Board and Batten Down the Hatches

Here is the family room with newly gray walls in the sunlight.

The color looks good with the white door frames and vents, which will work nicely with the board and batten that we planned to install and paint a nice, shiny pure white.  We wanted to add some architectural interest to the room, but keep it casual, simple, and wipe-able due to the crazy exploits of our four monkeys (and hopefully kids down the road).

Randy and I used Mandi's post on Vintage Revivals as our board and batten tutorial.  I won't pretend we really knew what we were doing, we just followed her very straight-forward instructions.  We used MDF board instead of wood at Mandi's suggestion.  Home Depot cut our MDF boards into 3-inch-wide planks.  When we returned home, we were welcomed by this sight in the foyer.  Which one of these things is not like the other?

Randy and I started installing the pieces.  Yes, we had to use a hammer because our nail gun crapped out...  and we learned that Randy doesn't have a lot of patience for the set-backs that are the joys of DYI.

We used our level to make sure everything was nice and straight.  Then my friend Becky and I spackled the edges where the planks came together for a seamless look.

After we sanded, it was nice and smooth, like a baby's posterior.  I also spackled my nail holes and sanded those too.  I knew from previous experience that caulk shrinks and you have to go back and cover up all your little nail holes TWICE, and I just don't have the patience for that.  One of these days when we tackle the living room, I will do another round of caulk in the molding I put up around the windows.  Hopefully I can just fill them in with spackle!

Randy went around the room installing the boards.  Becky and I would help with with the level and to get the first couple of nails in, and he'd finish each one off.  Then we followed him around the room spackling and sanding. Don't let us fool you...  this took a long time!  Several days since we are not professional DYIers (our bosses expected us back at work Monday morning).

Whenever there was something in the way, we just board-and-battened around it.  Is that a verb?  We kept our boards the same distance apart from one another and ended up with some funny cut-outs like this.  I figure it adds character to the room.

We tried the nail gun again several times.  To no avail.  RIP nail gun.  You were great while you lasted.

I went around and sanded all the edges, so we didn't have any hard right angles to smack ourselves on. We're quite accident-prone around here.  Well, actually that's just me!  I used a nice hand-held sanding thing that looks like a fondant smoother, but with high grit sand paper, not smooth plastic, on the other side.

Then we were all done!  Doesn't it look great?

Just kidding!

We put the curtains back up to prevent them from being cat-nap bedding and getting more furred-up than they already are, but we still have plenty more to do.

So anyone know what the sanding thing is called?  I don't think it's a sanding block because it wasn't actually a block.  It was a nice purple, ergo-nomic-handled plane with sandpaper fasters.  There was also this nice, smushy layer of like non-skid padding between the sandpaper and the sander-thingie.  It was definitely worth the $7 I spent on it!  Now that's sandpaper luxury.

Family Room Re-do

You may remember, our little living room on the first floor looks like this.  Last year, we got a cute microfiber couch and two red leather chairs from Raymour and Flanigan on major sale.  This is a high-traffic kitty area since it is the warmest room in the winter, and it leads to the litterboxes in the laundry room, so we needed furniture that could withstand a tornado.

Yes, our cats are bad.  Yes, that is why the blog is called what it is called.  All home improvements and big (and little) purchases have to be considered with the four feline family members in mind.

Randy and I wanted to paint the room a fun color, but keep it cool and relaxing.  I wanted to make it a yoga studio.  Randy wanted to make it a man cave.  We agreed on blue, and had painted swatches of several Benjamin Moore colors on the wall.  A year later, they were still there.

Everyone who came over would stop and look at the colors, pick one, and then ask which one we liked.  We had two favorites, and we were leaning towards the second one from the left....  but we never pulled the trigger.

It was starting to get embarrassing, so we decided to do something about it.  Something that wouldn't compete with the red accents in the room.

Something nice and soothing, that would maybe tie in this painting and everything else in the room.  A tall order, I know.

So we painted it gray.  Surprised?  So were we.

We only painted the top parts of the walls because we planned to do something fun underneath.

We picked up a can of Behr Paint and Primer in One from the Home Depot's "oops" paint cart for $6.  Can't beat that with a paint stick.   It looked like a nice purple-ly light blue color at the store, but when we put it up on the walls, it was gray.  A nice happy gray though, like the darker part of white, fluffy clouds right before a summer thunderstorm.  I liked it, Randy liked it.  Six bucks.  Score!

We came down later that night to check on it, see how it was drying, and make sure we still liked the color.  We found this little man in the window...  and little gray paw prints all over the floor.  Luckily they were pretty well-covered with drop cloths, and the few footprints on the hard wood came up easily with water on a rag.  Phew!  Another Keller-induced heart attack averted.  Unfortunately, he was not happy when I wiped the paint off his tiny feet.

Here it is, all dry, after two coats.  Yep, you can still see the blue paint swatches, but don't worry, we have plans for them!

So what do you think?  Anyone else with paint color paralysis?  Sometimes I think you just need to buy some oops paint and throw it up on the wall and see how you like it.  That seems to be how I make decisions like that.  Agonize, agonize, agonize, then just pick up a gallon of paint on a whim.  Probably how my bathroom turned out red.  Ugh, that's next on the agenda!

Kat and Brandon's Wedding

Kat and Brandon got married on her family's farm, outside of State College, PA (on a non-football weekend).  The ceremony was held on a bridge over a creek, that was built by her brother, Carl, for his wedding three years ago.  That would be Carl of the "The Carl" fame.

This was truly a joint family effort, DYI type of wedding, which I think are the best kind!

The wedding reception, as I mentioned in the Cake and Cupcake post, was a bohemian carnival theme. See the red pennant bunting hanging down on the outside of the tent?  And the top-hatted master of ceremonies peeking out the flap?  Here comes our charming couple.

And her sister, Tessa, and her brother, Billy.  Tessa made her own dress, and did the flowers.  Talented family, or what?

Don't they look so happy?  I love Kat's dress.  Very traditional, yet unique.  I like the unexpected black details.

Outside the tent, Kat and Brandon had set up lots of carnival games for guests to play during the cocktail hour.  No detail was overlooked.

Kat and her father, Bill.  Bill was so proud.

Kat is an artist and a gifted knitter.  She knitted the cute little shrugs and gloves for herself and all of the bridesmaids.

Don't you just love her red shoes?

Kat's mom handed out paper mustaches to everyone.  Doesn't Randy look dapper?

Our friend, Hannah, and her daughter, Lyla:  pacifier + double-sided tape + paper mustache = insanely adorable little girl.

Here's the cake again:

And the cupcakes.  The turquoise ones are The Carl flavor.  The yellow ones are cannoli cupcakes, and the pink ones were a Kat-and-Brandon creation, dark chocolate with framboise lambic cream cheese icing.  Yes, there was a little beer in the icing, and some amaretto in the cannoli cream, but not enough to have to worry about sloppy guests or kids eating them :)

The whole shebang:

Randy and his best friend, Lyla.

Is this kid cute or what?  And smart.  She's going to be a dentist someday.

Congratulations, Kat and Brandon!  It was a beautiful wedding, and a ton of fun with great people and all of the playful DYI details.

Anyone else go to a really fun wedding lately?  Get kissed on the nose or check out the molars of one of the other guests?  Do tell.

Kat and Brandon's Striped White Modeling Chocolate Wedding Cake

I'm a little late, but it's time for the fall edition of the Pinterest Challenge, dreamed up by Katie Bower of Bower Power to encourage everyone to stop pinning and start doing.

My friends Kat and Brandon were getting married, and they hired Sugar Whim to make cupcakes and a cutting cake for their ceremony.  Kat and Brandon are extremely laid back, and gave me free reign on the design.  Their wedding was a really cool bohemian carnival theme, and I wanted the cake to have stripes.  I thought about using fondant, but it's heavy, it doesn't taste very good, and it's a real pain in the derriere to work with.  So I googled pictures of striped cakes, and I found my pinspiration in white modeling chocolate.

This video video is super sweet, but frustratingly uninstructive.  Also, I found that modeling chocolate is close to $20/pound, even more than fondant.  My modeling chocolate dreams were dashed, until I discovered the geniuses at The Crafty Penguin.  Geniuses?  Maybe angels.  Penguin angels.  I swore I heard singing.  Not only do they give a tutorial on how to make the striped modeling chocolate, they give recipes too.  Modeling chocolate is surprisingly easy to make!  Not that expensive either, just corn syrup and colored or white chocolate melting discs.  I won't give all the details here because those crafty penguins do a much better job than I could, and I forgot to take "during" pictures.

I made my modeling chocolate in white, black, and red.  First I made the roses, just like you would make roses with fondant and gum paste, but these are completely edible.  The consistency is pretty similar to a 50/50 fondant gum paste mix, but a little harder to work with because it can melt if you handle it too much.  Luckily it was a nice, brisk October wedding.  I brushed the roses with gold edible luster dust.  See how the edges kind of sparkle?

The cake was pumpkin with hints of pineapple and sweet potato, with brown sugar buttercream icing.  I didn't want the stripes to be perfect, because it was supposed to be charming and bohemian.  In my mind, that means messy stripes.

I also made 50 cupcakes each of cannoli cupcakes (yellow), pumpkin chocolate chip (blue) and dark chocolate with raspberry frambroise cream cheese icing (pink).

I printed out pictures of circus elephants, strong men, and lion tamers (but later realized they were tiger tamers, which makes them even more awesome) on card stock and cut them out.  Then I attached them with tape to toothpicks to create my cupcake toppers.

Kat used pinterest to organize her wedding decor ideas and here's a little extra pinterest challenge by Kat:  paper flower orbs.  How pretty!

To see the Pinterest Challenge results from Sherry, Katie, Carmel and Sarah, click here.

Have you ever seen the end of My Cousin Vinny? Of course you have.  I'm referring to the part where Mona Lisa Vito reveals to Vinny that she got help from one of Vinny's friends in New York, and he's disappointed he didn't win the case on his own.  I couldn't have made this cake or cupcakes without the help of a few special people.  Becky, who helped me bake tray after tray of cupcakes in the Baking Powder Fiasco of 2012, and Hannah, who helped me figure out how to smooth out modeling chocolate in a noodle maker at 1:30 in the morning.  Ladies, you rock.

Additional special thanks go out to Randy, Dorian, Joan, and Riley, who helped me set up the cupcakes while I assembled the cake, right before the wedding started.

Jolly Holiday at Park Fare

When we were down in Disney (yes, we're still on Disney...  can you believe how quickly this summer is blowing by?) we had breakfast with the characters at 1900 Park Fare.

Usually when we go down to Disney, Randy insists on having breakfast with Chip and Dale.  As many of you probably remember, Randy has a crazy cute obsession with them.  From past trips, you might see pictures like this one:

Or this one...

But sadly, this year the Cape May Cafe (where Chip and Dale dine for breakfast) was closed for renovations.  I guess they've been taking their morning acorns elsewhere.

This time we got to have breakfast with all of MY favorite characters!  All in one spot!  I have to give Dad all the credit, he's the one who made reservations at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.  Might as well have been #17 Cherry Tree Lane.

Who are my favorite characters?  Well Mary Poppins is of course my very favorite, possibly because we're both practically perfect in every way.  I also love Alice (who doesn't love a good tea party?) and Winnie the Pooh.  I guess I have a thing for British characters.

I knew Mary is always looking her best, so yes, I dressed up to meet her in my fanciest July-in-Florida dress.  Lucky for Alice, Park Fare is air conditioned.  I would hate to have to wear that pinafore outside.

Randy, the Mad Hatter, and Bryan discussing the merits of coffee versus tea.  Yes, I swear, it was just coffee in that mug.

Mom's shirt won her plenty of hugs from Pooh.

Twins!  Who knew Tigger was a Flyers fan?

Finally we got to meet Mary.  I was a little nervous that she might not think I was as practically perfect as she is, but luckily I had nothing to worry about.

These next few pictures are Randy, Mary Poppins and the Mad Hatter talking about Randy's future career prospects ...as a chimney sweep.

Mary asked about his qualifications of being a chimney sweep.

Mary thought he could do it even though he is afraid of heights, as long as he didn't look down and danced like Burt.

The Mad Hatter suggested he might be more qualified if he were a lizard with a ladder.

Mom and Dad had a lot of fun too.  I don't think Bryan is really into breakfast with the characters, I think he gets a little nervous around big stars.

It was all fun and games until Randy asked Pooh where Piglet was, and Pooh pointed towards the kitchen.  Randy then looked down at his plate and accused the chefs of cooking Piglet.

No, Piglet was thankfully one of the chefs.  Phew!

I'm not sure if we're allowed back at 1900 Park Fare (thanks, Randy), but we sure had a nice time.

Unimaginable Strength

This is a very sad, but also joyful weekend for us as we celebrate the life of our friend's mother, Elizabeth Burke Smith, also known as "Cookie".

We knew her as Liz, and she came into my life through my friend, Megan.  Megan and I studied for our licensing exams together, and became fast friends.  When Randy and I bought this house, it was not too long after Liz and her husband, Mike, had bought a new construction home in Doylestown, PA.  The Smith family moved around a lot, so Liz was an old pro at the new house thing.  She would send me helpful new-house tips through Megan, such as not to paint any rooms in the first year (due to nail pops), and even the name of her favorite Benjamin Moore paint color, the most perfect tan that matches everything.  Her advice became gospel to Randy and I, and we didn't touch the walls for the first year.  Of course, we still haven't touched most of the walls due to color choice paralysis, which would have been cured if I had just painted everything that Benjamin Moore tan she had recommended.

Liz was very supportive.  She became my first Sugar Whim customer, although back then it was a different incarnation called "...And eat it too".  It was their Easter cake that year, a white cake with cream cheese icing, covered in coconut.  I still have the money on my refrigerator.

In spring of 2008, Liz was having trouble remembering words.  Her speech was a little slurred, and her handwriting wasn't quite as neat as it once was.  She was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  She was lucky and got in with some top docs down at John Hopkins.  They operated and removed all they could of the tumor.  My mother and I went to church the morning of the surgery and prayed everything would go ok.  I still remember the exact moment Megan called me from the hospital that night.  I was in bed, with my phone by my head, waiting to hear.  Liz had woken up with full speech, everything was back to normal.  Even the doctors were amazed.

Unfortunately it was a glioma, a very aggressive form of brain cancer.  The doctors warned her she would probably only live a year, and that only 3% of patients make it five years.  She was determined to fight.

Over the next couple of years she underwent cancer treatments and MRIs.  She kept fighting, and she was doing well.  There were countless more early morning church services.  There was a spot that doctors were not sure if it was scar tissue, or another tumor.  They kept their eye on that spot, but it didn't grow.  I think it was around Christmas two years ago that they noticed it was starting to swell.  The doctors scheduled another surgery and removed it, but another tumor appeared.  It was too far into her brain to operate on.

Liz fought long and hard, long enough to enjoy two grandchildren, and saw Megan walk down the aisle at her wedding this past May.

She went into hospice soon after the wedding, but her fight didn't end there.  She pushed on.  She quietly moved on this past Monday, August 27th, 4 1/2 years after the doctors told her she probably wouldn't live another year.

To honor Liz, her great love, and great strength, we will be walking in the Philadelphia Race for Hope on November 4th to benefit the National Brain Tumor Society.  To join our team, or to sponsor Megan, Matt, Randy or I, please click here.

Liz defied the odds fighting for as long as she did.  Let's continue to fight for her and hopefully make brain tumors a thing of the past.

Edit:  We have reached our team goal, but we have not all reached our individual goals.  You will get a receipt for tax purposes.  Please consider sponsoring us.

To Megan and your family, I tried to get all of the details right.  Let me know if I made any mistakes, they can always be remedied.