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/

Sweater Shaving!

So, stepping away from food for one minute, I tried sweater shaving. I remember one year looking to buy my sister a sweater shaver for Christmas. It was probably about ten dollars and I'm pretty sure it didn't work. This technique however, does work.

I should've taken pictures, but I didn't. I took this really cute Hollister sweater that my boyfriend bought me last year? The year before? I believe I wore it once or twice and these giant sweater fuzzes started to show up. It got so bad that I stopped wearing it. I'm glad I kept it though!

A year or two later...I got a fairly new razor and started to go to town on this sweater. In about an hour (it was a big sweater, and I was watching  Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) I had a fairly new sweater. It wasn't perfect by any means but it was definitely wearable.

The verdict: It works! I wore the sweater the next day and my sister asked if it was new! I am definitely going to try this on some other clothes that are on their way out. It is a  great sweater shaving saving technique!

Link: http://www.mommysavers.com/2011/09/money-saving-tip-diy-sweater-shaving/

Chicken Pot Pie Muffins

This was a really tasty and really easy recipe. It was so simple that I actually followed the recipe and didn't change it. I've only made this once and so I came up with things I would change about it if I were to do it again.

When I made mine the dough was a little thick so I ended up with a lot of muffin, a little pot pie. So, next time I would thin out the dough more so I can fill the muffin with as much pot pie mixture as possible. That was really the only thing I changed, it was that good!

The verdict: This was an excellent recipe. It didn't take long to make and the muffins froze wonderfully. I would serve these for dinner, as an appetizer, or take them to school for lunch (which is what I did). I'm going to highly recommend this recipe :)

Recipe Link: http://simplybeingmommy.com/2011/08/22/chicken-pot-muffins/

Mozzarella, Tomato, Pesto Grilled Cheese!

The recipe that I pinned for this treat was way too complicated so I simplified it for my life. My first step was to go to the store and get my ingredients. I cut it down to four ingredients. I got a whole tomato, whole grain bread, shredded mozzarella, and pesto sauce.

Here's my reasoning. Whole mozzarella is way too expensive for a poor college student like myself. Shredded mozzarella is cheaper and easier to store and use for other recipes. Homemade pesto sauce is probably really delicious but I don't have the time or the money for the ingredients (pine nuts?!). They have pre-made pesto sauce in the fancy cheese section next to the deli.  So I paid about ten dollars total for the ingredients. I ended up getting two tomatoes and made 4-6 sandwiches. (I got tired of the recipe after two so I made pesto pizza using pita bread for the left over ingredients!)

The verdict: Absolutely delicious. There is something I love about pesto sauce that makes everything so amazing. This was seriously the best grilled cheese I'd ever had. I will definitely be making this again.

Original Recipe: http://anediblesymphony.blogspot.com/2009/04/tff-fic-grilled-cheese-forever.html 

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