Sam's Birthday + Birthday Cake

Sam's birthday was last week and I made probably the best cake I have ever made for him. Naked cakes are becoming popular so I decided to make one. If you haven't seen one you should google them. There are some really cool ones! 

 

I think Dax will like opening his presents on his birthday because he sure liked helping dad open his.

There's my masterpiece! Haha, basically a naked cake is just not frosted everywhere. I can never get my cakes to come out of the pans smoothly but I knew that would important when I couldn't cover it up. I looked up some tricks that hopefully will help you if you have this problem. Wipe the pan with butter or oil, flour it, lay down wax paper (you can trace it and cut it before oiling it) then repeat the oiling and flouring. It comes out so easily! The peanut butter frosting was so good and light. I layered the top with a ganache. I have never made one before but this stuff is amazing and I just want to cover everything with it now!

DIY Baby Moccasins

I have been loving the baby moccasins and finally found a couple patterns on Pinterest that I really liked. Thank goodness for Pinterest right, it has everything you'll ever want! I've made my own tutorial for those interested. It was a fun little project but it wasn't without some headaches. :)

What you'll need:

-Some kind of leather like material(you'll want it to be durable, this is on the outside)

-Cotton material for the inside lining

-Thread

-1/4" elastic 

-Tissue or wax paper(I used tissue paper)

Note: Some people used special needles and feet but I wanted to complete this project at the lowest cost possible.

I started out by choosing my fabric. I went to Joann's and they had a couple options. Not as many for boys. I'm sure that if I went online I could find a lot better selection but since I didn't want to wait I just went with a basic brown color. I'm not sure what the correct name of the fabric is, I just call it pleather. The liner fabric can be any kind of cotton.

I got my pattern here and went to work.

I pinned and cut out each piece. Then I cut the fringe.

 You start by sewing the fringe and toe piece together I used a 1/2" seam allowance. Then sew the heel piece in half using a 3/8" seam allowance. Thread the elastic through and then secure it on the ends by sewing it.

 Then sew the heel piece to the fringe in a U shape as shone above. This part was confusing to me until I played around with the pieces and figured it out. I suggest doing the same. After that add the toe liner piece so that it will sit on the inside.

After you've folded the liner piece inside you are ready to add the sole. Using a 1/4" seam allowance sew the liner and the outside to the rest of the moccasin with the liner facing out. It's best if you can do this step using a serger. It will give you a better finish. If you are like me however and don't have one a regular sewing machine works fine.

I would suggest reading a couple different tutorials before you start because each is going to give you different ideas which will help. Also use the tissue paper on top whenever you are sewing the pleather on the outside. I didn't start this way and it was a mess. It wouldn't go through my machine and then the threads would knot. Once your done sewing you just tear the tissue paper off.

Dax now has cute little moccasins and wears them most of the time even though he is still getting used to wearing shoes.

Strawberry Kit Kat Cake

Found this recipe on pinterest yesterday and HAD to make it! It was really fun to make and also very good! I cheated and bought a box cake. Tip: make sure you get the right size of kit kats. I used an 8 or 9 inch pan (my pans don't say) and accidentally bought the fun size so I had to get creative and brick lay them.

Christmas Treats

I hope everyone is enjoying some kind of treat with Christmas right around the corner! We have finally gotten around to making some. With the holidays being so busy it's hard to make time but homemade treats are my favorite. Sam LOVES chocolate covered pretzels so that is always on our list of things to make. We also made caramels, oreo truffles, and fudge. We found an oreo truffle recipe here . The fudge and caramel recipes I had from my mothers cooking class in 9th grade. They are super easy and I can't believe I don't make them more often.

DIY Headboard

Awhile ago I saw a picture on Pinterest of a headboard that you could buy on Etsy. My immediate thoughts were, why buy it when you could make it so simply. Sure it would take time and work but if you're anything like me you don't mind it one little bit! 

I started by doing some measurement of my bed and figuring out how tall and long it would need to be. Then I sent Sam on an errand to Lowes to figure what sizes of boards we needed and how much they costed. After I figured that out I drew the dimensions on a paper of exactly what I wanted it to look like, how much wood I needed, and what I would need them cut at.

I spent two days cutting, sanding, staining, and finishing the wood. I didn't sand the wood perfectly because I wanted a rough look. I chose two different stains and just changed up how I applied them so I could get different looks on each piece of wood.
 

After all of the wood had set the required time placed them exactly how I wanted them and hammered them in place. For the life of me I COULD NOT find our hammer so I used our broken ice cream scoop. You can't get much more redneck than that!

 

All I had to do then was set it up in my bedroom and take pictures! I'm quite happy with the way it turned out and I've had a lot of fun doing it.

                                                        

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