Lessons Learned

When I worked in monitoring and evaluation, we would talk about lessons learned as a nice way to describe what good could come of a failure.  I have had plenty of lessons learned recently.  Some could be described as problems while others could be described as inconveniences.  I am hoping for more inconveniences.  

In matters of do-it-yourself, you have to be prepared for failure.  On one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, they have gracefully shared about their recent D-I-Y deck failure.  Some things are going to go as planned while others will not - much to your chagrin.  


In the land of pinterest, there are some ideas that get re-pinned repeatedly and catch my attention. But that doesn't always lead to success.  This simple canvas project caught my attention and with its low cost threshold, I gave it a try.  Project failure.  Even application of the glue was the major issue and my own color choice for the paint caused another...I scrapped the project.  My sister has since redeemed it but it's nowhere near the intended outcome.  Some you win and some you lose.  

A few months ago, my sister recruited me to make this rain cape for my niece.  Super cute and seemingly simple pattern.  The cost of the oil cloth fabric made us nervous because with that kind of investment, I wanted to do it right.   But we were excited and even got ahead of ourselves by having visions of rain capes being my thing - my thing as in a money maker (i.e. Mandi aka mass producer of cutie rain capes).  The project went pretty well, but I quickly learned that I am no fan of sewing on oil cloth.  I couldn't figure out the trick to getting it to slide through the machine when you sewed slick side up as you had to do with this pattern.  Quickly my thing became the thing I never wanted to do again.  

Yet, the pattern cut left me with a significant portion of leftover fabric and so with this leftover expensive oil cloth I went looking on pinterest for a project and found this lunch sack.  Hoping that ol' Martha wouldn't fail me, I tried it - a simple pattern until you got to finishing the edges.  With my prior experience of sewing slick side up, no thanks.  I stopped the pattern early and while it seems to work just fine, it's not as finished as Martha would have liked.

So  I've learned my lesson - thankful I didn't invest in gobs of oil cloth to start my cape business before I learned how much I dislike sewing with oil cloth, thankful failures can be redeemed and thankful I have this little one to sew for and loves me no matter what.

Pinterest trial:  Oilcloth Lunchsack
Review:  Easy to follow but be warned about oil cloth

Taco Bell a mi Casa

When I was little, Taco Bell's beans and cheese constituted a meal for me- a little pot of gooey, cheesy perfection.  Yet as my taste buds matured, I abandoned the 59-cent menu for higher standards of culinary delights.  I occasionally found myself returning - airport terminals sometimes have limited options - but being introduced recently to my foodie friend, Liz's passion for all things Taco Bell convinced me to give it a fresh look.

Liz, me, the sauce and the wrap

With Crunch Wraps as a recent addition to the offerings of Taco Bell, they are reason alone to try the Bell again - a combination of goodness that fits in your hand.  Yet, when I saw a posting on Pinterest for a homemade  Crunch Wrap, I was delighted and a bit relieved to be able to make this savory treat at home.

On a recent summer night, I invited some friends over, including Liz, to try this fast food-inspired delight.  Taco Bell would typically not be the offering of a dinner party but for this crowd and with the addition of chips and guacamole, we had a great combination for dinner.

To satisfy my vegetarian friends, I substituted the meat in the recipe for a bean mixture of pintos, refried beans and taco seasoning.  The directions worked great to produce a copy, and all agreed that it's an easy dinner option with ingredients you can trust since you are your own Taco Bell assembly line.  Plus if you have a little baggy of leftover Taco Bell sauce packets like Liz brought to the dinner, you are set for your own south of the border experience at home.

Pinterest Trial:  Homemade Crunch Wraps
Review:  Just like the real deal, only better.

Then Comes a Baby in a Baby Carriage

It is a truth universally acknowledged that once you have successfully graduated through a series of wedding showers and weddings that baby showers will soon follow.  Nearly two year to the weekend, I found myself planning a lovely afternoon gathering for a dear friend Abbie at the same place we had 'just' hosted her bachelorette party.  We gathered to celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby Emma.  Here's some of the details I contributed that were all very a'la Pinterest.

The decorations:  Our mom-to-be friend is shying away from pink-overload and has adopted a cute whale theme for the baby girl's room so we obliged and I contributed some tissue paper pompoms.  Who doesn't like a craft that involves tissue paper that turns into fluffy balls of cuteness - these make for cheap decorations that have a wow factor.

The food:  We had a full spread for an afternoon shower.  I made some meringues that reminded me - in the best possible way - of the marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal.  I have learned the trick to light and airy meringues is no humidity and patience.  I'm not a patient person by nature and typically not one when it comes to baking and following directions but to get the results with meringues, I found that listening to a podcast while I whip the egg whites keeps me mixing for the requisite 6-8 minutes (I skipped the chocolate dipped bottoms for my version).  I also made some of these cream cheese filled strawberries.  While the results didn't hold well together because I made it without butter (i.e. runny filling when they sat on the table for a while), what's not to like about sweetened cream cheese stuffed in a strawberry?! 

The games:  When I think of baby games, I am inclined to groan - melted chocolate in diapers is just not my style and frankly gross.  I wanted to do something sweet to welcome baby Emma so we circulated cards to record a series of wishes for the baby girl based loosely on this baby worksheet .  We kept the cards circulating while Abbie opened gifts and then read the cards aloud - the results were sweet sentiments that Abbie can tuck away to share one day with baby Emma.

I'll report later on the baby gift I made that was a true feat of "I can make that...."


Pinterest Trial:  Tissue Paper Flowers
Review: Surprisingly classy and easy to do

Pinterest Trial:  Meringues
Review:  Patience is key but worth it.

Pinterest Trial:  Strawberries with Cream Cheese
Review:  Delicious and rich filling

Pinterest Trial:  Baby Wishes
Review:  Sweet activity and better than other baby games

Secret Ingredients

Last weekend was one of those weekends blessed with good friends, laughing till your belly hurt and yummy meal after yummy meal.  We swam in the river, went for lazy walks and played games that involved water balloons and blindfolds.  And it didn't hurt that our view looked like this.

I was in charge of dinner on Friday and hosted a homemade pizza bar using this recipe for pizza dough.  For once, I had success with a yeast dough (my failings at a sourdough starter made me nervous and let's just say this recipe for dutch oven bread did not turn out as planned), so I felt dinner was a success before it really even got started.  

I knew the weekend would include its fill of gluttony but wanted to include a dessert in my dinner menu.  I had tried this recipe previously for a chocolate chip cookie pie.  Except it's not your typical cookie pie.  Maybe you don't have a typical one but for my family, it was always a toll house pie with 1 1/2 sticks of butter.  Good stuff, no doubt but not good for you.

So the fact that this alternative recipe is vegan, has minimal fat and is based on chickpeas (!) may surprise that it all adds up to equal deliciousness.  The amount of brown sugar goes a long way in sweetening the recipe but all in all, it's a healthier alternative.  I will caution you though that this is not a cookie dough you want to eat raw...while it has no eggs and would seem safe, you will be disappointed to find yourself sampling basically brown sugar hummus.  Something happens in the oven to meld these ingredients and turn it into gooey goodness.  And the best part, you don't have to confess the secret ingredient unless you want to.


Pinterest Trial:  Deep Dish Cookie Pie
Review:  Gooey goodness and tastes like the real deal.