You Know Roy? Color Coded Bookshelves

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Roy G. Biv. Gotta love him, right? Such an inspirational man. So many great deeds done in his life. So many people helped.

Eer. Wait. What's that you say? He wasn't a real man? He's just a fictitious acronym my teachers invented to teach me the colors of the rainbow? BLASPHEMY! 

When we moved in, we decided to not only color block our bookshelves (which we did in the last apartment, too), but also put everything in rainbow order. Enter Roy G. Biv.

You see, we started out with this...

I know. They look sad. And color-less. Not to mention the random grocery and laundry basket next to it with odd computer cords hanging out...

Finally, we decided to give it some life. Before putting anything on those beautiful shelves, we laid it all out on the floor. I started by loosely color coding in an arc around the spot where I sat... (Kind of looked like me in college, studying for a test)

I based the color coding not on the front of the book, but instead on its spine. Why? Because it's what you see when the book is on a bookshelf, silly!

Each time I withdrew a book from the seemingly endless boxes, I placed as close to its family as I could. Granted, as I mentioned before, this color coding on the floor was fairly loose. I just wanted them near their basic color block.

Finally, I had something that looked like this (though there were many more books).

When I was finally ready to start shelving things, I played around a bit. At first, I planned to start with black on top and end with purples/browns at the end, moving/slinking horizontally throughout the rows of shelves as I added books in between. Here's an idea of how that strategy started:

It looked pretty...

But I ended up opting to do it a bit more sneakily. Because for some reason I enjoy making it a little more secretive. Like, how cool will it be when some random friend comes over and says, "Oh yeah, I forgot you Roy G. Biv'ed your bookshelves!" You know what that tells me? That awesome badass chick reads my blog. Boom. Double best friends.

So, for the good old before-and-after phenomenon (one of these days, I WILL try phenomenon right on my first try! And omg there it was. So... second try), here is the naked bookshelf:

And here's the beautiful, Roy G. Biv'd bookshelf (Yes, Roy G Biv'd is a verb - wait, crap, maybe not. Move on).

Yay! Looking for more posts about my obsession with my apartment? Tutorials and images and house things, oh my? Check out my house&home page, where there's now an interactive map you can use to navigate rooms! It's like Harry Potter magic!

Cotton Candy Rainbow Cake

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The cake is decadent and moist, yet surprisingly light feeling. The fluffy frosting, to put it in Justin's words, tasted like "the frosting equivalent of cotton candy." And you know what else? It melts in your mouth. Seriously. It's magic!

My brother is a huge dork. Like seriously. So, when he turned 18 this month, I knew one thing for sure: I couldn't make him a regular birthday cake. It had to be special.

Special means different things to different people, doesn't it? For some people, a special cake means an amazingly decadent oreo ice cream cake. For my dad, a Coca Cola fan for life, a special cake means a German Chocolate Coca Cola Cake with Cream Cheese Icing and Gingersnaps. For my brother... well, he's a special kid -- the kind of special kid that dresses up like Ron Burgundy from Anchorman for a choir concert. He's crazy and full of energy and color. He might just be a little insane (we are, after all, related).

So, what kind of cake do you make Ron Burgandy-loving, loud-mouthed, stranger-mooning kid? Well, I originally called this a crack cake. No, there's no crack in it. But it's addicting nonetheless... and when you present it to friends, they'll think you've finally cracked...

...that is, until they taste it. Despite having no added sugar, this cake tastes like pure, sugary heaven.

Cotton Candy Rainbow Cake

Calories: 124

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 22-26 minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients (For the Cake):

• 1 box Sugar-Free Yellow Cake
• 12 Ounces Sparkling Water (Perrier, La Croix, etc all work)
• Food Coloring: I used Blue and Purple gel food coloring (by Wilton) for the cake 

Ingredients (For the Frosting):

• 1 cup Truvia (or you can substitute sugar or splenda)
• 1/3 cup Water
• 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 2 Egg Whites
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Almond Extract
• Food Coloring: I used Pink gel food coloring (by Wilton) for the icing.
• Sprinkles: I used anything colorful I could find. There are even Spongebob-themed sprinkles on there. Thanks, Mom.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and pre-grease two small (I used 12") round cake pans.
2. Mix. Combine cake mix and sparkling water in a mixing bowl and mix well.
3. Color and pour. (Optional) To color, dip a table knife into blue gel food coloring, then mix the color into the cake batter. Once well mixed, pour half of the batter into one of the cake pans. Next, dip a fresh knife into purple gel food coloring, then mix the color into the remaining cake batter. Once well mixed, pour the rest of the batter into a new cake pan. Note: If you won't be coloring the batter, simply divide it between each cake pan and skip any of the coloring-related comments!
4. Bake for 22-26 minutes, or until a fork or toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Be sure to let the cake completely cool before removing from the pans!
5. Prepare the frosting. In a small pot, combine water, sugar, and cream of tartar and heat on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and small bubbles begin to form. While you're heating that mixture, whip egg whites and vanilla and almond extracts until soft peaks begin to form. Add the sugar and water mixture gradually, while mixing, until stiff peaks form. This should take about 8-10 minutes. Finally, use a table knife to dip into pink gel food coloring, then mix the color into the frosting.
6. Finishing touches. Flip one of the round cake pans over on a serving platter, holding your hand underneath the cake to help gently lower it down onto the platter. Cover this with a layer of pink frosting. The frosting is fairly frothy/messy, so, especially if you're going for the crazy look of the cake I made, feel free to slap it on and make a mess! Next, slowly remove the second cake from its pan, then flip it on top of the first piece, so that the smooth, round top of the cake faces up. Cover this in the rest of the frosting, then add sprinkles to taste!