You know how much I love to forage for supplies to make floral arrangements, but why not consider those same possibilities in buttercream form? With that thought in mind, I set out to make an Autumn cake with botanical items of the season made in nothing but buttercream. I settled on blackberries, rosehips, snowberries, and roses.
This project was exactly what I needed today while it was cold and rainy outside. Here's how I created the berries and rosehips:
For the blackberries, I used a Wilton cake decorating tip #3 and piped out an oval roughly the size of a blackberry. Next, I added little dots all over the oval, and last of all, I pressed down the little dots that were too pointy by dotting my fingertip into water and then onto each little dot, very carefully pressing down each one until it looked just like a blackberry:
For the rosehips, I used a Wilton cake decorating tip #5 and piped out a shape that resembled a rosehip. Then I added tiny little tendrils at the tip of the rosehip using Wilton tip #1:
For the snowberries, I used a Wilton tip #2 and piped out little dots resembling snowberries and finished each one with a little dot piped out using a Wilton tip #1:
My advice on making the berries and rosehips look their best is to not try and make them look exactly the same. Blackberry and rosehip sizes should vary. With the snowberries, try not to place each little center dot perfectly. Place some of the center dots slightly askew, which mimics nature.
Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of this stormy Sunday, a cup of tea, and definitely a bit of cake. How about you?
Notes: I buy all of my cake supplies at Carolyn's Cake Supply Shop in Spokane, Washington, which is a small brick and mortar locally owned specialty shop in our city. There are so few of these dear little shops left around the country and we're so lucky to have it. If you're interested in supporting small business, give them a call (click link for phone number) to place an order for any of your cake decorating supply needs.
For this project, I used Americolor gel color 135 gold for the roses, Americolor gel color 145 eggplant for the blackberries, Americolor gel colors 133 maroon and 120 super red for the rosehips, and Americolor gel color 144 moss for the center dots on the snowberries.
While MaryJane and I were visiting the Christmas markets, I was so completely inspired by all of the gingerbread and decided I wanted to make a big gingerbread statement piece when I returned. Every year I have so much fun creating a centerpiece for our dining table, and I started imagining a gingerbread village right down the center. It was fun to talk with MJ about ideas I had brewing while we were traveling around each country.
Although creating a bunch of gingerbread houses is really time consuming, it's so satisfying to see them all come together. Here's an overview of how I put it all together, starting with a simple piece of wrapping paper down the center of the dining table:
Placing all of the gingerbread houses:
Placing fresh greens throughout:
Pouring granulated sugar "snow berms" at the base of each of the structures and throughout the entire setting:
Dusting with powdered (confectioners) sugar "snow":
And decorating with sugared cranberries, sporadically placed throughout:
I made 27 gingerbread houses in total. I worked on baking the houses over about one week, just baking them whenever I had time and leaving the pieces on a cooling rack to keep drying and hardening until I was ready to get started with construction. Here are some of the finer details of how I created it all:
21 of the houses were miniature-sized, modeled from a gingerbread house cookie cutter I found at my local grocery store. The other houses were modeled from a set of Martha Stewart paper houses that I cut apart for the patterns.
I did a ton of recipe testing and found this recipe to be the best for what I wanted to do. I was able to roll the dough out really thin to keep the weight down and make the dough go further, and it baked up extremely strong. Note: It seemed as though there was something wrong with the dough once I mixed it up because it was really crumbly. Don't worry when you see this! Once you knead the dough as instructed in the recipe, it all comes together perfectly into a nice compact dough. (It is a bit tough to roll out).
I used melted white chocolate coating disks as the glue, piped on with a piping bag.
The thick finishing "snow" on the rooftops was made from Royal Icing, which is made from egg whites and powdered sugar.
The "thatched roof" was made out of generic Fiber One cereal, placed on piece by piece, starting at the bottom of the rooftop with a strip of piped on white chocolate followed by the cereal placed on top of the strip, one by one, and working my way up to the center (top of the roof) on each side. It was time consuming but not as bad as I thought it would be.
The "roof tiles" were cinnamon gum placed on in the same manner as the cereal.
The shutters and window trim on two of the houses were also made from cinnamon gum.
I make my sugared cranberries by coating them in egg white and then in granulated sugar.
This was a fun project and I'm so glad I did it. I've had such a busy month and it was a nice way to really put my heart into Christmas. I hope you'll give it a try if it sounds fun to you. Merry Christmas!
A few years ago, my friend Tiffany and I visited New York City during the holidays. It’s such a beautiful time of the year to visit, with the charm of the urban tree lots, Union Square Holiday Market (which is a U.S. version of Europe's Christmas markets and really great), and decorations all around. I especially love the old office buildings with their gilded names on their front doors and it clicked in a little inspiration for me. Each Christmas since, I’ve been painting a little gilded Christmas message on our pantry door for an extra bit of cheer.
Here’s how to create your own gilded window. Start with printing out your message on thick cardstock paper. I like using a simple font that looks like what you’d see on the old office doors. Arial Bold works nicely.
Then cut out the letters with an X-acto knife, saving the center of the O’s and cutting those out next. (I use this handy Fiskar cutting mat from JoAnn's for all of the cutting).
Next, tape the stencil on the back side of the window. (The window is smooth on the back side of my pantry door. If it was rippled on both sides, it wouldn’t work because you need a smooth surface to work on.) Although I’ve used clear tape here, painter’s tape works best because it’s easily removed.
Next I add tape to the O Centers and stick them on the window:
Now it’s time to prepare the painting supplies:
Paper Plate
Metallic Gold Washable Craft Paint of your choice. (The key is using metallic paint, not just gold colored, to make it look gilded).
Sponge Stenciling Tool
Squeeze a little bit of the paint on the plate and gently dab your sponge into the paint:
Then carefully dab dab dab dab the paint onto the cut-out openings of the stencil. You don’t want to swipe at any time. Only straight dabs.
Continue until you have close to full coverage, checking the front of the window periodically to watch your progress. You don’t want to overdo it, and you don’t want complete coverage. By leaving slight gaps, it has a slightly worn, aged look:
Once you’re satisfied with your paint job, carefully remove your stencil and pull it straight back, making sure not to touch or smudge your paint if it’s still wet. Remove any center stencil pieces as well. (In my case, the O centers). It’s as easy as that!
And I like to add a wreath to finish it off. (I use removable Command hooks to hang the wreath).
To remove paint, use cotton balls and fingernail polish remover. (I like to use gel polish remover because it works quickly).
With Halloween behind us, you might think about throwing out your pumpkins and squash, but there's still a lot of decorating you can do with them. A fun and simple use of the minis is to make tiny little arrangements. To get started, choose your pumpkin:
Then cut out the top, remove it, and scoop out all the seeds:
Then, fill it with a little water and the greenery or flowers of your choice:
Leaves make pretty filler too:
Tip: If you have a hard time getting the filler to stay in place, use a little rubber band to secure the bundle together before you place it in the pumpkin and it will stay nicely:
We celebrated my mother and father-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary this week. Colin is one of six siblings and there are sixteen grandchildren. I think mostly because we're such a big family and to keep it as intimate as possible, my parents-in-law decided to keep the celebration to just the 32 of us. The six siblings all took part in putting the party together and asked me to be responsible for the centerpieces for the table. Because it was such a momentous occasion, I wanted to do more than just a few centerpieces on the long table. I wanted it to be enormous - to really make a statement, reflecting this big day.
To give the runner an extra special touch and to save money on the cost, I foraged for Rosehips, Snowberries, and Wild Grass from the roadside, and Sage and Hydrangea from my yard. I limited purchased add-ins to a variety of Eucalyptus from the store along with sixty white roses. (The Hydrangea blossoms are not seen in the picture below, because they were protected in a large kitchen garbage bag full of cold water. The flower petals on hydrangeas absorb water so it's a nice way to keep the Hydrangea extra hydrated before placing).
The forecast for the day was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew there was no way anything other than the Eucalyptus would withstand the heat and the greenery and flowers would definitely wither without a water source. After some trial runs, I settled on using floral foam as the base.
Because the floral foam is wet, I put down a base of Saran Wrap to keep the tablecloth from absorbing all of the water from the foam. I stretched it out to the length I needed and then pushed the sides in until it was just wide enough to hold the foam.
Floral foam is super simple to use and is great for keeping flowers hydrated AND for creating a heavy stabile base for your creation. Another way I kept the cost down was to cut each of the blocks in half horizontally, getting twice the coverage for the same cost. There are several varieties of floral foam on the market, with most of the options at the store for artificial flowers. You DON'T want any of those varieties. You want the WET FOAM variety for use with fresh flowers. To use, you'll need a bucket of water or a deep sink or basin to drop your foam blocks into. There needs to be enough room for the block to be able to be completely covered once it has absorbed all the water it is going to absorb. (So, if you're using a block that is 9 inches tall, you'll want there to be at least 10 inches of water). Keep in mind, if you're using a lot of blocks like I did for the runner, you'll need A LOT of water because each block absorbs quite a bit. I used a 10 gallon bucket filled nearly to the top and had to refill it once. Simply place the foam block on top of the water. It will quickly absorb the water, and sink just below the surface. Remove the block, allow a tiny bit of excess water to drain, and then place on the table as is or cut in half with a large kitchen knife as I did, and place.
As you can see in the picture above, I pushed in the Saran Wrap to just wide enough to protect the foam and make it so it couldn't be seen. You'll notice I left one of the blocks its original size to mark the true center of the runner. That way I could create a center focal point and also have a clear visual as I'm building it out beginning with the center point foliage angling straight up, everything to the left of center leaning left, and everything right of center leaning right. Although the arrangement is a bit wild or earthy in nature, to keep the overall look well thought out, there needs to be order. The center, left, right system does that.
The greens should go on in layers, starting with what you have the most of. You'll want to have enough of your main greenery to be able to create a good solid first layer. Remember, you're angling the greens to the right if you're working to the right of center and angling to the left if you're working to the left of center. I started my first layer with unripened rosehips. They were the perfect base because the neutral unripened color was perfect for my vision of simple, elegant tones and because the berries add so much visual interest. You'll also want to pay close attention to be conservative with how far out the greenery extends, making sure there is plenty of room for a dinner plate and glassware.
After that, it was simply a process of layering in each subsequent type of greenery: the Snowberries, followed by the Sage, then Hydrangea, Eucalyptus, the Roses, and finally the Wild Grass, which was my way of adding in a bit of gold representing the 50th "Golden Anniversary".
Notes & Tips:
Think about using several different types of greenery involving different textures such as berries, leaves, flowers, etc.
Sage is a big favorite of mine because of its velvety leaves and clusters that are so great for filling in spaces. It also smells super great!
Hydrangea is great for coverage but can be fragile. Read my comments at the top of this post about how I treat the hydrangea before placing. The extra Hydrangea leaves are great to save for use later when you've run out of greenery and need something more to fill in any last minute gaps. Simply use the little stem at the tip of each leaf to poke into the foam.
When you start each layer, begin at the center and move to the right of center to place a sprig, then move to the left of center and place a sprig until you reach the end of both sides. THEN walk around to the other side of the table, to the center, and begin again. Do this with every layer so you will have consistently placed coverage and consistency in the look of the arrangement.
In total, I spent $38 dollars on the Roses and 3 Clusters of eucalyptus from Trader Joes. The foam was $25 dollars, with the overall cost totaling $63 dollars. (You can find it here). Not bad for such a massive arrangement
I spent five hours building the runner and several hours foraging before that, so there is definitely a time commitment.
If you've followed along with me for a while, you know I enjoy making simple things a little more special. Recently at JoAnn's fabric, I noticed some foil casserole containers with colorful lids and thought they'd be fun to make myself for picnics, potlucks, and summer gatherings.
Aluminum foil food containers can be found at some restaurant supply stores, but I think are easiest to find with a simple web search. Use some sort of search like "foil casserole pans with flat lids". To make them decorative, you'll need some scrapbook paper for the smaller casserole sized pans or wrapping paper for the larger sized pans. Place the flat board lid on your paper for a tracing guideline, trace, and cut out. Attach the paper with double stick tape and you're done!
See? They're much more festive than plain white, right?
Top, handmade by me. Bottom two from JoAnn's.
If you like this project, you might enjoy this one for handmade fabric food covers from way back when. Happy summer!
My theme for The Farm Chicks Fair this year was home sweet home, which made dreaming up the entry display a lot of fun. There were so many possibilities. Because of my history, it seems like I'm usually pulled into the direction of making something out of nothing and was inspired by an image I saw online one day from the movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel:
The bakery boxes seemed to be calling out to be made into a city. I imagined windows and curtains and a mountainside of homes. So, I spent a couple of days making windows and placing curtains and it was super fun at first, as if I were making hundreds of little dollhouses. Eventually, the work got a bit tedious, actually the most amount of work I've ever put into one of my entry displays, but I was really excited about the vision.
A few days before Farm Chicks, five of us spent the day on site, folding the boxes I had prepared. It was a very time consuming process:
Hannah, who is a longtime helper at The Farm Chicks and is the daughter of longtime Curator Lisa Souers, arrived late in the afternoon and worked well into the night and most of the next day helping to place the little houses onto the hillside. It turned out so cute.
For a fun little finishing touch, we added in one window studio homes with cupcake liner awnings (see bottom left):
Now I'm already on to dreaming up next year's theme and all that goes along with it. 2018 will be the 20th Farm Chicks Vintage & Handmade Fair and my 16th year! (The first couple of years we had two events a year). The planning is one of my very favorite parts of what I do.
Watch for more posts this week on this year's show. Each year is my new favorite and this year truly was my favorite yet. The Curators continue to knock my socks off with what they do and I am so thankful to have them in my life and of course, at the show. More Farm Chicks fun to come!
One of the things I learned while growing up with limited resources is that no matter what, you can make your surroundings homey. Early on I discovered that I could forage for pretty wild things like wildflowers, greenery, and twigs, and everything I gathered was free and could make things instantly better. Homey, in fact. The magic in that for me was that when I was developing my ability to make something out of nothing, I didn't know any different. It was just the way it was and I wanted to be surrounded by pretty things, so I discovered my own ways to do so. And you can too.
I love hosting family dinners at our house or having friends over and I find true joy in special little touches that make our gatherings just a little more meaningful. When I was on a walk the other day, I couldn't help but notice all the blossoms and wildflowers on our property and thought how cute they could make the little food markers at an upcoming barbecue.
I've found that the best, long lasting blossoms are the flower buds that are still tight and haven't blossomed or hardy little wildflowers:
To get started, find any paper markers you'd like to use or cut your own from a slightly thick paper - something like cardstock:
Pen or watercolor the names of the dishes you want to label:
Punch little holes, center the flowers between the punched-out holes, and stitch the flowers into place:
Place your markers in front of each dish or attach to large bowls with doubled over or doublestick tape.
You can find more of my ideas for celebrations and gatherings here.
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Thanks for visiting! Between posts you can find me on Instagram and Facebook where I share a look into my life behind the scenes as I produce my annual vintage market, The Farm Chicks Vintage and Handmade Fair. 2017 marks my fifteenth year producing this special annual event! I invite you to take a minute and read all about it - after all, I consider it to be the happiest vintage event on earth. xo, Serena
There's really no more generous season than autumn and all the beauty and bounty it provides. A walk around our property yields red, orange, and yellow oak and maple leaves, crab apples, rosehips, and of course, pumpkins that I gather to decorate our home.
This year I thought it'd be fun to make a garland out of the leaves I'd gathered. To create it, I simply cut a length of twine the size that I wanted the garland and tied clumps of leaves along the twine, overlapping each bunch just a little each time. I had originally planned on bunching individual leaves but that proved to be way too time consuming so I used clippings of branches with clusters of leaves instead. That went much faster! The nice thing about twine is that it really blends in with the autumn foliage.
I draped the garland over a little table at our front door and secured it with some small pumpkins.
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Between posts on my website, I document my life on Instagram. You can follow along with me there.
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