OMG edible glitter!!!!! I just died!!!

Have you ever played the game telephone? Where one person whispers something into another persons ear and we go around the circle and the last person says what they thought they heard? Anyway, "I love Ms. Young" ends up being "I pierced my tongue." That's the story of this pin...

I'm planning a baby shower for my oldest sister and I'm looking for some way to decorate the cupcakes. The colors are purple and glitter (yes glitter is a color). So my middle sister finds this really awesome pin with the title "OMG edible glitter!!!! I just died!!!!" with the following recipe:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon of food coloring

Bake at 350 degrees

for 10 minutes

Sounds perfect right? No. Ten minutes later I ask my sister what is smoking in the oven? Oh yeah, its my amazing edible glitter recipe. Turns out the sugar melted (duh) and it was burning onto my brand new baking sheet. 

The link to the OMG pin is some random picture blog and it really has no information. So I looked up the original pin and it turns out to be totally different from what I did. Its not "edible" glitter, its non-toxic glitter. And, it can be made from salt which might cook better. Also, a friendly tip from the web site: "Paste food coloring can result in smoke" ;)

Good to know.

Here's where to get your non-toxic glitter!

http://www.planetpals.com/craft-non-toxic-craft-supply-recipes.html

Pasta!

Dinner tonight was a quick pasta tossed with some spices. The website I got the "recipe" from was a "photo journal" so it was just a picture with the title "Pasta tossed with olive oil, garlic, red pepper, parsley, and Parmesan." And that's all I had to go on... 

This is literally what I did: I made the pasta, drizzled some olive oil on it, put in a good amount of parsley, grated some garlic, added some red pepper and dumped in some Parmesan. Toss, Toss, toss, then I'm done. Voila! 

The verdict: Typically I'm wary of recipes that are so extremely simple but I have to try them. This one wasn't bad. It was a little bland and could use some more spices or extra flavoring but I'd give it threes stars out of five. I do love this recipe because I had all the ingredients and I made it in about five minutes. How great is that?!

Link: http://witanddelight.tumblr.com/post/8362060475/dinner-pasta-tossed-with-olive-oil-garlic-red

Crayon Art!

 The above photo is my inspiration for this craft. It is quite simple. Get a painting canvas, hot glue crayons to the top, then melt the crayons by blow drying them. Of course you should set up an area with newspaper and what not so you don't get crayon in your carpet! But then, you're ready to go. 

This craft took maybe thirty minutes. Included in that time is the time it took me to sketch the picture of the little girl and paint it. Also, picking out the different crayons took some time.The actual heating of the crayons took maybe five mintues.

The verdict: I am so happy with my outcome (below)!  I really like the look with the crayons still attached but I needed some space for my quote and the crayons could have (and were) reused. There are so many different possibilities that this project will never get old. The look of the melted crayon is so cool and this project is so easy that I think everyone should try it!

"Into Each Life, Some Rain Must Fall" -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

DIY chain bracelet

I found this beautiful bracelet on Pinterest and decided that I would make a few as Christmas presents. It ended up being fairly simple and very inexpensive. I got the chains and rhinestones at Michael's, the string at WalMart and the clasps at JoAnn's. I probably could've gotten all the materials at JoAnn's but it was not my first stop. The total cost for this project was about $15 and I made three bracelets with some extra left over. 

The website does a really good job of guiding you through making the bracelet and it did not take me very long to make each bracelet. The first one I did looked bad so I re-did it and it looked great! If I were to do it again I would buy suede string instead of cheap black string, but it still worked. 

The verdict: The above photo is my final product! I think it looks great and the recipients seemed to love them! You can only see one chain because I used two different size chains. Come to find out you are not supposed to do that. Oh well! They look so nice but they are so inexpensive! 

Website link: http://www.ispy-diy.com/2011/07/my-diy-chain-and-rhinestone-bracelet.html

Cookie Dough Bites

For my work party this year I wanted to bring something that would accomodate one co-worker who has a wheat allergy and another who is vegan and only eats raw food. Impossible right? Almost. I made these cookie dough bites using gluten free flour and the recipe calls for no eggs and is not cooked! Perfect, I thought. 

The problem with these bites should have been obvious from the recipe. It is sugar, vanilla, flour, and butter. And that is exactly what it tasted like. It tasted like a sugar-butter ball. When my sister tried them she asked "you're not really taking these to your party are you?" I did and some people lied and said they were good but I could tell by all the one-bite chunks in the garbage that they were not good. 

The verdict: When you've got a wheat allergy, a vegan, and a raw diet...bring a vegetable tray. These were really easy to make but tasted terrible. I won't be making these again. 

The Link: http://family.go.com/food/recipe-639377-cookie-dough-bites-t/#memberViews

Hawaiian Sweet Roll Ham Sandwich!

Yay! Back to the food. Okay, this recipe was really complicated. I basically looked at the picture and decided to make my own version. I simplified it down to Hawaiian sweet rolls, ham lunch meat, and pre-sliced swiss cheese. 

I would take a couple sweet rolls (usually four), open them up, put a chunk of cheese and a chunk of ham, and bake it in the oven until the cheese melted. I would eat them right there or I would save them for lunch the next day. 

The verdict: Super yummy! I didn't need a fancy recipe to make a delicious sandwich. I will be making these again because they are so simple and easy to take for lunch. 

Recipe: http://www.beyerbeware.net/2011/04/hunk-of-meat-monday-game-time-favorites.html

Deep pore cleaner

This is gross so I'll blog about it quickly before we get back to my favorite, food! Anyway This is a recipe for a mask that you can use to supposedly clear your pores. I chose to do it because I like a clean smooth face and I already had the gelatin. 

I made the mixture real quick, applied it, then proceeded to spend about 15 minutes cleaning. After about 10 minutes most of my face was as stiff as Joan Rivers and I really wanted to take it off. When I started to take it off it was really painful on my cheeks and forehead. In fact, most of it did not come off either at all or in strips like the site says it will. I ended up washing most of it off to reveal a red and very sad face. 

The verdict: I'm not going to do this again. Frankly, I didn't feel like it cleaned my face and it was really painful. This idea was actually the reason I started this blog up. I don't want anyone to try this. My face felt really soft but it wasn't worth the price I paid. I'd recommend just going with a sugar scrub, it smells nicer and well, I love them. 

Link: http://petitelefant.com/how-to-pore-strips/