Pinned it, tried it, results!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was going to try some pinterest projects.  Here are the results of some of those projects!

First I did the Homemade Finger Paints.  This was pretty easy to do.  I used some empty baby food jars to store it in and then I used Wilton Cake Decorating Icing Colors to tint them.  I don't normally have food coloring on hand, but I have tons of the icing colors for my cakes.

Mixture after I put it in the jars, before I colored it all.  You can find the Wilton Icing Colors at Walmart, Michaels, and I am sure other places too.

All done!  Blue, purple, yellow, red, pink, and green.

I did paint a bit with the green, and then went and washed my hands.  It all came out easily.  I have yet to try it tho, with a kid playing in it forever and then washing it out lol.


Next I tried making the Mind Jar for Austin.  I followed the pin, and she had a great description, but she also linked back in her blog to where she first got it from.  The other lady did it slightly different (added extra glitter).  So I kind of did a little bit of both to make mine.

I used a mason jar that I bought at Michaels.  I know they seal air tight and I didn't want to take any chances!  I used just over 1.5 cups of warm water.  I added 2 tablespoons of orange glitter glue (Austin picked it out himself!).  Like she said, it did take a bit for the glue to melt, so I also stuck it in the microwave for 60 seconds.  This kept the water warm, since the glass stayed warm.  I added a touch of the wilton icing color in orange to the water, to make the water orange.  Then I added some orange glitter to it.  Note....add the glitter last, it settles on the top of the water (I learned this the hard way haha, I was still melting glue when I added the glitter!).

Here it is before you shake it up.  You can see the glitter glue part settled on the bottom (it doesn't completely melt away) .  If you look at the top you can see the extra glitter I added floating around lol.

Here it is all shook up.  I really like how it turned out, and Austin liked it too.  Hopefully it will help him some with his temper!


This next project was soooo easy.  I made the bookmarks with the paint samples.  I picked a few up at Walmart, Austin was with me so he picked out his 2, and I picked out 2 for Jaidan.  They were out of pink, so I had to get her other colors.  I bought some ribbon for $.97 (which will last me quite a while).  I bought 2 punches at walmart, but they kinda stunk, their selection wasn't very good.  When I went to Michaels they had a much better selection and I picked out 2 different ones.  They were all $.97, or $.99.  So super cheap, and re-usable not only for this, but other projects too.

All you do is use the punches to cut out the design on one side, use a hole punch on the top for the ribbon, then tie the ribbon through, super easy!.

Finished bookmarks with the supplies.  Music notes for Austin, hearts for Jaidan.  No more corner's being turned down by kids (yes Jaidan, I am looking at you!).


Well there you have it, results for things I pinned on pinterest and tried.  I do have a few other projects I am working on.  I will post those results when I am done with them.

Science Fair Results

Well, the science fair is over and done with.  Jaidan got 3rd place for her class, but only the top 2 went on to the school science fair.  Here are the results, as promised;

We had some pretty surprising results.  When she first did the experiment she used the popcorn setting on the microwave.  Most microwaves come with it now, and that is what most people use.  The winner was indeed Orville Redenbacher, which is what most people picked.  It popped 86%, next was Stater Bros at 79% and then Pop Secret with 77%.  We were amazed by how much popcorn didn't pop!  Another surprising thing tho, was that despite the %'s, stater bro's you still got more popcorn!  The number of kernels that popped was more then the popped and unpopped kernels combined in both Pop Secret, or Orville.

Because of these results, Jaidan decided she was going to pop all 3 again, but this time following the directions on the bags.  We got totally different results!  Pop Secret won with a whopping 93%!  Followed by Stater Bro's with 90% and then Orville with a disappointing 73%.  We also noticed that the amount of popcorn in each bag was vastly different.

As a family, we have decided that from now on, we will follow the directions on the bag while popping our popcorn....unless it is Orville Redenbachers, then we will use the popcorn setting on the microwave!

Pinterest Projects

I have a couple of different projects that I found on Pintrest that I am going to be doing for, and with the kids!  I'm so excited for some of these!

I already posted about the Homemade Finger Paints.  I actually already made those.  I will do a post about them and post pics, hopefully this weekend.  I can't upload any pics from my camera until I get the new computer.

I am also going to be doing the Recycled Newspaper Beads that I posted about earlier too.  Jaidan and I are going to work on that.  We are going to make her hanging beads for her bedroom door.  I got the paint today for them.  She is going to be doing bright pink and bright purple on black string.

Next is Modge Podge!  I'm going to need it for Jaidan's bead's.  I found a DIY on Pintrest that I am going to do to save some money!  As we all know, I am all about saving money!

I'll be making some cheap and super easy bookmarks for Austin and Jaidan! These are so easy and inexpensive that I'll be able to make them whenever I need to, as often as I need to for them.  No more folding the book corner to save their places (Jaidan, I'm talk to you!).

I'll also be making a Mind Jar for Austin!  I'm really excited to make this and have Austin try using it.  He knows what it is, and why we are making it, and he's willing to try it.  He picked out the glitter (you can tell by the BRIGHT Orange lol).  Hopefully this will work to calm him down when he's upset...it's worth a try, right?

I'll do posts and put up pictures for all these things as we do them so you can see them all too!

Mac or PC?

My husband and I are both in desperate need of a new computer.  His just died one day several months ago.  Mine was slowly dying for about 6 months.  Now it seems to be permanently blue screened.  Right now, I'm on a very old, slow, lap top that we have.

There is no doubt that he will be getting another PC.  But, I am debating between switching from a PC to a Mac.  I am getting into Photography, now that I have a real camera.  I have heard in the past, that Mac's are the best for Photography.  But a really good friend recently told me it really all depended on the hardware, the software would be the same regardless of the computer. 

I know that Mac's are more expensive, not upgradable, and more expensive to have fixed.  I rarely, if ever upgrade my computer.  I did, back when I was a hard core gamer, but those days are behind me.  I figure that if I'm going to do the switch, I should do it now.  Who knows how many years it will be before I buy a new computer again.  But, I want to make an informed decision, either way.  So I am looking for some input.  Everyone I know who has a Mac loves it.

We're hopefully buying our new computers next weekend, after my husband get's his bonus paycheck.  So, my question to you is, Mac, or PC, and why? 

Homemade Finger Paints

Ok, so I saw this recipe posted on an image on Facebook.  I'm sure it's on pintrest somewhere, but I don't want to lose it, so I am going to share it here, where I can always find it lol.  Maybe the kids and I will make some this weekend or next weekend.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C corn starch
2 C water

Directions:

Combine ingredients in small saucepan. Warm until mixture thickens.  Cool and pour in containers.  Add food coloring to create desired colors.  Enjoy.

January Savings!!

It's the start of another month, which means it's time to share my savings for January!  I can't believe it's already February, last month just flew right by!  I am excited to share my savings!  Here we go, in January I saved....

$824.17

How awesome is that?!?!  I am super excited!  I love sitting down each month at the end of the month and adding up my savings! Even tho I know sometimes I get some smoking deals, and other times, not so much, it's nice to sit down and add it up and actually see how much I am saving.  This total does NOT include the $39.42 I saved by getting 5 kindle books for free.  It also does not include the $68 check we got from Costco.  We had an executive membership and earned back 2% of what we spent last year.  We are not renewing our membership, so we just spent the check at Costco on our last trip there.  We also got a $50 certificate from Best Buy as a reward for buying our TV from them in November.My husband used it to buy a cover for his kindle touch and to buy a movie.  We also did not include that $50 in the above total.  If we had also included those, our savings would have been $981.59.

Are you keeping track of your savings?