Day 43- greeting card organization

First up-- I'm going to switch to Pin Numbers instead of "Day 43." We'll be doing a pin-a-week starting today! The next entry will be Pin 44.

Next-- Here's how the shirt from Day 40 came out:

The spot is still on the bottom right and noticable. I'm going to try my regular stain remover next and see what happens.


And now.. Day 41.

Friends, I couldn't bring myself to complete today's project! I set all my items up and with the demonstration pin. Here's the pin and the directions ( that bind cards together with a binder ring), but I was using cards I've had even from my 15th birthday. I began to read the cards and realized that some of the hand written notes inside would get a hole through the writing. Some of these were from my grandma who's passed away and I just couldn't hole punch threw her words! I have the cards organized in a bag by event and then in chronological order and decided to keep them this way. They are still organized and I can read every word. Here they are all nice and sealed in a a Ziploc :)

Days 41 & 42- cleaning paint brushes & cooking stain

Day 41-
On a spring cleaning binge I found paint brushes that hadn't been cleaned properly. There were two brushes- one that was a mess and another that wasn't too terrible. I took a BEFORE photo here:

I have this pin that says to soak the brushes in vinegar for 30 minutes and they will come out like new. Here's the AFTER photo my friends. How do you think these look?

Day 41, fail. I wound up tossing the yellow paint brush but salvaged the other.



Day 42-
I loved the grilled cheese pin for day 40 so much I made it today for Kelly. While I was doing this I somehow got a giant grease stain on my new shirt! NEW! I saw this pin that says to apply chalk directly to the stain. I did just that and the shirt is currently in the wash. I'll post a photo tomorrow of the end result.. but here's out the stain looked before the wash:

Alright my loyal readers, we're switching to a pin a week. My schedule is going to pick up and I'm likely going to be posting one accomplished pin on Monday's.

Happy pinning :)

Days 39 & 40- confetti and grilled cheese

Day 38 stretches helped! They aren't magical stretches, but they did relieve some of the pain. I did more of them today and my shoulders feel more relaxed.

Onto day 39! I've seen quite a few pins on how to reuse paint chips to make confetti. There's an example here.  I'm trying out different wedding colors ( leaning toward yellow and green) and bought a Martha Stewart heart hole punch at Michaels and made these in about 20 minutes. Since paint chips have a variety of shades, it gives it a full effect. Festive and cute :)

Day 40-
With the chilly weather everyone wants comfort food. I pinned this awhile back that makes an adult grilled cheese. It's a grilled cheese made with mozzarella and a side of marinara. I prefer provolone and made this super simple recipe. It was amazing! I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it but it's reminiscent of grilled cheese and tomato soup, a favorite. Here's how it came out (I promise, the photo doesn't do it justice!):

Day 38- yoga stretches for sore neck and shoulders

After holding stress in my shoulders, I've gotten quite a few knots. I decided to try a message yesterday, and I asked the therapist to work on my shoulders to really get the knots out. I'm very sore today and remembered I had a pin that would help with this.

Day 38-
I used this pin that uses stretches to relieve soreness. The first position "Shoulder and Neck Stretch Against the Wall" didn't work for me. I couldn't get myself situated correctly, and felt very uncomfortable. Seated Clasping Neck Stretch gave me some relief as did Behind the Back Neck Stretch. Overall, a good find. My only problem with this pin.. lots of pop ups in the website after you click through.

I'll let you know if these truly helped tomorrow! 

Day 37- a simple note

Wanted to do a very simple craft today and combed through the best of my pins. I reviewed about half of them here, at my main board. I came across a handwritten word (LOVE) pin that teaches you to write it without picking up a pen. It's very simple, and I left the small token for Kelly. My only suggestion is to practice a couple of times, it will cause less splotching in the final product.

Days 35 & 36- registry and contest

I've been on a break from work and have a had time to work on wedding planning. Yesterday was a big day, and I worked on the registry.

Day 35- registry tips
I'm not sure what brides did before Pinterest.. so many great ideas and helpful tips. I've organized my wedding pins into one board here. I used a helpful pin to work on the registry. It gives 7 tips; a few for in the store and a couple more for after you've finished. The most useful to me was #2: Do give yourself plenty of time to walk around. We did take time to really take things in and decide what would work best in our new home! I am happy that we've settled into the new place quickly and really made it our. It made it much easier to decide on items we really needed. Day 35--a very helpful pin!


Day 36- wedding contest
Pinterest has plenty of contests for you to enter. If you're trying to win paper products, wedding items, new jewelry, etc. Quite a few pop up on my feed every week and I found this pin of winning a photography package and couldn't wait to enter. The contest host puts instructions into a pin and very often you are to make a board using their pins to create inspirtaion. This promotes their company and gives an opportunity for their pins to hit different audiences. It often has very creative pins that would would use anyway, so it's a win win situation!

Hope you've had a successful weekend, readers!

Day 34- mashed cauliflower

Looking into healthier recipes I've wanted a substitute for mashed potatoes. They usually have a lot of butter, milk or heavy cream, and I wanted something better for me. I found a few pins of mashed cauliflower (like this one)  that did included butter and even cream cheese but I steered away from those!

I finally found this whole  foods recipe for plain mashed cauliflower, and it's so easy. It's literally just the cauliflower, olive oil and salt and pepper. I followed the instructions but did do garlic salt instead of plain salt to add a bit more flavor. And a serving is only 110 calories! Yum!

Day 33- quinoa pizza bites

I mentioned in Day 28 that we're trying to use ingredients that we already have in our house to make new recipes. We have an abundance of quinoa and Kelly just loves pizza. A friend pinned this recipe and it was fairly easy. Basically, it's supposed to feel like dough you dip in marinara. You do cook the quinoa first, which can be scary if you've never made it before. Don't worry! It's just like cooking rice.
I followed the directions exactly and they are a very good substitute for pizza. I would let them cool for at least 7-10 minutes. This allows them to fully set and it makes them easier for dipping. Below is a photo that I took about 5 minutes into cooling and they came apart a bit when I removed them from the pan!

Happy pizza Friday everyone!

Day 32- A valentine's day gift

In a pact I made with partner we had to make our gifts by hand for Valentine's day.
She's not much for the holiday but I LOVE it. Growing up we made it a day about loving everyone; especially friends and family. I wanted to do something special for Kelly, and I know she likes to hear compliments (since I'm sure I don't give them enough!), so I chose this pin .
It really wasn't that difficult to come up with 52 things I love about her! My one problem was trying to make sure that two hole punches would be even each time.. which is why I chose one punch. I took the top of the card to the three hole punch and kept on. But.. here's the reaction I got when she opened it (with just a couple of tears)--

Day 31- delicious smoothie

Trying to keep in a Valentine mood this week I decided to try a raspberry/chocolate smoothie from a pin I found here. The picture of what I made below does not do this justice. This is a delicious find! The recipe calls for 1 cup of frozen raspberries but I had about 3/4 of a cup and it came out just fine. It also suggests using a spoon instead of a straw.. and do it! You'll get all of your chocolate chips that way!

Mmmmm.....

Day 30- One month of pins

We've made it to Day 30, friends!
Just over 30 completed pins and I think we'll keep going for a bit longer. Just a heads up: I'm thinking of switching to a pin a week soon.

But for now--
Day 30- paper flower
Still working on projects for the wedding, and I've even created a wedding craft Pin board. I also wanted to try something small and an add on for Valentine's day. I went with this small red paper flower just using construction paper, pencil and scissors. I followed the photograph with the pin, and this is how the flower came out:

The flower didn't lay flat as it did in the pin demonstration, and it also doesn't have a way to hold the flower together. I adjusted the bottom to be less of a cone shape by hand and then glued the edge to the side. I also poked a hole threw the bottom and added a lollipop stick. I was determined not to let this pin go to waste!

Day 29-ticket memory box

We go to a lot of events-- theatre, hockey games, baseball games, concerts and we collect a lot of theoe tickets. I don't want to get rid of them as some of them have sentimental value! Instead of keeping them in a pile hidden in a drawer, I saw this pin that put tickets in a shadow box to display. Although I didn't use a box that has a slat at the top to drop the tickets in, the back of the box is easily removed to add tickets later. I printed the label that reads, "admit one" and the project was complete.
Here's what I came up with:

Day 28- oatmeal chocolate chip muffins

I loved today's pin! It was delicious!

We're trying something new at our house.. making a list of ingredients of what we have and then making a meal list. For breakfast we have these choices, lunch has these choices and dinner we can try this. It's going well, and since I don't eat oatmeal often enough we have quite a bit of it. I found this easy recipie for oatmeal chocolate chip muffins and they are delicious. The recipe is easy to follow (but don't put the chocolate chips in too early) and is a great "to go" option. My one worry about making these: her baking time is 20-30 minutes which is a big difference. I checked on the muffins at 20 minutes and they were ready. The pin has a photo of what the muffins should look like completed, but here's what they look like before they go in the oven:

Happy baking :)

Day 27- copycat McDonalds oatmeal

There's only been one oatmeal that I really enjoyed.. and it was at McDonald's. We had a coupon for a free sample and decided to go for it.

In still trying to become and oatmeal fan, I wanted to try a copycat recipie. Fairly easy and we already had the ingredients. The pin suggest using a mason jar, but I used a big bowl instead and doubled the recipe since it was for two people (one serving would have been plenty). It's a pretty straight forward recipe, and came out just like the photo. Kelly said that it's a sweeter oatmeal; she eats oatmeal almost every day.

I do like my oatmeal a bit more thick so I microwaved it for 30 seconds longer. She also has a "to go" demo that could be useful. Here's how it came out:

Day 26- crystal light storage

Today's pin is an easy one!
We drink a couple of crystal light quarts a year and I always thought it would be nice to save the containers. I couldn't come up with anything clever, so they always wind up in the recycling bin.. until THIS!

This pin has 25 ways to reuse the containers, my favorite being a cheese holder and sunglasses case. Of course I washed the container out first, and we'll see how long the cheese stays fresh but...here's what it looks like!

Day 25- banana bread oatmeal

I'm trying to get on the oatmeal train. I don't really like oatmeal, but I know it's good for you. Kelly really likes oatmeal, and I wanted to try a new recipe in hopes I'd like it. I found this pin to make banana bread oatmeal. It was a fairly simple recipe, and Kelly loved it. It made 3-4 servings, and I think I would also add cinnamon to the top. I'm still a little skeptical about oatmeal, but this was a good start. 

Day 24- hanging shoes

After living in a studio apartment I still worry that I will feel cluttered!
We have a lot of shoes between the two of us and saw a pin that suggested hanging shoes. Although the pin suggests using ballet shoes, we have a lot of converse gym shoes. Since they match and are easy  to tie to curtain rod they are what I chose to display in the bedroom. We had an extra towel rod in the bathroom and moved it into the bedroom. I then untied all the gym shoes and tied them to hang together on the rod. A fairly easy pin that's helping me stay organized (and I was able to donate two pairs that were well loved):

Day 23: bedroom headboard

Since we have a box spring and mattress with no headboard I wanted to make sure that we had something to fill the space. I've seen variations of this pin ; pieces of wood painted in some way and chose to stick with what I found orginially. We had some scrap pieces (after a failed attempt to make shelves) and I laid the 3 pieces out on the floor. I penciled "love" onto the three and painted over it. The pin suggests that you can use 3M strips to fix the headboard to the wall, but I was paranoid about it falling on my head while I slept! We secured it with something more heavy duty, but leave that up to you!

Day 21 & 22- tension rod space saver & bobby pins

Even though I have a lot of space in the new apartment, I don't think that it will always be like this. So, even though we don't NEED space savers just yet, I started anyway.

Tension rod space saver:
I had an extra curtain tension rod and saw this pin, of placing it under the sink to hang cleaning bottles.
It definitely saves space and makes it much easier to find things instead of reaching all the way to the back of the cabinet. Here's a photo (but is is dark under the sink!):












Bobby pins:

I guess I've been using bobby pins incorrectly! I usually separate the two sides and criss cross two pins if I want a tight hold. In this video pin she demonstrates that you are supposed to weave the pin through your hair. You are also supposed to be able to put up your full hair in one pin. With thick hair, I wasn't sure I believed her. I followed the instructions, and here is my updo using one bobby pin!

Day 20- a cleaner shower

Today was cleaning day in the apartment and I I've been wanting to try this pin. It's a shortcut to cleaning the shower. I took a dishwand and filled it with the half dawn/half vinegar mixture (we always have blue dawn in the house; it has so many uses!). I shook up the mixture a bit and jumped in the shower after cleaning the apartment. Super easy and saved me lots of time. 

Day 19- shower caddy

The shower in the new apartment is a tub with a shower head that is not permanently attached to the wall. There is a small piece that holds it there, so we have no where to put our caddy. I pinned this awhile back to my For the Home board and wanted to try hanging the caddy on the opposite side of the shower. I LOVE it! We have more room, the caddy isn't always falling off and since we have a lot of products in our shower the extra space is useful. Here's my accomplishment for today: