Story of a Hooligan Cake

A while back, I had all my grandkids spending the night.  Of course they wanted a story.  Usually Cally and Sheldon are the only ones getting a story and they always request "Bramble & Brownie", their alter egos.  With the 3 older kids in the room I quickly made up a couple of stories starring the "Hooligans".  In brief~ the Hooligan's like to trick people into doing things that are for their own good.  So they each have their own horse (I'll spare you the names and descriptions here), they each have their own name and talent.

This story was about going to a town where the only food anyone ever ate were hamburgers and soda pop.  So the Hooligans opened their own 'burger joint' but they made healthier food and shaped them into the shape of hamburgers with fruit and vegetable juice for the soda. 

They loved the story and have requested it many times.  Hence this is one of the made up off the top of my head stories I remember a little bit better than some others.

So now it is Sheldon's 4th birthday.  In my blog hopping, I saw a cake made into the shape of a big hamburger!  It was so cool!  So.... guess what I did? It had to be a Hooligan Hamburger cake!

I used these two combined for the bun.  Didn't know exactly how I was going to make it but here's where I started.

I divided the batter between a rounded pyrex bowl for the top and a springform layer for the bottom.

I used this one for the 'meat' in the middle layer.

So far so good...

Then I used these to try to make 'bun' colored frosting.

It didn't please my eye until I added this:)

Looks good with the crumb coating!  Yes!!

I've never made fondant.  So I mixed a package of cream cheese with enough powdered sugar and cornstarch and food coloring to make an American cheese colored fondant.  It was tricky and sticky but I finally got it to work:

Oh yeah.  On the middle layer, I used chocolate frosting and put chocolate sprinkles on it to make it look like 'meat'.  (I'm such a Hooligan!)

Along the way I made a big fat Dodo mess:

For ketchup I made a powdered sugar, butter, milk frosting and added lots of red and yellow food coloring as well as a big spoonful of strawberry freezer jam.  It was yummish.
I ran some of the yellow fondant thru a screen and it made the sprinkles on top which represent sesame seeds.  I didn't know what to do for lettuce...so finally I took some of the leftover 'cheese' fondant and added blue and green food coloring till it looked 'lettucey' enough.  It looks like playdough to me but you will see the grand effect right HERE:

Best of all was this response:

 

It was a splendid party, truly fit for Hooligans of all ages.

 

Story of the rug

So I was window shopping one day after blog  hopping for several weeks (my husband calls it 'brain-washing).  I had it  in my newly washed mind the colors I wanted for my Master bedroom/bathroom-to-be (I've got the claw foot tub! Now I need to add a bathroom but that's a whole 'nother story).  I had seen one country farmhouse style bathroom that had a cool looking rug near the tub. Here, let me see if I saved a copy of it...

YAY!  I found it!  See?  This is what was stuck in my head. 

So I stopped in at a cool little Junk/Antique/Collectables shop in Coos Bay called Leif's Treehouse.

It is oh so much fun to shop and think there or shop and forget there.

That's when I saw 'the rug'.  It was the cocoa brown of the border of the rug that grabbed my attention!

I love that shade! (I also love Cocoa but again, that's a whole 'nother story)

Anyway, you can see where I was coming from.  HOWEVER...

One small obstacle...it had only been at the shop for about a week AND it was way over my meager budget.

I unfolded it.

I touched it's lovely cocoa border and admired it's hooked rugginess.

Best of all it didn't smell like smoke/old house/cats.

But there was no getting around the fact that this was one rug I was not getting.

Now we just let 2 weeks pass...

Mr. Bill decides to sell his diesal truck because it's too expensive to drive it.

AND he sell's it!  Yay for Mr. Bill cuz he always lets me do the banking/spending/bill paying, ETC.

So I figured I would go back with my ETC and see if that rug was still available.

It was!!

I wandered around and talked to some friends I ran into.  Building up my bargaining nerve.

I then went to the cashier and asked if the price on that rug over 'there' was negotiable.

She called the owner.

What was my offer?

I offered a price that was 1/3 off the tag.

With a slight pause....

My answer came.   YES!

And that is the story of the rug.

PS.  Those are my  happy feet!

This picture is what inspired me to buy my new rose picture at the GoodWill.

See that picture above the headboard?

Umm humm. Sorta like this, but I put the picture into a rustic wood frame.

Total cost on this project $13.00 (GoodWill prices have certainly gone up!)

Rugs and rugrats

By popular demand here is my new rug....

Ooops!  That's just chopper, napping!

HERE is my new rug...

(I just noticed how odd my feet look!  I was leaning against the dresser so I could hold the camera still.)  I'm not really 3 feet wide!

I love the pretty colors!

I hung the picture up...

Cleaned off my dresser top.  It's such a pretty world today...

Because we are getting so much more sunshine than usual this time of year, I draped a white cloth over our east window.  It's weird to have a window covering in our room after living here like fish in a fishbowl for the last 17 years!

And finally for the romantic in me, (as if you couldn't tell!) here is the bouquet I sent to Mr. Bill.  Thanks to How Does She for the inspiration!

He loved it.

Now what am I to do with the rest of my day??  Maybe I will finally wash my office windows which I'm looking out of right now and am disgusted at the sight!  Yes.  That's what I'll do next...unless I come across another really inspirational blog...