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?

Random Musings Friday...

My always* fascinating Random Musings.....linking up with Shana from Fumbling Towards Normalcy.

Last night for dinner we had baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts and apple sauce.  I sat down the apple sauce in front of my husband first and he was all "Oh, apple sauce.  Usually when the apple sauce comes out it means you are phoning in dinner."  Burn.  But true, not my best effort.

Some of my friends and I recently signed up for a "beer school" at a local restaurant.  A brewery comes in and you get to sample 6 mini beers and the chef at the restaurant pairs the beers with 6 appetizers.  I just checked out the menu for that night (it's set in advance) and apparently I will possibly be sampling grilled beef heart.  I feel like I will have some emotional/mental problems eating that, but the rest of the menu looks good, so we'll see.

This is a very boring work story.  You have been warned.  I ordered some supplies for another department.  The order came and my credit card was charged.  Then the order came again and my credit card was charged even though we didn't order the items and didn't accept them.  Then the order was credited.  Then the order was accidentally credited again but only part of it.  This is not the whole story but basically I was on the phone with Staples for like 3 hours on Tuesday and I had to spread the paperwork out on the floor in my cube because it wouldn't all fit on my desk.  In conclusion, I'm so important here at work.  Changing lives one Staples order at a time.*

Hobie Vs the Balloon is still happening.  Even though the balloon has shrunk greatly, Hobie is still losing this battle due to fear.

My team won trivia this week because I knew that Bobby Brown was 42ish instead of 58ish (like the other team guessed in the tie-breaker answer).  Go me.

Have a great weekend everybody!

*sarcasm

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!!

Random Musings Friday...

I'm sharing my random musings from the past week (with Shana's Random Musings from Fumbling Towards Normalcy).  You will love them....

Is this the best form of laziness?  I wanted to run (slow jog) two miles on the treadmill last night but the thought of jogging for a full 22 minutes made me sad so I decided to up my speed to 10 minutes miles to cut the time by 2 minutes.  Making my run last less time was the sole purpose or the faster speed; not to try to increase my usual pace.  Lazy or just less slow?

I also sometimes like to try to solve random math word problems that I create in my head while jogging.  Yesterday on the treadmill I realized I weigh at least 20 times more than Beezus5's new baby (her baby weighs somewhere between 6 and 9 pounds-that's all I'm giving you).  Who loves math!?!?!

Will Arnett has a really really deep voice.  I know that this is pretty common knowledge but the other day I was discussing it with B.  I think B has a normal male pitch voice but after watching Up All Night, B's voice suddenly seemed high pitched.

B jammed his finger playing basketball this week so he can't really bend his right pointer finger.  So he attempted to have me tie one of his shoe laces for him the other day.  Then he yelled* at me and said I was doing it all wrong.  He also strongly disapproves of my method to just tie my tennis shoe one time and slip my feet in and out of them instead of having to tie them every time I put them on (another example of my laziness?)  Which do you do?

And let's not forget Hobie.  B purchased a Patriots balloon for the Super Bowl.  I thought it would be fun to attach it to Hobie's collar.  Hobie did not think that was fun.  He tried his hardest to escape from the balloon by speed running around the basement but since it was attached to him he had no luck.  So I removed it.  But now every time he sees the balloon he viciously barks at it.  I take it he's a Giants fan.  His father strongly disapproves.

Fascinating stuff, right?
Happy Weekend!

*in a faux angry manner

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.