Staying Golden on a Stick

It's been a busy and exciting week but I'm glad it's almost the weekend. The week started with the Minnesota State Fair. If you are from MN or familiar with our fair, it's a HUGE deal; next to Texas it's one of the largest state fairs in the country. You can find pretty much any food on a stick and/or fried.  I got my fill with Alligator on a stick, roasted corn on the cob, Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies(the best cookies in the world) and milk, jalapeno cheese on a stick, and I stole a few of my husband's cheese curds. I was a little leary of trying my husband's must have of new fair food, lamb fries...but it is not fries. Lamb fries are fried lamb testicles. To be honest it didn't have much of a flavor; not bad but not amazing. After the fair we went out to eat with friends who couldn't make it to the fair for my husband's birthday. By Sunday night I was about to burst with amazing food.

Wednesday was my Husband's golden birthday so we went out to eat the came home to do cake and presents with family. He wanted an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen so I ordered him one, had them write "Happy Golden Birthday Brien" but made a few tweaks myself.

I found gold sprinkles and edible gold spray coloring from Joann's. The gold circle on the left side is a golden snitch from Harry Potter. I covered a donut hole with frosting and sprayed it gold. I cut out wings from gold colored paper and stick them in the sides then stick it in the cake with a toothpick. I wanted to make the cake as golden as possible.

Here's my handsome husband Brien!

 The Two Lovebirds

I had one last surprise that I put together with his Mom and Brother, the Golden Basket. I couldn't find any other basket we owned that was empty so I had to put everything in the laundry basket.

I took this picture the next morning so there are a few things missing. The Michelob Golden Light is in the fridge and the honey Teddy Grahams (gold packaging) and the goldfish crackers were taken to work by the birthday boy.

We ended up throwing Brien a surprise birthday party that following weekend so I got to decorate another cake. I bought this cake so I can't take credit for the frosting design. But I did use edible spray paint and gold colored sprinkles to decorate.

His next year's birthday, for his 30th...LAS VEGAS!!!

Family tiles

I found yet another inspiration on Pinterest.The Pinterest post I found used words such as family, faith,love... I found the idea of using names from my Grandma. She has a cross stitch framed that has the names of everyone in the family like Scrabble.

This project I call family tiles
Price range- $15-$20

Material list

 Canvas (mine is 18x24 inches, choose yours depending on the space for names you'll need) I found mine at Joann's. I got mine on sale 50% so it was $7

Fabric (enough to cover your canvas. I find  good options for small projects like this in the remnants section at Joann's. I found mine for about $3

1 1/4 inch wood letters ( they come in a 4 pack, get as many packs as you need for family names. I bought 4 packs for $1.50 each.

Stapler for the fabric

Scissors to trim fabric

Fabritac glue from Joann's $4

Sharpie paint marker $4

First figure out how you would like to arrange your names to cross like Scrabble. Once you write out a few options and find the layout you want figure out what letters you need. Remember that  you won't need the same number of letters in each name. Since some of the letters intersect they will share some letters.

I did a Google search of scrabble tiles to see what point number is listed on each letter tile. I used a Sharpie paint marker because it won't bleed  on wood like a regular Sharpie would so you have cleaner lines. 

I thought of painting the letters first but the marker is much quicker so ignore the paint brush in the picture.

Next I stapled the fabric to the back of the canvas. I chose a beige linen fabric to make sure it will go with all color schemes that I may choose for my home over the years.

The back view, the excess fabric was trimmed after stapling. 

The front view

Lastly I centered my letters and arranged them in the way I wanted them and glued them on with Fabritac. I glued the N in the middle first so I could make sure they were glued on straight.

I got a bigger canvas because it is just my husband and I now but we plan on having kids in the future so I wanted to make sure there was room to add some names. So I don't loose the remaining wood squares and have to buy more later, I stapled the packages to the back of the canvas so I can easily add names as our family grows over the years.

Remember remember the 5th of November

My husband Brien and I are moving in about a month in a new apartment. We are currently living with family so it will be nice to have our own space.  Sharing space means not always getting to choose the design and decor of the home so this will be a chance to give our apartment our own touch. I've already done some new projects for our apartment and have many more in mind that I will share with you.

The first project I made comes from a post I found on Pinterest with the inspiration of the movie V for Vendetta.

In case of revolution box
Price range- $25-$40

I completed this project for about $25 because thee shadow box was 50% off at Michaels

Material list

Shadow box about 5 inches deep-$17 at Michaels

Fabric sticker letters- $3 at Michaels

V for Vendetta mask- $5 at Party City

2 straight pins 

When I opened up the shadow box I set the mask inside to make sure it would fit properly. It was a little too big, from back to nose. My shadow box was only 4 1/2 inches deep so I had to alter the mask a little. It is plastic so I had to trim about 1/4 of an inch from jawline to eye on each side.

The mask has elastic straps so I will use these to pin the mask to the shadow box.

Once the mask has been pinned to the back of the shadow box put the backing back on or close the glass door, depending on what style of shadow box you have. Make sure you clean the inside of the glass so there are no finger prints.

The picture above is before I trimmed the sides. As you can see it pushed the sides out and made the face too wide but a little trimming will take care of that.

Next I added the letters. I used sticker letters made of fabric. I thought they had more of a finished look because they don't look like cheap stickers. The writing reads, "In case of revolution break glass."

About 1/2 hour later.....the finished product!