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!!

 

My "Orange" Dress Makeover

So, not too long ago I tried to dye a dress orange. You remember that, right? If not, you can see that adventure here. Just as a refresher...the white dress turned pink. 

Not only was it pink...but it still wasn't flattering and still was quite see through. This bum did not fit in the coverage zone of that tiny built in slip you see there. 

So having only spent $11 on the dress and $9 on dye that didn't work, I decided to take it apart and see if I could remake it into something wearable. And if not, I was only out $20. More than I wanted to be out, but at least it wasn't an expensive dress I was getting set to experiment on! 

So I sat down with my seam ripper and separated it all out. Took the zipper out, separated the skirt from the bodice, and took the lining off the bodice. 

I thought this would be pretty simple. I stitched the edges of the bodice, tucked the back a little and turned it into a jacket. Easy! And then it was time for the skirt. It went fast. I added a back to the waist band and reattached the zipper. And I thought I was done! 

Cameron came home, I put it all on to show him my handiwork, and the skirt wasn't pretty. It lumped funny in back where the zipper was, the waist band folded in on itself, and it made my hips look wider than they already are post 2 kids. And then the weird slip inside still looked weird even with me wearing another slip beneath it. It just wasn't going to cut it. 

So out came the seam ripper again. Off came the zipper. Off came the waist band. Off came the built in slip completely. And off to Walmart I went (because on a Saturday evening, that was my option unless I wanted to drive an hour to the real fabric store). 

I found some decent quality white knit, bought 3 yards of it and some elastic, and headed back home to experiment some more. 

I should have taken step by step pictures, but I wasn't sure this was even going to work and by the time I got sewing it was 10 at night. I just wanted to get it done! But basically I split the knit fabric in two and sewed each section into a tube. I slipped one knit tube in the other, and then put the skirt fabric tube in the center and sewed them all together at the top and turned it right side out. From there I added the elastic, sewed a casing for it, and then hemmed the layers. Voila...a makeshift maxi skirt that was no longer see through! 

It isn't the most beautiful skirt ever, but it is miles better than what the dress was and now I can actually wear it! It was perfect for my Easter outfit yesterday! 

But...there is a Pinstrosity involved...

Apparently even though it'd been rinsed twice, not all the dye was out of the seams in the jacket. My nice new-to-me white shirt I just got at Savers now has a coral stripe around each arm. Awesome. 

An Old Pinstrosity Fixed: Crochet Ruffled Dish Mop

Happy Monday all!! 

Today I have a solution post for one of our very first Pinstrosity posts ever! Woo! 

Nearly 4 years ago now (4 years?!?! This blog may make it out of toddlerhood!) I decided that I was going to try to make this super cute dish mop:

http://missabigailshopechest.blogspot.com/2011/02/vintage-design-ruffled-crocheted.html

The crocheting instructions were easy, and it came together quickly. All went well at first...until I realized this was taking on Great Hulk proportions. Yet, I continued on and finished it, wondering why mine was different.

Well...this was mine. Not so cute (as is our goofy first logo).

So in my analysis, this is what I came up with (and was spot on about): 

What went wrong? 

I didn't read the directions close. Had I done so, I would have gathered the right supplies. The directions are very well written, I just failed to read them completely.   

• I used size 4 yarn, not 3. 
• I just grabbed one of my crochet hooks, not checking to make sure I had the right size. I used a 5mm instead of a 2.5mm. 

By the time I got to row 4, I knew this was already way too big. So I skipped rows 5 and 6. I can't imagine how over-sized this would be had I done all the rows in the pattern. 

How to fix this:

• Read the directions and use the suggested materials. 
• A smaller hook with the same size of yarn would have made it smaller, but not as small as the pattern makes. 

There's not much I can do to the dish mop I just made to fix it. So now I've got a Crocheted Ruffled Dust Mop.

But now there is a new solution! The pattern has been reworked to fit "regular" worsted weight yarn! Kathleen says in her post that the worsted weight (medium weight) yarn allows the dish mop to dry better so it doesn't mildew or sour as easy! So that's an added plus!

photo and tutorial from Miss Abigail's Hope Chest

I never did try out the original pattern with the right sized yarn, but I did do this new pattern with the right sized yarn for it!

Here's how mine turned out! Yea!!

I'm not a particularly fast crocheter and this was still a fast project for at just under 30 minutes. Not bad!

Go check out Miss Abigail's Hope Chest for some beautiful patterns, great resources for Hope Chests, and some positively cute ideas! 

Beach Wins

Do you remember back a ways when I said I'd give a few beach pins a test on our vacation? Well, I did! A few. Two. I got too busy playing in the waves, building sand castles, and burning my skin off (worst sunburn of my life) to try some of the fun picture ideas I saw. But that's okay because I have some awesome memories and we all had a blast. But, I can report on the two beach pins I did test out. 

Beach Pin Test #1

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/dirty-little-secret/

The idea is to rub baby powder on skin to get the sand off. I was skeptical. But I brought some baby powder to try anyway. 

Results:

No picture here, but...it worked! Amazingly so in fact. That's the coolest trick ever. Even if you aren't taking a baby to the beach, grab some baby powder. It's worth it just for yourself. 

Beach Pin Test #2

Still not sure who to give credit to for this photo and idea. 

Remember Braizee's results? 

Her 7 month old twins demolished their pool. After reading and seeing her results I decided that when I tested it I was going to do the following:

• Dig straight down: The hole in the first picture is pretty abrupt. What I mean by that is that the sides are more vertical than sloped. More like a regular kiddie pool. 
• Fill the whole bottom with water: With the "vertical" sides, they were able to get a generally uniform depth of water in the kiddie pool, and they filled the whole bottom with water. I imagine this will help to keep the plastic in place and hold it against the bottom and sides of the sand hole. 
• Tent stakes: Extra hold in the sand! 
• The trench: The pinner described digging a trench around the main pool hole to put the edges of the plastic in, and then burying the edges well. This is the key step, I'm imagining, to keeping the plastic liner from getting pulled in. The weight of the sand should help to keep the liner in place and to make it much harder from getting pulled in. 
• Shower liner and Tarp: I'll buy a shower liner, but I also have a tarp that is much bigger and could make a bigger kiddie pool if we wanted. I'll bring that too in case the shower liner is just not quite big enough. 

In the end I forgot to get tent stakes, so I skipped that one. I also only brought the heavy duty shower liner (passed the thin shower liner up figuring thicker and more sturdy was better for this), and left the tarp at home. But, I did do the others. How did it turn out? 

Results

It was a huge success! Darrow loved his own personal ocean to play in. I was surprised at how easy it was to dig too big of a hole. The first time (we did this twice, on two different days) I almost dug it too wide. You don't need a huge pool really. Our pool ended up being about 3 feet wide. Maybe 3 1/2 feet. It was about a foot deep (not the water, the hole). We made sure to try and make the bottom of the pool even, and to make the sides of the pool vertical. That worked really well and actually wasn't too hard to do. We made sure to dig a good trench around the pool to tuck the edges of the shower curtain in and piled a good rim of sand on top. The water warmed up so nice, it was like bathwater! After the babies were done in the pool and it was time to pack up and go home, it served as a nice place to wash sand off our hands and feet. We were able to get 2 days use out of the one shower liner, and probably could have used it more times, but we weren't really interested in hauling it home (it was sandy, and had started to turn a gold color rather than clear) and then storing it until we get back to the beach (which isn't a common occurrence).

If you're taking a trip to the beach anytime soon, I definitely recommend either or both of these ideas. They were great!

Flashback to the Strawberries

You know there's a problem with a pin when you have enough submissions to make not one, not two, but 3 posts about it. This one is just problematic. Today we have two more submission to add to the pile of pin disappointment.

The Original Pin

http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/dried-strawberries-ruscalleda/

You know what's coming, don't you.

The Pinstrosities

http://momminitup.com/culinary-fun/pinterest-lies/

These are just about the closest I've seen to actually getting this pin down. But they still aren't the twizzler-esque bites of heaven they appear to be in the original pin. 

Emily, the submitter of the 1st photo said, "So after having intended to make these for a year or two, I finally got around to trying them last night. After more than two hours of baking, I opened my oven to find this. They taste worse than they look. I don’t know why I was surprised – the description should have tipped me off. Better than Twizzlers? There is no such thing."

Melissa, submitter of the 2nd photo, said, "I wanted to try a post that would help me with my sweet cravings, so I found these directions for how to dry strawberries.I followed the directions, slicing the strawberries into two or three slices.  I preheated the oven and threw the pan in when it hit 210 degrees.  To save on cleaning, I put a piece of parchment paper on the baking sheet. At two hours, I noticed the one side was getting dark, so I flipped the over.  At three hours, they were still pretty moist!  The really thin ones were almost dry, but the edges were getting black.  I decided to keep them in for longer so I checked them every 15 minutes. After 4 hours, I threw in the towel and took them out.  They are really dark, the really thin ones are almost completely shriveled, and the fatter ones are still somewhat moist. The good news is that, although they look pretty awful, and I wouldn't exactly call them 'dry', they do taste really good!  I just don't think they're going to keep as long as if they were really dried all the way. Oh well!"

It has been suggested to use lemon juice on the strawberries to help them keep their color and not turn into a nasty brown mess.

Some of our commenters on our previous posts said that theirs looked horrendous, but if you could just get past that and try them, that they were pretty good.

And then there was this comment from Britters on our most recent dehydrated strawberry post that just made me smile: "This might mean a whole new level of Pinterest fails, but has anyone tried dehydrating in your car? Or if you live on a Red Neck estate, one of the abandoned cars? There will be smells, but on a hot day cars can be great for low temperature baking/dehydrating projects."  I have a friend in the Phoenix valley who has actually baked cookies in her car while she was in the store shopping. She just put them in the back window and went inside and came out when she was done to hot fresh cookies. I thought it was a genius way to turn awful weather into a win!

H.U.M.P. Day- Baby Oil and Razors -> Dualing Pinstrositeers

So yesterday Marquette talked about her awful experience with baby oil, her razor, and her irritated shaved legs. You can read that here.

I laughed so hard reading this because I have had THE EXACT OPPOSITE EXPERIENCE!!!!

I LOVE baby oil as a shaving aide and recommend it to everyone!! I totally converted my mom who was a conditioner as a shaving cream lady (like Marquette) for a good 20 years! She loves it!

I originally saw it on this pin:

http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/08/extend-life-razor-with-baby-oil/

Now of course I didn't read it, I just saw the picture an tried it, and it was awesome (one of the only times this worked out that way lol). One tip she gave was to pour a little bit on the end of your razor before shaving, and the other tip was to use it as a shaving cream.

I use it as a shaving cream.

I was floored! My legs were smooth, shaving went smoother and faster than usual, I don't cut myself as much, I haven't gotten ANY ingrown hairs (a rarity before all this), and my legs were the smoothest I have ever felt them. Ever.

As for the gungky ness of the razor after shaving with baby oil, I haven't had any of that either! In fact I agree with the pin that it makes my razor last longer.

The funny thing about pins is that it might work great for someone and might not work at all for someone else!! Now I'm not sure what type of razor Marquette has, but I have a Venus Spa Breeze (I splurge for razors, it's non negotiable at my house lol). Maybe the type of razor has something to do with it???I'm not sure though...maybe we should have a Shave-Off!

So there you have it, two sides to the story...decide for yourself! Good luck!

 Happy Wednesday!



A Few S'more For You

A few weeks ago I did a post about the various s'mores creations we've been sent. I told you that there were a ton of s'more submissions and that there were too many to use in just one post and that I'd have to do "s'more" posts on these delectable disasters. Well, today you finally get the sequel to that post. Are you excited for s'more s'mores? I am. 

Original Pin #1:

http://www.bakedperfection.com/2008/07/smore-cookie-bars.html

That looks gooey and super yummy. Deirdre said, "They look amazing and even though I may not be the best baker I thought I could manage this..."

Pinstrosity #1:

"It seems that their are a whole host of problems here...maybe the whole extra stick of butter that she added when I wasn't looking, or not enough graham crust...I don't know! It was a definite 4 on the GCT...tasted o.k. except the marshmallow ends as they could take out a tooth...oops!!"

A whole extra stick of butter would make a difference. Baking with kids has its hazards, lol. 

Original Pin #2:

http://smells-like-home.com/2012/05/giant-smores-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

It's a s'more in a cookie! MMMMMmmmm. Betsy found out the perils of substituting in pre-made store bought dough rather than mixing up the recipe:

Pinstrosity #2:

Jennifer actually learned the same lesson with her s'more stuffed cookies. She and her friends decided to have a Pinterest day and try out a bunch of pins. They used the same s'more stuffed cookie pin above and ended up with this (we don't know if she used pre-made dough or if they made their own):

Pinstrosity #3:

Oops. With these stuffed cookie recipes, you really do need to mix the dough from scratch. No pre-made chilled dough. 

There were 3 other s'more submissions, but they either sent us to "their blog" which was private and we couldn't access their submission, or they forgot to send a photo. Sad day. But, since the last s'more post, we did have a submission by Katie testing out one of the s'mores Pinstrosities we posted. I give you Katie's story:

Original Pin:

http://www.theaprongal.com/2011/11/baked-smores.html

I was reading your blog the other day, my young daughter playing nearby. I came across the s’mores recipes and chuckled. I’ve suffered through a few bad s’more concoctions, so I knew these were probably going to turn out awful. Then, I felt a presence at my elbow.

“I want to make that.”

My daughter had spied the baked s’mores recipe (the pin, of course, and not the pinstrosity). “Uh… How about we just make s’mores?”

“No. I want that. The s’more cake.”

“Look, it didn't turn out like that. Look at her cake!”

“But you can bake anything!”

“But..”

“And we never cook anything together!”

I swear, my five-year-old is a judo master at manipulating emotions. I signed, and we bought the ingredients.

Here’s my take:

• The trick to marshmallow fluff? Two implements and a bowl of hot water. I’d dole out a large spoonful of fluff on the bars, using a spatula to get it off the spoon. Once the bars were mostly covered, I used a spatula to even the layer out.
• There is nowhere near enough dough in that recipe to fill a larger dish, top and bottom. No way. I portioned it exactly, and ran out when I did the top layer.
• I don’t know what witchcraft that blogger did to make the bag trick work, but once I opened the bag, I couldn't peel the dough off to save my life.
• I ended up taking small, grape-sized balls of dough, gently patting them between my fingers until they were flat, then smoosh it into the fluff. Note that if you let the fluff air dry for ten minutes, this is much easier.

My kids each had a bar each, and they were okay with it. I thought it was okay, too, but an actual s’more is better. I covered the bars and decided I’d toss the lot out in the morning.

That morning, I was hungry, so, being excellent at adulting, I decided to have a s’more bar for breakfast. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. It was fabulous! The chocolate was soft, the marshmallow later had this almost-melty texture, and the crust was salty and an awesome contrast. Best eaten right after baking my aunt Fanny! It was way better the next day!

Also, want to know how they got that awesome picture? The bars were cool. Attached is my picture of my bar, awesomely plated.

I'm not sure where I'd put this on the toast scale, but I'd say a one. I made it work, even with running out of dough, and it was way better when I had it cold, which the original bloggers insisted wasn't nearly as good warm. In the future, I'd double the dough, and skip trying to roll the dough out. Smooshing it into the fluff seemed to work just fine.

Katie's S'mores Bars:

Katie, I'm excellent at adulting too (new verb for my vocabulary...I'm so going to start using that, lol). We could be awesome breakfast buddies. My favorite breakfasts? Cold apple pie. Leftover cookies. Cheesecake. Cold pizza. I'm super healthy as you can see. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day...I just find it important to start out with happy food. Happy food=happy day...right? 

Reruns

After we post up a Pinstrosity here on the blog, sometimes we never see another submission from that same pin. And then there are the pins that I'm sure we'll always be getting submissions on as long as we're running the blog. These are the classics and they never fail to make me chuckle. These submissions are like watching reruns of Napoleon Dynamite...that movie never gets old and gets more and more funny every time we watch it. So today, I thought I'd give you some of these "reruns" of old Pinstrosity classics and the fresh submissions we've received for them. 

The Original Pin:

http://queenvannacreations.com/blog//2012/02/01/ice-ballons/

Colorful ice balls. Great for lining the walk for a winter party. 

The Original Pinstrosity Post:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/01/food-coloring-explosion.html

There are easier ways to repaint your kitchen. 

This past January, after a lake effect storm up north, Jenn decided to give these a try.

"So here's my attempt at the ice ball thing. I had it all planned out.. even had a good balloon delivery system (BDS) to ensure that there was no chance that the food coloring ended up anywhere else in the house. Fun fact... I don't use liquid food coloring.. only Wilton gel... after the 1st one ending up all over the wall and sink I went to plan B... the toothpick delivery was amusing.. and the faucet is finally starting to run clear now. Yes dear neighbors, I'm the crackhead making multiple trips outside with no jacket in sub zero temps to deliver my little landmines to their happy homes in the snowbanks. Do you know what happens when you have wet hands and go to open the door back inside? Dude! I'd also like to blame you people for the looks I will be getting for the next few days with my purply red blue green hands.. but we both know that's not the 1st time... so I can't blame you for that one.

Pinterest ice balls the next day... its -8 and I tried them.. they are all very hard. I cut the balloon off the red one and it seemed okay... peeled it back to the immediate glug glug glug of the non-frozen inside pouring out..."

The "Rerun" Submission:

"So yea that will make people stare..heheh" I love that "bloody" balloon. Makes me laugh every time I look at it. Jenn did eventually have success though after 48 hours of the water balloons sitting out in the sub-freezing temperatures:

So, not a super quick and easy pin, but not unattainable either! 

What about those "[blank] in a jar" pins. We get quite a few of those. 

The Original Pin:

Rainbow cake in a jar! 

The Original Pinstrosity Post:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/06/sunshine-in-and-out-of-jar.html

Misty submitted our rerun of this classic Pinstrosity. She said, "Rainbow cake in a mason jar fail!  I think I added too much batter.  I wasn't sure exactly how close to the top it was supposed to be when I put it in the oven.  The pin said to use 3 tbsp of each color.  It didn't look like enough, so I added a little bit more.  Guess I'll learn to trust the recipes from now on. "

The "Rerun" Submission:

So we have the "[blank] in a jar" pin...what about the "[blank] in a mug" pins? Those are classics too. 

The Original Pin:

http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/03/06/chocolate-chip-cookie-in-cup/

The Original Pinstrosity Post:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/06/cookie-in-mug.html

Elizabeth tells this story: "I should've known. Anything that is "quick and easy" and can be cooked in a microwave? I'll be there. I wanted to make a quick delicious cookie but I should've realized that the "Brownie In a Mug" that I made in 5th grade would've ended up just as horrible. I made a brownie in a mug for my brother's birthday, and being the boy that he is, he will eat anything that has chocolate in it. Later that evening, he threw up. Coincidence? I think not. This "Cookie" ended up tasting like frito corn chips and tons of white sugar. It ended up as a crummy mess. The recipe stated that it needed only 40-60 seconds, but it was way undercooked when I pulled it out. I kept putting it back in, and now I have this."

The "Rerun" Submission:

"I think microwave deserts have a thing against me."

And of course if we are going to mention cookies, we can't leave out the ever present and totally awesome cookie bowl. 

The Original Pin

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Sugar-Cookie-Bowls 

Sadly...too many people just read the pinterest pin's caption and not the recipe on the website and end up with this:

The Original Pinstrosity:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/03/cookie-bowl-mayhem.html
http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/10/cookie-bowl-mayhem-take-2.html

Cali sent us in this rerun submission. "So I thought it'd be a great idea to make these cookie bowls that I saw on pinterest to put a no bake cheesecake mousse into for my roommates and I to enjoy, but it just ended up being a ridiculous mess. Note to self, do not use a "just add water" pre made cookie mix if you are trying to be creative. I ended up chiseling off the cookie on the pan and crumbling it up to use it as a crust for my cheesecake mousse on the bottom of muffin paper. Whatever, still tasted the same so I say it's a 3 on the GCT scale!"

The "Rerun" Submission:

And then there's one of my favorites. This hails back to the very beginning of Pinstrosity with one of our first posts. 

The Original Pin:

http://blog.hwtm.com/2012/01/diy-tutorial-creative-yarn-chandelier/

The Original Pinstrosity:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/02/bunch-of-hot-air.html

Melanie says, "My friends and I just moved into a new suite and the blank white walls were desperately in need of some decoration. My suitemate saw this craft and asked if I would try it. I bought balloons and glue and got out my utilitarian brown yarn and skimmed the directions…big mistake. Turns out, in order for this to work, you need to mix the glue with corn starch and water. And you need to dip the yarn in the glue mixture, not coat the balloon with it. When I popped the balloon, the whole thing crumpled. It was a sad sight to behold. I hung it up anyway, as a testament to the necessity of reading directions."

The "Rerun" Submission:

Oh these make me chuckle, I love it! I could add so many more, but you probably weren't looking for an epistle to read today. That just means we'll have to do another "rerun" post in the future. Oh darn.

Have a Pinstrosity on your hands, but we've already posted someone else's submission of the same project? Send it to us anyway!