When we bought our new house, the old owners left us this fireplace Screen.  It really bothered be because it didn't match anything else in our home.  And also the leaves were a bit weird...

I decided instead of replacing it and spending probably $100, I should try painting it black to match all of our other fireplace accessories.  Luke bought a can of High Heat Rust-Oleum in black and I painted away. It worked wonderfully and only cost $15.

Interesting note: you can't buy spray paint in Chicago.  Apparently it's been banned since 1995....

Here is the before and after.  What a difference paint makes!

Happy painting!

House Updates: Hanging a Mantel

This weekend we (Luke) finished hanging our mantel!  Ah I am so excited to have it up! And, it actually comes with a nice story...

While living in my house in Richmond, we were installing extra storage and shelving everywhere because the house didn't have any!  For the kitchen, we put up really pretty white shelves and wanted to hang a big butcher-block-type bar under them that could be used as extra counter space in regular life and a bar when entertaining.   The search began for this "butcher-block-type" piece of wood that didn't cost the same as my mortgage!  We soon found out that wasn't very easy to do....we looked at lumber stores, thrift stores, restoration places...nothing had anything big enough and within our price range.  When we had all but given up, we found a salvage yard run by a man who would go into old Richmond homes after they were gutted to be remodeled and bring all the gorgeous old fixtures, wood, moulding, etc. back to his store.  We ended up finding the top wooden piece from a mantel from an old Richmond mansion buried under a whole lot of other "scrap" wood.  We bought it for $75, brought it home, and Luke started sanding away the years of wear and tear (and paint). Fast forward a couple months, Luke moved to Chicago and I was left with this block of wood.  Needless to say it was never hung in Richmond and somehow made it's way to Chicago with us.

We planned to just pay someone to come in and hang it for us, but that project was pretty low on our list. I had gotten over my blank fireplace and put the project out of my mind until last weekend, when we invited our neighbors in for some tea while everyone was out cleaning our yard.  Our architect neighbor saw the wood, raved over how beautiful it is and asked what we were planning to do with it.  We told him the story and he volunteered to help us cut it with some very fancy tools (Luke was most excited about the sawzall). We are very lucky to have such wonderful and knowledgable neighbors.  So Luke and Matthew set everything up in the basement, cut the wood down, and then Matthew talked Luke through how to actually hang it.  Below is how they did it! Huge, huge, huge, thank you to Matthew for helping us.

Here is the before!  A bit boring, and how in the world would I decorate for Christmas??

The block of wood preparing to be cut to fit between the brick.  You can see the nail holes where it was attached to a fireplace before.  

They set the wood up for easier access.  

Luke, measuring twice, cutting once! hehe

We found the wrought iron brackets at a plant nursery. They were supposed to be for window boxes or planers but we drilled a couple extra holes in them and they work perfectly.  

Luke bought all kinds of new toys, including a drill bit that could drill through the brick.  It was pretty cool to learn about actually.  

Blurry, but a man proud of his awesome work!  I am so excited by how well it turned out!

Side view of the brackets and pretty wood.  

All decorated!  Omgosh I am so excited!  Now we have a piece a Richmond here in Chicago.  :)

Ombre Red Velvet Cake

This weekend was my friend, Margaret's, birthday.  She and her fiancé hosted a fabulous fiesta dinner party and we were in charge of bring the birthday cake!  I found a picture of an ombre cake a couple weeks ago on Pinterest and was waiting for a time to get to make it! What a better reason than a birthday cake?!

First, I baked a red velvet cake using this recipe. I then wrapped the two layers in plastic wrap and froze them overnight.  I froze it overnight because I only had time to make the cake one night and then to frost it the night of the party.

First, make the cream cheese icing.  I used this recipe:

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
-1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
-1 - 8 ounce cream cheese, room temperature
-1 - 8 ounce tub of Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
-3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-1 cup powdered sugar
In your food processor, or with a hand mixer, process the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and process until smooth. Transfer this mixture to a large mixing bowl.
Then, in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. With a large spatula, gently but quickly fold a little of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture to lighten it. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream, in two stages. If the frosting is not thick enough to spread, cover and place in the refrigerator for an hour, or until it is firm enough to spread.

 I unwrapped the layers, put a piece of wax paper on the cake stand and put the layers together with a dollop of white icing in between.  

 I then split the icing into 3 bowls so I could dye them the colors for my ombre. 

 I started slowly with adding the color and just saw what happens.  Remember you can always add more but you can't take it away! 

 I then started with the darkest layer on top.

 I spread it out leaving a little bit hanging over the edge so it can blend with the middle color. 

 I then took the lightest color and put it around the bottom layer.

 I then took the middle color and slowly blended it in between the other colors.  Slow is better because if you over blend, you can't go backwards! 

 I then took a long spatula dipped in hot water and traced around the cake to clean it up.  This really made a huge difference so if you're at the step before and you're not super happy with it yet, I would stop before you over blend and clean it up.  

 Then take the wax paper out from below it

 and put sprinkles on it!

 Here is the lovely birthday girl about to blow out her candle. *we couldn't find the candles we bought so we used a tea light lol.  **Margaret found the candles after we left.  Murphy's Law....

 Voila!