Refreshing Towels Miracle!

So, my husband and I got some awesome towels for our wedding almost three years ago.  I still love them and just can't give them up.  However, after almost three years of use they're getting a little worse for wear.  The look I could deal with (the frayed edges, the color fading on one side) but the smell is another story.  Over time they'd built up this quirky smell that only happened when they were wet.  Straight out of the dryer they smelled as fresh as a daisy.  However, after use they'd stink up the bathroom.  My husband would use a towel and hang it over the shower curtain to dry.  Said hanging wet towel would begin to emanate an almost moldy smell that would fill the bathroom.  Gross.  I'd wash and wash them using all sorts of soaps and extra fabric softener, but no matter what I did they still smelled funky when wet.  Then, I came across this!


I picked this Pin out of my "That's a Neat Idea" Board:

"My grandma taught me this many years ago. Refreshing towels I use this trick all the time since I noticed my towels smelling funky. It works! - Over time, towels build up detergent and fabric softener, leaving them unable to absorb as much water and smelly. Recharge them by washing them once with hot water and 1cup vinegar, then a 2nd time with hot water and half cup baking soda. This strips the residue and leaves them fresh and able to absorb more water again. Works like a charm!"




So, I got to work.  I had two kinds of towels.  I had plain blue ones and ones where one side was brown and one was blue.  I was a little nervous about this "washing with vinegar" idea and thought it might hurt the colors.  So, I started with the plain blue ones thinking those would be the easiest to replace should something go wrong.

Here are the items I had to work with:

I put all the blue towels in the wash and started with the vinegar.  I usually wash my towels with the "warm/cold" option as it seems more cost effective.  So, for this I pulled out all the stops and used the "hot/cold" option as the instructions insisted on hot water.

The instructions didn't specify whether or not you were supposed to dry the towels in-between cycles.  I figured baking soda would work best when mixed with fabric that was already wet....so I decided to leave the towels in the wash (once they were done being washed in vinegar), add the baking soda and turn the dials back for a second wash cycle.

Then, I took the towels out and put them in the dryer.  I put two dryer sheets in to give them a little extra fluff and fragrance.

The results were AMAZING!  Right away I could tell my towels were lighter and fresher.  There was no difference in the color or staining, so I went ahead and washed the brown/blue towels the same way.  Both my husband and I have used the towels since then and they now have NO funky smell when wet!  This was definitely a winning Pin!


Thanks for checking out my blog!  Stay tuned for my next Pinterest Adventure!








Questions/Comments:

This is the first time I've tried this and LOVED the results.  I wonder though, how many times you can do this to your towels to prolong their freshness?  Has anyone ever tried it?  Does this method lose its effectiveness the more you do it?  How often does it need to be done?  Any comments would be most appreciated!

Pineapple Chicken Failure

I wanted to make something yummy and easy for dinner.

So, I found this in my "Sounds Yummy" Board:

Looks fabulous right?!  And the instructions were super easy....

"Try this. Crockpot! 1 cup pineapple juice 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup light soy sauce 2 pounds chicken breast tenderloins. Cook on low 6-8 hrs and they should just fall apart."

As usual when cooking, I don't think I read the directions thoroughly before starting.  I thought starting four or five hours before dinner would be plenty of time.

Here are the ingredients I used:

The instructions were pretty straightforward.  Since I was starting a bit behind schedule, I cut up the tenderloins a little so they would cook faster.  I also cooked them on "high" thinking "if it takes 6-8 hours on low, surely 3-5 hours on high should do the trick!" 

About two hours in, I wasn't getting the results I was expecting.......

The whole mixture was still pretty soupy.  The picture looked like the brown sugar kind of caramelized.   So that's what I was expecting.  I thought the liquid would cook off and the chicken would end up with kind of a gooey coating.  After two hours, this didn't seem to be happening.  I wanted the whole thing to be over in about three hours (hence me turning it on high), but I decided to just keep cooking and hope for the best.

Well past my 3-4 hour dinner time, the chicken was still looking pretty soupy......

Some of the liquid had boiled away, but still not nearly enough.  I let it cook for another hour or so.....finally we just got too hungry and decided to try it.  The mixture was still REALLY soupy and not even close to what the Pin looked like, but the chicken was well cooked.

So, after cooking the mixture on high for just over 5 hours, this is what came out:

The chicken was really moist...a little too moist...and was still covered in liquid.  I never got the texture I was expecting from the picture, or the look.  It actually looks more appetizing in this picture than it did in real life.  It wasn't something I was excited about eating....but we tried it anyway.  The flavor wasn't half bad.  You could definitely taste the pineapple and it was very sweet.  It was hard to get over the look of it though.

Thanks for checking out my newest adventure!  Stay tuned for the next one!


Afterthoughts:

Has anyone else ever tried to alter the time on a crockpot with these results?  Or could it just be this recipe is a dud?

Flamingo Cookies

So, I was going to a party hosted by a girl that LOVES flamingos.  Everyone brought a little snack to share.  Flamingos + snack = Flamingo Cookies!  I looked up some ideas on Pinterest (my idea inspiration headquarters) and this is what I found.

This is from my Sounds Yummy board:

Seems pretty straightforward right?


So, I began the way I always do with cutout cookies....with my grandma's recipe!  I rolled out the dough and pulled out my flamingo cookie cutter.  I found this gem in a container of 50 different animal shapes at Michael's.  They were pretty cheap too!  However, this one's made of plastic.  If you're really in to flamingos and think you'd make these cookies often, I'd definitely invest in the more expensive metal cookie cutter like the one shown in the Pin.  In my experience, metal is always better.  The cuts are more crisp and the dough doesn't stick to it as easily.  The reason I mention this, is because I had a lot of difficulty getting the shapes to stick using this plastic cutter.  I had to reattach a lot of heads and legs as I put the shapes on the baking sheet.

As you can see, my shapes are a little different than the ones in the Pin.  The legs aren't quite as fancy.


Next, I got to work frosting.  The Pin looked like it used some fancy frosting but didn't tell me how they made it.  So, I used my typical powdered sugar and milk mixture.  I used red and yellow food coloring and made two different colors.  I used just enough red to give the frosting a pink flamingo color.  These pictures make them look a little red, but you'll see in the final photo that they turned out just the right color.

The Pin has you using some nifty bottles to squirt on the frosting.  I didn't have anything that fancy, so I used the old ziplock baggy technique.  (I put frosting into a ziplock baggie, moved the frosting all to one corner, got out all the air, sealed the baggie and clipped the corner).  I frosted each cookie pink and yellow as shown.

Now came the tricky part.  I had NO luck finding those fancy sprinkles the Pinner used.  So I improvised with some purple/brownish frosting that I made.  I used the same technique of application as I did on the rest of the cookie and added the end of the nose and eyes.  This is definitely a must.  Without this little touch the cookies kind of looked like ducks.

The finishing touch made them as believable as I could get them!  The hardest part was obviously the eyes.

I threw them in a cute tin and headed to the party.  They were quite the hit!

Ta-dah!  Thank you for checking out my adventures.  Can't wait for the next one!





Afterthoughts:

The frosting I make is SO easy and tasty, but sometimes it takes a really long time to harden....especially if I have to do layers of it.  Anyone have any thoughts on how to get this type of frosting to harden faster?  Sometimes I have to let my cookies sit out overnight or even longer before I can safely put them in a tin.

Super Mario Party Cookies

A friend of ours decided to have a "Super Mario Party" recently.  Basically this consisted of having several T.V.'s set up to play various Mario video games.  There was "Mario Themed" food (spaghetti, bomb-omb and question mark candies, etc) and I offered to make dessert.  I looked through my "Sounds Yummy" board on Pinterest and found the following ideas to work off of:




Since I was doing this in a time-frame that didn't allow me to find and purchase actual Mario cookie cutters in time, I sort of had to improvise (much like the first Pinner who clearly used just a star and round cookie cutter).  And, unlike the last Pinner, I'm clearly not a professional.  I used my grandma's cutout cookie recipe.  I think it's pretty straightforward that just about any cutout recipe will work for this project.  The tricky part is getting the shapes and decorations right.

I'll start out with the mushrooms, since those were the most tricky.  I used an antique biscuit cutter.  It's a round cutter with a removable round center (this is so you can make donuts with it).  You could also use a circle cookie cutter and a smaller circle.  I started by removing the smaller circle and having the two pieces separate (after all, I'm not making donuts here ;) ).

After rolling out the dough, I cut out a big circle using the large circle cutter.

Next I took the smaller circle cutter and cut about 3/4 of a circle out of the bottom of the larger circle.

I removed the smaller 3/4 circle from the larger circle.

Next, I used the smaller circle cutter to remove the remaining dough from the bottom of the larger circle.  This essentially made a half circle.  For most of the mushrooms I tried to leave a little more dough on the sides so they could be rounded down as the mushroom top.

After that, it was just a matter of assembling the mushroom.  I turned the smaller "circle" around so that the flat bottom connected to the larger half circle.  Then I molded the mushroom top around the edges so it didn't look so ragged.  Here is what the mushrooms looked like before being baked.  The smaller round pieces were cut out using the same small circle cutter I used for the mushrooms and the others using a small star shaped cookie cutter.  These will be decorated as coins and stars later.

I also made some Yoshi and Fire Flower cookies.  For the Yoshi's I used a Santa hat cookie cutter.  For the Fire Flowers I used the same large circle cutter as I used for the mushrooms.  I then used a knife to cut out a small slice from the top of each circle.  I cut the slice like you would a piece of pie or pizza.  Since my red food coloring doesn't taste so great, I opted to decorate the Fire Flowers using red sprinkles.  These were sprinkled on prior to baking.  (ignore the bow-ties, I just made a couple of those for fun).

After baking all the cutouts it was time to decorate!  I used a simple powdered sugar and milk frosting and added food coloring for each of the different colors.  Use what frosting you feel most comfortable with.

I started with the Fire Flowers.  I used white frosting to make the lips and dots.

Then I added green frosting to make the leaves.

The easiest way to make lines and dots with frosting (as opposed to covering the entire cookie) is to put the frosting in a ziplock baggie (removing all the air) and then cutting a hole in one of the corners.  You then use the baggie like a pastry bag!

I used this same technique, along with several combinations of colors, to decorate the rest of the cutouts.  In many cases I put one color of frosting over another.  With the frosting I used it was easiest to do this by letting the first layer dry before adding another color.  If you don't do this the colors will run together.

I'm clearly not an expert and some of Yoshi's colors were a little off.  This was mostly because I wanted to avoid using red frosting (due to the icky taste I mentioned earlier) and had to improvise.  All in all I don't think they turned out too bad!  I got lots of complements at the party and they tasted delicious!



Here are some close ups of the finished product:

Thanks for reading!  I can't wait to share my next Pin adventure with you!

Combo of Nailpolish Pins

I found a few Pins that seemed interesting to try combined.  The Pins I went off of are from my "hair and makeup" board.

These are the Pins I used:

First there were the Pins showing the blue color I loved.  This is Essie's Aruba Blue.  I LOVE Essie.  The colors are amazing and it's super easy to apply.  A lot of times you only need one coat, even for really dark colors!


 

Then I combined it with Pins of Essie's glitter polishes used as French tips.









The products I used were  Essie's Aruba Blue, Set in Stones (this is the glitter) and Good To Go (the top coat).

First I started by painting my nails with the Aruba Blue:

Then I used the Set in Stones to make a French Tip:

This part was the most difficult.  Working with thick glitter polish is pretty tricky to begin with, but trying to make it even in a small space like a French Tip is even more tricky.  I ended up sort of blobbing it on along the tip of my nail until I got the amount of glitter I wanted.  Then I lightly ran the polish brush along the tip to smooth it out a little.  The result looked good, but the tip where the glitter was ended up being MUCH higher than the blue part of my nail.  It almost looked like a bump on the end of my nail.

Finally I put on the top coat "Good to Go". 

Note: This product is AMAZING.  I use it with ALL my nail polish.  It makes your nails dry much faster than usual, gives them a nice glossy finish and a smooth seal and even helps with removal.  I HATE removing nail polish.  It chips and picks its way off and ends up everywhere....then when I try removing it, it's suddenly stuck like glue!  "Good to Go" helps with all these problems.  It keeps the polish firm and shiny for days and protects your designs.  It seems to bind all the nail polish together in one clump so that instead of chipping off, it peels off.  Nail polish doesn't come off in tiny annoying chips, but rather large chunks that can easily be peeled away.  More than once I've been able to peel off the entire polished nail in one chunk.  SUPER nice when time for removal.

Anyway, once "Good to Go" was applied the bump at the end of my nail was less dramatic and everything was glossy.  I definitely recommend using some kind of top coat with dealing with large glitter polish.  It seals in the chunks and sharp edges of the glitter.

Here's the finished product!  Keep in mind I still have to pick off a few of the blue remnants on my skin.  Those usually remove themselves pretty easily with a good hot-water hand wash.  All in all I think it turned out rather well.  Think I nailed the combo?

Can't wait for my next Pinterest adventure!

Nail Polish Idea

Okay, so this wasn't actually a Pin I found.  But looking at all the simple pins on nailpolish application gave me the idea.  It was pretty simple really.  Just paint your nail one color all over.  Then paint only half of your nail with a second color.  Simple!  I also used Essie's top coat to finish it off and seal everything.

Ta-Dah!:

Criss-Cross Hair Bun

Not my first try doing something on Pinterest, but this is my first attempt at blogging about it.  So, I started with one of my "hair and makeup" Pins.  It's a pretty criss-cross bun with photos as instructions.  My hair is really thin so I wasn't sure if I could pull off the large bun with what I had to work with. 

Here is the Pin I was trying:

My hair is a little shorter than the girl in the pictures, so my step one looked a little different.  I simply put my hair in a low ponytail (leaving pieces on the sides like she does in the picture) and pulled the end through the rubber band halfway.  This left the ends of my ponytail poking out the bottom, but they were easily covered when I wrapped the sides in.  I clipped in a flower for some added pizzaz! 


Think I nailed it?

One thing I would mention is hairspray and bobby pins are a must.  This is especially true if you have thin and/or layered hair.  My hair is pretty even-colored, but I thing this style would be really striking on someone that has highlights or different colors in their hair.  I think the criss-cross pattern would stand out more.  Either way I really like this style and it was super easy to achieve.

Stay tuned for my next adventure!