Pipe Cleaner Curls FAIL

Guten Morgen Pinstrosipeeps!

 

Remember the hair trend where you do no heat curls overnight?? We wrote several pieces about this disaster, you can find those here,  here, here, or here .

Apparently it's been long enough since we featured those that I had forgotten the catastrophes at hand...because this was my thought process.

"I should do cute curls in my hair, yeah, that would be cute! Like little ringlets. But I don't want to curl it in the morning, so I'll just do like rag curls tonight while its wet and I pull them out in the morning and they'll be great! Sweet, I think I have some pipe cleaners! Let's do this!"

 

Mind you, I have a pixie cut. And it's only kind of long enough to do stuff on top.

Here's how this went...

 

 

I used two pipe cleaners and just wrapped my hair around them as I weaved it zigzag in the top of my head. I didn't feel it at all when I was asleep so it was pretty comfortable.

 

 

The next morning I pulled them out.

Not good. Really not good. Pinstrosity to be sure.

I actually looked better with the pipe cleaners in it! This was straight up medusa! It was fuzzy and there was no rhyme or reason to the curls, just a jagged mess.

And of course I didn't leave myself lots of time to make it look nice, so then I'm scrambling to make this workable.

I caved. I pulled out my tiny flat iron and basically curled the whole thing all over again. It was actually more work to fix it then it would have been to just curl it in the morning in the first place. So much for saving time eh?? Also, it was already sticking straight up, so we just had to go with that. I think it ended up having a Ducky from Pretty in Pink feel to it. Not awful, but I'll admit I got a few looks lol It's not the most popular style on the market, but I could do worse!

 

Here it is after I fixed it!

I feel a little bit like Hercules here lol

Zero-to-hero in a lot of time and unnecessary hair grief because I saw something like this with long hair on Pinterest once.

 

So there it is. It was a mess two and three years ago, and its still a mess today. So much for being a professional hairdresser and knowing what I'm doing here lol Anyone do this style regularly?? Have any secrets to share!! Let us know!!

 

Life isn't Pinterest Perfect, even in Yellowstone

Guys! I have a story for you!! Bahaha. 

So for those following on our Facebook or Instagram accounts, you probably know that Cameron and I (and Darrow and Ione of course) are all on a long family vacation road trip. Well yesterday was Yellowstone Day, and things definitely didn't go Pinterest Perfect!

Let's start at the very beginning. 

(Bonus points if you then just sang "a very good place to start") heehee

On the way up a small whine in our car got worse. We were planning on getting up early in the morning on Friday and heading to Yellowstone, but decided to take the car in to get it checked so we didn't end up with a dead car in the mountains with no cell signal. Well, by the time they checked the car, let us know it wasn't anything in need of fixing, and we got packed up to go, it was 3pm. We hemmed and hawed and finally decided that we'd go over, get a camping spot and then do the park all day on Saturday. 

So we ask Siri how to get to Lewis Lake Campground, the one the website said is usually the last to fill up. Siri shows up the regular route up through West Yellowstone, but then she also shows a route that is half the miles, and only 10 minutes longer which would spit us out right below the park and Lewis Lake Campground rather than traveling down through the whole park. The shorter route seemed like the good idea because I hate backtracking. 

So we get going on that route and end up on a 30 mile stretch of mountain dirt road, bumping along.

But no biggie, we can do that. And we actually shaved 15 minutes off the estimated arrival time Siri gave us. Shorter and Quicker! Hooray! We pull up to the southern gates of Yellowstone only to see a sign that says "All Campgrounds Full". Great. It's 6pm, and we had nowhere to stay. We then had to decide if we were going to try and find a way overpriced hotel for the night or not. We opted for making a very fast tour of Yellowstone, only stopping at two spots and briefly, and then going back to Cameron's uncle's house to sleep.

So we drove through trees. And more trees. And more trees. Let me tell you, the southern part of the Park is not that exciting. 

And finally we got to Old Faithful. I'll be honest. I wasn't super excited about Old Faithful. I wasn't uninterested, but I didn't feel like I HAD to see it or my life wasn't complete. But we were there and the geyser app showed that we happened to get there just 10 minutes before it was supposed to go off. Can't pass up that awesome of a coincidence. So we pulled in, got the kids out, and ran over (me in my sandals, no backpack carrier for Darrow, just the cell phone for a camera, and only the sling for Ione...because we weren't planning on staying long). 

We sit and wrestle Darrow (who doesn't want to sit and wait...he's 2), and finally Old Faithful begins to "erupt". It was neat, but kinda anti-climactic to tell you the truth. I expected a good roar, or a higher column, or something. It went off, and after the initial "oohhhhh" of the crowd it went silent. And that was it. Cool. 

So before it was done we got up to let Darrow run around and decided to just see where the boardwalk went to try and get a little energy out of Darrow before we went back in the car. We started around to the right side of Old Faithful and ended up on the greater geyser trail. It looked like there was a little loop we could do, so we set out. 

And then things got cool! Not all of the geysers are super predictable, and some take hours or days between eruptions. Somehow we just happened to get there when so many of the eruption times coincided and things were going off all over the place. That was awesome. 

And then we got to the Beehive Geyser that went off 15 feet in front of us and it was exhilarating and so cool!!! 

We were pretty excited after that and decided to go on and take a longer route to see the other geysers that we could see going off in the distance. It was pretty spectacular! 

But as excited as we were, Darrow was getting done. So at a T in the path I told Cameron to just run up the trail to the right to see the Morning Glory pool he was dying to see and that I'd start down the trail to the left back to Old Faithful with the kids and we'd catch up. 

This is where things turned. 

I got going down the trail with both kids and Darrow finally got to the end of his rope. He was D.O.N.E. But I knew Cameron had to just be a few minutes behind me, so I picked him up on my hip and carried him (with Ione in the sling). Well you can imagine how well that went. It didn't. So I tried to carry him piggy-back style. Well, that didn't work either. So Finally I got him up on my shoulders and started down the trail, a mile and a half back to Old Faithful with both kids hanging off me...literally. But I figured any minute Cameron was going to catch up and pull Darrow off my back and we'd be on our way. 

Well he didn't catch up and he didn't catch up, so I kept plodding along. In my sandals. With both kids. I'd had my hair all pinned up, but Darrow spent the time picking the bobby pins out of my head one by one releasing the Kraken hair. By the time we're nearing Old Faithful the teenagers and young adults are making a wide berth around the crazy lady with Kraken hair and two crying kids, and the old ladies smile at me and say, "Oh, I remember those days! How cute!" and I tried my hardest not to growl at them. 

And then I got back to Old Faithful (in time for the next eruption an hour and a half later). And then I realized that I'd just done a mile and a half with two kids on my back. And Cameron hadn't caught up. I started to wonder. But surely he'd just spent time pondering at the pool. 

And then an hour went by, and he didn't show up. 

It was 10 o'clock, dark, and my husband was off somewhere in Yellowstone Park. I was getting pretty afraid. Headlines of a man eaten by a bear went through my head. I borrowed a cell phone from a nearby family to try calling him and it went straight to voicemail. So I finally decided it was probably past time to call the Park Rangers. 

So I went into the Inn, the closest building to Old Faithful, and explained the situation to the concierge. He called the Rangers, gave a brief explanation, and then handed the phone to me. 15 seconds into giving my report, Darrow went dead weight, pulling his hand out of mine and took off running down the hotel hall. "Hold on, I have to catch my 2 year old!" I dropped the phone and went and caught Darrow again (with Ione in one arm). He then of course starts throwing a royal tantrum. So I set him on the floor and pinned him between my legs and pick the phone back up. The next few minutes I'm trying to pay attention to the Park Ranger and the questions he is asking, while also trying to wrestle Darrow with just my legs to keep him from running away. Eventually I end up sitting on the floor, with my legs pinning Darrow down as he screams, with the cord of the lobby phone stretched as far as it will go. 

But finally I get the report made and tell the Ranger that I'll stay put in that hotel lobby until either the Rangers or Cameron comes. So we then go hang out on the couches and work to get Darrow calmed down. This poor kid was way way done. So I sat and sang songs to comfort him, and myself. He was out there. He'd come back. I wasn't going to be a Yellowstone Widow. 

And then finally the Park Ranger pulls up in front of the building, and in comes Cameron through the doors at 10:45. "Hey! I didn't get eaten by a bear!" Best sight of the whole entire day! 

So now let's jump back to Cameron. On the map the paved biking/walking path is marked in black and the driving road in gray. Cameorn had thought from a glance at the map that the road went to the morning glory pool, but once he was there he found it was the bike path, not the road. So he looked at the pool, and then decided it was time to head out. 

He's not sure why now, but in his head then he then thought, "Well shoot, I need to book it down the path to the road and wait there for Marquette." So he ran in the opposite direction as I was going. He got to the end of the path and waited and waited and I didn't show up, so he decided he's just cut the time down and start walking on the road back towards Old Faithful. 

So he starts running down the road in this heavy fire fighting boots (after working as an emergency wildland firefighter one summer with the Forest Service, he fell in love with those boots), hoping I'd drive up. Well, I didn't. And it was dusk and getting darker and darker quickly, and he was running down the road. Suddenly he realized that he was along in Yellowstone, no one knew where he was, and he was running. If there was a bear nearby he was totally going to wake up the bear's predatory response by running, and he'd get eaten. So he kept his eyes on the woods and walked quickly along .

He got back down by Old Faithful, but didn't know where he was in relation to the geyser, or where we parked. So he went into the first building he found. He figured at this point that I'd probably called him in as missing. As much as he felt like a goober for having to report himself as missing, he figured it was time. He went in to the lady at the front desk and explained the situation and she was a little odd. "Oh, that's horrible! I wish I could help. I can't call anyone for you." OKay. So Cameron went back outside and went running around looking for someone who could help him. 

He finally saw a Park Ranger driving up and started waving his arms to flag him down. And the Ranger drove right by him. Luckily though, someone was driving the wrong way down a one way street and the Ranger pulled him over. So Cameron ran and caught up and stood off to the side waiting to talk to the Ranger. 

"Do you need me?" the Ranger asked. "Yes sir, I do." So the Park Ranger told hi to go sit on the steps and he'd be with him in a minute. Cameron turned and walked a few steps and the Ranger turned around and called after him. "Wait. Are you looking for your wife and kids?" 

"Yeah. That's me." The Ranger chuckled and had him wait. After he was done with his business he got Cameron in the car and they headed off to the lodge. They went in the lobby all excited to reunite a family and I wasn't there. They asked the lady at the lodge and she had no idea what was going on and there wasn't anyone there looking for a missing person. That confused them until they remember there was the new Old Faithful Inn, so they drove over there. 

They hopped out, Cameron came in the door and Darrow shot over to him, "Daddy!" 

"Hey...I didn't get eaten by a bear!"

And with all the cool geysers going off that we saw, him coming through that door was the best sight I'd seen all day. 

We got to pack up in the car, passed out the cinnamon rolls we'd bought for breakfast the next morning, and drove (in the dark) through the park (dodging Elk), back to Cameron's uncle's house to sleep. 

So there you have it! There's our Yellowstone experience. It was crazy then, and kinda scary, but now we're laughing! 

Lumps of Coal...a Little Too Black

DIY gifts are so fun! The time and energy put into them makes them dear to our hearts. Which I think is why when one turns into a Pinstrosity, it's extra frustrating or funny. 

Jessica decided to put together lumps of coal goodies to give out to friends. In her email she said, "I would like to submit my ultimate failure...that 20+ of my gift recipients felt the sting of."

photo and tutorial by eighteen25.com

"As you can see, the original post/pin didn't say HOW MUCH black food coloring to add...so I guessed.  And....I put in WAY TOO MUCH!  The picture is of my baby girls smile after eating it.  Not only did it turn the mouth black but the only thing you could taste as you ate it (and after you ate it) was food coloring!"

Oops. 

I experienced this once with frosting on a Minnie Mouse cake. The bakery used a ton of black food coloring and that was all anyone could taste on the whole cake and all of us had black mouths. Black food coloring is one thing where a little bit can go a LONG ways! 

Pine Cone Fire Starter Gifts

I was able to gather a big bag of pine cones for free a few weeks ago to craft with (and they also served the purpose of keeping me awake on the drive as I pulled off and had to get out and walk around a few times). After baking them to get rid of bugs and extra sap I then had to decide what to do with them. 

One project I decided on trying were these beautiful Pine Cone Fire Starters by Something Turquoise. 

Photo and Tutorial by Something Turquoise

Aren't they gorgeous! While down in the Phoenix Valley I was able to go to a Hobby Lobby and gather the supplies I needed and save on Amazon shipping (the prices were pretty comparable on the actual items though, so if you have Amazon Prime you wouldn't have to go to the store to get the supplies). With the pine cones being free my project supply total came to $24, with some of the supplies ending up with leftovers because I couldn't buy just one block of wax coloring. 

I read through the instructions three times and then jumped in. As I only was doing one 2-lb bag of wax flakes, I knew I needed a smaller container to melt the wax in than the big glass mixing bowl, so I dug through my pantry, found a large can of baked beans, transfered the beans to a bowl in the fridge, washed it out, and had it ready for use. The pine cones fit perfectly in the can and it meant I had to melt much less wax at a time than I would have in the large dish. 

This is my water bath setup, with our cast iron pan and the baked beans can. 

Without wax flakes in it the can floated, but once you added the wax flakes for melting it settled in. I only used 1/2 the flakes for the first set of cones so I could do two different colors. 

All seemed to go well, and then it came time to add the color. I wanted a peachy color to match my photography branding so I added a whole block of yellow in first and then slowly added in red 1/8th of a block at a a time. That method worked...or it would have had I been patient. Following the instructions I dripped a dot of the hot wax on the waxed paper to see the color, but it seemed to light and yellow to me still. I forgot that I needed to wait for that dot to cool to see the true color of the wax. I added in 1/8th too much red and went from a peach to a coral. Still pretty, but not quite what I wanted. This wasn't a project buster though, so I pushed on. Lesson #1: Patience. 

Next came the dipping. I'd wrapped my wick around 6 pine cones and had them waiting. 

How big are the pinecones? That big. 2 1/2 to 3" on average. 

I wanted this to be as time efficient as possible, so I waited the specified 30 minutes of cooling for the melted wax before dipping the pine cones, and then the 15 minutes in-between subsequent dips. All seemed well until one dip when I thought, "Hey, that looks like the wax is too cool, but I bet it works, I can just shake off the excess so I don't have to reheat and let it cool all over again." Nope. It clumped and lumped and stuck WAYYY too much to the cones. Great. Lesson #2: Patience. 

So I heated the wax back up and tried dipping the cones while the wax was hot rather than waiting the 30 minutes. Didn't get much build up. So then I warmed the wax up hot again and let the pine cones sit in the wax for about 10 seconds to see if some of the excess build up would melt off. It did...but not great. I thought about just leaving the cone in the hot wax and keeping the heat on until all the wax melted off and basically starting over again. But I didn't want to spend the time, so I kept on dipping in hot wax layers. 

It sorta worked...but finally I stopped because they weren't getting any better. 

I ended up with two okay pine cones and 4 "I don't think I want to give those out" pine cones. 

One that worked. 

Two that never saw their gift bags. 

I put it all away for two days, and then decided to try the 2nd batch. 

I did the same set up, with the same techniques (only this time chickening out on the coloring-I was worried in my attempt to get a sage green that I'd end up with a lovely shade of puke and waste the last of the wax). But then I decided to deviate from the original instructions a little. She had her cooling times set for all 2lbs of the wax and a larger container. I decided with my smaller container that it might be better to not wait so long. Or that's what I hoped and decided to try. 

I did my first dip immediately with the hot wax. 

My second dip was done 20 minutes later. 

My third dip was done 12 minutes later. 

My fourth dip was done 12 minutes later. 

And then it was time to reheat the wax so I didn't run into the clumping issue I had last time. 

Once the wax was hot and 12 minutes had passed from the last dip I dipped again. I followed this pattern, dipping in the hot wax rather than letting it cool as per the instructions until I had the build up I wanted. It did take more dips, but I like the look of it so much! I did a total of 10 dips for the white cones, and I LOVE how these turned out. 

Success finally! They smell so good and look so pretty! 

So sometimes a project just takes a little tweaking and plenty of patience to get it to work for your circumstances. Adaptation is the key to survival...or so I'm told. 

A Near Pin-saster: Edible Cigars

Along with the Monthly Pinstrosity Challenge, I also follow and participate the Iron Craft challenge (I was actually introduced to it through a submitter here on Pinstrosity!). It's really fun to do both and to poke a stick at my creativity. As I often do, for one of the projects I decided to kill two projects with one pin. The two challenges were "E is for..." and "Gifts". It took me a while to figure it out but the day before the Iron Craft project was due I figure it out (it's always the day before).

Emilee and Chip just graduated and I wanted to give them something fun for graduation. Emilee loves cigar boxes, so I thought it would be fun to find a treat to put in it. Enter Pinterest! I found a neat pin for making "Cigares au Chocolat" and knew that was it! Edible Cigars for Emilee's Excellent Educational Efforts.  Amazingly I had all the supplies at home. The only hard part, the recipe was in french and metric measurements. I decided to try it anyway using Google Translate and ButterBaking.com for the translation and conversions. This was going to be awesome!

I got it mixed up and it looked like this:

Now I had no idea if that was how it was supposed to look, but it seemed okay so I just went with it. The first pan I didn't flatten the cookies enough and they were just blobs. The second pan I tried to flatten them with my fingers but the dough was super sticky and they had holes and didn't work well either. Finally the third pan I pulled out a spoon and a cup of water and dipped the spoon in the water and used that to flatten the dough. That worked fairly well. But they really weren't flat enough still.

They wouldn't roll. I had to start rolling them right away without them cooling because they stiffened up super super fast and ended up cracking and crumbling. It just wasn't working.

I set the bowl on the counter above the trashcan and went and browsed Pinterest, hoping I could find some other E project that I could whip out. While scrolling through I came across a pin for cookies I'd actually already made...successfully! I don't know why I didn't think of those earlier! They were so similar.

I had an idea for what I needed to do...I needed more of a batter than a dough. However, I was out of eggs so I couldn't add extra egg whites. I didn't have cream, I didn't have milk (we were so seriously out of groceries that day!), so I added about 1 TBS of water (maybe more, but not much) and stirred that into the dough to make more of a batter. It looked good, but now to see if it actually worked or if I'd ruined the remainder of the dough. Amazing the Pinterest Gods smiled upon my efforts and it worked! The batter spread thin enough without being too runny and thin, but still make a good pliable cookie. I'd almost given up on this! I'm so glad I didn't! Luckily I had just enough batter left to make a dozen cookies.

I got them baked, rolled, and then dipped in chocolate. I dipped the end in cocoa powder to look like the ash on the end of the cigar.

Last, I found a cigar box at the local antique mall to put them in. It was nice and cleaned out and didn't smell like tobacco, so it worked great!

So in the end these weren't spectacular (especially when you see the original inspiration), but they were fun to make and they made a fun gift to give!

All too often I think we give up too fast. I was pretty frustrated and ready to be done with these. Sometimes all you need is to put yourself in timeout from the project and come back to it later. Now I think I need to make these again, because I didn't even get to try a completely finished one! To get my version of the recipe (and the filling I made for these!), you can check out the blog post on Mower Cooking.

Sometimes though, even putting yourself in a project timeout doesn't work. Ever have a project that's a Pinstrosity before you even really get underway? I tried to take apart the light fixture and separate the dome from the light and chain for a project I had in mind. I got it all taken apart only to realize without unscrewing the entire thing from the ceiling and disconnecting wires there was no way I could get that dome off (without breaking it at least, and since we're in a rental that's not really a great option). So I went to put it back together...and it wouldn't go back together! I fought with it for an hour and finally had to let it just hang there lopsided and disassembled until Cameron came home. His years at the furniture store have served him well and he had it back together in no time! I felt a little sheepish though. "You run Pinstrosity...shouldn't you know better?" he teased. Of course not! I'll probably be making Pinstrosities as a 96 year old lady and he'll still be shaking his head and laughing at me.

Oreo Truffle Tutorial

Some submissions that are sent to us require us to test out the pin, do research online, or call in "experts". Okay, most submissions do. We don't pretend to know how to fix everything. But sometimes we do get a submission in that we actually do know how to do, and that makes us feel super excited, like we actually do know something and aren't great big phonies.

I'm pretty excited to get to tell you about Oreo Truffles. Alexa, "a teen who loves Pinterest", came across these while surfing Pinterest before Easter. "I'm not a baker, actually I'm not very good at crafty-diy kinda projects but I still take on the 'easier' ones, just for fun. Last week, I was looking on Pinterest for something sweet to make with an Easter theme, and came across this AMAZING looking treat for Easter."

The Original Pin

photo by Gimme Some Oven

Mmmm, yum yum yum!! "It seemed easy enough, and plus, I mean how hard could it be? So I went and bought the ingredients for these delicious-looking Oreo truffles. I got home and started to read the directions, it said that I needed to put the Oreos in the food processor. Ours broke earlier this week, so, I settled for a hand mixer (there would just be chunkier pieces of Oreo right?). After I had 'blended' the Oreos and cream cheese, I just assumed that it 'was supposed to look like that' and made the eggs. Finally I chilled them and TRIED to dip them in chocolate."

The Pinstrosity

"Of course, I ran into all sorts of problems. For example:

1. Dropping the egg into the chocolate and unsuccessfully taking it out before it had taken almost all of the chocolate. 

2. Running out of chocolate because I had wasted a bunch of it.  

3. Transferring the already scary Oreo eggs onto a smaller pan because it wouldn't fit in the fridge, therefore making them look 100x worse

Unfortunately, all attempts failed to make them. And I ended up with delicious (but hideously ugly) Oreo eggs. So, lesson learned: I don't know how to dip Oreo eggs or how to follow directions-- if you do, then, I think they would turn out beautiful AND delicious!!"

These Oreo Truffles are one of my favorite things to make, especially at Christmas time. One batch makes a TON!

As luck has it, I actually wrote up a tutorial post for this recipe 5 1/2 years ago! I've perfected it a little more now, so I'll include my current commentary here in italics (the original post can be found here).

Oreo Truffles

Supplies you will need:

• 1 pkg oreos (I prefer double stuff)
• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1 pkg chocolate candy coating (I usually use Almond Bark, but the store I went to for this particular time didn't have any, they just had Kroger Candy Coating, which works, but it doesn't taste as good in my opinion)
• 1 pkg vanilla (or any white) Candy Coating
• 2 pots
• 1 bowl
• baking pans
• wax paper
• 4 spoons
• 2 butterknifes
• Shortening 

Smash the oreos. I use a cool little blender thing-a-ma-jigger...I can't think of what it's called right now, but it's in the picture below (uh...6 years ago me...that could be called a mini food processor or a food chopper). I've used a ziploc bag and my fist before, but it doesn't work as good. In Alexa's case here, a ziploc bag and a rolling pin, a bowl and a heavy duty cup, or something would also work.)

You don't want there to be any big cookie chunks. You want it to look like potting soil. MMMmm, yummy! 

One package of oreos will yield this many crumbs (below).

Step 2: Add the whole block of cream cheese.

I suggest removing any rings or bracelets for this next part.

Step 3: Mix the crumbs and the cream cheese together. I have tried a few different things and have found that using my hands is the most effective way to get this stuff mixed together.

It was after seeing the above shot that I decided I needed to put make up on and brush my hair again...so now my cute little side ponytail is smooth, I have cute dangly earrings on and my makeup is subtle but present (this was just at the start of deciding that it is okay to be girly and feminine..."subtle but present" makeup was me saying "I'm wearing makeup and that makes me feel silly so I'll downplay it." I can be a bit of a goob sometimes).

It'll look like this when you're done (below is actually a double batch mixed up).

Step 4: Put the bowl with the goop in the fridge or freezer to harden up a little. Meanwhile, get out a casserole dish or a cookie sheet. After just a minute or two (or about 5 or 10), take the goop back out and then start rolling it into little balls about this big:

When I got my double batch all rolled out, I had 194 oreo balls (but then I ate two, so I ended up with an even 16 dozen...so a single batch will yield about 8 dozen candies...depending on big/small you roll the balls and how many you eat in the process). Once the balls are rolled, stick the pans in the freezer.

Step 5: Melt half of the chocolate in a saucepan (there'll be instructions on the packet if you need them). Once the chocolate is melted, take the balls out of the freezer and plop a few in the pan (I usually do about 3 at a time). As the balls warm up, they will try to come apart, so don't throw too many in the pot at one time.

I've done the chocolate in the microwave and on the stove and still the stove gives me the best results. Keep the heat on low and be patient. Stir the chocolate occasionally to keep it from scorching, and keep water out to keep it from seizing up. I will typically now add a tablespoon or two of shortening to my pot of melted chocolate to make it more smooth and so I don't get as thick of coats on the truffles. 

Cover the ball in chocolate and fish out with a spoon, or whatever device you have chosen for the job. My preferred device these days is a fork. You can scoop up the truffle and the excess chocolate runs through the tines. Don't stab the truffle, scoop. 

Dip half of the balls in the chocolate, adding more chocolate to the pot to melt as you go. I used to melt all the chocolate at once, but then it started to get lumpy and not as smooth (seizing and scorching). I found that it works better to add chocolate as you go. Once half the balls are dipped in chocolate, set the chocolate pan aside (with any remaining chocolate...you'll use it later).

Step 6: Melt half of the white chocolate in a different pan and dip the remaining half of the oreo balls. Usually I end up using a little more of the white chocolate than I do the reg. chocolate because it takes more white to cover the oreoness. 

Step 7: After you have dipped all the oreo balls, put the white ones aside and bring back the chocolate ones, but keep the white chocolate in the pot warm and runny. At this point I added a little bit of shortening (anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon or two, depending on how much chocolate is left and how runny I want it, just add 1 tsp at a time and stir it in), to make the chocolate a little more runny. Dip a butter knife (or a fork) in the white chocolate and drizzle it over the chocolate oreo balls, as seen below.

Once you have drizzled white chocolate on the brown balls, heat up the chocolate (again adding shortening if extra fluidity is needed...it also makes drizzling a little easier and as long as you don't add huge amounts of shortening, the flavor will be fine too) and then drizzle chocolate over the white balls. In the end it'll look something like this:

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to do a double batch from beginning to end. If you don't want to do it all in one shot, you can make the balls, and leave them in the fridge or freezer for a bit before you dip them. These are quite easy and they look nice (well...mine look like blobs, but you can make them look nice) and they taste great!

Seriously, these are so yummy. Give them a try!