Cookies from the past

Over the last few years I have started decorating cookie with royal icing. When I was young every holiday we would make and decorate cookies with my gram. We would make roll out cookies and then color our frosting with food coloring. Even from that young age I would get frustrated because even when "dry" you could not stack the cookies or their designs would get ruined.

A few years ago when I first discovered, and coincidentally, fell in love with the world of blogs, I saw post after post about adorable//delicious cookies decorated with royal icing. At first I thought that looks too complicated. Then I thought I could do it. Then I bought meringue powder. Then I chickened out. [[Welcome to the internal struggle that is my life]]
Then I tried it, I made a cookie bouquet. Success. I have been in love with royal icing ever since. I always use Wilton's Royal Icing. Easy recipe, with good instructions.

I have been asked to make cookies for friends and special occasions in the past, but mostly I make cookies for family and friends. I give them as gifts A LOT. [[Perfect low budget gift]] and make them every Christmas.

Here are just some of my favorite cookies [[Before Blog]]:

#1: First ever cookie bouquet//#2: Apple bouquet for teacher appreciation gift//#3: A princess bouquet for an adorable 2 year old//#4: Owl cookies for my owl loving bff//#5: Pink flowers for Mother's Day//#6: Teddy bears on a stick for zoo day at preschool//#7: Teenage mutant ninja turtles for my little buds 4th birthday//#8: Yoshi cookies for a kid that is obsessed with Mario and Luigi//#9: Superhero baby shower cookies from "aunt drea".

Quick post: Easy tray.

This post will be as quick as the time it takes to complete this project.
I am obsessed with garage sales. I love finding inexpensive stuff, and being able to change it into something completely different.
I found this tray at a garage sale for a quarter!

The tray is in perfect condition. The "Got Milk?" is actually in perfect condition too. I just hate milk. I always have. I know it is good for me, I know the health benefits, I just do not like it. My sister drinks enough milk for the both of us, so it works out... right?

Anyways, I bought this because it fits perfectly on top of the stand that I redid HERE. I thought I could put it in my entry way and it could be a "catch all" for mail, keys, etc. 

The process was very simple, I used spray paint to cover the tray evenly. It did take two coats. I used a spray paint that was meant for plastic, so it dried shiny. I like how it turned out, and it matches the drawers on the stand perfectly.

[My mom found the tray and insisted on "borrowing" it because it "matches her kitchen perfectly"... I informed her it was all hers until I moved out. We will see....]

Overall, it was a very low cost project:

D.I.Y. dresser re-do

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first official DIY post on My DIY Apartment. Instead of making you read through my long winded "About Me" post, I put it HERE. Feel free to read it if you want, but in case you do not want to read it, here is the summary: I am moving in to an apartment, I own nothing, my budget is low, I am attempting DIY projects that have a 50/50 chance of turning in to a disaster. The end.

This dresser redo came about because of some fabric. Some chevron fabric that I got to for next to nothing at JoAnn Fabrics:

[I love chevron, in case you were wondering]

I found this tiny 4 drawer dresser for free:

It was missing some knobs, and was in pretty bad shape cosmetically, but structurally it was fine. The paint that I purchased was spray paint for wood with a gloss finish that boasted you did not need to sand anything.

I did not trust it, and sanded it anyway.

Luckily it was small, because I had to sand it by hand. My dad was at work, and I am not completely positive how to start the electric sander. But, on the plus side, my dad was at work meaning he would not guilt trip me in to not covering up wood with paint.[like a $2 night stand that I got at a garage sale and had dreams of painting mint green. "Why would you paint over beautiful wood?!?"- my dad.                  
More on that later].
After sanding, I removed the two knobs that were left, and painted. The structure of the stand is painted in a color called Buttermilk, which looks like an off white/yellow color, and the drawers are painted blue. It took me one can of each to cover the stand.

For the new knobs, I found some bronze knobs at the local hardware store in the clearance section, I got all four knobs for a couple dollars. I did not like the bronze color, but my dad had silver spray paint in his garage, so that was an easy fix. 

After the paint had dried, I added my new silver knobs and put the dresser together.

Total cost: less than $10