Pin #4-Coconut Oil Hair Mask

I love coconut oil!  It is great for cooking, baking and as I found out great for your hair.

Pin #4-Coconut Oil Hair Mask

http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982389159751/ 

http://piquemypinterest.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/coconut-oil-hair-mask/ 

Difficulty Rating: 2
Overall Satisfaction:

This hair treatment couldn't have been simpler or required any fewer supplies!

 

This is a very basic post, but very effective.  If you aren't familiar with coconut oil let me introduce you!  Coconut oil comes as a solid, but easily melts into a liquid when brought to your body temperature.  

 That's my frizzy hair face!

Apply the coconut oil liberally to your hair.  Cover your freshly oiled hair with a shower cap...or if you are poor and shower cap-less (as I am right now) use a grocery sack.  Then to retain heat cover with a hat of some sort.  Thanks to my hubby for unknowingly letting me use his work hat for this step.

Sit around looking really cool like I did in the above pictures and allow your hair to soak up the oil.   I left it on my head for almost three hours.  About ten minutes before washing my hair out I used the blow dryer to help add some more heat and really open up my hair to absorb the oil.

After the three hours were up, I washed my hair and conditioned it as I normally would.

Scrub your hair really well to be sure you remove all the oil.  I could see a noticeable difference in the smoothness and softness of my hair.  Even my husband commented on how soft it felt!  I was really happy with it and plan on doing it again in the next week or so.  

Also, I have stopped using moisturizer on my face and have switched to using only coconut oil.  My skin gets very dry in the winter, and is always sensitive no matter what the season.  I have had great success with the coconut oil...and added bonus, its only around eight dollars for what I would consider almost a lifetime supply!!  A little bit goes a long way.

For full information on this pin, please check out the links at the beginning of this post.  If you have a pin you'd like me to try or would like to share your results please post it in the comments section!

Pin #3-"Faux"nuts (Biscuit Donuts)

So, I have to start by tooting my own horn...."Faux"nuts, come on, you have to admit that's a good one.  Get it, because they are fake donuts!  Okay...moving on.

Biscuit Donuts (a.k.a. "Faux"nuts)
http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982389069222/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Doughnuts/ 

Difficulty Rating: 3.5 (for use of hot oil, and time management)

Over all Satisfaction:

Let me start by saying, I know this is not healthy, but I thought it would be a nice, inexpensive treat in moderation!

 I pinned this several months back, and just so happened to have all the ingredients this required.
The original recipe did not call for the "flaky" or "Jr." variation of the refrigerated biscuits, that's just what I had on-hand.  I think the "Jr." size was great though, because they're smaller and perfect for child-sized donut or a small "cheat" on your diet.

Cutting the hole in the donuts is very easy, and fun because you are left with donut holes!  Who doesn't love donut holes!?  The original pin suggests using a shot glass to cut the holes, but since I used the "Jr." sized biscuits I had to improvise.  My sprinkle lid was just right for the job.

Heat your oil in a large skillet.  The oil needs to be warm enough that when you start to put the first donut in the oil bubbles when the biscuit touches the oil.  Having your oil warm enough is important, because if your oil is too cold the biscuit will absorb the oil, holding in more fat and calories, and get soggy.  Yuck!

Allow donuts to cook 1-2 minutes on each side.  Use care when turning them over because the may splatter and if you use the "flaky" variety they can easily pull apart.

Let the donuts rest on a paper towel to drain off some of the excess oil.  While they are still warm place donuts in a small paper bag (or Bath and Body Works bag, like me) with the cinnamon and sugar and gently shake.

Tah Da! Delicious, warm, fresh donuts and donut holes.  With the ingredients I used, this recipe made ten donuts and donut holes.  The tube of refrigerated biscuits cost me $.49 with a coupon, making this A LOT cheaper than running to Krispy Kreme.  My husband loved these donuts so much that I will be limiting how often I make them, out of respect for his waistline!

For full instructions on this pin, please visit the link under the title of this blog entry.
If you have a pin you'd like me to try, or want to share your experience trying this pin, let me know in the comments section!  Thanks for visiting!

Pin #2-CD/DVD Scratch Removal

Please note, you will never see the front of the disc that I am working on.  Just like anyone else, my musical past is riddled with embarrassing music choices, and quite frankly, my husband judges me enough for it.  I will however give you a hint, it rhymes with "tubatank".  Don't judge me!

CD/DVD Scratch Removal
http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982388104687/ 
http://thehandmadedress.blogspot.com/2008/09/do-you-suffer-from-scrached-dvds_27.html
Difficulty Rating: 2
Overall Satisfaction Rating:

It's safe to assume that if there was any type of organized association to protect the safety of CD's, my right to purchase them would have been revoked a loooooong time ago!  But, luckily for me, there isn't, so I have had the ability to use and abuse many discs over the years.  So, when I pinned this pin a while back I was very excited at the idea of being able to repair these $12-$14 musical gems for very little money.

All you need to fix the scratches in video games, DVD's and CD's is your scratched disc and kid's toothpaste.  I do want to point out, this is the exact toothpaste in the picture as is recommended by the blog that is pinned.

Dot the toothpaste on the disc and simply rub in a circular motion.  In the picture I used five dots, my second time through doing this I found that three dots of toothpaste is plenty.  When rubbing the toothpaste it does require a good amount of pressure.

 Rinse the toothpaste off and dry with a soft, dry cloth.  I found Viva paper towels were perfect for this step because of how soft they are.

Next, I put the CD in our laptop (because my husband pointed out we don't own a CD player. Yes, we ARE that cool and technologically advanced) to play the disc and rejoice that my negligence was easily fixed.  Unfortunately, this is where my low "Over all Satisfaction" rating comes in.  After the first time through, my disc still skipped, a lot!  So I tried again, with a less damaged disc.  My second attempt was successful, and the scratched CD played as well as the day I bought it.

Being ever optimistic, I went back to the original disc and tried two more times to buff the scratches out.  Sadly enough, the CD never played without skipping.  Because this method is so inconsistent, I had to give it a lower star rating. 

I will definitely try this on my (many) other scratched discs, because the tube of kids toothpaste cost $1.00, so there really is not cheaper way to repair a CD.

For full instructions please visit the pin link found under the title of this blog entry.
If you have a pin you'd like me to try, or you try this pin and want to share your experience, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

Pin #1- Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats

So the first "Pin" I decided to post is one that I pinned some time ago.  I love rice crispy treats, and I love cake batter so this treat was a no brainer! So without further adieu....Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats.

Since this is my first "real" post I will map out exactly what kind of format you can expect from now on!  In each of my blog entries I will start by giving props to where this pin came from.  From there, you will find a "difficulty" rating and "over all satisfaction" rating. Difficulty ratings are a score out of ten, one being "kid-friendly" easy and ten being "power tools and emergency room visit" hard.  Over all satisfaction rating will be a star rating.  One star being the lowest rating, and five being the highest.   At that point you can expect pictures documenting my experience, along with tips and commentary to assist you in your endeavor, should you decide to try it out yourself!

Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/cake-batter-rice-crispy-treats/

http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982388118845/ 

Difficulty Rating: 2 (only because the stove is involved)

Overall Satisfaction: 

I love my nesting doll measuring cups!

Step one-Clean up the kitchen...some of you may get to skip this step, lucky dogs!  After everything's spic and span this recipe is a straight forward rice crispy treat recipe, with the exception of the 1/3 cup of dry cake mix.

Oops..forgot one supply in my picture!  These might come in handy!

 Melt butter and add marshmallows.

Make sure you pick a large enough pan...I didn't!

Once the marshmallows are melted completely add the 1/3 Cup dry cake mix,

add rice crispies and press into pan.

A great tip when it comes to pressing the rice crispy treats into the pan is to use the wrapper from the butter to push the treats flat.  The butter keeps the rice crispy treats from sticking to the paper without having to use cooking spray or any other tools.

My husband and I loved the taste of these and will definitely make them again.  The only thing that kept this from getting an "over all satisfaction" rating of five stars is the fact that there is quite a bit of cake mix left, so you almost have to make them again!  Waste not, want not...right?!

Not only did we enjoy this recipe, but so did my bank account.  Cereal coupons are plentiful, and if you don't have a coupon using the "off-brand" cereal won't affect the outcome of your dessert.

For the complete pin, with details and measurements please visit the link under the title on this page.
If you have a pin you'd like me to try please put the link in the comment section!

Idle Hands...

“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Boredom...not something a lot of people have time for, and up until recently neither did I.  Working full-time as a preschool teacher and spending time with my husband left little time for free time.  Oh how quickly things can change!  Long story short, in the past month I have found myself at home and unemployed (by my own choice).  A great friend of mine is opening a cupcake shop, PolkaDot Cupcakery (check her out http://www.polkadotcupcakery.com/) and asked me to work for her.  So, while she is getting the ball rolling on opening the shop, I have found myself at home, a lot!  And without a job, money isn't as abundant as we'd like it to be.

So with those circumstances I got to thinking.  There is only so much time you can spend on Facebook.  So I ventured to Pinterest to build up my virtual boards.  That's when I realized, I pin things left and right but I never really DO anything I pin.  Until now!  So this blog is just that...me actually DOING what I pin and documenting the whole thing.  I will break every aspect of the pins that I do down from the cost, to the ins and outs and everything in between.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you, and would love to have your feedback!  If you have a pin you'd like me to try (keeping in mind my budget) let me know!