Finals Zombie

Hello all, it's that time of year.I have become a finals zombie.

It's pre-dead week here and I already feel dead haha I haven't posted anything since last week, and I will be hard pressed to post this week too, but I will see what I can do. I also haven't done any creative-ness to share, unless you count 5 10+ page papers as creating?? Although I am sure you don't want to read 15+ pages about Gender Ideologies in Sports lol

I assure you though, Marquette and Rachel are still here and I will be back soon! Thanks for being patient and just so you all know we only have to do this for one more semester! Yay!

Thanks for being understanding and I will see you all soon!

 



No-Go Gummy Glasses

I've seen people pin vodka infused gummy bears on Pinterest. I've seen skittle flavored vodka pinned on Pinterest. I've even seen, and made, ice shot glasses (I don't drink, but I thought that one was well worth a try for lemonade during the summer). Today's submission from Donna was a new one I hadn't ever seen before. Gummy shot glasses. 

The Original Pin

http://www.studentbeans.com/student-money/a/make-edible-gummy-shot-glasses1905.html

Donna said, "I'm known for making drunken gummy bears for parties.. so I thought I'd go to the next step and make gummy shot glasses! Do a few shots, and eat up the evidence!"
As everything she read suggested using one color of gummies for each shot glass, she decided to make them all the same and bought a large bag of raspberry flavored gummy lobsters (also something else I've never seen, lol). 

Everything seemed to go fine with melting them down, filling the silicone molds, and freezing them.

It looked like it was going to be a win. Then she tried to get the gummy glasses out of the molds. It was a no go! So she decided to leave then out all day to thaw and then enlist her children's help.

She said, "After school, it took my teenager's help to free these from the mold! Pulling and rolling the mold and yelling. Two people! We got the first one out by rolling it out."

The Pinstrosity

"We got the second one almost free when it accidently touched itself and fused! Oops. Third one came out looking something like a gummi shot glass (we dusted the inside with corn starch as we pried it out. Fourth one, in spite of corn starch, fused."

"So now we have one clean looking gummy, two fused blobs and one sort of shot glass thing that will stick to your hand if you touch it. You could coat it in corn starch, but that's kinda gross to then pour a shot
into. And they are super thick! The two least repulsive looking ones were consumed.. sort of. The kids got tired of trying to eat it before they got halfway through. Let me repeat that: the gummy shot glass tired them out trying to eat it."

Donna declares it a "Pin Fail. GCT 4 - The children threw out the gummy material, and the other children passed on the taste test all together. Even if they just popped happily out of the mold, imagine eating a giant fused mass of gummy....". Blech. 

I think I'll just stick to my over-sized bag of gummy bears. Is there anyone else who bites off the heads and then swaps the heads and bodies so you have multi-colored bears? I guess I should ask, is there anyone over the age of 20 who still does that too, lol? Yeah? Oh good. Anyone ever put a gummy bear head on a gummy worm body? It's hilarious. Or I'm just simple. Or both. 

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

Sunday Surprise: Weekly dose of awesome

Yo yo yiggity yo!

Happy Sunday y'all! It's that time of the week again! This week I had no good excuse not to be creative, but alas, it just didn't happen. I went out a bit, enjoyed one of Rob's gigs, and am re-starting the spring cleaning that was supposed to be DONE by now (can you have cleaning relapses? Because we have had a huge one).

Anywho... you know sometimes I'm good for a positive post, and so here are the goodies that I came up with for this week. I already am working on ideas for the next two (two! can you believe it?!) weeks of Sunday Surprise. So, get ready. I'm pumped.

But, for today's Sunday Surprise, I wanted to focus on encouraging you to continue being awesome, if for no other reason than sometimes people need to be reminded that they're awesome. You are!

The most obvious:

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e9/75/3f/e9753f0a33b9c1fbd26e9f8004679f5d.jpg

Be you:

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fa/91/ac/fa91acc94ba96b7a35d828a500f662e1.jpg

Don't blame yourself when you don't need to:

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ab/dc/e5/abdce5b6f5ba89cb68eeded3b9896c17.jpg

This sounds kind of rude, but, I actually take it as a vote of confidence. You there, reading this, you're smart, able, and awesome: go kick some butt today!

Along the same lines...

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/7e/7d/7a/7e7d7ab77e59e7f35739f2210a6a9a0f.jpg

I love people who are imperfect, which is fortunate, since we all are. Remember, imperfect is not bad, it's GREAT!

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/1b/2f/e4/1b2fe4aa84339bd81d6eceac76212baf.jpg

But, for anyone who doesn't appreciate your imperfections, you can just tell them...

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/13/2f/2b/132f2b2effd4b16c384cf77ae7e608c8.jpg

Remember, there are no coincidences.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/23/e4/e0/23e4e0e55d404e773dd7dd856b18921c.jpg

And... last, but not least (and in the spirit of Marquette's fabulous hat for Emilee), I'd like to to say this to all of you:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/114884374/you-get-a-flippin-sweet-unicorn-funny?ref=shop_home_active_19

Thank you for being awesome! I know that I'm still fairly new to the Pinstrosity project, but I have received nothing but warmth and good feelings from you.

Stay awesome, dear readers!
xoxox
Rachel

PS: Despite this being completely unrelated to my post, I found this on Pinterest, and it has become Rob and I's new, awesome, FAVORITE thing. We are going to put it in the house somewhere, but we haven't decided if we should do it on canvas/wood/in a frame/on fabric. But, anyway, here is the saying:

http://thecanadianchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/not-my-monkeys/

Leaking Zombie Fail Cake

Man, there's nothing like excitedly opening Pinstrosity to see what new post a fellow Pinstrositeer put up only to realize that it's your day to post. *facepalm* Funny thing, I was scrolling Pinterest before this. Pinterest: 1, Marquette: 0. Does that make this post a Pinstrosity? Well, if it does than you get a double Pinstrosity. To make up for the lateness and my spaciness, I have a great one for you! This is a submission from Christine that we received before Easter.

Hi!  My name is Christine, I'm 22, and I have a ridiculous addiction to Pinterest.  Since Easter is coming up I have been all over the Food & Drink section looking for something I can bake and put in my family's Easter baskets.  I was so happy when I found a recipe for Lemon Blueberry Bread. 

The Original Pin

http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/05/lemon-blueberry-bread.html

It looked amazing in the pictures and I recognized all the ingredients in the recipe so of course I had to try it out.  So a few days ago while I was at the store I picked up lemons, blueberries (frozen- because it said I could), and yogurt- I had everything else at home, which for a recipe found on Pinterest is pretty impressive for me.

Everything started out great, the ingredients for the bread were straight forward and the batter tasted really good.  There were a few minor hiccups though.  First the instructions said to use a 9X5" loaf pan and I had a disposable one a little smaller than that.  I didn't think too much of it, I just put the extra batter into muffin cups instead.  Then the recipe says to grease the bottom and sides of the pan then dust with flour, well I greased but forgot to flour dust the pan.  To be perfectly honest I have probably only done that twice when baking so I really didn't see that as a huge setback.  I followed the recipe exactly except for the size of the loaf pan and the flour dusting so I was 100% sure this was going to be my Pin Win and that I was going to impress my family, friends, and all of Facebook with this beautiful and delicious bread.

After baking for 55 minutes (maybe an hour...sometimes I forget to set the timer right away) I tested it with a knife and it came out clean.  Now, I know you're supposed to use a toothpick but I don't have any so I just test everything with a really thin knife and it's worked for me so far.  Anyway, I let the bread cool in the pan for the designated ten minutes and after that things got messy.  When trying to remove the bread from the pan about a quarter of it decided to stick to the bottom...alright, no biggie I decided to just plop the bread back in the pan and skip the cooling on a wire rack part.  I think I figured that by some magic the part that had stuck to the pan would decide to get back together with the rest of the bread and all would be well.  Since I don't have toothpicks I just used a kitchen thermometer to poke holes in the bread and then proceeded to brush the loaf with the lemon syrup.  Let me tell you, there was a LOT of lemon syrup, even divvied up between the bread and the muffins it got to the point where my boyfriend looked at me with raised eyebrows and a look of slight terror at the amount of time I'd spent brushing this sauce on the bread and said "I think that's enough.”

I took his advice and not all of the syrup got used up but I figured it was good enough at that point, there was a lot of syrup!  The lemon glaze went off without a hitch and I let the bread sit overnight so that the glaze would harden.  

Now, I have absolutely no idea how this person managed to get these blueberries spread out and have the bread look yellow and beautiful and perfect. My bread had this purple/red color to it, all the blueberries had sunk to the bottom, oh and it leaked!

The Pinstrosity

I think it tasted somewhere along the lines of what I imagine lemon Pledge would taste like, it was tart to the point in made my mount pucker and there was no blueberry flavor. I don't know what happened. Like I said, the batter tasted pretty good, but it turned into this mushy mess. The bread was still in the loaf pan and I couldn't get it out so to get this picture, I cut the loaf pan apart and smush/slid this thing onto the baking sheet (it wasn't plate worthy) then I cut a slice and it fell apart. This is definitely nothing like the beautiful picture Pinterest shows. I don't know where I went wrong but this picture comparison is too funny not to share. I posted it on Facebook and someone said, "It looks like one of those 'Nailed it!' pictures of pin fails." I also go that it looked like a zombie cake. So there it is, the beautiful Lemon Blueberry Bread turned Leaking Zombie Fail Cake.

Lousy DIY Lava Lamp

Hello all!!
There isn't much else in this world I love more than a lava lamp.
I feel like maybe I say, "There isn't much else in this world I love more than...(insert basically anything in here)." a lot.

It's true, I am a lover of things.
When I like something, I don't just like it, I love it with every fiber of my being. It's a blessing and a curse. Chip hears "This is my favorite thing in the whole entire world!!" like 808 times a day.
 I am totally not exaggerating...

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/11/77/3d/11773d44311960e6b2752d82b09f55a6.jpg

Anyway, Lava Lamps.
Love 'em.
Today we have a pin from Rebecca about a DIY science experiment Lava Lamp! Check it out!

The Original

http://www.birdandlittlebird.com/blog/2012/05/kitchen-table-science-lava-lamps-.html

Psychedelic man.

The Pinstrosity

This kind of looks like my breakfast smoothie...anyone hungry??

Rebecca followed the directions that she got here, and now she will tell us all about her experience:

"So...my boys (4 and 2) and I tried this with:

* An empty, clean peanut butter jar

* Bertolli extra-virgin olive oil (maybe mistake #1: too dark?)

* Two colors of food coloring (mistake #2: they mixed and created purple/brown?)

* And two unbroken, generic denture-cleansing tablets

We filled the jar about 2/3 full of olive oil, then I added drops of green, then blue. They were staying separate and floating down and it was cool to watch! They settled at the bottom, I pumped my kids up to watch, and then I added the denture-cleansing tablets, one followed about 30 seconds later by the other. They did make some small bubbles go throughout the oil and foam at the top, but it was getting increasingly harder to see. The kids thought it was kind of neat. I was sure that once the bubbles stopped and I put the lid on that it would get cooler as we turned the jar over and back a few times. Well, it just got worse, and the picture is the result. Oh well--the kids thought it was neat to watch (probably seeing it turn from dark yellow to nasty puke green), and I didn't lose much in the way of materials or time. Next time, I'll definitely use regular cooking oil (I don't keep any on-hand) and just one color of food coloring!

Hope this helps future attempters or at least brings some chuckles to people!"

I think Rebecca hit the nail on the head as far as this projects issues and how to fix them. I think the color of the EVOO mixed with the dark food colors weren't a good combo. Regular cooking oil, and some lighter food colors would probably do the trick here.

Now I am giving a shout out to our readers...when I opened this e-mail I was thinking of a traditional lava lamp (there is nothing wring with this one, the old school lava lamp was just what came to mind first), so readers has anyone seen a pin on how to DIY an original type of lava lamp? If you have, send them our way! I would LOVE to test it out!

Happy Thursday all!



Gluten Free Super-Villain Origins

Hey there Pinstrosipeeps! I've got a Peeps Pinstrosity for you today! I don't know about you, but I like Peeps. I think they are yummy. I've seen so many creative things with Peeps on Pinterest: chocolate dipped Peeps. Peeps Pops. Peeps filled vases. Peeps cake toppers. Peeps in the microwave (that's a fun one). But I'd never seen today's Peep Pin. Behold: The Peep Massacre Cake:

The Original Pin

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/04/peepza-rustica-peeps-pizza-rustica.html

This is the Peepza Rustica cake. It takes a cake mix and chopped up Peeps. I so want to try this!

Today's submitter, Estelle, decided to make this for her Peeps loving niece for her birthday. She says, "It looked cute. It looked pretty easy. And it looked like precisely the sort of thing my Peeps-loving-birthday-celebrating niece would love. The complication was that my niece is gluten free, so I used a plain old gluten free cake recipe that I had. I used almond flour. And after 20 minutes in the oven, the cake was a boiling, quivering, almost preening mess that looked like this:"

The Pinstrosity

Estelle continues, "Most likely there was an issue with the almond flour, because this caramelized, weeping sludge was not what was intended. As I was lamenting the loss of so many innocently slaughtered Peeps, my boyfriend said, 'That's not even caramelized. That's a super villain's origin story.'"

Hehe, super villain's origin story. I like this guy. 

Adapting any recipe with gluten to one without is tricky. Some work great, other don't. It makes me think of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QbC41oQRo

I don't have any experience cooking gluten free, but I've watched friends and family members go gluten free and adapting recipes looks frustrating. To go gluten free with this recipe I'd probably buy a gluten free cake mix rather than making my own cake from scratch; too many variables in a gluten free scratch cake. That's just me being a scaredy cat though. If you're gluten-free-inexperienced or a seasoned gluten-free chef and you want to try a cake from scratch, go for it!

Now, I think I'll go find some Peeps to snack on.

Straight From the Brain Creativity! DIY Picture Stand

One of my favorite things in the whole world is being able to create something out of your very own brain.

 Now, this thing may exist in some other place, but if you have never seen it, or heard of it, and this idea just came to you, then you and that other shiny human being on the other side of the planet have had a Creative Straight From the Brain Twin Moment!

Awesomesauce.

 

Today's post is from Jennifer and I was just floored when I opened it up and took a look.

 Like, "How did I NEVER IN MY LIFE THINK OF THIS! IT'S SO EASY!!!!" floored.

 

Check it out!

 

"I had made coasters at a recent Mom's Nurturing Moms night at church and since we don't really use coasters here, I wanted some way to display them. I'm cheap and couldn't bring myself to spend $20 for one coaster (especially when I needed 4 of them) and Wal-Mart had coasters but never the same amount in the same color......they were a bit cheaper at $5 a piece but I still didn't really like them. Sooooo, I had a wonderful brainstorm laying in bed one night and got to working on it a few days later. "

 

Cute Modge-Podged Scrapbook Paper + Coaster Creation from Jennifer's Moms Nurturing Moms night.

 

Now for her Ah-Mazing Idea...

These stands are made out of Drum Roll Please...Toilet Paper Rolls.

Yep.

Ah-Mazing right!!

I will let you all read her blog about this project which you can find HERE to get the full details, but here is the gist of the project in pictures!

 

Here she is tracing the outline of her stand (both sides) on the back of her scrapbook paper.



 

 

Then she modge-podged the paper to the rolls, let it dry and ta-da!

 

 

"This was my first creation straight from my own brain and I'm pretty pleased with how well they turned out. I have to say that y'alls blog was my inspiration. Seeing y'all and so many people willing to forge ahead, even if the outcome was less than desirable, made me want to try new things. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist and when my creations don't look the same in real life as they did in my brain, I tend to get discouraged. Not anymore. I have a LOT more creations budding in my brain, just waiting for the right material and the time. "

 

Uhm I love this. I am always begging my siblings to send me their little one's art creations and these would be PERFECT to display them (my fridge gets crowded quickly lol). Jennifer does mention on her blog that they aren't super sturdy, so I wouldn't try displaying a decorative dinner plate or anything similar on them. However, these are a perfect solution for small things like this, and you can customize them with any scrapbook paper imaginable! I was thinking some of the textured paper would be really cool, or perhaps the metallic paper?? The sky is the limit here!

Thanks for your Straight From the Brain Creative Moment Jennifer! I love it!

Happy Tuesday all!

 

 

 

 

 



A little Mix it up Monday for Everyone

A little something for everyone today:

For superhero movie junkies:

http://themetapicture.com/well-arent-they-cute/

For those with a twisted sense of humor:

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=86851

For those who appreciate clothes with tips:

http://imgur.com/xOPBNTj

For those who have homework:

http://themetapicture.com/pizza-place-owner-deserves-a-high-five/

For P&P addicts:

For those who need a smile:

http://themetapicture.com/awesome-tape-dispenser/

For those who need to separate eggs, hehehe:

http://www.thepresentfinder.co.uk/buy/bogey-man-egg-separator-jug_490.htm

For those who just want to be a Disney Princess:

http://themetapicture.com/you-should-have-a-talk-with-your-parents/

Happy Monday everyone! Bust a Move and make today Awesome!

Sunday Surprise: I am plant killer.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're having a lovely holiday weekend!

I thought I'd write a quick entry to let you know how my pin-progress "gardening" was going.... you remember, from this post. Well, for the first few weeks, I was really impressed with myself.

But... alas, my black thumb showed its true colors.  What can I say? I'm a confessed plant murderer. My best of intentions to get these poor plants into soil didn't pay off quick enough. Lettuce? Pretty much going in the trash.

Green onion? Going to try to save it... who knows.

This photo makes it look better than it actually is.

However, my forgetfulness has paid off in other areas.

Guess who forgot about these two onions and now they're growing? My next victims, I fear.

No matter, today is not the day that I will worry about such things. We've had a lovely and relaxing day. I hope that you're doing the same, and spending it with people who you love.
Hippity-hop-fully yours,
Rachel

Show and Tell Saturday: Spring Cleaning

This week started my Spring Cleaning around here. I'm hitting it harder than I ever have before. It's taking me longer to clean than I thought, but I'm blaming that mostly on having a constant cleaning buddy who thinks that if I'm not looking at him that I've abandoned him. Good thing he's cute. ;) I've started Spring Cleaning before and have bummed out before I even got 1/4 of the way through. This year I am bound and determined to have a successful Spring Cleaning session. So I started looking through Pinterest and Google for tips, lists, and ideas. So far it seems to be going good. I'll share what I've found and what has worked out for me so far. 

First, I found me a list. Two lists actually. I love making lists, but I figured seeing someone else's list would help me make my list.

So here are the lists that I found:

http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/p/thorough-spring-cleaning-checklist.html

http://www.idreamofclean.net/the-ultimate-spring-cleaning-checklist/

I copied and pasted them into Word, combining them room by room. I got the list condensed down, deleting duplicates, taking out rooms we don't have in our house, putting check boxes by each item, and putting it into columns to reduce the number of pages (I love efficiency). I had a ball making the list. I love lists. I think I've mentioned that before. Someday, I should make a list of all the reasons why I love making lists.

Anyhow....

At the top of my list I had these instructions (which I condensed from this site):

1.       Work from one end of your house to the other.

2.       Plan some easy meals for the days you will spend cleaning.  

3.       As you clean, keep a list of any jobs you notice that need to be done around the house.  Don't get distracted by these chores during your cleaning, save them for when you are done. 

4.       Keep another list of things you notice you need. 

5.       Take an empty laundry basket and pile in it anything you need your hubby to sort through.

So I had my list, thank you Pinterest. Next, I knew I wanted to declutter as I went along. We have more things stuffed in this house than two adults and a baby need. I'm tired of cleaning it all up. As I go through each room I am thinning out and decluttering. My two guides for this are two pins I found on Pinterest as well:

http://lifeyourway.net/10-questions-to-help-you-declutter/

http://ourlittlegreendot.com/if-you-want-to-be-green-you-need-to-be-organised/

I printed the list of questions out and wrote the quote from William Morris on the side and kept that paper with my cleaning checklist. I already have 3 large black trash bags of things to give away. So excited to get rid of extra stuff! It was beginning to own us, and it feels so much better to get it out. 

Now, the cleaning:

In previous years I tried to take one task and carry it out all through the house and then move on to the next task. For example, I'd clean all the windows in the house, then move on to wiping down the base boards, then cleaning the ceiling fans, then move on to finding a good book and just "finishing that chapter", then making a pot of Mac and Cheese and eating it all myself, then hopping on Facebook and my Spring Cleaning went out the window. I really liked the idea of just starting at one end of the house and going room by room. So that's what I've done this year. I'm now 1/3 of the way through my house! That doesn't sound like much of an achievement, but let me tell you what that's doing for me. I now have 3 rooms (the Master Bath, the Master Bedroom, and Darrow's Room) completely finished, and those rooms feel heavenly. I just want to sit in there and read or paint or sing or turn an old dryer into a hang glider. Those rooms just feel light and free and my creative juices get going and I feel happy. This makes me want to get the rest of my house that way. I want my whole house to be a place where ideas can flow and where it just feels good. Every room I get done makes me excited to start the next. That one tip, going room by room from one end of the house to the other, has made such a huge difference. 

The next biggest help has been the checklist. I've done deep cleaning before, but just running off a list I made in my head. Inevitably I always forget something or I just quit. For my personality, having a list in front of me is a challenge that I can't back down from. I have to check off everything on that list or I've let the list beat me. If you know what motivates you and/or keeps you working best, then use that to your advantage! The lists also helped me to not forget the little jobs. I found it easy to look around the room and think, "Oh good! I'm done!" only to find "Clean the doorknobs" or "Scrub the switchplates" still unchecked on the list. Those little details really made the room sparkle. As I move from room to room I have with me my checklist of spring cleaning chores, my list of declutter questions, as well as my lists of honey-do's for each room, items each room needs, and ideas I was getting for each room as I clean it.  

I always use a fun colored marker to check off items on a list. It makes it easier to see the progress I'm making and adds color. Color is happy!

Yea lists! Because of the lists I was able to go from this bathroom (I may or may not have tidied up slightly beforehand...you didn't need to see my complete mess, trust me):

To this:

Added counter shelves to store our various shaving/hair/makeup/soap items so they don't live all over the counter. Added a hook to the cupboard door under the sink to hang up the shower caddy holding my blow dryer, curling iron, and flat iron so they are out of sight and there aren't cords hanging all over. Everything is scrubbed and laundered. It feels wonderful. More organization. More light. Less mess. More awesome. Yes! 

Cleaning isn't my favorite thing by a long shot. But I'm almost enjoying it this time around. As I'm cleaning each room I'm coming up with decorating ideas, organization ideas, and repurposing ideas I wouldn't have had otherwise. Who knew cleaning could be so inspiring. 

This has been a slow process for me this week (only 3 rooms finished since Monday), but the days I took off of cleaning were totally worth it (I got to check an item off my bucket list! I got to be the secret photographer hiding in the bushes-literally-photographing a wedding proposal!), and I'm making progress, so I am happy.

What resources do you use for your Spring Cleaning?