Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Em's Internet Is Still Out...Boo.

I am losing my mind.
It is darn near impossible to take online college, face to face lecture college (with online homework and research due), and help run a blog without internet at my house.
I know a lot f people do  school and blogs without internet at their house, and I applaud you! This is no small task, and apparently I suck at it.
 
I started a post the other night when I had finished homework and was about to get kicked out of the lab (they close at 11), and it wouldn't let me do ANYTHING with pictures...I'm sorry :(
 
I am trying my best with what I have, and as soon as it gets back up we will be good to go. I think I know everyone of the "technicians" that work for my Internet Provider by voice, name, manner, and helpfulness. I'll make a chart and pass on the goods.
 
 
Hope everyone is doing well, and props for Marquette stepping up while I'm out!
 
Happy Hump Day!
Woot woot!
 
-Emilee

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Dog Gone It

I've never thought of myself as a picky eater, now or growing up. I say that, but then I do remember a few stand-offs I had with my mom over food that I was too much of a stinker to eat. Some nights I'm sure she wanted to run her forehead across the cheese grater after we fussed about the food she made for us. Thankfully she stuck to her guns and taught us to eat what was placed in front of us and we learned to eat all sorts of food. That went decently well until my youngest brother. There is no making him do anything he doesn't want to. Mom, Dad, and us kids tried everything in all the books to get him to do different things, but if he didn't want to do it that was the end of the story. Mom got pretty creative in trying to disguise food so she could get some nutrition down his sweet but stubborn little throat. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I know my mom can commiserate with Suzanne, the submitter of today's fantastic Pinstrosity. 

Suzanne says, "My son is a picky eater so I found a cute Pinterest idea "dog in a dog" that looked easy." 

The Original Pin:
http://www.rhodesbread.com/recipes/view/2267
Roll the dough around the hot dog, shape the appendages. Bake. Looks easy?
"Apparently, dough baking is not as easy as it looks, and you have to be careful to roll the 'legs' and 'ears' perfectly even or it will not look right."

The Pinstrosity:

"My son refused to eat it and said, 'Why is the plane broken?'  When I told him it was supposed to be a doggie, he became upset and felt that I had 'killed' the dog in the oven.  Sigh.  I would have added the eyes and nose but I felt the overall dog body was such a fail that I did not even complete it.  ARGH!  Not even close!!!"


"The directions should have called for making sure that the legs and ears were symmetrical and evenly rolled, and the baker should keep an eye on the dog baking in case the oven does not distribute heat evenly. Rats!"
Signed,
Suzanne
Mother of a 2.5 year old

So apparently it's a dog eat dog world, but not a kid eat dog world. 


Friday, September 20, 2013

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! 


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Em's Guest Post

Em's internet is still down, but her guest post on The S.I.P. Project that she mentioned last week went online today, so you can head over there for today's dose of Em's awesomeness

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Party Problems

Em and Camille threw Merle an awesome Pre-Birthday party this past weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such a fun spin on the normal Baby Shower (not that Baby Showers are bad at all, I just loved their creativity and spin on things). Birthday parties are a blast. Well, any party is a blast really. I just love parties and putting together events. If I were a cat and had 9 lives, in one of them I'd be an event planner. Where we live just isn't very conducive to being an event planner...you need somewhere with more people really. But I do love our rural area. 

Anyway...Merle's Pre-Birthday Party has me in a party mood, so I thought I'd go through our submissions and pull out some that have to do with party planning and shin-dig shenanigans.

So...what's the staple of any party? The food. We try so hard to put forth food that not only tastes fantastic, but that looks like it belongs in a food museum as well. Sometimes we end up with both good looking and tasty...and sometimes they are just one or the other. Or in sad cases...neither. So to start the post off, I give you a few Party Palate Pinstrosities:

Original Pin #1
http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2013/04/gummy-bear-layer-cake.html
I do love me some gummy bears (just not in ice cream...they get too hard and weird in ice cream). This cake is fun and colorful and sure to please just about any kid! 

Amber's son loves gummy bears, so she decided to give this a go for his birthday, but as the post didn't have any instructions, just a picture, she had to wing it.  Here's how hers turned out:

Pinstrosity #1

Amber says, "I told my son it was a gummy bear avalanche cake. NAILED IT!"  

Round stacked cakes can be a booger. I've only made one and it took me a while to get it not too lopsided or full-of-crumb frosting. The hardest part? Getting the bottom pretty! The plate/board is so hard to keep clean and/or to wipe clean. That's why I stick to pan cakes (where they only come out of the pan when you cut it up and serve it). I'm just not that adventurous. So when I see people try these round stacked cakes, I applaud them, regardless of how they turn out.

 So cakes aren't the easiest. What about cupcakes? 

Original Pin #2
http://www.ivillage.com/rubber-ducky-cupcakes/3-r-139110
I'm impressed that Tré even attempted these. I would look at them and think, "How cute! But not a chance." I'd give up before even trying. So hats off to you Tré. In his email he explains, "My daughter turned 1 last Wednesday, so we planned a Rubber Ducky themed party for her this weekend.  I got a little cocky and decided I'd try these."

Pinstrosity #2

"Well, a few things didn't go as planned...  The frosting I used to hold the head and tails on was too warm, so they started falling apart. Then the beaks refused to cooperate; I don't know what was supposed to happen there.  Then we put the eyes on with the frosting too warm, and that all melted...  I ended up with weeping zombie ducks.  My daughter still loved them, but really..."

Zombie ducks, bahahaha. I love his description. At least the daughter was happy! 

So the cake isn't always a success...but drinks. Those are the easy part, right? Hehe. 

Original Pin #3

You know how this turns out...I love this. Jen says, "I threw a baby shower for my best friend this weekend. I was using Pinterest for inspiration for a lot of decorations, foods, and games. One pinterest project went particularly wrong, however. Since the theme of the shower was penguins, we decided to take this punch recipe and use penguin rubber "ducks" in place of actual ducks. Furthermore, we were not able to find blue Kool-Aid and thus used the suggested replacement of blue Hawaiian punch. Let's just say the punch didn't turn out exactly as shown on the pin... "

Pinstrosity #3
"Our punch was a polluted mess! The color of the "bath water" turned out to be more of a green-brown murky color! Then, we put the rubber penguins in and they all fell over...
The bright side? It was delicious and quite hilarious. We named this new recipe 'Global Warming Punch.'"




Once we have the food figured out for a party, if we have extra time and energy the next step would be the decorations. How fancy do we go? Just the food table? The entire room? The entire house? The front porch? Here's a submission with party decorations that didn't quite match the Pinspiration:

Original Pin #4
This was a pin uploaded to Pinterest. I've spent nearly an hour trying to track down the original pinner/creator but I keep hitting dead ends.  But here was the caption on the pin: "Took $1.00 table cloths, cut slits and braided the tops to create fun party wall cover ups for my daughters birthday party at home."
Marissa saw this and gave it a try. "The pin said to use three table covers from the Dollar Store, and I did buy 3.  However, two were rectangular and one was round so I ended up using two.  As you can see I FAILED lol."

Pinstrosity #4


Luckily, the food and decorations don't make or break a party. Sure, they help...but you don't need a Disneyland worthy party for your guests to have fun and for the party to be a success! 

Thanks to our awesome readers/submitters for the party Pinstrosities!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Em's Internet is Down...And Merle's BaBy Q/ Pre Birthday Party!

So I'm stealing internet from my parents house while we are here for my Dad's Birthday. Our internet pooped out on us on Thursday and we have been stealing it from various people since and hopefully it will be fixed sometime in the next week or so.
 
Until then you will be hearing from the amazing Marquette! The only thing I have to share are some pictures from the BaBy-Q/Pre-Birthday Party we (Camille and I) threw for Marquette and Cameron and their little man.
 
Hope everyone has a great week, and I will hopefully be back soon!
 
 
I made the cake out of Rice Krispies, Cameron is a big time lizard man so I thought this would be fun...I think it turned out good!
 


 
 
I think they made out pretty good! It was really fun to see them open everything :)
 
Here is the diaper cake I made...there are bottles inside the middle of the "cake" that are filled with M&M's...one for Mom, one for Dad.
 Excuse my messy house...it's been one of those weeks haha
 

 
Happy Pre-Birthday Merle! Here's a chicken!
 
 
 
 

 


Monday, September 16, 2013

Mix-It-Up -Monday: The 10 Pin Plan


Wow. The MVD, Walmart, and getting blood work done can take up an entire morning. Glad that's over with! Before I get to today's funny pins, I came up with an idea. In Saturday's post I mentioned that sometimes I get right up to my Show and Tell Saturday post and realize I don't know what pin I want to test and show. Well, I decided to nip that in the bud and make a plan for the next two weeks. During these next two weeks I will be testing each of the following pins and reporting back to you how they worked, if I had to tweak them to work, and what went on. Some I'm testing because they look bogus. Others I'm testing because I'm hoping they actually work. So...here's what I'll be testing (in no specific order):

Pin Test #1
http://www.thecampuscompanion.com/party-lab/2011/10/21/aurora-drink/#.UjdiOcaTiqg
The caption for this pin says, "Ingredients: 2 liters of ginger ale, 9 liters of tonic water, and 3-4 canisters of pink lemonade. Instructions: Mix all of the ingredients together. Add ice as late as possible before drinking. Colors come to life under a black light. Just drinking some universe, no biggie."

The actual recipe when you click on the link though has slightly different ingredients:
2 liters Gin or Vodka, 9 liters Tonic Water, 3-4 bottles Roses Mojito Passion, or 3-4 Canisters of Pink-Lemonade Concentrate, Ice

Since 1. I don't drink and 2. I'm pregnant...I won't be testing the original recipe. I'll be testing the one in the caption. But even if I was testing the original recipe...I don't imagine a black light will suddenly make galaxies appear in a drink. On September 28th, I will show you what the non-alcoholic recipe in the caption does under a black light. Stay tuned. 

Pin Test #2
http://askannamoseley.com/2012/02/getting-rid-of-that-boy-smell-in-the-bathroom/
Pinned caption: "For the "boy's" bathroom...Yah. Step 1: Mix a paste of baking soda and lemon juice. The consistency of the paste should be about that of pancake mix. Step 2: Spread the paste all along the bottom of the toilet {where it meets the floor}, the toilet seat, and any other area that gets a lot of over spray. Let it set for about 10-15 minutes. Step 3: When the timer expires spray the dried paste with white vinegar and let it fizzle. Once it is done fizzing wipe it up with a damp cloth."\

That's basically what the original site says, so no having to test caption vs. real instructions here. I'm just hoping this will get that hall bathroom to not smell like a "boy bathroom" anymore. Oddly...it was little girls that made that bathroom smell like a "boy bathroom"...I don't know how they accomplished that. I don't think I want to know how that pee puddle ended up where it did. 

Pin Test #3
http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/funny-pictures/funny-picture-dump-of-the-day-54-pics/
It is tradition for me to do awesome hair do's on my nephews when I see them. Only the youngest nephew doesn't have much in the hair department right now. So...this is my plan for this weekend. His grandma will love it, bahahaha. 

Pin Test #4
http://www.agirlandagluegun.com/2012/03/oh-walti-love-you-aka-disney-printables.html
I haven't yet decided if this is going by my sink, the washer/dryer, or the laundry hamper...but I could use this reminder. Maybe it'll help me not be so grumpy when I'm working on chores. 

Pin Test #5
http://theseamery.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/fit-to-a-t-baby-romper-tutorial-part-2-making-the-pattern-and-cutting/
Turning t-shirts into baby clothes. 
I decided a while back that t-shirts just aren't for me. Don't get me wrong, they are super comfy...but they just don't flatter my body type as much as I would love them to. For years I tried to make them my shirt staple because so many other girls looked cute in them. Finally, I decided that shirts aren't a one-style-flatters -all kind of deal and I'm okay with that and now they just come out on cleaning, hiking, or grunge days. But I still have a drawer full of t-shirts that I'm sentimental about and don't want to get rid of. I've wantd to try this pin out to see if I can turn some of the sentimental t-shirts into clothes for Merle. We'll see how this goes. 

Pin Test #6
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/how-to-clean-your-top-loader-washing.html
How to clean your top loading washer. I realized just how disgusting my washer was when my very clean and tidy cousin came over and needed to run a load through. We'll give this pin a shot. 

Pin Test #7
http://www.sevenelles.com/tutorials/day-3-the-coolest-spot-in-the-house-just-became-even-cooler-fridge-coasters-tutorial/
The pinned caption I saw was this: "Refrigerator mats made from plastic place mats....great idea.....saves on cleaning the shelves, just pull out and clean the mats!!! Brilllllant!"

I thought this one was worth a try. The fridge gets so nasty so quick, we'll see if this makes cleaning it any easier. Someone commented on the pin after I pinned it and asked, "wouldn't it be really dark in the fridge then, without the light being able to shine through the glass shelves?" I have no idea right now, but we'll see. I'll let you know next Saturday! 

Pin Test #8
http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/cinnamon-bun-pecan-pie-recipe/
So many people have pinned this with the idea that the crust is actually made out of thin cinnamon roll slices...not the case! It's pie crust rolled cinnamon roll style. I've had this pinned for a while and I'm dying to try it out. I haven't decided yet though if I'm going to do apple pie or pecan pie. I guess you'll just have to wait until the 28th to see which I chose to try. 

Pin Test #9
http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/2012/10/casual-half-up-hair-tutorial-polka-dots.html
I have my go-to hair styles and I rarely deviate, but the go-to's are starting to get old. I'm going to try this one out this week and see how it goes. Now, if this were Emilee trying this, I'm sure it'd turn out gorgeous...but I haven't been through cosmo school and I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to hair tutorials. We'll see how this works. 

Pin Test #10
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/07/crockpot-italian-chicken.html
I eagerly pinned this a while back and my friend commented and said, "uh we tried this one and it was SUPER salty... like we threw it away it was so salty... let me know if yours is the same." I've been hesitant to try it, but I think I'm finally going to do it. We'll see how it turns out and if it does go too salty we'll see if we can figure out how to salvage it. 


So...there's my 10 Pin Plan for the next 2 weeks. Nothing super exciting, but now that I've told you I'm going to do these it means I better get them done! There's a method to my madness here. So...look for the report on September 28th. 

And since this wasn't all that exciting of a post, I thought I'd leave you with a few funnies:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/279575089339158395/


http://www.roadkilltshirts.com/LAZY-PEOPLE-FACT-35463098210-YOU-WERE-TOO-LAZY-TO-READ-THAT-NUMBER-T-SHIRT-WHITE-INK-P13458.aspx
I didn't read that number. I'll admit it right now. 

http://crsbbq.tumblr.com/post/57531498309/jellyfish-humor

I'm taking the red brick road.