Day 154: Olive Oil to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances (fail).

Pinterest pin (no website link).

I have stainless steel appliances and small kids with sticky fingers, so I was excited to try this pin.  This was my dishwasher last night:

As the pin suggested, I put olive oil on a paper towel and rubbed it on the front of the dishwasher before using a clean towel to buff the residue off.  Unfortunately, it just made the front of the dishwasher appear to have a film all over it; the olive oil residue wouldn't come off.

As you can see, I also forgot to clean the right-hand side of the dishwasher, so I'm off to do that now with the stainless steel cleaner I bought at the store!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 147: How to Wash & Whiten Yellowed Pillows (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I have a front-loading washer, so I modified this pin based on the comments section below the original post; instead of soaking the pillows in the washing machine, I soaked them in our bathtub. 

A few of our pillows look like this (the sheet underneath is pure white, so you can see just how yellowed the pillow is):

I mixed together the following solution in our bathtub and soaked three pillows (FYI: it didn't say how long to soak them, and I think I may have overdone it, as the lining on two of the pillows started to disintegrate after soaking for 1/2 an hour on each side).

Mixture:
Hot water
1 cup of laundry detergent
1 cup powdered dishwasher detergent
1 cup bleach
1/2 cup borax

I then wrung the pillows out, transferred them to the washer and washed them in hot, hot water for two cycles.  It took 2+ dryer cycles to get them dry, plus lots of work to fluff out all the lumps.  In the end, I ruined two pillows (too lumpy to sleep on anymore and lining is ripped) and the remaining one isn't all that much whiter.  From here on out, I think I'll just run them through the washer -- 2 at a time -- with our regular laundry soap and bleach.  Most people don't see the yellowed pillows anyway with the pillowcases on!

 Verdict: FAIL. 

Day 144: Vinegar to Clean Dishwasher (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

To be honest, I've never inspected the bottom of my dishwasher to make sure that it's clean, as I assumed that since it gets my dishes clean, the actual machine would be clean too.  Wrong.  It's really gross in there:

In an attempt to clean it, I poured vinegar into the bottom of the empty dishwasher and ran a hot cycle without any dishes, per the pin instructions.  I'm still on the hunt for a way to clean my dishwasher, as mine is still really disgusting:

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 143: Using a Dustpan to Fill a Large Container (fail).

Pinterest pin and website picture.

Depending on the size / depth of your sinks, this could actually work as pictured.  However, when I tried this at home, I discovered that my sinks are much too deep for this to work.  As you can see below, for the dustpan to drain down into the cooler, it has to hang over the edge of the sink; the faucet, however, is nowhere close to being able to drip water into the dustpan.  When I pulled the detachable faucet over to the dustpan and poured water into it, the water went into the cooler.  It didn't make sense to use this pin, though, in that situation -- I could just have squirted water directly from the detachable faucet into the cooler and skipped the dustpan step!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 139: Scratch-Off Chore Card (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I am so bummed this didn't work out!  I had such high hopes that my kids would love to do their chores (ha!) with this scratch-off chore card, but it was not worth the effort / frustration to make the cards and then was super messy while the kids were scratching off the paint.

Materials:
* tempera paint (darker colors are better)
* dishwashing soap
* chore card template
* paint brushes
* craft punch (or scissors)
* contact paper

Instructions:
Add a little soap to your paint and mix together.  Use the paint / soap combination to paint onto the contact paper.  Let dry and repeat again; do several coats so you can't see through the paint.  

While the paint is drying, print out chore cards with the template above, or create your own.

When the paint is fully dry, use a craft punch to cut circles from the painted contact paper.  This step was disastrous for me -- my contact paper kept getting stuck in my craft punch and paint flecks were everywhere.

Peel off the back of the contact paper and adhere one painted circle on top of each chore.  As you can see, peeling off the back resulted in even more flaking of the paint.  Plus, even with 3 coats of paint, the chores could be seen through the painted contact paper on my daughter's pink chore card.

Give each child his/her own chore card and a shiny coin, and start cleaning -- or not.  My son figured out that the cleanest way to see the chore was to peel off the painted contact paper.

Getting the hang of scratching off the paint -- which involved lots of paint chip clean-up afterwards and a frustrated 4 year old (and Mom)!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 138: Marble Run Water Play (fail -- although fun).

Pinterest pin and website link.

This looked so fun, but ended up not working out so well -- we moved the water table inside on a rainy day (with a tarp / towels underneath) and built up the marble run to sit inside the water table.  

Although my daughter played with it for a long time, my son quickly tired of the marbles not moving along as well in water as they normally do without water.  It may have also had something to do with the water table not being completely even (my engineer husband tried to fix it), but the marbles consistently got stuck halfway down the run due to water resistance.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 137: Refresh your Towels (fail).

Pinterest pin and website picture.

We've had the same master bath towels for years, so when my friend asked if I would try this pin on refreshing towels, I jumped at the chance.  This pin promises fresh smelling and absorbent towels, but after running them through the washer twice with hot water (once with 1 cup of vinegar and the next with 1/2 cup of baking soda) and drying them, I didn't notice any difference in the smell or absorbency of the towels.  Maybe it's time to invest in some new ones...

Before:

After:

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 136: Baked Funfetti Donuts (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

These were all-around bad :(  Super sugary, too many sprinkles, horrible-tasting glaze.  Just trust me on this one -- don't waste your time.  I'd suggest hitting up Krispy Kreme instead.

I did like the blog author's idea of piping the batter into the donut pan.  

After mixing up the batter (it will be thick), spoon it into a Ziploc bag, snip off a side at the bottom of the bag, and slowly pipe the batter into the pan.  Voila!

Baked, but not yet glazed.  Too many sprinkles!

Glazed -- and the ones on the far left were achieved by following her instructions exactly.  Once I tasted the glaze (too much powdered sugar taste, in my opinion!), I just "dripped" some on the top instead of covering the entire donut.  Neither tasted very good!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 134: Pineapple Whip (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I've never had a Dole Whip at Disneyland before, but this homemade version is supposed to be close to the real deal, and since I like all the ingredients separately, I thought I would give it a try!  Unfortunately, the ingredient combo just wasn't good -- the almond milk and pineapple didn't meld well, and it seemed like there should be more honey included.

Ingredients:
1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, chopped and frozen (or, store-bought, frozen pineapple)
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon honey

Instructions:

The blog author suggested using a Vitamix or food processor versus a blender to get an ice cream-like consistency.  I used the food processor attachment on top of my blender and halved the recipe.

Combine the frozen pineapple with the almond milk and honey, and blend until smooth (this took awhile for me).  The full recipe makes 4-6 servings.  Serve immediately.

Verdict: FAIL (due to taste).

Day 132: Baby Food Jars as Party Favors (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I don't consider myself a hoarder, but then I find a box of random baby jar containers and lids that I have no idea why a) I saved and b) I moved from the house we were in when we had our babies to the house we are in now with toddlers / kids.  My youngest "baby" is almost three, so these jars have been taking up space for far too long!

I thought it would be symbolic to use my youngest child's baby jars as party favors for her upcoming "ballerina" birthday party.  It looked easy enough -- I had the jars, lids and candy, and just needed to buy the pink "ballet slipper" spray paint.

This project was a disaster!  The more I spray painted the lids, the more the lid writing was visible -- and smudged (see below -- the jar on the left was spray painted the least and the one on the right was painted the most)! Perhaps if I was gluing something on to the tops of these, they would have looked okay, but I didn't want to have an additional cost added to an item that people would just throw away when they get home from the party; I decided against doing that.

Verdict: FAIL.  I will eat the candy, the jars are going in the recycling and the lids are getting trashed tomorrow!

Day 130: Storing Ice Cream in a Ziploc to Keep Soft (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

To perform my own test on this pin, I "splurged" and bought two containers of ice cream at the store last week.  I stored one container of ice cream (strawberry) in the freezer without a Ziploc bag, and one container (chocolate chip cookie dough) in the freezer with a Ziploc bag.  I saw no difference in softness when I was scooping them out tonight after a few days of sitting in the freezer.  My opinion?  Save your plastic bags and just put the container straight into the freezer!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 128: Freezing Cupcakes (works -- but a fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I typically bake cupcakes days / weeks in advance of when I need them and freeze them to keep; I then frost them while frozen.  I decided to try a new method of freezing cupcakes versus my typical way (throwing baked, cooled cupcakes into a Ziploc bag).  In the end, it was much more work, and didn't seem to make much -- if any -- difference in the final taste or texture.  Below, you can see that I froze some cupcakes in my traditional way, and then more cupcakes in the new way with saran wrap + foil + Ziploc bag.

Instructions:

Step 1: After baking the cupcakes, let them cool a bit; once they are cool, they can be wrapped. Lay large pieces of saran wrap in an X and then place 12 cupcakes in the center. Fold in one side and then the other, creating a nice seal.

Step 2: Lay out a long piece of foil and place cupcakes in center. Wrap foil around and fold sides in.

Step 3: Slip into a gallon Ziploc, and label with date and flavor.

The true test was when I ate these -- I was worried about my "traditional" packaging, as these cupcakes looked like they had a little freezer burn...

...and the ones with the new packaging weren't iced over at all.

However, I frosted both (while frozen), let them defrost, and then taste-tested, and they tasted exactly the same.  My vote?  It's not worth the extra effort + materials to use saran wrap and foil. 

Verdict: FAIL

Day 125: Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

Continuing my project to test how different boxed cakes (besides white or vanilla) taste when using the trick for making boxed cupcakes taste like bakery cupcakes, I attempted a chocolate fudge mix tonight.  For this attempt, I used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge cake mix and eliminated the vanilla (due to my spice cupcake trial with additional vanilla flavoring).  These tasted okay -- but definitely lacked a rich, chocolate fudge flavor, likely due to all the extra ingredients (an additional egg and more butter).  In the future, I would make these according to the package directions.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 123: Snickerdoodle Cake Pop (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

These did not taste good, mainly because the consistency was weird and squishy :(

Ingredients:

Yellow cake mix (baked according to box instructions)

Canned vanilla frosting (mine happened to be "hot pink vanilla!")

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp ground cinnamon

lollipop sticks

Instructions:

Once cake has cooled, crumble it into fine pieces in a large bowl. Add 2 spoonfuls of frosting, incorporating it into the cake using your fingers (this looked like play dough to me...).

Once the frosting is evenly distributed, use a cookie scoop to make evenly-sized portions. Roll and shape the cake into balls.  In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Coat the cake balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve as is, or add lollipop sticks to make cake pops.

This was my son's face prior to trying the cake pops...

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 121: Cilantro Lime Dressing (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

This wasn't horrible, but it tasted pretty bland and was very runny; I could overwhelmingly taste the olive oil while eating the salad.  I love cilantro lime dressings, so I'm still on the hunt for an amazing homemade one!

Ingredients:
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1/2 lime)
1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Puree all ingredients in a blender (I used my "Magic Bullet" blender) until smooth.

I then cut up all my veggies for a chopped salad -- romaine, corn, black beans, tomatoes, green onions and red peppers -- and poured the salad dressing on top.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 112: Baby Powder to Untangle Necklace (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

Although I was eventually able to untangle this necklace using baby powder, I tried untangling another knot in the same necklace without it and didn't find that using baby powder made it any easier...

Instructions:
Sprinkle a little baby powder over the knot to help loosen it, then use a pin to finish freeing it.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 104: Gigantic Homemade Bubbles (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

It's felt like summer around here the last few days, and evidently, that means I only attempt pins involving bubbles :)  I'm still on the hunt for an amazing bubble recipe for my kids, as this one didn't do the trick.

Ingredients:
6 cups water
1/2 cup blue Dawn dishwashing detergent
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin

Instructions:
Dissolve the cornstarch in the water, stirring well.  Gently stir in the remaining ingredients.  Allow mixture to sit at least an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent the cornstarch from settling to the bottom.

Our cornstarch never dissolved, despite frequent stirrings, and eventually became a hard mass on the bottom of the bowl.  When my 4 and 2 year old attempted making bubbles after a few hours, they weren't very successful and got frustrated.

And because of the cornstarch, my deck looked like this until I scrubbed it down with soap and water...

As a comparison, this is the amount of bubbles my son could create using the "super miracle bubbles" solution purchased at Fred Meyer.  I am on the hunt for a homemade concoction that works this well!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 102: Miracle Cleaner (partial fail / success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I was given this stained shirt, so I have a hard time saying this "miracle cleaner" doesn't work since I don't know what the stain was from or how long it's been sitting on the shirt prior to trying the stain remover  Although it didn't completely take out the stain, it's much, much lighter and I feel comfortable wearing this shirt without the stain being too noticeable!

This is what the original stain looked like:

Ingredients:
1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid (the original blue kind)
2 parts Hydrogen Peroxide

Directions:
Mix together and pour directly on the stain (or use a spray bottle if you have lots of stains to tackle).  Wait a few minutes, give the stained area a little rubbing to agitate it, and then rinse the item out.

I then threw the shirt in with a load of washing, and this is what it looked like after being in the washer / dryer.  The stain is still there, but hardly noticeable, right??

The original blogger even got stains out of a kids' fabric chair that she couldn't rinse out, so I may try this on non-clothing items too!

Verdict: PARTIAL FAIL / SUCCESS!