Magic Cake and My Sister Made Me Do IT

It has been a while for a cooking experiment.  Both my sister and I pinned from pinterest a Magic Cake recipe via Jo Cooks.  What is a magic cake.  It has 3 layers without each layer having to be poured.  My sister practically dared ME to make this. 

This is made totally with ingredients I think most people have on hand. It took about 15 minutes to whip up and an hour to bake.  The batter was quite runny which I guess is quite normal.  I think I might have over whipped my egg whites but it turned out fine.  The only addition I made was a 1 teaspoon of Mexican vanilla (Thanks Mrs Epi)

I got 3 layers kinda of.  The bottom crust was barely there.  I had to have the first bite so not to poison my family and prove to my sister that this was quite edible. The cake is delicious.

31 days of Little Things - Do you pin?

Do you pin as in Do you use Pinterest?  I admit I am addicted to this site.  I love that it acts like a storage place for your idea boards essentially.  I was always forgetting to bookmark those great ideas I would see out in blog land or I would have no idea why I had something bookmarked. Secondly, I have tried so many things because of pinterest and the majority have been really successful.  You can click on my link located on the right side of my blog to follow my pins on Pinterest. There are a lot of 31 dayers (those people who are linking up to Nester and committing to blog for 31 days) who are doing 31 days of Pinterest. Here are a few. 31 Days of Pinterest: Pinned to Done, 31 (more) Days of Pinterest, 31 Days fo Pinterest, 31 Days of Pinterest Projects. ( I am pretty sure I missed some) This one is cracking me up 31 Days of My Non-Pinteresting Life. 

Here is a link to my pinterest board that has things I have tried and were successful. My favorite are some of the food ones such as Banana Bars and Hootenanny.

The Nester is once again doing 31 days of blogging. Check out what others are writing about for 31 days.

Felt Heart Garland

Source: duitang.com via Heather on Pinterest

I saw this on pinterest.  So, the Diva and I whipped some of these hearts up. 

I am not sure I like the stringing of these.  I need to think of a better way to do that.  The hearts kept flipping over. Though it might not be an actual problem once it is up and the string is taunt. This is a great beginning sewing project.  The Diva made most of this all by herself using the sewing machine.

Paper Plate Skulls

top row - Chuckles, Big E
bottom row - Me, Diva, Giant Man child

Totally unrelated to Columbus Day yesterday in the morning, we made Paper Plate Skulls. The original idea is found at Scrumdilly - Do.  Scrumdilly-Do has some really great step by step directions there. Even the Giant Man child got in the act with the Skull with the Mohawk.  This project is based on the holiday Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, celebrated in Mexico.

Happy Columbus Day

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

In honor of Columbus Day, we had a special snack today.  Inspired of course by Pinterest.  The original idea is from here. This was easy and self explanatory - blue jello, skewer, orange slice, paper sail. I think the kids enjoyed it. Unfortunately, they had to go to school today.

OP Art Kicking and Screaming

I saw this OP Art project  or 3-D  Art on Pinterest.  The project was from We Heart Art. She has some great directions. It looked fun.  The Diva dug right in. She is so motivated at 7 am in the morning. Me, I am not that motivated that is why I tried to have something planned.

I did pre-draw these lines.

I tried rather unsuccessfully to bribe the boys to do this project with the promise of computer time.  I don't know if I will use the strategy again.  I don't want to force anyone to do art but I don't want them playing computer all morning. I need to keep them busy and give them better choices. Big E made the project a lot more coloring.  He didn't complete.  What he did do was really great. We used dots to indicate what part to color in.

Chuckles initially needed a lot of assistance and was not into it.  He managed to complete. This was too much coloring for him.  It did turn out.

Of course, I did my own.  I wouldn't pass up a cool  3-D art project. This reminded me a lot of this line drawing project we did.

Slime

Last week there was a request from the crew to make SLIME!  I said OK.  I am all about 7 am slime. This was hit.  I got 100% participation which is a rarity these days. A little glue, water, borax, and food coloring and your set. This was a cheap experiment too.  I was able to get the  regular school glue at  40 cents a bottle.  I used the recipe at  Our Best Bites. The kids wanted to try clear glue.  The Idea Room had a glow in dark slime and a good video explaining the making of slime and polymers.

Today, we used clear glue.  These were see through.  I think the regular glue worked better. The clear stuff seems to fracture and not be so much of a blob.  The kids loved it, though. Some of us made creatures such as BOB the BLOB by Big E.

Eventually everyone mixed there clear and regular slime together.  Chuckles was definitely the nicest looking but Big E's looked like some weird upchuck - yuk.



Blackberry Cream Cheese Braid

The other day the Giant Man Child came home with a bag of blackberries he had picked.  I had pinned this Blackberry Cheese Danish on Pinterest.  So, I gave it a shot.  OH MY! It was delish.  The only thing I did different was actually blend the blackberries with the cream cheese mixture.  The picture above is without the frosting. Believe me, we had frosting.  It was really creamy delicious warm from the oven.  My braid wasn't that beautiful but it worked out. Pinterest is adding pounds to my thighs.

Ruler Wreath and a Challenge

I decided to partcipate in Nester's Wreath Challenge.  There are some really cool wreaths. I saw this lovely ruler wreath from Polka Dot Chair on Pinterest. So, 15 rules later this is what I ended up.

Unlike the original, the rulers are glued to a lip of a landscaping pot.  I cut lip off the pot with an exacto knife. I didn't want to go out and purchase a embroider hoop and didn't have a chance to run to Goodwill to look for a cheap one. I looked around my husbands garage and had an AHH moment.

I read the orginal post at wrong so I bought only 7 rulers at .59. Then I realized I need at least 7 or 8 more rulers to make my Ruler Wreath dream come true. As luck would have it ,Walgreens had wooden rulers on sale for .19.   Each ruler is cut in half and hot glued on the plastic 6 inch ring.

I embellishd with some newspaper flowers and legal paper flower repurposed from another wreath and made a red pipe cleaner flower. I think it still needs some kind of ribbon to cover the wreath hook.

I have a little wreath addiction. I cannot lie. So you might want to check out my snake wreath.

I also have a $5 Dollar Store Wreath I made. This is made with a lot of pipe cleaner flowers.

Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites

My kids have been begging me to make homemade pretzels.  I have never made pretzels.  Yesterday, when I was checking out Pinterest.  I came across these Ham and Cheese Pretzel bites.  I gave these a shot.

They really turned out terrific. Other than being time intensive as you had to wait for the dough to rise, these are totally doable.  My crew gobbled these up in no time. I ended up with about 25 pretzel bites.These would be great for football watching.

My Top Wordy Things found on Pinterest

I admit it I am addicted to Pinterest. I have always loved quotes. This is from my word board at Pinterest. These are my Top Wordy things. I am joining Oh Amanda and the Top 10 Tuesday.  I have been email a pinterest "quote a day" to my sister the Polyester Princess because some of them crack me up.

Source: etsy.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: sogeekchic.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: heyawesome.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: icanrelate.info via Heather on Pinterest

Source: None via Heather on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: None via Heather on Pinterest

Source: ysvoice.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: primitivesbykathy.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Heather on Pinterest

50 sucks bouquet

I saw this on pinterest(original inspiration below) and couldn't resist gifting this for my cousin's 50th Birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDEE!  I heard there was going to be quite the party in your honor.

Source: meetthedubiens.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Original Idea

Disappearing Banana Bars

Source: cutthecraft.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pinterest is adding to my waistline.  I saw a picture of these delicious banana bars via Pinterest found on this blog.  Facing 3 dark bananas, I decided to give it a go. These bananas didn't even make it to the banana farm in the freezer.

This morning the picture above is what is left of all that goodness.  This recipe is a keeper.