Cake Balls 101 - Not forgotten

Dear Readers

I have taken a VERY long break from blogging. I kept on forgetting to take pictures while making cake balls this holiday season... too many times. I plan on doing the pictures this next week during the day to help with the pictures! Yay! I hope everyone has had a blessed holidays. 

-Kady

Cake Balls 101: Part One

Cake Balls have become the new cupcakes, with an even bigger price! I am still in shock for a mere dozen you can be paying $13 or more! With my recent adventures in cake ball making I have come down to this equation:

Box Cake Mix $3 

Can Frosting $3

Eggs 20 cents

Canola Oil 10 cents

Coating Chocolate $4 (times 4 = $16)

Total $22.30 + Labor (Free if you do it yourself) 

I have found using a Melon Ball scoop, I can make 108+ cake balls with one box cake mix... drum roll please... approximately 20 cents each, so paying nearly 5 times as much is rip off, when you can do it all yourself. Thankfully, Paula Deen put together a mighty fine and quite delicious list of Cake Ball pairings! I have to warn you it takes time and on top of that it takes a lot of effort. Your first adventure in cake ball making might be difficult, but stay strong - you never know when someday someone will be paying you to make them cake balls! Over the next week I'll be adding pictures and steps to making cake balls at home.

Step One: Gather all of the ingredients

Left to Right: Chocolate Sprinkles, Chocolate Coating, Cake Mix, Canola Oil, Chocolate Frosting, Toothpicks, Eggs & Four-Pronged Fork. 

Left to Right: Disposable Gloves and Melon Ball Scoop

Happy Shopping!

Kady

Farm Fresh Eggs

I have to be honest about something, white eggs kind of creep me out especially after being exposed farm fresh eggs. I'm genuinely curious, "Where do white eggs come from?" I'm sure someone out there can help me with that question or I can just "Google" the question on my own. 

My Aunt and Uncle live a few hours North of me and when I'm lucky, I receive gifts of farm fresh eggs, fresh basil and other homegrown items. After a visit up North, my mother brought me back farm fresh eggs as a surprise. These eggs were especially unique this time and I knew I wanted to post them for everyone to see. Please take note to the color variations of the different eggs. Whenever you see a sign for farm fresh eggs or have the opportunity to have farm fresh eggs, please try them someday! 

This is a mixture of eggs.
One store bought white egg, three store bought brown eggs and  seven farm fresh eggs. 

Current Music

I want this to be a regular post, updating my readers of the current music playing in the background as I type these blogs or out on walks with Dixie. Enjoy! 

Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks 

Bob Marley - One Love/People Get Ready

Mumford & Sons - White Blank Page

Happy Listening! 

Kady

Dog Bed, Chevron Print & Piping

Over the past 21 months we have gone through quite a number of dog beds. I cannot lie when I say I'm thankful to have the ability to sew. With my endless browsing of the internet for fabrics and sewing blogs I continually see the Chevron print and I'm dying to use it somewhere in my apartment. Well, that chance came with the most recent destroying of Dixie's bed. (I do not promote the destroying of dog beds, sometimes it just happens)

When it came down to the design of this new dog bed I knew I wanted the following features: 
þ Rectangle shape  

þ Zipper closer

þ Piping/Cording around the edges

þ NO STUFFING!

Most of those requests are doable, no problem - but how is a bed supposed to be comfortable?? That's when I came around to the Molly Mutt site and I knew I had to make this for myself. 

Here is the adventure of making Dixie's *NEW* Dog Bed:

All the supplies: Approximately 10 T-Shirts, Pins, Rotary Cutter, Scissors, Piping (96 inches),  Cutting Mat & Ruler,  22 inch zipper, Fabric (1 yard, 44 inches wide for outside) (1/2 yard for piping/cording) and Muslin (1 yard, 33 inch wide)

Sewing completed! 

My Ideal Fall Outfit

Captain Dynamite

Well, the absence of any post can primarily be blamed on school being back in session and secondly on the celebration/weddings schedule we have endured for the past 5 weeks. Bottomline, I'm glad to be home and not in a cocktail dress. 


Since I blame no posts on school, here's a post about something going on at school. At our staff meeting this past Friday I was volunteered to make a Captain Dynamite outfit/costume for our principal. Our principal will be sporting this outfit/costume on Monday for a Student Kick-Off we are having. Once volunteered, I was nervous and excited about my new project that needed to be completed within 72 hours. 


I spent the majority of the end of the day planning, sketching and formulating lists of supplies with my trusty sewing friend at school, Betty. Once the bell rang, I was off to Joann's with my teacher's discount card for the fabric and supplies to create the one, the only, CAPTAIN DYNAMITE!! 


With no pattern and limited information about how to put together a costume I was in front of my supplies ready to hit the road running. Here are pictures of how everything panned out: 

Captain Dynamite's Cape

Kid Duvet Covers

(I have moved this post from Projects to Post to start a new project! Enjoy!) 

Project: Kid Duvet Covers

The duvet covers are complete!! Here are pictures of the finished products! 

The Work Nook

Now keep in mind this is not always how neat my nook of a desk is... however I am not always as creative in such order. Here are some close ups of "the desk".

A preview of the desk in it's entirety. 

Crafting Up Bedtime Organization

When it comes to my nightstand I can never find enough room for all the items I feel like I need to take to bed. One can find a lamp, two books (one fiction and one non-ficition), a clock, temperature readout (to always know what kind of weather I need to dress for here in Texas), cellphone charger with cellphone, fan remote, pens, notebook, water glass and an endless supply of hair clips. Those are a lot of items for a medium sized nightstand... which brings me to the bed caddy.

Not much more can fit - a bed caddy is needed

All of the craft/sewing/fabric books and blogs I surround myself with it was only a matter of time before I came across a pattern for a bed caddy. Like most of my projects I start by trying a fun version to send off to my favorite Floridians for a wear and tear test. I love making things for them and they use the items so I can find out what I can improve upon. Bed Caddy Patterns can be found in the following books: In Stitches by Amy Butler and Sewn Spaces by Joel Dewberry. A Free Online Bed Caddy Pattern can be found at Sew4Home. I converted the pattern at Sew4Home to fit my own needs. Here are the Bed Caddies made with Boogie Monsters fabric by Scott Jarrard for FreeSpirit Quilting Fabric.

Bed Caddy Number One - Already in Use