Pinterest Fail - Meringue Ghosts

We had a combo birthday/Halloween party for our two girls about a week ago.  Of course I scoured Pinterest looking for cute ideas for the party.

When I saw these beauties from Smart School House on Pinterest, I was so excited to make them.

They looked so easy to make - just a few ingredients.  And they're so adorable.

Mine???

These ghosts are scary all right

Not so much.

Recipes To Try - Father's Day Edition

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen Sunday.  But that's okay, my husband, the father of my children, is worth it.  Here's some of the things I whipped up:

For lunch I made Paula Deen's chicken salad.  For some reason or another, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Believe me when I say this recipe is super simple to make and it tastes delicious.  I always wind up adding more mayonnaise though.

I also made The Pioneer Woman's Deviled Eggs.  Here's a sad little picture of a lonely deviled egg - all his little friends had already met their demise.  I thought my husband was sneaking in the fridge and eating them throughout the day - come to find out, it was my sneaky 3-year-old.

For supper we had The Pioneer Woman's Cowboy Bacon Beans:

Delicious!

Pioneer Woman's Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

Probably the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten

And we marinaded a couple of ribeyes in this steak marinade.
 

I'm going to list the recipe for that marinade here because the link for it is all wonky on Pinterest.  And I.have.no.earthly.idea.how.I.lived.without.Pinterest.


Steak Marinade

¼  cups Olive Oil
¼  cups Balsamic Vinegar
¼  cups Worcestershire Sauce
¼  cups Soy Sauce
2  teaspoons Dijon Mustard
2  teaspoons Minced Garlic
Salt And Pepper, to taste

Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Makes enough marinade for 4 steaks - but I use it on 2 steaks - the more the merrier, right?

We had some full bellies on Father's Day.  I'll definitely be making all these things again. 

Recipe To Try - Corned Beef, Cabbage, Colcannon...it's not just for St. Patrick's Day

I've made this meal the past two St. Patrick's Day.  I love it because it's all cooked in the crock pot at the same time, yet it turns in to three separate dishes. 

I found the recipe on Pinterest and here it is.  The only way I didn't follow the recipe was I didn't glaze the corned beef - only because I didn't have any apricot preserves laying around.  The corned beef turned out fabulous anyway.  I was surprised that even my pickiest eaters loved the meat.

The cabbage was all mine because nobody in this family will touch it with a ten-foot pole.  Eating all that cabbage also makes for a nice, peaceful evening alone because for some reason or another, nobody wanted to be in the same room with me.  I consider that a win/win - lol!

 

And then here's the delicious colcannon which oddly enough my husband ate even though it has cabbage in it...maybe it's because he didn't know there was cabbage in it.  I'm sneaky like that. 

What I've Been Working On - Yard Sale Stool

I bought this beaut at a yard sale a few months ago for $8.  The poor thing had seen better days, but I thought it had good bones, as they say, so I bought it. 

The gold velour fabric was brittle, and all I had to do to deconstruct this thing was rip the fabric off - didn't have to use a seam ripper or anything.  I was very careful, though, to rip the fabric along the seams so that I could use the old fabric as a pattern for cutting out my new fabric.  

Now, I'm not the best sewer around, but I thought recovering a stool would be easy.  It would have been super duper easy.  But do you see that piping going around the top and the bottom of the cushion?  I thought that would cause me some serious heartache, but it actually didn't.  I found this great tutorial on Pinterest on how to make your own piping. 

Since I saved the rope from the original piping, it was just a matter of cutting the new fabric on the bias and then sewing the rope into the material.  I figured out that when sewing the rope in the material, you shouldn't get right up on the rope with your seam because after you attach the piping, you might be able to see that seam.  (That makes perfect sense in my head, so I hope it makes sense to y'all - LOL)

Just kidding...this isn't really the after. 

I fell in love with this fabric at Joann's.  It's called Penny Candy.  It made me smile.  And the second I saw it, I knew it belonged on this stool, so I bought it.  

It still makes me smile just looking at it. 

You ready for the real after?  Here it is:

I swear I hugged myself after I finished this thing.

Sometimes you've just got to give yourself a little hug and say, Way To Go!

Recipe To Try - Mississippi Roast

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Mississippi Roast (I totally was just singing M-I-Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, I as I typed that!)

I found this recipe on Pinterest - where else?  The recipe comes from A Perfectly Lovely Ordinary Day.

It is delicious.  My husband has already asked me to make it again, which is, like, a total miracle because he very, very rarely requests anything, which is one of the thousands of reasons why I married him - heh, heh.

Display Kid's Artwork

I saw this idea on Pinterest over a year ago.  And since at that time we were redoing our dining room/entry/hallway/whateverthatroomiscalled room, I thought this would look super cute. 

You just take a 1 by something or other and cut it to whatever size you want.  My husband routered the edges and then painted them black.  I took some sandpaper and roughed up the edges a bit to give them some character.  Find you some of those little metal clips.  We could only find some that had magnets in them.  My husband had to drill them out so we could screw them to the board.  Then he just screwed the boards to the wall.

We ordered the word Masterpieces from a vinyl lettering company - I wish I could remember where I ordered it from, but since it's been almost a year, I've forgotten.

I think it turned out great.  My kids are so proud to see their masterpieces hanging on the wall. 

Pinterest Palooza - John Wayne Casserole

Saw this on Pinterest - John Wayne Casserole.  The recipe comes from The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife.  It's been pinned, like, 55,000 times - literally.  So I thought I'd try it out.

It turned out pretty dang good!  I halved the recipe and I think next time I make it, I'll use less jalapenos.

Had to get a few bowls and pans dirty, but I think it was worth it.

Pinterest Palooza - Beachy Waves For Your Hair

Pinterest Palooza - Beachy Waves For Your Hair

How many times have we seen things on Pinterest and been so excited to try it only to have it fail miserably?  Too many times than I can count for me.  There's even a blog about it called Pinstrosity and there's some hilarious posts over there.

Since I love Pinterest and since I love trying to make things and do things that are on Pinterest, I thought I'd share my experiences with y'all - good or bad.

So here's my first post in a series I'll call Pinterest Palooza, where I find things that interest me on Pinterest and then I'll document my experience in trying to recreate the pin.

Episode 1
My hair is always giving me problems.  It's sort of long and it's sort of irritating.  If I didn't think it would cause my husband to divorce me, I'd probably have chopped it off a long time ago.  What's the deal with men liking long hair anyway?  How cavemanish!

When I let my hair dry naturally, it sort of has a wave to it - but not a pretty, beachy wave like you see all the faw-bu-lous people have.  It's sort of like a you've-got-some-serious-bedhead-girl kind of wave.

I've been on a never-ending hunt for big, glorious curls achieved by something other than a round brush for longer than I can remember.  I am not coordinated enough to dry my hair and use a dang round brush at the same time.

So when I saw this pin about beachy waves for your hair by braiding it and using a flatiron, I was all over it.

(Y'all don't laugh at my pictures now.  I'll have to hurt you if you do.)

Here's my before picture:

That's what my hair looks like after I let it dry naturally.

So the pin says you split your hair in two sections and then braid those two sections and tie them off with rubber bands.  Twist the braids away from your face and then take the flatiron and twist the flat iron over the twisted braids in the same direction as you twisted it.  (Could I possibly use the word twist any more?)  I was a little confused about the twisting of the flatiron part, but I think I figured it out after a few near-miss burns on my ears.

So after two or three passes with the flatiron on both braids, I took the rubber bands out and this is what I got:

Not really the beachy-wave look I was hoping for.  See where those two arrows are pointing?  Those are big dents in my hair.  I'm not a fan of dents in anything, really, but especially not in my hair. 

But since I didn't feel like doing my hair again, I tried to make it work:

It kind of looks like a bad perm, doesn't it?  Kind of reminds me of an 80's rocker dude.  Oh, well, at least it's a change from the pony tail I wear 364.6 days of the year.  Rock on.

Keep Track of Medicine Given

Need help keeping track of whether you've given your child their medicine the number of times you were supposed to or if you've given it to them the full 5 or 10 days or however long you're supposed to give it to them?  Try this:

In the picture above, my child took the medicine twice a day for five days (the pink label is covering up the last day).

I saw this on Pinterest a while back and I've used this method ever since.  You just take a Sharpie and draw a chart on the actual bottle of medicine.  Draw lines for however many times a day and for however many days you're supposed to give them the medicine and then check it off each time you give them the medicine.  

Tequila & Rum Soaked Watermelon

I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided I'd tweak it a bit.  Here's the recipe I came up with:

Tequila & Rum Soaked Watermelon
About half of a medium-sized watermelon cut into bite-sized chunks - rind removed*
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup rum
3/4 cup tequila
2 limes
salt

Cut watermelon into bite-sized chunks with rind removed.  Arrange in single layer in 9x13 baking dish.  Place sugar and water in saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved.  Let mixture cool slightly.  Add tequila and rum to sugar water.  Stir.  Pour yummy concoction over your bite-sized watermelons.  Squeeze lime juice over watermelons and sprinkle with some salt if you want - but I wouldn't put very much.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge overnight.  Drain liquid.  (I drained the liquid into a bowl and it's sitting in my fridge waiting for me to mix it with a Sprite - I bet that will be yummy)

That's all there is to it.  Be prepared to have your flip-flops blown off because these are pretty dang good.

*Take my advice and cut the watermelon into smaller chunks than what is pictured above.

If you plan on taking these to a get-together, make sure you label the container in some way that the other guests will know these watermelons are for adults only.    

Patriotic Wreath

I saw this gorgeous wreath on Pinterest a while back and I just had to make it.  It was super easy to make and cheap too.  The most expensive thing was the foam wreath and I think that cost me $5.99.  You could probably find one a lot cheaper than that and use a coupon at Joann's or Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I suggest you cut all the felt pieces out with one of those rotary cutters.  I started cutting the felt like this - each strip individually then turning and cutting the strips:

 

That took a while.  So I wised up and starting cutting them like this:

Which made it go a lot faster - hello!

My only suggestion would be to mark your foam wreath as to where you want the red, the white, and the blue.  I wanted my blue to butt up to white, so I had to do some finagling at the end to make it come out that way.  If I had marked the wreath beforehand, it would have been a lot easier. 

Also, the instructions said to use cardstock and punch out stars using a punch.  This homegirl does not have a star punch, so I just decided to use some of the white felt to represent the star.

Turned out pretty, don't you think?  God bless America.

Comeback Shane Sauce

Comeback Shane Sauce

I've seen a ton of recipes for Comeback Sauce or Raising Cane's dipping sauce.  This is the closest I've come to Raising Cane's.  It's delicious and I could eat it up with a spoon all by its lonesome.

I call this Comeback Shane Sauce because every time I hear the word comeback, I think of that old western Shane, where that little boy is yelling come back, Shane!  Shane, come back!  That's just how my silly mind works!

I found this recipe at this link.  There is no picture of it, so I couldn't Pin It and Lord knows I'm addicted to pinning stuff, so that's one of the reasons why I'm posting this...so I could pin my horrible pictures of it on Pinterest and I won't have to search through my millions of bookmarks to find that one about the daggum Raising Cane's sauce.  So there you go - I did the work for you.  You're welcome! 

Comeback Shane Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
ground black pepper to taste

If you're a fan of Keith Whitley (RIP) which I am a huge fan, you could call this Comeback Kid Sauce. A little Keith Whitley for your listening pleasure:

Pump Up The Volume On Your iPhone

Pump Up Volume On iPhone

I read about this neat trick on Pinterest.  I really doubted that it would work, but it did.  I was seriously contemplating one of those cute, little plug-in speakers so I'd be able to listen to music I'd downloaded on my iPhone.  I wanted to listen to the music in my vehicle, but my vehicle doesn't have the ability to hook up to your iPhone.

So after reading the deal on Pinterest about placing your iPhone in a bowl to make it louder, I decided to try it with my cup holder in my car.  It makes it, like, double times louder - no, for real, it really does.  Give it a try.

Burlap Wreath

I got the basic idea of how to do this off of guess what? Pinterest of course! I took a wire hanger, opened it up. Got two different colors of burlap that I've had for probably close to 15 years and started cutting that into strips. That stuff is messy and leaves little strands everywhere so be ready for that before you start cutting. I'd say that I had about a yard of each color of burlap - so about two yards of burlap total.

I cut strips that were about 3 inches wide (more or less) and about 12 inches long or maybe a little longer. It really doesn't matter.

Take a strip of the burlap and start kind of threading it by placing the wire hanger through it.

It's almost like you were skewering meat to put on the grill.

I poked the clothes hanger through about every inch and a half or so.

Alternate the colors of burlap if you like.

Squish it all together then twist the coat hanger closed.

Then tie a pretty bow. I think my mother bought the ribbon I used from a flea market in Mena, Arkansas - beautiful place that Mena, Arkansas - Mena will always have a special place in my heart.

Hang that gorgeous wreath on your front door and call it good!!

Pin It

DIY Ghost Shirt - They're Boo-tiful

I thought I'd post this even though Halloween is over. These are super cute and so easy to make. I made one for my 6-year-old and one for my 2-year-old. I saw these on, of all places, Pinterest. Can you believe it? LOL.

The idea came from Sugar Bee Crafts. She made a pillowcase dress. I modified her idea a little by using a t-shirt that I bought at Hobby Lobby when they were on sale. I used the craft black felt that you buy in squares from Walmart, and I bought a half a yard of material from Joann's. I would have bought that super cute zebra print fabric but they were out! So I got this material that I think is just as cute.

I made a ruffle for my oldest daughter's ghost shirt, which she loved. I did the ruffle one first and it was a little difficult for me, so when it came time for me to make my youngest daughter's shirt, I made hers with just a plain band around the bottom. I actually think the plain band is a little cuter.

Whatcha think?

Halloween Wreath

All credit is due to Sassy Sanctuary and to Pinterest, which I have a small obsession with!! What did I ever do with my time before Pinterest??

What you'll need:
Wire wreath form
2 Yards of fabric in 4 different styles - so 1/2 yard a piece
Wooden letters that spell out BOO or EEK or SPOOKY or whatever you want
Paint to paint the letters
Ribbon to hang the wreath from

First you need four different styles of material - or you can do five or six - whatever you want. Cut them into about 1 inch strips about 6 inches long. Cutting the material is not the fun part if you're antiquated like me and don't own a rotary cutter. I now have rotary cutter on my "things I would like to buy when I have the money" list.









Those pictures up there are in no particular order - I was just trying to show what all you needed. The 5-year-old in that last picture up there is helpful too. She painted the letters for me and did a lot of the tying!

Take your pieces of material and begin tying them around the wire wreath and double knot them so they don't fall off some day. I started with the middle ring and worked my way out. This is what we came up with:


Pin It


Pretty dang cute, huh? I love you Pinterest!!

(For better pictures and clearer instructions, head over to Sassy Sanctuary.)