Granny squares and a new car

YAY I got to do some crochet this week. I looked online and found this granny square pattern that actually made sense to me. Thank you Laura Hickman of Baking Outside the Box for this classic granny square. You, my good lady, are going to make some of my up coming projects so much easier. 

This pattern is aces and easy to follow. I have some patterns that call for the granny square and don't give you any directions on making one and the actually pattern I do have for one that looks like this, I just couldn't make sense of. So 5 Yarn Balls for Basic Granny Square (Kiss Granny) by Laura Hickman.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to anything else in the crochet pile. And this was only a test run for the pattern. But I did have other projects this week. My cake undertaking was. . . . interesting to say the least. 

As you've read my birthday was last week and so was one of my sisters. This weekend we had a family birthday party for the both of us (as we do every year). I decided to try something different with the cake. I had gotten the idea on my plane ride home from Arizona to try out making marshmallow fondant. I'd pinned it (a few times) to one of my Pintrest boards and figured lets give it a try. And knowing we both loved Doctor Who (I'm the biggest freaking Whovian), I though of doing a little ice cream sandwich TARDIS covered in the fondant. This idea seemed simple to me, I'm crafty enough for something like this. The kitchen should be mostly if not all finished for this (I had hoped). 

Well folks I was wrong on the simple front. And Friday night I had no clue how wrong I was about the simplicity of this undertaking.  

First change: when doing this again, get some gel food coloring. The other liquid dye gets things too wet and you have to mix in more powdered sugar to this sticky party. 

Second: Lots more cooking spray/butter. When the directions say to coat your hands and anything else with some sort of grease, I suggest y'all listen up and do it. This fun project of just mixing up the fondant is a sticky crazy mess. I might even grease my bow next time. 

Third: Maybe try a tray with powdered sugar in it for kneading next time. It gets pretty messy.

Tip: make sure you have plenty of powdered sugar, you'll need it.

I made the blue first. I had got the regular liquid food coloring not really thinking about it. I used the entire little bottle of blue just to get it that color. And holy wow was this stuff sticky. I mean yeah I know when you heat up marshmallows they go to a gooey mess but I thought after adding a ton of powdered sugar that it wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. This is a messy undertaking so anyone wanting to do it be prepared. . . I decided to add the yellow to the water I coated the marshmallows in before I microwave them (you can also do the double boiler method but I went the lazy rout). I think it helped make that batch not so wet when I went to mix everything together. Weather thats true or not I'm not sure. But you want to make the marshmallow bit of this fairly dry, so use your water sparingly. And making up the white was supper simple.

Added the blue (bottle) dye and just mixing in the powdered sugar.

Knead, Knead, Knead!

Tried the yellow a little differently

All the pretty colors. I didn't need much. Glad I made so much blue though.

 Next morning rolling it all out. . .  Well first I kneaded it a little more since it had gotten a little stiff over night. It wasn't as bad after it had time to completely cool. And adding cooking spray to my mat/rolling pin eliminated any big sticking issues. 

So the day of the party the fondant had time to chill out over night and was no longer my problem child. I thought I was in the clear. WRONG! First my ice cream sandwiches weren't of an even size to stack them all two by two like I had envisioned. I was a little bummed to say the least. But I moved on from that. Made a smaller tower than I had originally planed, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It turns out that these ice creams melted fairly quick. So as I tried my first attempt at the TARDIS they were melting and I had to rush the fondant. Grrr. Of course this was a learning experience and I had not given up. I put some more thought into this and got ready for round two. 

1) I first put a small plate in the freezer to chill while I rolled out some more blue and thinner this time. I found that it was a bit thick on my first try.

2) Turn on the fan. . .  it was getting a tad warm in the kitchen, even with the backdoor and windows open.

3) After pulling out my plate and covering it in saran wrap, I layered my little sandwiches with frosting sticking them together on the plate. I poped it back in the freezer for a few minutes to stop any meltyness. 

4) Pull the tower back out and quickly/carefully drape the fondant over it. Stretch and smooth.

5) Quickly get the extra off and get it back in the freezer.

6) After an hour pull it back out and add the details (don't forget the wishing it wasn't deformed when I got it out of the freezer)

Roll out..... take one

Left: My first attempt at the TARDIS . Right: the second and final.

cutting out stars... glad we found the cookie cutter

Ooooo Stars!!

My good TARDIS (I use the term loosely)

As you can see the TARDIS was a pain. Next time I think I'll make it out of rice crispy treats or something like that. Or different ice cream sandwiches and freeze them really, REALLY good. But all in all I call it passable for the cake. I added stars to the sheet cake for something fun and to use the fondant. I still have some left over too. And if you like the taste of pure sugary goodness then this is right up your alley. You can also add flavorings too if you want. And mind you all the running to the freezer was a pain. Our fridge and big freezer are both in the basement. Thankfully you can get to the basement from the kitchen. The fridge is the one appliance that isn't in the kitchen yet. But that is changing this week.

YAY Finished cake.... and my nieces arm. She was interested and hungry.

Well I guess this is a good time to talk about the kitchen. We got tile this week. It makes things look so much bigger. But Beth did a phenomenal job, we all love it to pieces. I'm so happy I chose the charcoal colored grout. It just pops that white subway out so much and makes the stainless look great too.

Tile is up... Oooo Awww

Gout is on, not cleaned up yet. Although it looks kinda cool this way too.

All clean. Looks A-Mazing

I also did some more painting today. Denny finished with the window and I got to prime the new stuff. Pained the base shoe to match the cabinets and painted the door to the basement. I was trying to take an easy day. With all the dogs (Poor Diane possibly broke a rib and needed me this week more than most) and people coming through the house, I haven't had the time to get all the painting done yet. I'm gonna try to find some more time this week. Oh and we got the stove hooked up. . .  WooooHooo!!!

Oooo Pretty.... and too lazy to rotate the picture at this point. Sorry Y'all

New Car!! So this week we traded in my Cirrus and dads Vue and got this lovely (Sexy) Dodge Journey. I really love it even though it is such a switch from my Cirrus. Having a high car is awesome. Although while I was driving it the other day I felt like it had a target painted on it. People kept cutting me off like no other. It was supper weird. Anyway, we are loving the new car and thanks to my brother-in-law for pointing us to the awesome team of his at Enterprise and this car. 

 That is all for this post. I still don't know what I'm working on this week. But I do need to get on some stuff. Wish me luck in working it in. 

Happy fathers day to all the papa's out there. Much love to you gentlemen!

As always you guys can find me on Etsy (although the shop is on vacation mode you can still reach me)

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Happy Crafting!