Design Inspiration

Lately, I've been considering updating the painting in my house. I've lived here for over 11 years now, so it's just time for some changes, and paint is definitely going to be cheaper than finishing the basement (though that's on the "To Do" list for sure).

Jess had mentioned once that she looked for colour palettes on Pinterest for card making, so I had a look. Some had links to looking for inspiration from other fabrics or things you have, so I'll probably head in that direction. I already used my kitchen chairs (some of the seat pictured above) as inspiration for some accent paint around my pantry door, so I'll now probably use some of the neutrals in it to have some continuity throughout the house.
*Note: The two paint sample strips on the chair were to figure out the best colour to use and my design friends said I could actually use any of those colours. I went with the top left for the wall as I thought it was a little more vibrant than the bottom row.

Aaaanywho, I ended up pinning quite a few colour palettes as I figured I'd need them at some point anyway in my crafting. And I discovered that I had quite a few from Design Seeds (http://design-seeds.com/), so I explored that site more and thought I'd share.

http://design-seeds.com/home/entry/petaled-hues5

What I liked about that site is that it gives you an image and pulls colours from it. Then if you like a particular one, you can click on it on the right side under "see similar colours" and it will take you to other colour palettes that use similar colours. For example, I clicked on the top-right greenish colour and got to eight different palettes that might work, depending on what overall feeling your going for. http://design-seeds.com/search?hex=cfccb0

So this is all well and good, great for card making, maybe some clothing design, inspiration for choosing colour options, but this doesn't really help you buy the paint for the walls.

But wait! I found another website that will help with that. EasyRBG http://www.easyrgb.com/?X=SEEK

This will take computer colours and turn them into the paint colour names from different companies. You'll need either the RGB values or the hex code of the colour. The beauty of the Design Seeds site is that if you hover your mouse over the colour, the hex code will pop up. It's also the end code of the webpage you follow if you click to see the similar colours. So for the greenish colour noted above you can see the end string is "cfccb0".

I know my local paint store sells Benjamin Moore paint, so I entered "cfccb0" in the colour code, chose the "Benjamin Moore Color Preview" as my color collection, and voilà! It gives me the names of four optional matches that Benjamin Moore produces. The centre block is the colour I entered and the four smaller ones around it are the options. In this case, it came up with Guillford Green, Soft Fern, Abingdon Putty, and Carrington Beige.

So now just head to the store, grab those colour samples and decide where your project is headed.

Translating computer screen colour to real life may take a little trial and error, but here's some help to getting the ideas from your head onto the walls!

~Lisa

Soda Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in an Oprah Magazine and wanted to try it out. When we were having a group lunch at work, I thought it would be a great opportunity to make them because a) I don't need a dozen cupcakes for myself and b) I would have some "guinea pigs" to give me some feedback on what they thought of it.

I just took a picture of the recipe, so I don't know what exact issue of Oprah Magazine it was in, but since I took the picture on February 17, 2014 (yes, it took me this long to try it), my best guess is either the January 2014 or February 2014 issue.

The copied recipe:
Combine 1 box any flavor cake mix with 1 can room-temperature soda in any flavor. (We're partial to chocolate mix and Coca-Cola.) Whisk until smooth. Pour batter into a lined muffin tin. Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees until a toothpick emerges clean. Let cool completely, then top with whipped cream. Makes 12 cupcakes.

I had a box of lemon mix in the pantry and figured gingerale would be a good pairing, so I went with that for this first attempt. I didn't have any cans of gingerale, so used just half of a 710 ml bottle.

The pop does fizz quite a bit when you pour it in (I didn't take any pictures of that), but otherwise it looks like normal cake batter when it's all mixed together. I filled the cups about 3/4 of the way and ended up with 18 cupcakes.

Some still came up over the top of the paper cups, so if I would have tried to fit all the batter into only 12 it would have been a terrible mess in my oven.

At 18 minutes they weren't quite ready, so I probably ended up baking them for 22 minutes before the toothpick was clean. When they're all done, they still look like "normal" cupcakes, so the picture doesn't really show that much other than what you'd expect. What you do notice is that they are very moist. So if you're going to do any fancy decorating, I'd recommend that you leave them out for a bit to dry so you have a firmer surface on the top of the cupcake to work on.

I went with a cream cheese icing, using the recipe from Kraft as a guideline.
1 brick softened cream cheese (though I bought the Co-op brand since it was cheaper than Kraft)
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups icing sugar

Let's be honest, I never measured any of that. I used a splash of milk, a glitch of vanilla, and enough icing sugar until it looked thick enough. Be prepared though because this makes a lot of icing. If you don't have a plan for using all the icing right away, it will store for quite some time because of the high sugar content. I'm not qualified to make any recommendations about how long that is, but I will say that I have kept it in my fridge for a month with no ill effects :)

These cupcakes did turn out quite well, so maybe I will try the chocolate-coke combination next time!

~Lisa