Some Finishing Touches For Roz's Kitchen

There were a few things to finish up before Roz could invite the whole treehouse gang over to have the first celebration in her kitchen. I had to wait for my liquid hairspray to arrive so that I could pin and spray the aprons into a "natural looking hang" when placed on the pegs of the shelf. I learned the liquid hairspray trick many years ago from the amazingly creative Casey of Casey's Minis. She's got a wealth of knowledge from her decades making minis, and though she rarely posts these days, she is still often thought of and appreciated!

And finally this last shelf for the kitchen can be checked off the list!

If you remember from the chair cushion tutorial, I still needed to finish up the ties for the chairs. I was able to adapt the bow making video from Heather at My Mini Front Porch for my 1/8" ribbon. I added them to the cushion ties (all 16 of them) and I really like the "fairytale" look this gives to the chairs. Roz's chairs all match the one on the right and the other two are Goldie's.

Once the chairs were finished I made a runner and a vase of flowers for the table. It is ready to be set now with all the goodies for the party. 

Roz and I went back and forth on whether or not she wanted curtains of any kind. She didn't want to block the light or interfere with her herb pots in the kitchen window, but she does really love how a nice café curtain adds to the décor. So, the compromise was to add a floral swag valance above the half round windows in the breakfast nook. It won't block the light but still adds the charm she loves so much. 

Just a side note here for anyone building a trunkhouse with an addition in the back with no access except through the main room's opening... Decorate the room before you attach it! Holy buckets it is nearly impossible to reach in there and if you can manage that you'll have to guess where to put things because you can't see past your own arm!!! I hope the valences are fairly straight and close to where they are supposed to be because there are no do-overs!

Sneak peek - still needs touch-ups.

The final, final touch was preparing all the food for the party. Roz asked me to help because she wanted the treehouse gang to be surprised. Believe me - I warned Roz that my worst skill in life (besides sewing) is cooking/baking. Oh, I make a few good things, but they're limited because I really prefer anything else to being in the kitchen. Unless I am cooking with company. Then it's fun. I told Roz since we were doing it together I would be her sous chef.

No matter what the fairytale is, there always has to be a little reality behind the "magic". I got out all my food making stuff (a lot of it acquired and never used when I was planning Pound Cake) to see what I might be able to learn to make quickly. I had some molds and some Hearty air dry clay. I mixed a little dough color into the clay, brushed the molds with cornstarch and made a few loaves of French bread, some tart crusts and some crackers. 

To add the fresh baked look I brushed on some Tamiya Baking Master chalk.

I filled the tart crusts with lemon and strawberry slices and "cherries" (no hole beads). I made the appropriate color sauces using UV resin and artists chalk. They came out pretty good.

I wanted to make a few cakes, too. The more I made the greater the odds at least one would come out well enough to use. I had a bunch of 3/4" round chipboard circles left over from some project or another, so I stacked them into "layer cakes". Half would be base painted "chocolate cake" and half "white cake". I found that by drilling holes and adding toothpick handles, I could do a better job decorating them. Spinning them to paint on the "frosting" was genius!

You can see in the background a bunch of Bundt cakes, too. They were leftover from the last time I experimented using molds and air dry clay to make food. Three are "chocolate" and two are "vanilla/lemon". This was beginning to make me very hungry! 

All the chocolate cakes got a layer of "frosting" - Mod Podge mixed with a little "chocolate" paint made a lovely ganache. One got "nut sprinkles" added to the sides. I think I got the nuts on Etsy but a lot of my dessert making supplies came from Stewarts Dollhouse Creations during the planning of the bakery project.

I was trying to put the nuts on just the sides of a white cake, too, but wasn't careful and got it on the top. That left me no choice but to cover the whole thing with nuts. Then you could still see the white frosting under them so my fix was to paint "chocolate" over it. Now it's a Nestle Crunch cake. Sounds delicious, right?!? See? Good thing I made extras for accidents!

I had roses from Stewarts, a pineapple cane, Tamiya Deco Sauces, Sugar Sprinkles and 3/8" wooden furniture plugs that I made simple cupcakes from. The hardest part was deciding how to use my ingredients to decorate each one and then being brave enough to try. I'd say they came out pretty well and after I pick some things for Roz I'll have a good start on the bakery's displays.

Speaking of displays... back when I was planning the bakery I bought some things to experiment making cake stands. I thought gluing plates on top of vases from Natty Collection on Etsy would make unique cake stands. I really like the way they turned out.

I had cabuchon settings and various metal bead caps and spacers to try out, too. Since Pound Cake has a black-white-gray color theme, I painted them all black.

And here's what I ended up with, though Roz's party preparations are still not finished!

Hopefully, and with some focused effort, Roz's kitchen and her party will be ready to share with you next week! 🤞🙏👷‍♀️

I'm going to go take a nap now! 😜

xo xo,

Jodi