Pins to Projects: Pancake Muffins

I found THIS pin on Pinterest via one of my friends. It didn't link to any instructions and the ones they had in the pin were a little confusing, so I made them work for me.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix together 1c Bisquick complete, 2/3c cold water,  and 1/2c maple syrup. Spoon into a greased regular muffin tin to 3/4 full. Sprinkle your topping of choice on the muffins. I used Craisins and pecans. I made one with Cheerios for my 3.5-year old. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. It made 7. I stuck the 2 remaining ones in the freezer so I could see how well they freeze.

They turned out pretty well. L really liked his Cheerio one once I finally talked him into eating. It was a rough morning.

Pins to Projects: Flower Cookies

Yes, a second blog post from me today. I promised Squirty that I would make cookies. He was supposed to help me, but then he went and did this:

So I did some cookies using the basic idea found HERE.

I just used bagged sugar cookie mix. I have my own awesome recipe, but this was easier with L since what I wanted to do was decorate them.

First I rolled the dough into small balls and then I rolled the balls in colored sugar.

Next, I cut each one down into petals, so they looked like this

The original site left them like this and put a piece of candy in the middle. I didn't do that. I flipped them over so the sugar side was up.

Baked them for 9 minutes, per the instructions

Voila! Flower cookies ready for spring!

Made Squirty rather happy with his pre-soccer snack. Pardon his crazy nap hair.

Will it work? Pins to Projects: Jewelry Cleaner Recipe

My wedding ring always seems to be filthy. I'm constantly scrubbing it with a toothbrush to clean the diamond. My childhood friend Rachel pinned THIS recipe for jewelry cleaner, so I decided I would try it.

Here are my rings before. There is lots of build-up on the prongs and the area where the two overlap.

To clean the jewelry, you put a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of a bowl. Then you heat up one cup of water for 1-2 minutes. Pour that in the bowl. Add 1T each of baking soda, salt and dish soap. Add your jewelry for 5-10 minutes (I went with 10)

Remove your jewelry. Rinse with cool water. Dry with a cloth.

It got most of the junk of the gold, but my diamond is still pretty cloudy. I'd say that it does work, but only on metal, not gemstones. I wouldn't try it with a soft item like an opal or a pearl.

Pins to Projects: Fun with baking soda

Since Milk Dud was sick last week, I had to come up with something fun for his big brother to do. Last week, I had pinned THIS project with baking soda and vinegar/water/food coloring. It's from Amber who write the awesome Binkertation blog and has inspired me to actually do some of the projects I pinned.

So all you need is a large dish, some baking soda, white vinegar, water, food coloring, an eye dropper and a mug or two to hold the food coloring/white vinegar/water combo.

So, nothing much to say. L had a lot of fun doing this.

He talked about doing it for days! We will do it again after we dye Easter Eggs this week. I will just add a little more vinegar to the dye.

Pins to Projects: Hair style

So, one of my friends pinned this cute hairstyle. The link to it can be found here: http://imgfave.com/view/2115937

I'm planning on chopping my hair this Friday, so I wanted to try it before I do that. The braids didn't work for me, so I just pinned 3 knots at the back of my head. It held through a 2-mile run and a core strengthening class at the gym.

Here was mine:

What is funny is that one of the trainers at my gym saw the hair style and decided to do hers that way, too.

Pins to projects -- Cookies!

So, we had an awesome MNI last night for BaltimoreMommies.com. It was a recipe throwdown and I was trying to think of something fun to bring.

I pinned this recipe from my cousin's wife's cooking blog

http://shaunasever.com/2009/12/in-for-it.html

They are chocolate peanut butter crumble bars.

Here is a picture of mine... Not as pretty as hers, but still pretty tasty.

I cut them smaller than she did and should have let them rest longer, but I didn't have time. Oh well...

Pins to projects -- FAIL!

So, one of my friends pinned these awesome looking "Dried in the Oven Strawberries." My kids love strawberries, so I figured I'd try it.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/dried-strawberries-ruscalleda/

Mine didn't turn out ANYTHING like that.

Those pitiful looking ones are mine.

Here are the blogger's

Can you say "Big Fat Failure?"

Oh well... I get to audition for Jeopardy in April, so I'm still happy :)