Pinterest projects and Before and After “Blog Love”

In my fantasy life, I am able to do all of the stuff I pin on Pinterest (along with a few other things…like being able to go to the bathroom without someone standing outside the door screaming “MOMMY, I’M HUNGRY!!!!!!”)

I digress.

In real life, I try one or two Pinterest projects in the course of a week – a recipe here, a cleaning tip there – and while I usually have success, for some reason, I am on a terrible tear of bad outcomes.

Two nights ago, I tried this tip for the cleaning the shower head.  Take one plastic bag, add vinegar and baking soda and soak your shower head in it for a few hours…or overnight for better results.   If you see it on Pinterest, don’t bother pinning it or trying it.  All it did was keep HH from taking a shower.  That shower head was not one iota cleaner than before I started.  “And it smells bad,” according to Turtle.

Another one you can pass up are these checker-board cookies.  Or least you should pass them up unless you have a TON of time. The recipe calls for several different delays where the dough sits in the fridge or freezer.  (Note to self – I should read the entire recipe first!)  Turtle and Splash were “helping” me and I did not have much luck explaining that we could not have the cookies until tomorrow.  We ate 2/3rds of the dough before we got around to baking anything and the cookies that actually did get baked 24 hours later were so bad, no one would eat them.  When two four year olds won’t eat cookies, you know they are awful.

Source: 17 and baking

While I am on a roll, I will share with you this “fail” that was not my fault.  I planned to make this citrus wreath.  (That link is to the pin, but the wreath and instructions are from Better Homes and Gardens.)

I picked up all of the oranges from the yard (which unforetunately are not fit for eating) and sliced them up to dry in my mother-in-law’s old food dehydrator.

After nearly 12 hours, I finally realized that the machine was broken. The fan was producing air, but the heater was not working.  It would have taken 10 years for those things to dry out.  And while they were sitting in the breezy contraption, they had become grayish.

To make matters worse, the boys found the wreath that I had planned to use for the project and they started playing frisbee with it in the yard.

It took 3 minutes to be thrown into the side of the house and split in half.

At that point, the magic was gone on the project.

I do have successes though!  And I hoping for one tomorrow.   I am going to make something I pinned on my “I’ll Build It Myself” board – this table.

Source: Hammerzone

Unlike the cookies, I hope that I can show you the before and after photos of this project.

And that brings me to another great blog –  Before and After.  Blogger Lindsey from Phoenix gives the blogosphere a daily dose of photos of other people’s projects and it is the bee’s knees.  I have a thing for people’s transformation of trash to treasure.  (Doesn’t everybody?)

There was this post a few days ago where this clever gal, inspired by a piece from West Elm, created art from embroidery hoops.

Source: Hill Country Homebody

Or how about this idea below? Take one out of date floor lamp, add soda bottles and what do you get?

Source: Matsutake

How cool is that?

Guessing by the volume of stuff featured in the daily postings on Before and After, I would expect that nowadays most DIYers send in their pics hoping to be featured.   Or perhaps Lindsey just has a knack for finding amazing and inspirational stuff.

Either way, I am hooked.  A dose of the DIY pix on this site get me running back to Pinterest to try another project…after I finish this one.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer