Pinterest and Parties

Oh Hai! Long time no speak. Why? Because I have been crazy busy with an almost toddler, a baptism party and planning Emma's first birthday. Things have been just a smidge crazy in our house, and I have been going in circles in my head making lists and trying to figure out everything that needs to happen for the birthday.

The expectation that Pinterest has put on us mothers to create cute and adorable and handcrafted parties has made me a crazy woman once again. Why did I even go online and look up inspiration photos for this party? I put together lots of items in my board and thinking to myself that I got off easy because I picked an easy theme. HA HA HA ha. (insert sarcastic laughter) I my head doing a 4th of July inspired BBQ was easy. But now with all of my "inspiration" I am feeling the stress. I think I say this with EVERY party I do. Why why why do I do this to myself? After a couple of crafting weekends under my belt, invitations out and decisions made I am feeling better and we will hopefully be able to enjoy this upcoming weekend as a early birthday celebration for me and the hubbies first Father's Day.

What's a post without a couple of craft updates (Pinterest inspiration), and a Pinterest fail!

The hubby and I painted this wooden pallet as a flag inspiration. It was a fun project that we did together, and it can be used as decor on our porch, when we have one.

Again, I saw this inspiration on Pinterest and had to do it because it was so cute. They are firecrackers made out of pool noodles and some wire decor. They were hung from the ceiling in the pin, but our location has vaulted ceilings and I cannot do that, so they are going to be table center pieces.

There's no first birthday without a highchair banner. I took inspiration from two separate pins and blended them together. Excuse the blurry image of Emma, but I LOVE this thing! It was so fun to make. I also made some "sacks" for sack races. Hopefully I can come back and do another post with all the fun things I am planning.

I promised a Pinterest fail didn't I? Well, in all my glory of ideas I plan on making Emma's smash cake. I have some cake decorating tools so I thought that I would practice. Here's my inspiration:

Source

Seems simple enough. I emptied a couple of large cans of chicken and baked my cakes to have a small little three tiered cake. I then died my frosting using liquid food coloring....mistake one, it wasn't even red or blue. Then I used my horrible tool and started frosting.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

I kept trying and it wasn't working so I eventually just ended up with this:

I was so frustrated that I had a mini meltdown and cried in my hubbies lap. I eventually calmed down and once at work asked a coworker if she had better decorating tools. She brought me an arsenal and I practiced my roses on a plate.

Much better. I feel a little more confident that I can pull off the cake now. All I need is some gel food coloring. Pray that I don't die of frustration before the party! Happy Monday!

Desserts and Cleaning go together right? - Pinterest Review

So I tried a couple of things this past week that were all the rage on Pinterest within the past couple of months. I figured I would do a little review post instead of a separate post for each item.

Banana Ice Cream
D had a hankering for dessert but neither of us wanted to go out and get something. So I took to my dessert board and remembered this recipe from Use Real Butter. We already had frozen banana's, peanut butter, but we didn't have cocoa powder. I could have cheated and used Hot Chocolate mix, but I thought it was weird. So I substituted it with chocolate chips and some frozen strawberries. I don't have a food processor so it was a slow go dessert with the not so good blender. Once done it was a little runny so I popped it in the freezer to solidify it a bit.
Verdict: D liked it, I was kind of eh about it. I think it needed the cocoa powder cause there was just too much banana taste for my liking.

Source

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes
I made these for my father-in-laws birthday this past Sunday. Everyone is a brownie and Oreo fan (I am meh about Ores, but if I need a chocolate fix they work.) If you want to head on over to Instructables to find the recipe. These are fairly easy to make and bake. I bought 2 packs of Oreo's not realizing that there are more than 24 cookies in the package, and some extra peanut butter. (we can always use peanut butter in my house) I considered making the brownies low fat, but who are we kidding here. We are slathering Oreos (chocolate cookie with LARD) with peanut butter and baking them in more chocolate and lard (vegetable oil)! This calls for full force brownie.

Verdict: 3 ingredients, and 30 minutes. Super easy to make! Really all you need is a cupcake pan. I did use liners in my cupcake pan, but you don't have to. Taste....I was skeptical about them, because of the oreo, but they were really tasty. Maybe a little rich, but none-the-less yummy!

Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution
Ok the recipe for this is from One Good Thing by Jillee. There were a couple of oopsies that I did. I did not have any powder dish washing detergent. I only had the tabs. So I substituted with extra borax. Then I assumed (because every other washing machine that I have used does this) that leaving the lid open on my machine would turn it off so that the solution could soak into my comforter. Well, as I am cleaning my bathroom I hear it start to drain! Gah! So I close the lid and just let the cycle finish.
Verdict: It did a really good job cleaning it. I can only imagine how it would look it would have soaked! Next time I will try again and soak it!

There you go. Some good reviews and some iffy reviews. Have you tried anything on Pinterest