Ladder Shelf

This ladder shelf was the second of my two big projects this summer! The adventure started out with finding a ladder that would fit the bill. My mom and I went to Barrett's Antique Market about 2 minutes from my house and found this beauty. It was a great size and in great shape, it even still had the original Sears, Roebuck, and Co. sticker on it!!

The next thing to be done was the sanding and priming, which evolved into scraping and chipping paint off of the ladder. Next, I primed the ladder and let that dry.

I went to the hardware store and picked out my paint, I eventually decided on "Tahitian Sky" and I couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out! It is simply the cutest, most fun blue, plus it complements the color my chair quite nicely! While waiting for it to dry after painting and repainting the ladder, I turned my attention to the actual shelves. My dad and I went and bought the wood (and I learned about all the different grades etc. of wood!) and then started assembling the shelves.

Initially I was under the impression that you could just buy wood that was wide enough for shelves but apparently that was not the case! My dad explained that we would have to cut the wood and then join two pieces together using a wood joiner, wood glue, clamps and biscuits. The wood joiner is sort of like a saw but it just makes groves on the side of wood so that the biscuits and wood glue can be inserted into them and hold the wood together. After gluing the boards together we clamped the wood until it dried. Once the shelves were complete I painted them and cut them to size.

Here is the finished product all set up and assembled in my dorm at UVa! A special thanks to Dad for helping me with the project! Can't wait until I get home and can think of another fun project to do together!

Carrot Cupcakes

I've been wanting to try out a carrot cupcake recipe for a while and finally just chose a recipe and went with it. The recipe I used produced a lighter, fluffier cake that contrasted the traditional dense base of carrot cake. I was pleased with the lighter cake batter, but at the same time it made it that much harder to just eat one (or two). The recipe I used included raisins, which I feel are vital to carrot cake, but if you're not a fan they can be omitted. I frosted the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and added fondant carrots to the tops.

Ingredients:
1 pound carrots, peeled and grated
3 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon, + ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Preheat oven to 325 F. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla and raisins. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then combine with the wet ingredients. Divide batter evenly among the cups and bake 23-28 minutes, rotating half way through, until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time and then vanilla, and mix until smooth.

To finish the cupcakes, make a batch of fondant, color it orange and green and then shape the fondant into miniature carrots. For detail, I added little lines to the orange part of the carrots with the dull side of a knife.