Halloween Recap & Pinterest Fail

Hope everyone had a safe & happy Halloween yesterday! I dressed up for work trick or treat as Raggedy Ann.

What a sweet doll! :) haha

And we're back again linking up this week with Beautiful Mess & Keep Calm & Carry On for

Saw it. Pinned it. Did it.

Today's post should be called Saw it. Pinned it. Screwed it up. Because that's exactly what I did.

Everyone has seen the iced coffee recipe from Pioneer woman floating around on Pinterest.

Looks delish, right?

I had gotten fed up with spending so much money at starbucks when I could just make it at home myself.

As you know already, I'm not Mrs. Susie Homemaker by any means, so when I read PW's recipe, I knew I needed to follow it to the letter.

Since she used enourmous container, I needed to use them too.

So, I bought two of these on amazon for $25 each. As well as the cheese cloth and strainer since I had none of these items on hand. I also bought a pound of coffee at starbucks.

After following all the instructions, I was so excited to try my first glass of iced coffe. I am not a patient person, so it was a big deal to let the coffee steep for so long. After pouring the liquid (I'm not even going to call it coffee.) into a pitcher, I noticed it was the consistancy oil. Oh well..maybe this is just a side effect of making it at home. I'm sure it will taste fine.

Nope.

 It was terrible. And the worst part is that I have no idea how I messed it up. Usually I can say specifically where I deviated from the recipe and shouldn't have, but I can't think of a single thing I could have done wrong. 

Now I'm stuck with huge container and cheese cloth that I will probably never use again. Typical.

Pinterest Project Link Up

Today, I'm linking up with Beautiful Mess to bring you....

Cool, right? I'm all the time pinning things left and right and wondering if I will actually ever try that recipe, hairstyle, craft project, etc....(and normally, I don't try any of the above) But, when I do actually try something out, I think it's good to tell about it so someone learns from the mistakes you made. And lemme tell you...I made some mistakes. ha!

So, we've all seen the precious burlap door hangers all over pinterest.

When you click the link on the majority of the pictures, it takes you to etsy. Yeah..I like to spend money on clothes, not on other people's craft projects. But I never thought I could pull off anything as cute as Miss Etsy's burlap doorhanger.

Until one of Rodney's sweet family members encouraged me at Christmas to go ahead and try one. She told me about her crafting spree she had been on for Christmas gifts and how it really isn't that hard to make.

So, I went for it.

And here are the results...

Here is the link I used for the basis of my instructions. I did a little tweaking though.

I did NOT use staples. It was really awkward putting staples through the burlap. I used hot glue (be careful! the glue can come through the burlap's tiny holes and burn you!) and I feel like it sealed it better.

I also think it works better if you paint before you stuff and glue the shape shut. I like having a flat surface to work with. It's like trying to color with crayon when you have your coloring paper laying on your lap---bad idea.

I think it's pretty evident that mr. cross wasn't my proudest crafty moment. He's not exactly "symmetrical." Whatever.

Here's what I learned that I think may be useful if you try to make one too. I decided to stuff mine with grocery bags as she used in the linked instructions above (I know some people buy pillow stuffing, but I hated to spend more money than was necessary if I already have bags laying around.).  Be careful when doing this because you can kinda see through the burlap. Any designs your bag may have (target symbol, etc) will probably show through.

I would suggest not to freehand the shape (bad idea evidenced by the weird looking cross) but I guess not all people are as bad at drawing as I am. I should have used the freezer paper as a template like the instructions suggested. Live and learn...

Oh..and learn how to do better bows than my puny pink bow on the heart burly.

So mine weren't as pretty as Miss Etsy's, but I think with a little practice, I could get pretty darn close!