Pin #14 Haircuts at Home

Inspiration Pin

My husband convinced me to start cutting his hair a year or two ago. I've gotten more confident with each haircut, but my husband's hair is curly and pretty forgiving if my snips are quite even. Our son J has stick straight hair that shows every bad cut and uneven spot. I tried to cut his hair a few times when he was little, but gave up because it always looked patchy. Well, I found a couple of really good haircut tutorials on Pinterest and decided to give J's hair another shot. Plus his hair had gotten so crazy shaggy that it had to be done.

Here he is pre-haircut...

 He is normally a happy child but was doing his serious Storm Trooper face

So I finished his hair right before bed and forgot to take a picture.  Well lucky for me, he decided the next morning that I hadn't cut enough off and took matters into his own hands. Here's how that turned out:

He couldn't have cut that part any closer to his hair line! It was not easy to fix. In fact, I made a pretty big error right a way and tried to even out that front part. I came to my senses though and finished up the rest of his hair with clippers. I had to use a 1/4" on the back and 5/8" on the top. Poor guy looks like a totally different kid now to me now.  Hopefully he has learned his lesson, and I know I definitely learned mine and will keep the scissors up high.

 

Pin #13 Alaska Print

Inspiration Pin

I saw this idea on a blog once and then could never find it again. Lucky for me, someone pinned it and I was finally able to make one for myself. Marci over at the Vintage Lemon has created one of these files for every state and has made it really easy download. The cool part is that she also has a heart file as well, so you can customize your state with a heart over the place you love. I printed this one on my home printer but am planning to get it printed in better quality at some point. With a frame from the dollar store, it is a cute and inexpensive art for our home that means something too. Now I just need to make a few more for the other places we have lived and loved.

Pin #12 Snickerdoodle Muffins

Inspiration Pin

from Melissa Bakes who got the recipe from Tasty Kitchen

These muffins are insane. They really do look like a pan full of snickerdoodle cookies when you pull them out of the oven. When I saw the pin, I knew I had to try them. I decided to make them out of the blue today and had to improvise a bit with the ingredients. The recipe called for unsalted butter and buttermilk, neither of which I had, but I just used salted butter and omitted the salt from the recipe. Then I did the whole milk and vinegar trick to make some sour milk. It worked out fine. They were delicous! Oh, and the best part is that you roll the batter in cinnamon and sugar before putting it into the muffin tins. It got a little messy but that is how they end up looking like a snickerdoodle cookie on top. Yum!

Our Results:

Click here for the recipe.

Pin #11 Biscuit Donuts

Inspiration Pin

from the Sweets section on Serious Eats

I am a little bit afraid of yeast. I have tried a few yeasty recipes but I am always nervous that they won't rise or that they'll sink. I think I need to do some yeast research so I won't be so nervous to bake with it. Anyway, I have always wanted to make donuts from scratch but decided that I wasn't up to the yeast battle this morning. I have seen a few variations of this recipe on Pinterest and so wanted to see how they tasted. I mean, in the end it is fried dough and so it is bound to taste good, but I don't always love the canned biscuit flavor. 

Here's how they turned out:  

They were a huge hit with the family. I wasn't 100% sold. I could still taste the biscuity flavor underneath. I think I will just have to buck up and try a homemade donut recipe. Once I figure yeast a little better, I want to try dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, beignets, and some homemade bread. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Pin #10 Hair Cut

Inspiration Pin

from Hairstyles Haircuts

I can't remember how long it's been since the last time that I got my hair cut. I think it has been almost a year and I went to a friend who cuts hair in her kitchen. Needless to say, it was about time that I get my hair trimmed at least. I was wearing my hair in a pony tail almost every day and decided that I needed to go short enough that I wouldn't be able to pull it back.  I saw this hairstyle 3 weeks ago on Pinterest and wanted it. The color is a little too wild, but the length and bans are perfect. On Saturday, my sister came up to visit and I finally made it to the hair salon. Here are the results:

Before

After

The bangs are a little funny in the after picture, but have settled down a bit since yesterday.  I really like the length. It will force me out of my pony-tail rut and motivate me to get ready in the morning. 

Pin #9 Galaxy Playdough

Inspiration Pin 

from Fairy Dust Teaching

Our Version

So even though our version is not quite as glittery or as dark, I think it is still a success. I was worried that if I used too much food coloring or glitter  it would come off on the kids hands when they play with it, so I didn't add very much. The recipe is great though and I'm planning on making it again as a gift. The play dough has a wonderful consistency and isn't too sticky. A and J love to play with it and right now it is my go-to activity when I'm cooking and need them out of my hair.

Pin #8 Cloud Jello

Inspiration Pin

Ours:

Not so sure about this....

Okay, I'll try it...

Oh! I like it!

 Ok. So my version wasn't quite as pretty as the original picture. Dropping cool whip into glasses must not be my talent. It kept smearing down the side. Oh well, it tasted yummy. J wasn't so sure when I asked him to try it out. Lucky for him, it is next to impossible to mess up a two ingredient dessert like jello and cool whip.  

On a side note, the pin on Pinterest does not lead to a blog or website and I hate that! Luckily in this case, the dessert we wanted to make was pretty easy to figure out. There have been a couple times I have tried to follow a pin back to a blog or website, only to be led to a dead end. That is a Pinterest pet peeve for sure. 

Pin #7 Cadbury Mini Egg Brownies

The Original Pin

from Bake it in a Cake

My Attempt:

 I was so excited about this recipe. Mini Eggs are my favorite Easter candy, and to mix them with brownies sounds like heaven on earth. I saw this pin and went out looking for Cadbury Mini Eggs the next day. It took me a week to find them, but yesterday my grocery store started putting out the Easter candy. I wasn't planning on making them today. I was supposed to make a chocolate cheesecake for my husband for his Valentine's present. This cheesecake is a labor of love and takes most of the day to cook, cool, and make the topping. Well,  I forgot to start the cheesecake until half way through the day and when I realized that I forgot, I couldn't find the recipe. Of course, it's not the type of recipe you can find online either. So, I decided to try these brownies in the hope that I could salvage my otherwise failed Valentine's Day present. The brownies looked great going in the oven, but I can honestly say that I wasn't that impressed when I tasted them. I was expecting the eggs to be a melted gooey mess inside the brownie, but they weren't. I think I will eat my mini eggs uncooked from now on and use chocolate chips the next time I want gooey brownies. What a Valentine's bummer.

Pin #6 Writing Practice

Inspiration Pin 

 from Play at Home Mom LLC

 My Attempt:

I think this one should be classified as a Pinterest Fail. It's a great idea and seemed easy enough; you just put hair gel in a bag with some food coloring, and the kids will love to practice their letters with it. For some reason, I thought some glitter would make it more fun. Well, the glitter also makes it next to impossible to see what they have written. I also should have used a bigger Ziploc. Good thing I found the gel at the dollar store and can try this one again. And yes, that is my child dressed as Darth Vadar in the middle of February. He slept in that costume the night before too. Don't judge.

Pin #5 Preschool Packs

The Original Pin 

from Home School Creations

Our Version

I've been doing a preschool swap with a friend, and we both look to Pinterest for ideas when it is our turn for teaching. One of my favorite finds is the awesome preschool packs made by Home School Creations.  She has over thirty different packs that are free to download. You can't beat that! I printed out two packs for each kid. I bought a cheap three ring binder and put in page protectors so that they can write and draw with washable markers. They love practicing in their work books. Little A chose a preschool pack on princesses and one on cute bugs. J went for Star Wars and Peter Pan packs. Thank goodness for crafty people who want to share.

Pin #4 Glow Stick Bathtime

Inspiration Pin

Our version

 I don't have trouble getting my kids into the tub. They are always pretty excited to take a bath.  I do have to be careful that they don't get too bored in there, otherwise they start getting crazy and throwing water around.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to spice up their evening bath time with some glow sticks. It blew their little minds. The best part is that all that fun only cost me $1 dollar.  My picture is definitely not as good. Mental note: glow sticks don't glow well with bubbles and that scary looking dark shadow in the water is a wash cloth.

Pin #3 Messenger Bag

Inspiration Pin

from Obsessive Crafting Disorder

My Version

I sew a little, but not that well. In fact, after tackling this project, I think I might need to take some classes.  My amazing sisters-in-law are both really good at sewing and both have made their own purses and bags. I really wanted to make my self a messenger bag and saw this awesome tutorial on Pinterest. The pictures were great and the instructions were easy to understand. Here's were my lack of sewing skills came into play. I made the seams a little small, which might be okay with the felt fabric used in the tutorial, but it was epically bad with the easily frayed canvas material I chose. Next time I am going to try and copy the fabric as well as the instructions. So there are some spots on my bag where the fabric has frayed a bit, but at this point, I am calling it a sewing victory anyway. Once I fix my machine, I think I will try a purse.

Pin #2 Abandoned and Beautiful

Inspiration Pin

I've always loved old buildings, but lately I have had a Pinterest obsession with the crumbling and abandoned ones. When I look at these pictures it is like taking a little step back in time. I want to know who lived there, what their life was like, and why they left. I want to know why this sad house is waiting for someone to come back. The history and the architecture are the parts that interest me. The problem is that you can't always get that good background information on all the pictures. I just read a really great article about North Brother Island in New York. It has some incredible pictures of this mysterious island near NYC that was a leper colony and quarantine area. I'd seriously love to go and take pictures at a place like this, but you wouldn't catch me dead there after dark. I watched too many episodes of that Fear show on MTV where people stay in old hospitals and asylums at night and leave screaming. I'd pay money to go there during the day though. Too bad it is all closed off. Most of these awesome old buildings are off limits and a little dangerous. Luckily there are adventurous photographers who sneak in and then post pictures, hence the hours on Pinterest looking at their photos.

I have been obsessed with this old and abandoned stuff for as long as I can remember. I took this picture of a boat for my photography class in high school. I don't think my teacher was very impressed, but I held on to it anyway. I love how it was leaning on that old post like it just needed a good rest.