Wall Heart

Andy opening his gifts, he was super excited about the canvas piece!

On top of the Mini Cake I made for Andy and I for our One Year Anniversary, I also made him a huge 36×36 canvas photo collage of 45 photos from the year. This was a more difficult task then I planned. Since it was so big I had to cover it with a sheet because it was too difficult to wrap. He had no idea and was thrilled when he opened it.

I also printed over 100 more of these types of photos because I’m going to make the same type of thing on my wall in my room, only way bigger and without the canvas! (hint hint a blog about this to come soon!)

Here is my process:

After I picked my photos, I pulled them all into Photoshop and made a polaroid out of them. Because I knew that I was going to be printing on a 4×6 size, I put all the polaroids onto a black background in PS so I could print them at the 4×6 price instead of a custom price for a custom size.

Once I cut off the extra black background all my photos were polaroid size

I bought a 36×36″ canvas and painted it black with acrylic paint. I then laid out my photos into the shape of a heart. To adhere them I used a spray mount adhesive and rubbed them onto the canvas with a microfiber cloth.

The finished piece.

Anniversary Treats

Part 2 of my anniversary posts. The gifts!

Andy, being as wonderful as always, reserved us a Gondola ride in Newport Beach as well as making me a Fireman Build a Bear that says “I Love You” for our anniversary. He actually made the gift certificate for the gondola ride which was totally cute and included a framed photo of us on a boat to go along with the theme.

The day after we got back from Yosemite he had the most beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my house so I could enjoy them for the rest of the week while we were home. Smart man! I love him.

Now for my gifts to him.
I wanted to bake something because thats just what I do, but we were leaving for the trip and I didn’t want to bake something crazy that we couldn’t take with us or that would be to hard to transport/eat later. So I was up in the air about this one. I decided to bake a cake, a tiny cake – for Two!

Two cupcakes stacked on top of each other and covered in frosting!

I found a recipe that makes just 2 cupcakes. Super dangerous right?! With a little bit of a Laura tweak to it, 2 cute little cupcakes were made and decorated. For the red hearts I just melted red chocolate and piped out heart shapes onto foil to harden.

The recipe is below for you to download, print or share!

http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf

Open publication

One Year Anniversary Trip

Andy and I have officially been together for a year! Our Anniversary was August 14th. We celebrated by going on a trip to Yosemite with a stop in Ojai, CA on the way up.

Our actual anniversary was on a Sunday, the first day of our trip. So we stayed the night in the most beautiful little hotel in Ojai, CA called Chantico Inn & Suites. Our room was beautiful and pretty cheap for what we got, plus there was just one other couple staying at the hotel that night so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

We went to the most wonderful dinner at Suzanne’s Cuisine where we were greeted with Happy Anniversary the wonderful service continued all the way till we were walking out the door. The food was absolutely wonderful and made us want to come back the next day for more! But off to Yosemite we went instead. =)

Ojai, CA

Left to Right: Jacuzzi Tub in room // Bed + Den, Suzanne’s Cuisine Menu // View from our table at dinner // Crab and Corn cake with lemon cream sauce // Grilled vegetable salad with warm herb goat cheese // Our anniversary dessert from the restaurant // Back at the hotel our celebration dessert and strawberry puree + champgne // The happy couple!

Since Yosemite is always so crowded and campgrounds have rules and regulations about everything, plus the only shower is at the valley floor, we decided to stay in Oakhurst at the High Sierra RV Park & Campground which was only about 20 minutes from the South Yosemite entrance. 

The campground wasn’t at all what we expected, it is in the town Oakhurst so its a little weird to have your neighbors be a factory of some sort that had huge loud trucks and outside lights that stayed on 24/7. But it was a campground and there were free showers, Wi-fi (which we didn’t use) and the staff was really friendly and understanding. 

There wasn’t much shade at all in the tent site row, so one morning when we woke up around 7am sweating like crazy because it was already 90 degrees outside, we decided we wanted to try to move under a tree. The only tree spot was occupied though, so the second those people left, we asked if we could move and enjoyed the rest of the mornings very comfortably.

We went into Yosemite for 2 full days, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday we stayed in Oakhurst to explore, which wasn’t much. By the way, in the whole town of Oakhurst…there isn’t a single ice cream store! When its 100+ degrees outside that is a terrible thing.

We loved all of Yosemite and made it through the week without any casualties, just bug bites. We took the 41 all the way to the 101 on the way home to stop at Split Pea Andersens, Andy had never been. It was super delicious and the perfect end to our wonderful trip!

Yosemite National Park, CA

Left to Right: Campsite // Tunnel View // Andy loving his sun hat and “jorts” // Bridalveil Falls // Posing with the sign // El Capitan // Hiking up to Lower Yosemite Falls // Lower Yosemite Falls // The river behind our campsite // Oakhurst Sign // Glacier Point // The only girl in heels and a dress at Glacier Point // Together // Olmstead Point // Sunset at Tuolumne Meadows // Tuolumne Meadows // “Hap-Pea” at Andersens // “Pea-Wee” at Andersens

Firework Cookies

Laura Mae’s Firework Cookies

They aren’t quite as pretty as Martha’s but they sure were delicious and a total hit at our 4th of July Party this year. Here is the easy How To.

Tips:

1. Make these when its not blazing hot outside!! 

I made these with my 10 year old neighbor sister and we had quite the hard time with the frosting because it was so hot out it was just melting everywhere and instead of pretty white floods of icing, we got goopy piles of mess.

2. Use cool cookies

This is always a very important step in baking, making sure your cookies are cool before you decorate. But this time it is vital because of the meringue frosting you are using, it won’t set up right if the cookies aren’t cool. Now ours were cool but it was still so freaking hot outside it didn’t matter anyways.

3. Be patient

The icing will harden up and when it does its perfect! Try making the cookies a day before you want to serve them so they have time to harden

Other than that these cookies are super simple and I really want to try them again!

4th of July Wreath

Happy 4th of July!! It is so beautiful here in lovely California today. I just had to spruce up our house with this lovely yet simple 4th of July wreath!

My 4th of July Wreath, see below for a pdf with instructions on how to make this wreath!

Laura Mae’s 4th of July Wreath

http://issuu.com/LauraMae4/docs/lmc_diy_4th_of_july_wreath?mode=a_p&wmode=0

My Inspiration:

Source: allyou.com via Laura on Pinterest

Summer Projects-ABS Pipe Wine Rack

Back in Feb for Valentines day my wonderful Boyfriend got me a year subscription to Martha Stewart Living!! Yay!!

Just a few pages into the February issue was this amazing wine rack that I knew I had to make for my dad!

Martha’s Version

Martha used 4-Inch PVC pipe but my Home Depot only had 4-Inch ABS pipe, which is essentially the same thing when it comes to making a wine rack, now for typical uses like plumbing and what not theres probably an actual difference.

Here is how Martha made her Wine Rack.

And here is how I made mine!

DIY Wine Rack How To: (Print)

1. Cut Pipe into 1 foot pieces:

You will need to use a hacksaw for this. Some hardware stores will do it for you (I lucked out and mine cut it for me).

Laura Mae’s Version

If thats not the case then cutting is simple. Just draw a line at 1 foot marks on your pipe with a pencil or chalk. Then you will need to steady the pipe on a hard surface with a ledge. Take your hacksaw and cut a straight line down the pipe.

2. Sand down the edges

You will be reaching in and out of these pipes and you don’t want to cut yourself. Get some sandpaper and smooth out the edges on both sides of the cut pipes. Wipe down the pipes with a clean rag to wipe off all the loose plastic from sanding.

3. Paint (optional)

Since our wine rack is going inside a cupboard and won’t be seen, I didn’t paint mine.

If you want to paint yours make sure you wipe down the pipes with some acetone which will help the paint stick.

Spray paint works best for these pipes. Be sure to spray primer down first and let it dry completely before you add your color.

4. Glue the rack together

I used hot glue to adhere my pipes together. You can use ABS glue also if you are using ABS pipes, be careful because ABS glue is pretty messy and can mess up your paint job if you mess up. It is stronger than hot glue though. Martha was clever enough to use velcro! What a concept, she’s so smart haha. Velcro would have worked nice too so you can customize your rack to fit where you want it.

Hot glue worked out fine for me. If you use hot glue make sure you have thick and long sticks of hot glue because it can dry faster than you can put it together. I started by gluing 3 pipes together then laying them off centered on top of each other. I used 9 pipes total but you can use as many or few as you want!

After we put our wine rack in the cupboard we decided to lay it down on its side instead and are going to add more pipes to them as we come across them. Dad said he may be able to pick up some extras laying around the job and bring them home.

Blog Facelift

Its about time for a redesign!
I am on a mission to be creative and Summer Projects are a must! I have so many things I want to make, remake, bake, oh the list goes on! Be prepared for some creativity in the near future.

In the meantime what do you think of the redesign, simplicity at its best.

New Logo

Face to the Book

Yay! Christy and I finally have our Facebook up and running: http://on.fb.me/lmcpage

Check out our creativeness and be sure to post yours!

Bakerella Book Signing!

Christy and I went to the Bakerella Book Signing yesterday at the William’s Sonoma at the South Coast Plaza. The wait was about an hour and a half which wasn’t too bad. Christy and Lisa had to leave early to go back to work so I kept their books for them and got them signed. Angie Dudley (aka Bakerella), was really sweet and I was super excited that I got to meet her!

The book, Cake Pops. It is beautiful. I love the way it is all laid out, all the spreads are so simple and gorgeous! Love it!

Waiting in line with our books, getting antsy. This is the end of the line. The front is all the way around the corner on the left hand side of this photo. Yikes!

And the wait pays off. Angie Dudley (aka Bakerella) and I. She was super cute and had suuuper cute pink shoes on! The display in the bakground was full of her books too it was cute.

Photo Re-Touch

Check it: The Before and After.