I Pintered and I Failed....Wall Art Take 2

I saw this on Pinterest and I thought it was cool and neat and awesome.  So I decided to attempt to make one.

original pic from here
pinterest link here

So I made a smaller version with different colors.  I hate mine.  There are just too many things wrong with it.  The colors.  Too much white.  Too much of a contrast.  Too much brown.  The zigzag lines are too big.  They bled through.  Basically I just hate it.  Luckily acrylic paint is cheap as were the canvases I bought, so I will probably just paint over it.

I made this male model I found in my living room pose with the art to make it more exciting and to distract from the actual "art work".

I also made this one.  I don't hate it as much but I'm not in love with it.  Also the squares at the bottom being smaller than the other squares will slowly and steadily annoy me over time until I go crazy most likely.

Maybe abstract art is just not my thing.

Any ideas for cheap DIY wall art?

Homemade Valentine's Day Cards

I thought it would be fun for B and I to exchange homemade Valentine's Day cards this year.  He seemed excited thrilled cool with participating.

He went for beauty, color and animal humor.  Bonus-It's 3 dimensional.  I give it an A+....

I went for sentiment, humor and something that didn't involve glue.  I give myself a B- because it's not as pretty as I was hoping and it makes you kind of dizzy when you try to read it.  (It's a bunch of inside joke quotes from our hilarious times together.)  (PS-Morgan, it was inspired by that thank you card you sent us for coming to Vegas.)

They look so lovely on the mantel together.

And of course I had to make my new baby friend, KMU a First Valentine Ever card.  I emailed her one of my Microsoft Paint specialties.  Her mom said she loved it.

Did you give or receive any handmade Valentine's?

Falentine's Weekend

My Valentine and I decided to get a jump on Valentine's Day and do a little celebrating this past weekend.  I call it Falentine's Day (you know I like to make up words).

The scones we made last year turned out so well that we decided to make them again.  B looked mad in the first picture I took so I told him to look excited.  This is what I got....

The beer was to help with the baking...not an actual ingredient.  We also had our friend, pregnant (with an orange baby) Russian measuring cup doll to assist us with our ingredients. 

I used the scones in the Falentine's Day brunch I prepared for us on Sunday (featuring fruit/granola parfaits).  The bacon and potatoes (from the breakfast buffet at Harris Teeter) were a late add.

"Oh hey guys, it just me, Hobie.  I would really like to take some of that bacon off your hands.  Can you see me here?  I'm waiting patiently but I will leap up on the coffee table if necessary."

"Mmmm, these also smell nice.  What's that?  Orange and cranberry?  But really, just give me some of the bacon."

It was a lovely Sunday Morning brunch.  B also took me out for a nice Falentine Dinner on Saturday on what turned out to be the coldest night of winter so far.  Good times. 

Later this week I will unveil the amazing Valentine's Day card I made B while watching How I Met Your Mother last night.

Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day?
Or do you hate Valentine's Day and think it's a stupid fake holiday made up by greeting card companies?

Either way, Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!

Super Bowl Stuff and Such...

We decided to have a few friends over to watch the Super Bowl and I decided to attempt a semi-hard looking recipe for Soft Pretzel Bites from What's Gaby Cooking.  It wasn't that it was really complex, it just seemed to have a lot of steps.  I got to use my dough hook for the first time and there was even a fun step where you poured baking soda into a pot of boiling water.  You can check out the recipe for more details.

My final picture isn't great but they tasted really good and surprisingly pretzel like.  It was a long process but worth it.

We had a ton of other food as per usual.  B made some delightful blue cheese stuffed sliders.

I missed most of the commercials but I had a good reason.....

There was a baby there! It's my new mini BFF, KMU (we will call her that for the time being, I don't want her to get too famous too fast, Suri Cruise style). Beezus5 had a baby on her exact due date and her first outing was to my basement for some football.  I'm pretty sure Hobie thought she was a giant burrito.

"Hobie, this is not food, it's a tiny person."

Look at her pretty hair.

 I'm such a natural with babies....well I'm working on it.

Telling her stories about her mom from the olden days.

So that was my Super Bowl experience. 

What did you do?
Did you bake anything?
Did any new babies attend your Super Bowl Party?

The Weirdest Thing I've Ever Pintered-Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough??

Have you ever seen something on Pinterest (or the Internet) that just seemed too good to be true or just plain crazy?  Well that's what I thought when I saw this pin for "healthy" chocolate chip cookie dough dip.  It wasn't that I didn't believe it could be healthy.  It was that I thought it would taste disgusting since one of the main ingredients was chickpeas.  But I was curious.   So I decided to give it a shot.

I did as the recipe said and mixed together the chickpeas, peanut butter, vanilla, etc in my food processor and then added in the chocolate chips.

So the big question.....How was it?  It's hard to say.  It tasted pretty good.  There was a slight hint of chickpea taste and texture and I honestly just kept thinking about the chickpeas the whole time I was eating it.  It definitely wasn't disgusting.  I felt healthier eating it than I do when I "taste" raw cookie dough.  I really wish I could have had a blind taste test without knowing about the chickpeas.  I think that would have made me like it more.  My husband seemed to like it ok but I didn't catch him running back in for extra servings.

But yes I would maybe make this again.  It would be fun to take it somewhere and see if people like it before telling them there were chickpeas in it.  Someone do this and let me know.

In other news, I also pintered these really easy pretzel and peanut butter truffles.  I thought these were really good and I'm definitely going to make them again.  You just food process some pretzels and mix a little peanut butter in until you can form balls.  After freezing the balls, dip them in chocolate and let them set.  Good stuff.  Make some for your boyfriend for Valentine's Day.  Or maybe your Dad if he really likes peanut butter.

So those are my recent Pinterest projects.

Has anyone else made the "healthy" cookie dough?  It was a really popular pin on the site.

What have you been pintering?

Should I stop using the word 'pinter' as a verb?  Yeah probably.