Recipe - Strawberry Daiquiri Whipped Buttercream

I had a request for a Strawberry Daiquiri cake, for a 15 year old.  Since I won't put alcohol in a child's cake, I wanted to do something that taste like a Strawberry Daiquiri, only on the virgin side.  The cake part was easy enough, but coming up with a filling was another thing.  I decided to try doing a Strawberry Daiquiri Buttercream, with a twist.  It came out really light and fluffy, but with that distinctive Strawberry-Lime flavor.  I hope I get all the ingredients right, as I was just sort of madly pouring and mixing, like I was some sort of chemist.

Strawberry Daiquiri Whipped Buttercream

1 1/2 Cups Shortening
1 Cup Butter
8 Cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted
Pinch of Popcorn Salt
2 Tablespoons Lime Curd
2-3 oz Non-Alcoholic Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri Mix (Thawed out)
2-3 oz Heavy Cream
1/4 Teaspoon Rum Extract
Zest of 1 Lime
* Lime Oil (Optional, but for additional Lime flavoring)

Mix Shortening and Butter together until fluffy.  Mix in half of the powdered sugar and a pinch of popcorn salt, along with half of the Strawberry Daiquiri Mix and half of the Heavy Cream.  Blend on medium until well blended.  Add the remaining ingredients and blend completely until smooth.  Buttercream should be light and fluffy, but not stiff.  Too stiff, add more daiquiri mix.  Too soft, add more powdered sugar.  Happy Baking!

Fun New Finds!

Today I hit the Merchant Square Market Place in Chandler.  This place is comprised of tons of stuff, ranging from Antiques to old doors and shutters.  While I'm not much into antiques, there are a lot of projects that require stuff like old shutters and seems like they've been impossible to locate.  Well, I found a great old wood shutter today, along with a little red stool, that had me all excited.

Latest find.  The "Before" picture.

The shutter was fantastic, because it is just long enough that I could cut it in half and use it as two pieces.  I've already started striping the old paint off of it (luckily, the paint was pealing off pretty good when I bought it.) and preparing it for white paint.

The stool is so cute!  I've got a fresh coat of white paint on it and tomorrow I'll sand it down just enough to let some of the red show thru.  The bench cushion will be re-done and covered with burlap.  I might just get really creative and do some stenciling on the burlap before I staple it on.  Who knows?

I can't wait to sell some more of my things, just so I can go back to the Merchants Square.  I am especially fond of the outdoor merchants.  You need some rustic picket fences?  They have it.  What about a giant plastic Coke bottle display?  They have that too.  I've even found the long sought after oars I had been wanting.  Wouldn't ya know it?  Of course, now that I've already bought and painted two, I don't really need any more, so I'll have to find something else to buy.  

I've got a cake to work on for this weekend, so I'll have to put off the interior decorating projects for a couple of days.  I hope I don't have some sort of withdraw, while I'm working on cakes.  

Boat Oars

Every single day, I have checked Craigslist, in hopes that I would come across someone selling old wooden boat oars.  There hasn't been a sighting since I started checking.  With no prospects in my grasp, I broke down and purchased 2 brand new wooden oars at The Bass Pro Shop.  It was such a shame to bring them home and have to immediately sand them down and scruff them up.  I had big plans to paint these puppies and varnish was just going to get in my way.  I sanded, for what seemed like hours, making sure to get every inch of gloss off of these oars.  They were finally ready for fresh coats of paint.  Painting was tedious, due to the stripes and paint colors.  After a couple days of painting, the oars were ready for their new home on the wall.

Painted Wood Boat Oars

I'll be honest, after I got them up, I started having second thoughts.  Not about the oars, just about the placement of the oars.  I'm still trying to figure this part out and maybe after I find bedside lamps, I'll have a better idea if I want to leave them there or move them over the closet (which was option #2).  If I do decide to move them, Chris might not be happy with me again.  He had to paint half of the bedroom with a fresh coat of blue, due to all the holes from previous decor.  More holes = more paint.  Oops!

I also got around to hanging up my W-I-N-E cork project.  I photographed the letters a while back.  Here they are up on the wall:

Next week, I need to get the word, B-A-R done, to go on the opposite side of the picture (which you can't see) and then I can cross another project off the endless list.

Speaking of endless lists, I've already started thinking about Guest Bedroom #2.  So many ideas are whirling around in my head.  This room has never really been decorated completely, so it's nice to start from scratch.  The room is painted a wonderful darker olive green, black furniture, white wood shutters and white moldings. It's a beautiful color pallet and I think I'll stick with those initial 3 colors.  I've got ruffle curtains already planned out (Yes, Anna....once again, we're doing a lot of the same decorating).
Here's really thinking ahead............

Master Bedroom Dreams

I LOVE everything about this bedroom.This is the color scheme I want in our Master Suite.  For now, I'll be happy with what we have and every so often, I'll stare longingly at this picture and dream of days to come.

A Miter Saw Mind Block

It's been a couple more days of measuring, cutting, sanding, installing and stepping back to wonder what in the world is next.  I've been working on our guest bath and while I've enjoyed putting pieces together, I'm uncertain of certain aspects.  Does this wood match?  Does this really belong in the bathroom?  Will someone notice that I was off by 1" when installing my galvanized metal cleats??  (I noticed this one too late, after I'd already put up two of them.  Oh well, I'm the only one that knows, right?)

The chair rail was my first idea.  While I know there will be no chairs in the bathroom, I wanted to do something that would give the bathroom more of a nautical feel, without going cheesy and traditional.  I decided to sand some left over pallet wood (there's never enough left over pallets.  I've decided I have to keep a few of these in stock on the side of the house.  My husband disagrees.) and install a couple of pieces as a chair rail, approx. 38", from the ground.  I had gone to the Bass Pro Shop and bought some cast iron galvanized metal cleats, used in boating.  I spray painted them with a metallic bronze spray paint and then installed them every 22" 21" along the rail.  It turned out even better than I envisioned, so I was happy.

Guest Bathroom Chair Railing w/Pallet wood and galvanized cleats.

Next, I decided to finish up a shelving idea I got from.....you guessed it....Pinterest.  I had been putting this off, as this was what I was working on when the "great paint spill" of August 24th happened.  I didn't feel like painting the last coat of paint, in fear that I would spill again.  But, yesterday, I finally dug in and kicked myself into gear and finished the shelves up.  I sanded them down a bit and Chris and I spent an hour trying to hang them.  Working with rope is tricky and this shelf had about 30ft of rope to play with.  I have little rope stickers in my fingers as I type this.  

Guest Bathroom Upcycled Pallet-Rope Shelf

Of course, the rope was really the least of our concerns, it turned out.  For some reason, we could not get the anchor to stay in the wall and we ended up with about 4 different holes, that we had to fill with newspaper, spackle, sand and repaint.  Ohhhh, the fun we're having now!  Once I've got everything done in this bathroom, I'll be sure to try and take a better picture of the whole bathroom.  Right now, it's just a mess, as we do it all, piece by piece.  Now to tackle the flooring.  With less than 55sq ft. in this room, it shouldn't be that expensive (or difficult???) to redo.
Here's probably something a lot of people don't know about me.  I LOVE power tools!!  From saws, to drills and grinders.....I love tools!!  I've always loved being creative and what could be more creative than working with power tools?  Since we've lived here in AZ, I've had dreams of putting up crown molding and making my own frames, etc.  For this type of work, you really need a miter saw and I'v often stared at them longingly, as we walked by them in Home Depot.  I've mentioned it to Chris many times over the years and he just nods his head and walks away from the tool crib.  I've come in desperate need of one, since I decided to tear up my house and know that it was silly to just got out and buy one on a whim.  I even started looking up used one's on Craigslist, just to see how much they would set me back.  Then, the funniest thing happened........I was in the garage checking out another project and I noticed a  blue and red box, sitting under a spare chair...........it's been sitting in that same place for years.  Out of the way, minding it's own business, but not so out of the way, that you can't read the side of the box or see the picture of a MITER SAW on it.  Good grief!!!  We have had this saw for over 7 years now and the box has never been opened.  It's mine.  Yep, I got it as a present, believe it or not.  Sounds like a really nice gift, right?  Especially for someone that loves tools??  Well, it would have been, but not for the fact that Chris gave me this Miter Saw for our 1st Anniversary!  I remember now.  It's all coming back to me in flashes.  I remember him bringing it to me and exclaiming "Happy Anniversary!" and me, trying to be excited about something that I really did want, but was really a little ticked off.....I mean, it's our FIRST anniversary!  Who gives their wife a saw for their first anniv?  Okay, I can understand the 6th anniv or even the 7th, 8th or 9th, but not the 1st!  I think I was so traumatized that I blocked it out of my mind completely.  That can only explain why we've had one sitting in the garage for 7.5 years.  It made the move with us from California to AZ and then has survived garage cleanings and all, undetected by my eyes.  It was not hiding!  It was out where I could see it every single day that I went into the garage.  By no means was this something I could have just "missed", because it was tucked in a corner.  If you've ever seen a Ryobi box of any sort, you know that they are bright blue and red.  They say that your brain blocks out traumatic events, to prevent you from remember unnecessary horrors.........LOL!  Guess this is what happened here.
You can only guess how much I've used my "new" miter saw in the past few days.  My skill saw has nothing on this Ryobi!  Watch out Home Depot!  You're about to get another investor.