Oven Hard Boiled Eggs

I love hard boiled eggs, especially late at night when I have NO business eating hard boiled eggs. When I saw on Pinterest I could cook my beloved eggs in the oven, I was intrigued!

Preheat oven to 325-350 depending on how well your oven heats. I did mine on 325. Put the eggs in a muffin tin so they don't roll around. Can you imagine having to clean up a broken egg from the oven?! Yuck!

 Cook for 30 minutes and immediately bath in a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking process. I left mine in the water for about 5 minutes. I'm assuming you can remove them sooner as long as you don't burn yourself peeling.

 So I read that cooking the eggs in the oven makes them easier to peel, but I didn't find this to be true. I roll the eggs around in the palm of my hand before peeling and this makes them easier to peel no matter what cooking method you use. Aren't these eggs pretty!? The cooked up perfectly on the inside.

 .....but the outside...ick! I'm assuming those brown spots are from where eggs were touching the sides of the muffin tin. The spots didn't effect the flavor at all. I even tasted just the brown spot and it tasted like a normal egg white.

Would I make them like this again for my own personal eating? Absolutely. I found it a lot easier using the oven cooking method over boiling and it took the guess work out of whether you let them sit off the heat long enough. Would I use this method for a party or potluck? Nope! I like my food for the public to look pretty and edible. I think the oven method would be a great way of cooking up some eggs for Easter egg dyeing.

If you find out a way to prevent those brown spots, I'd love to hear it!

♦Elisha♦

Frames and Fabric

So I finally got my new floor for my kitchen!! And it's magical!!
Along with the hard adult choices of deciding which kind, how much to/not too spend, how to get it installed, and which color/design (being an adult is HARD!)
I had decided to expand my decor (or as some may say "lack there of") to bring everything a little more together.
This was really the only room in the house that was being left out.
So my journey began...
I bargain shopped everywhere possible, searched Pinterest near and far, and even called in for back up from Elisha and Lee Ann on opinions and suggestions!
My final decision was as follows:
•By some frames of different sizes
•paint them
•attach some cool fabric I found at Hancock Fabrics

First off the frames:
I found these at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale.

Next Paint:
I knew I wanted gray to bring out the color in my main fabric, but I wanted it a little cooler than just painted.
So after reading through some pins, I was determined to do the crackle paint. It would after all give these normal boring frames some coolness and texture.
I picked out a dolphin gray acrylic paint for the base, then a dark gray to go on top.
One pin said use Elmer's glue another said wood glue. So I put them head to head on the back of a frame to see which one i liked better and the wood glue won!
My crackle didn't turn out as...crackly as the pictures looked online, but isn't the the story with every Pinterest Project? I mean where do these people come from with their perfectness...it's sickening
None the less I'm pretty darn satisfied!!!
All you do is this:
-paint your frame with base color
-paint on wood glue (it's harder than it sounds so don't freak)
-wait a few mins...or don't, lol. They say to in the directions but during my trail run I kinda forgot the wait step and it still turned out ok
-when its tacky (given that you waited) paint on the second color
-.........no really that's it, no other steps, your done
What that seems too easy?
Here a bonus step..
-let it dry completely
Is that better????

Fabric:
I had this fabric put back from the minute I found it, it spoke to me, it said something like, "BUY ME!! YOU LOVE ME, YOU KNOW YOU DO!! BUY ME BUY ME!!"
And what can I say I'm a sucker for a begger, that and it was a remnant so it only cost me $6!!
After some patience, I begin to find some others to match. Now when I say patience, I mean MONTHS! It was hard!! I MEAN REALLY HARD PEOPLE! But it was well worth it because during those months I had to find out what the heck I was even going to do with the begger fabric.
None the less I found two more I was happy with and they were also remnants so that was only $12! And may I add that this was for a yard of fabric which is wayyy more than I needed, but at that price who can pass it up!?
When my frames were done all I did was staple the fabric (making sure to pull it tight) to the back of the frame and WaaLaaa! It's that easy!

So if your at a standstill for kitchen art..well any art for that matter,and don't want to have to sell your plasma for something neat to hang on your wall, don't forget to search your local fabric store in the remnants till something catches your eye and turn it into your own master piece!!

Cleaning pots and pans Attempt 1

First, do not judge me! And second, do not judge me!

I have owned some of my pots and pans for thirteen years. Seriously. One set my grandma bought me when I was eighteen and I just never could part with them. The other set was bought by my husband's grandma so we kept them forever too.

My cleaning approach was soap, water, dishwasher. I had no idea how to get the other stuff off of the pans.

Recently, I decided that despite the sentimental value of my pots and pans, I needed new ones, but first, maybe I should clean these and see if any were worth saving.

I, of course, first searched Pinterest for ideas and the first one was so easy that.... well, honestly, I forgot to read the whole blog about it. The solution was to use Easy Off Oven Cleaner to remove the burns and other gunk that develops on pots and pans over time. I assumed this was all I needed to know, so I bought fume free Easy Off and sprayed away. I followed the directions per the bottle and waited 2 hours then scrubbed. It worked great on the stainless steel pan but my generic TJ Maxx pan showed little improvement and my KitchenAid pots and pansweren't even worth posting pictures of, because there was really no results. However, I was so impressed by the shininess of my stainless steel pan (despite it still showing some black) that I decided I better reread the blog to make sure I did every last step. I missed one!
According to the blogger, she sprayed her pans and put them in a trash bag and left them over night. I may try this. I don't think I will on the KitchenAid pans because they are blue on the outside and I am afraid it might take that off and ruin them. I definitely need to do more research.

To be continued...........

The Three Day "Military" Diet Review

I have not been very crafty lately, but I have been on a health kick....... again. I won't go into detail about why or how, but if you are wondering how that all came about go click here.
Anyway, with that being said, I have decided to try some different "diets." I usually don't diet or maybe I do, but I try to call it "life style changes" to make myself feel better, but overall, I do not think I have ever tried any "gimmick" type diets; however, this military diet was way too tempting.
First off, you can find the article with the diet plan for FREE. I followed the diet off of this blog. I followed it precisely and even tried to get the healthiest options of all of the foods listed. I stuck with fresh vegetables and all natural ice cream. The hot dogs were made of chicken and I got all natural peanut butter.
Secondly, this diet is all over Pinterest. If you go to Pinterest now and go to the categories of "Popular" or "Health and Fitness," you will most likely find a pin about this diet. It is everywhere, which makes it hard not to consider, so I considered.
And last, the reason this diet was so tempting is because the foods are healthy and I don't mind eating any of the items that were listed.

My three days on the diet:

Day 1 was not bad, but (and I expressed this on my other blog as well) all of the tuna on day one was hard. I chose to eat tuna for lunch and supper just because it was easy, but tuna with nothing on it, but a "small" amount of mustard is hard to choke down (especially in the portion sizes listed for this diet), even if you love tuna. The great thing about day 1 was that it is the only day you can have caffeine. At the end of the day, I was not hungry and I felt great.

Day 2 was probably the easiest aside from the mid-day headache, which was just my body's way of saying, "Hey, where did the caffeine go?"

Day 3 was the most difficult. It is actually less than 800 calories for the day with no caffeine. I was shaky by the end of day 3.

Some important notes, I had made a life style change the week before, slowly cutting down on caffeine and calorie intake. I also started working out and I worked out 45 minutes to an hour each day while on this diet. I drank a minimum of 32 ounces of water per day everyday that I was on this diet. I did exactly what was outlined on the blog that I linked, except I think I ate less tuna than outlined, because that is a lot of tuna. I used a little mustard, less than a tablespoon, the entire three days and that is all I added.

I weighed every morning and night and even during day 1, I weighed less by the end of the day than I did at the beginning of the day. I lost two pounds per day for a total of six pounds. Now, before you get all excited and decide to try this diet, please read on!

Even though I was super excited about losing six pounds in three days, I knew that there was a possibility that some of that weight would show back up on my scale. This diet boasts that you could lose up to ten pounds in three days and lose forty pounds in one month. Let's just be real here. That is NOT going to happen. It also suggests you can go back to eating whatever on your four days off the diet as long as you "don't get carried away." A week before I started this diet, I was already limiting my calories and working out and when I went off of this diet, I continued to limit my calories and work out and yet, the scale did change back. I gained two pounds back within the next two days, so I really only lost four. I would suggest reading WebMD's post about this diet, which explains why that happened. Some of the weight you lose is actually from fluid, not fat.

This diet, in my opinion, and I am not a nutritionist or dietitian, is o-kay. If you need something to get you motivated to stop drinking caffeine or watch your eating habits, then this might be a great way to start. I also have read that the combinations of food (while they are not metabolism/ fat burning like they claim) may actually act like a diuretic, which can help with fluid retention, high blood pressure, and an overall cleanse for your body. That is not a bad thing, but I think the main point is to remember this isn't some miracle diet that will solve all your problems or make your fat disappear. It is just a "jump start" plan in my opinion and a pretty good one, but don't plan on eating junk food for four days and following this diet for three and seeing any results, because that will not happen.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you make an educated decision about the Three Day Military Diet that is all over Pinterest.



*** Lee Ann***

The Stove Experience 2

So after trying the baking soda/water experiment. I opted for some cheap oven cleaner for the inside of my stove. It was easy to use and It worked wonders, and that's how I roll, so I went with it. Lol.

Something I did find handy from allllll the stove cleaning pins I had, was something I had never thought of.
Take out your wire trays and put them in the bathtub with the hottest water you can get and some vinegar. Wait a few hours and all you have to do is lightly scrub them and they are clean! I did this while still in the tub because it makes cleaning those huge things much easier.
((!Caution! you will have a ring around your tub, so if you plan on cleaning that the same day, wait till AFTER your stove experience))

Next for me was the stove top. This I clean all the time, so that's no big deal for me. A couple tips I've found that help though.
#1 turn on your oven.
I know this sounds strange, but with the oven on it heats up the stove top which makes it easier to remove grease and grime with out having to scrub.
#2 I use some simple All Purpose 409, to shine it up.

Here's the kicker for me. I have a gas stove, and those quirky stove burners are a PEST!
They have so many crevasses and awkward places to have to clean its a real chore to get them even the slightest bit clean. To make them look new again?...HA Yea Right!?
Here is where our dear old friend Pinterest has saved me!

Literally all you need is this:
-Gallon ziplock bags
-baking sheet/pan
-your dirty stove burners
-1/4 cup Ammonia
-some elbow (but not elbow grease..cause that would mean this would be a little hard and you would have to work at it...this does not apply here)

All you do is get your baggie, put your burner inside, pour in the ammonia and zip it up. Place it on the baking sheet, just in case it leaks, although mine never did.

Now you wait...

It says 8 hours, I probably left mine in for a little over 24 hours. I put it in before work and while the kids stayed at grandmas a couple days for spring break, I used this as an excuse to eat out, cause I'm "cleaning", lol.
After your wait time unzip and pour the grossness down the drain. It will smell like an 80's perm job, Just so you know, lol.
Throw away your Baggie and run some hot water, grab a scrubber and use that elbow to start seeing a new stove burner emerge!

You will still have the weird crevasses and stuff to work around, but this makes it SOOOO easy, I couldn't even imagine complaining about them anymore!!

Fun fact: even though 1/4 doesn't seem like much, it's not the liquid itself that is cleaning your burners, it's the fumes.

*Makes me feel like some sort of Chemist, Feel free to insert huge words and elaborate speech when explaining this to anyone, even if its just your kids, they will think you are a Chemist too, lol.

*~Sumer~*

Soap Thingie

I like my liquid soap and poof but my husband prefers the good ol' fashion bar soap. I saw on Pinterest that you just sew up the sides of a piece of washcloth, and abracadabra you have a soap pouch thingie! I ran into a few problems, first one being a broken needle because of the thickness of the washcloth. Second, the needle kept getting caught in the little loops of the cloth.

See that little dangling thing on the black string? Yep, that's my needle. Anyway, the day before embarking on my little soap adventure, I decided to get out some scrap material to figure out how I was supposed to fold and sew the fabric to get the pouch I wanted. You know those sandwich baggies that come like 100/box, that you mom used to put in your lunchbox, that kind of fold into itself? That's the effect I was going for. After lots of folding and deliberating and folding again I finally figured it out! 

 

The idea is that that little flap fold on the inside will hold the soap in the pouch even when the soap gets smaller. And here is the finished product.

 

My pouch isn't exactly straight and the seams are way too thick but with all the issues I had with the machine and needles, I give myself a pat on the back. And if you don't want to put your soap in it, you can always use it as a candy holder☺

♦Elisha♦

Quick, Easy, Effective

As we have previously established, I love make up, so obviously I own a lot of it. I am not ashamed to admit that, so I pin a lot of things about make up organization and this one is so easy and it works great.
Even though, I love make up, I love sleep more, so Monday through Friday at 6:30 or so when I am getting ready for a work, I care about my make up a whole lot less. It really comes down to getting what I can on in the quickest and most timely manner. This speed and precision of this is greatly hampered when I have to stop and dig for make up brushes, eyeliner or mascara.
This is where Pinterest saved the day! All you need is a bowl or vase from the Dollar Tree (Yeah a $1!!) And some rocks or fish aquarium gravel. Dollar Tree had rocks but they were bigger than I wanted, plus I would have had to buy 3-4 bags to fill the bowl, so I went to Wal-Mart and opted for hot pink fish aquarium gravel for $1.83.
I went home cut open the bag of gravel, took out my bowl, dumped the gravel in and stuck all my make up brushes and eye liners in and that was it. It works wonderfully! I can see the brushes, grab the one I need and put it right back. Pure genius for less than $3! My only regret is that hot pink gravel, because it looks cool, but it doesn't match my bathroom at all! Lol!
**Lee Ann**

The Stove Experience

So for the sake of this blog...I haven't cleaned the inside of my stove in...lets say forever.
Wait what do you mean this blog is only a few days old? Well maybe I've prepared early... Knowing somehow subconsciously that a blog opportunity would appear giving me the chance to put some Pins to the test.
Alright fine, so that's not REALLY what happened, lol.
I just haven't cleaned my stove. I never think about it till I open it and then it's too late, so I close the door and forget about it till the next time I open it (...and then repeat, repeat, repeat)
But today! Is different, I've repinned at least 4+ things about cleaning the oven "without harmful chemicals", not Because I'm opposed to using them..mainly because people say it's "so easy".
So today I put the Baking Soda and Water Paste to the test.

Very simple to make:

Step #1: Take some baking soda and add some water till u get a watery paste, consistent to that of pancake mix.
Step#2: Spread the paste on the oven door, let set 15-20 mins.
Step#3: Wipe off and rinse.

I'm in dispute with this simply because it still required me to scrub. I was under the assumption all I had to do was wipe it off.
As you can see from the picture below, ((On the Left)) the glass came clean with very light scrubbing but the bottom did not.
((On the Right)) the bottom came out cleaner using just hot water, but the glass I had to scrub a little more.

My conclusion to this is as follows:
If you enjoy making a mess, wasting 15-20 mins (I used it as a "break"), then cleaning up the mess you just made, Then by all means go for it.
As for me, no thanks...Ill pass ;)

*~Sumer~*

Introducing The Pinettes

We are four friends who have very different lives with a lot of similarities. We all work, have households to run, and we love to take the spare minutes we have to be crafty and cook. We've been doing it since before Pinterest was around, but when Pinterest did come around, it was like the crafting possibilities became endless. Sumer has been making things as long as I have known her, Elisha has came up with some neat home decor, and Heather loves to design new things for her home and daughters, and me, I am willing to experiment with just about anything if I think it will make a good meal, my hair shiney, or save me a buck or two on my make up or nail addictions. We have been sharing our crafting successes and failures with each other for quite some time and recently decided to make a combined effort to share our Pinterest successes and failures with the world, so here is a little more about each of us according to ourselves, because who better to tell that story!  ;)


Sumer: My name is Sumer, I was born in 1982 (can't believe I just admitted that) Don't worry... I hardly act my age most of the time and the only other time I will willingly admit it is to pull the "I'm old" card in order to get out of something, lol.

I have 2 boys: Trenton is 10 and Alex is 7. I pride myself in trying to be a "fun" mom, even though they just think I'm Dorky. ...I'm ok with dorky...I've learned to embrace it!
I've also learned to be a Lego Building master, a video game guru, a former Transformer performer in under 2 mins (they are over that phase now), and while my knowledge on other boyish subjects may be limited, never fear I have two walking encyclopedias for children!

Loves of mine:
-Cooking, but I don't have an imagination with it like Lee Ann does. I need guidelines and recipes, I can tweak it from there.
-Being crafty...this involves anything that let's my imagination run wild...and let's face it.. that can get dangerous, lol.
-I have a minor stationary obsession. This involves planners, calendars, pens, organizers...I could go on and on...lol
-Spending quality time hanging out with girls is always a blast!
-and reading, coloring, putting together puzzles are all my "top secret" ways to relax...shhh don't tell ;)


Heather:  Hmm...Where to start...My name is Heather and I have been gracing this earth since 1983.  I've been married to the greatest guy since 2002. We met on a so called blind date back in 2000 and have been together ever since.  We were blessed with a beautiful baby girl in 2008, and another in 2011. They are my life!!  I'm a  soccer/t-ball/cheer mom without the minivan. ;)

Love gardening, boating, bonfires, wine, being outdoors, reality tv, taking pictures of my kids, did I mention wine, girls night out, going to the movies, reading, Chicago Cubs,  horror movies, mowing the yard, hayrides, fairs, concerts, driving fast, thunderstorms, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, baking and being the best mom I can be.


Lee Ann: Since everyone else is sharing their ages, I guess I will admit to mine too, I've been kicking it here on earth since 1982. Please don't do the math. It doesn't bother me as much to say what year I was born as to say how old I am and yes, I have reached the point where I shamelessly lie about my age. I married my husband in 2003, shortly after that, he decided to buy a big farm and two years after marriage, we moved onto that farm. We have two boys and my boys are a lot different from Sumer's sons. My sons don't play a lot of video games or things like that. They play outside in the mud and dirt. They like tractors and did I mention dirt?! If you knew me when I was younger, you would know how funny two boys and a farm is to my overall character. I mean I always knew how to shoot a gun and take care of horses and small pets, but we have cows now and donkeys and this is a whole different rodeo, girlfriend. I am so much like my grandma though so I can handle it all. Yes, I love my shoes, make up, and clothes, but living in a house full of testosterone, I am fearless.

I have mentioned some of my loves: make up, clothes, shoes, nail polish, but I also love being outdoors, taking walks in the woods, spending time with my friends, cooking, and alone time with my boys, especially when we go exploring or have water gun fights. My boys and I have the best time together. I love canning. That is my new hobby. I also enjoy trying out new recipes or making up my own just for the heck of it. I have been doing that since I was little. My poor dad was subjected to eating a lot of strange foods, including a gray cake that he still swear to this day was great. We have a lot of wineries where I live and I love going to them from time to time for special events or to listen to a live band. I love going to concerts or even just getting out to listen to local bands play live. I love artwork and photography. If I had more money, I would have some high tech photography equipment and software just for me. I love watching baseball and I forgive my friend, Heather, for being a Chicago Cubs fan, because brace yourselves, I am a Cardinals fan. Yes, a Cards fan and Cubs fan can be friends and we even talk during baseball season. I love watching football too. Both of my sons play every fall. Oh and I was an English major in college, so I love reading and writing if you could not tell from all of this. That's it, that's me! ;)

Elisha: Whaasssuupp?! I forced my way onto this blog. The girls above my regret it as I'm a Gemini and we all know about those Geminis! I was also born in 82 and since I'm proud of being old I will tell you that I will be 31 in June. Since turning 30, I've found that I've wanted to learn how to sew and crotchet and all those other old people things that my mother and grandmother and great-grandmother did. I have picked up how to do a lot of things quickly (thanks Google!) and short projects I'm stellar at but projects that take longer than a week lose my interest. I have lots of unfinished projects hidden away that even my husband doesn't know about. I have recently picked up a used sewing machine and along with tucked away knowledge from 7th grade Home Ec and Google, I've been teaching myself how to use it. I love to bake, but not cook. You will see more desert pins on my Pinterest Board than real food. When I approach my husband with new projects I want to try his response "baby I love how creative you are" or "baby, I love all your projects". He has NO idea that I get my ideas from the internet. In his eyes I am the most creative and crafty person he knows.....and lets keep it that way!


We hope that you enjoy our blog. As you can tell, we all will probably be using Pinterest and our own creative geniuses differently and so hopefully, you can get an honest opinion on some of the best and worst Pinterest crafts and ideas out there from us.