Pintastic Month!

It has been about 6 pintastically busy weeks since my last post.  I have been trying all sorts of things on pinterest to make my holiday extra special, less work and more organized.  I kept track with some pictures, but I have not taken the time to post anything so here is an extra large post with all the things I have tried lately!

Let's start with the disappointments and fails, yes there have been some absolute fails :( 

1.  Homemade mod podge - I deleted this pin because it was a disappointment.  This is the link to the blog I pinned originally.  I guess it worked, but it was too wet for my paper project and the finish is very dull.  Not worth the money saved because my project didn't turn out how I would have liked.  Just bring in your 50% off coupon to Micheal's and get the real thing, so worth the extra $ spent.  I do have another pin for a different solution to try, I'll let you know how it turns out!

2. Breakfast Casserole in the Crock Pot - Fail!!  Everything cooked and the flavour was edible, but the texture of the eggs made the whole meal unpleasant.  My family ate a serving to appease me, but it was pretty much a complete fail!! If I post a picture it would gross you out, it looked like vomit.

3. Slow Cooker Apple Cinammon Oatmeal - Disappointing fail.  The oatmeal was burnt all over the bottom and sides.  I made my note on the pin to try again, but I haven't yet.  I would add salt, put the apples on top and not add the sugar until the morning when you want to serve it to avoid the burning.

Now on to some happier news!  I also some great success with some pins.  I think one of my families favourites was calzones.  It worked great!!  My finished product is a little flat, that is what happens when you cut bread when it is too hot.  The leftovers were awesome in lunch-boxes the next day too!

Another awesome activity that worked pintastically was paper snowflakes!  The whole family had so much fun cutting up our very own "snowstorm"!  I hung them up on clear beading string in the front window with some sparkly ornaments for a fun Christmas display.

The biggest success, or at least the one I am most proud of was sewing a circle skirt for my teenage daughter.  She needed a character skirt for ballet, it needed to be black with three ribbons on the bottom (that was the hardest part).

Not only did she love it,  the other girls loved it too because we were not limited to the one colour of ribbons available in the dance wear stores which at the moment are not very bright or varied. Yeah!!

I made the Christ Book, but we never could remember to do a page every night.  I did buy an advent calendar and used this pin for ideas of activities to put inside each door.  This the kids remembered to check every morning for the chocolate behind each door.  It was a great success, even my 15 year old wanted to participate and know what the "advent" was for that day.  We did pretty good at doing everything something I will continue to do each year I think.

Well I think that should do it for now, Happy New Year and I wish you all success in accomplishing your goals for 2013!

Pintastic News

Are you as excited about the "secret" boards as I am!?!  I was just trying to figure out the other week how I could make a board for my eyes only.  I am using mine for party favours or ideas for gifts that I want to keep to myself so as to not ruin the surprise!  I think some people my use it for shady things, but hey if those images are kept secret away from my eyes I am all for that as well.

I tried another pin off my "beauty" board this week.  It worked pretty well, if you would like a more textured look I would suggest curling the hair first.  I French braided the first third to incorporate her layered bangs.  The three sections are just braided then secured with an elastic at the bottom of each braid only, not a secured ponytail then braided.  Be sure to be careful to hide the elastics, I missed one.  We were both happy with how it turned out, it never took a lot of time or patience which means its a good choice for early morning week days or getting to church on time!!

Well Halloween is done and its time to clean up, but I have some pins that I used from last week that I wanted to share before I get it all packed away!!  I have a board I call "beauty" where I pin things like hair and nail ideas, not for me, but for my teenage daughters.  My 15 year old decided to wear the same pumpkin costume from when she was 2 and curl her hair and spray it green for her "pumpkin vines".  This pin looked like a promising way to get curls so she decided to try it!

It really worked.  The curls were super cute and way better than a curling iron.  It was quick and easy too, she did it herself before early morning seminary at that!!
















I also made a monster door that I had pinned for Halloween decorations.  It was cute, although I am embarrassed that I have old tape residue still on my door from the previous owner.  Cleaning it is now on my pintastic-to-do list!!

The last thing I did from Pinterest last week was a delicious Cheesy Potato Casserole recipe.  I don't think you can buy Velveeta Cheese any more, at least not where I shop so I just used more cheddar, I like "old" it has great flavour.  I substituted some ham that I had frozen from earlier in the month and it was soooo yummy. It was sodelicious I couldn't wait for lunch the next day for leftovers!!

Getting organized for a Pintastic Christmas

Here in Alberta, Thanksgiving is over and the first snowfall of the year is resting on pine boughs all around town making it feel a lot like Christmas.  My teenage daughter was humming Christmas carols and asked if we could make some Christmas cookies.  I thought it was a great idea and I knew just the recipe I was anxious to try.  SnickerSnaps or GingerDoodles.  I vote SnickerSnaps, I just love the way it sounds, fun and silly!

I only followed the instructions for mixing them together and baking.  I used the snickerdoodle recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book  , (which isn't really new because I got it 16 years ago) and I have my own Gingersnap recipe that I love and have adjusted to my liking.
       I found it kind of hard to mash the two together without the sugar coating disappearing, it takes a gentle touch and a little patience and time.  They turned out alright, but I wasn't crazy about the flavour combination.  They look kind of interesting, but they didn't make the list for this years Christmas baking.

The other thing I got started on was using a Christmas Organizer.  I was a little behind because this one starts in the beginning of October.  I thought it would still work out, so I just highlighted the things that I wanted to do, grabbed an empty notebook and got to work.  I love it, I can't believe I have never done this before, what a concept to think about everything you want to include in a family tradition Christmas and budget and plan for it!  It took less than 10 minutes to print and cut out the organizer using a papertrimmer and corner rounder punch.

I got to work and made my gift and card lists, looked for ideas on Pinterest on what homemade goodies, crafts and gifts I would like to put together this year, froze some cookie dough with baking instructions on the bag so I wouldn't have to look it up later and made some cards.  You better go get started, it feels great to be thinking about Christmas again.

I have been spending so much time gathering and organizing pins on Pinterest that I decided it was time to start incorporating some of these fantastic ideas.  You can follow me I decided to pick one or two pins to do each week.  Sometimes it might be a new recipe or scrapbook layout others will be crafting projects or organization ideas.  I am having so much fun doing these I wanted a way to share my success with others so I created this blog.

Both projects I did this week are pins from my Halloween board.  The first is a quick, simple yet sweet, ruffle pumpkin from cleanandscentsible.blogspot.ca .  You will find a great photo and instructions there.  I changed only the size and added tendrils  because my teenage daughter pointed out that pumpkins had vines and mine were missing so it looked more like an apple and who doesn't love little curlies!  I used a 5" ball and 3.5" circles.  If you do the bigger size you will need 10-11 sheets of felt.

For the second project I took my inspiration from something I had seen before on the internet and in magazines.  You can find an example here.  I made mine a plaque rather than blocks only because that is what I had lying around.  I just chose the colours I wanted, or had on hand, cut my letters using my Cricut then inked the edges.  You can add as many or little embellishments as suits your style.  Once each panel was how I wanted it I covered the whole thing with Mod Podge, first the board then over top the whole project.