more pieces of furniture I finished and a few other projects, I just haven't phoyographed them yet. I will update later on with those images. 

There is something beautiful inside everything. It just take a little TLC sometimes. 






Friday, June 13, 2014

Life Right Now

It has been a few weeks since I have posted. Things have been a little hectic around here with the house being on the market...


Picnics in Greenville, SC...

Trips to Six Flags over Georgia...

Furniture redesigns and upcycles...

New jewelry designs...

More photo shoots...

And job interviews...

Plus the everyday keeping the house up, the kids entertained, calming the parents about leaving the state, and keeping myself sane. I do have posts about the latest photo session coming up. I am wanting to finish it before we move. So, check back in for fab furniture redo's, elven armor how to, and wonderful dinning and B&B's in Greenville.