Pin 184 and Pin 185

Original pin:

This is not the link I had originally pinned, but the blogger has updated her site and the best post is here http://eclecticallyvintage.com/2013/02/cupid-float-valentine-drink/#

I needed a fun drink for the Kindergarten Valentine's Day party. I thought these were super cute and would be a real treat for the kids at their party. I bought all the supplies (I actually had a leftover jar of unopened cherries from Pin 163) and bought some fun party cups.

In planning my transportation logistics, I was thinking about getting the ice cream up to the school, keeping it frozen, dipping, dripping, sticking, melting. . .   Back to Pinterest I go. I had this pin filed away:

Original pin:

http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/birthdays/serving-cake-ice-cream-like-pro-10000001189696/page4.html 

Real Simple suggested pre-dipping ice cream and freezing in paper cups to serve at birthday parties. I modified this suggestion a teensy bit to fit my situation.  The morning of the party, I dipped two scoops into each (clean--I ran them all through the dishwasher the night before) cup.

I packed them into my largest aluminum cake pan (aluminum helps keep things cold).

And then I covered the whole top and sides with aluminum foil. I put it back in the freezer. A few hours later, just before I left the house for the party, I put the whole tray in my large cooler on ice. I left everything in the cooler until just before the kids arrived in the classroom for their party. We set out the cups and, with help from the other mom's, added soda, whipped cream, straws, and, of course, a cherry!

Total cost: I served 22 kids. I used almost two 2-liter bottles of soda and about half a gallon of ice cream. A little over one bottle of whipped cream and a half-jar of cherries. Including the cost of the cups, it was about $12.

Total time: Less than 20 minutes. I think it took around 10 minutes to dip all the cups and maybe 5 to top them off in a team effort.

Final verdict: I love floats! It is such a childhood memory treat for me so I thought it was a fun idea for a classroom party. The pink color was just the icing on the cake for me! Most of the kids seemed to like them--I know mine did! Lucky boy, I have leftovers waiting for him after school today. The predipping trick was awesome. I didn't have to worry about dripping ice cream, forgetting a scoop, or melting leftovers. I just may start doing this for all my parties! And I will probably do floats for school parties again because it was so easy!

Pin 163

Original pin:

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/white-chocolate-cherry-shortbread/

White chocolate cherry shortbread cookies. These looked so good! I had pinned them with a bad link and I wanted these so I hunted them down and repinned them with the corrected link at Better Homes and Gardens.

I had a holiday party (the first of many) that needed a few desserts. Our theme was red and white so I thought these would be perfect. So many red & white desserts are peppermint. I was looking for one that was specifically NOT peppermint.

I have to admit, these were very, very easy. Almost too easy. I guess I just had in my head that these would be complicated, but they were not. The recipe made says the yield is 60 cookies. I thought I measured appropriately, I used my little cookie scooper and everything. I yielded about 30. That is still a LOT of cookies!

I couldn't find just red and white sprinkles. However, I used so many that I could have just bought a bottle of each and mixed them together. How smart would that have been? I started out with the white, red, and green nonpareils and when those ran out switched to the green sugar ones.

Total cost: The white baking chocolate was a little pricey. The day I was shopping I could only find a rather luxurious brand of chocolate. Seems like you could probably save a little dough and substitute white chocolate chips here instead.  It would also eliminate the step of chopping the chocolate. However, I only had to buy chocolate, cherries, and sprinkles.  The rest was pantry staples. All together I spent around $14.

Total time: Including all baking time and dipping it took around 2 1/2 hours total. Prep time was only about 20 minutes of all of that.

Final verdict: These were a nice twist on the holiday treat. I don't think of cherry things around the holidays so I was pleasantly surprised. I don't love maraschino cherries. The cherry flavor is subtle without overwhelming the shortbread.  My kids love them--although I'm not sure if its because of the sprinkles or because the cookie is actually good. They looked cute for my red & white party. Now I've got to find someone who needs cookies to eat all the leftovers before I do!

Pin 78

I technically did not pin this anywhere. I am sure, sure, positively, absolutely sure I SAW this on Pinterest. I really, really THOUGHT I had pinned this somewhere, but I can not find the pin on any of my pinboards. It was such an awesome trick I just had to share it and I don't want to take credit for coming up with it all on my own so I am just going to consider it a pin without a source or a picture.

My flowers from pin Pin 71 were beautiful for at least 10 days! But the lemons were not so fresh anymore. The water was murky, the top was developing some funk. I had about seven different arrangements around the house that were all in need of a little refreshing. We were having some home improvements done last week, which really put a kink in my pin projects and is why I am a little behind on my weekly posts. I actually couldn't get to some of the arrangements due to furniture stacked absolutely EVERYWHERE!! Despite this neglect, these flowers survived.

Once the house started to come back together, I gathered all the arrangements, dumped the water and lemons, and gathered all the flowers. I rinsed all the stems to remove any funky residue. I wanted to condense them into one large arrangement. I had a few extra lemons so I pulled out a large vase and sliced my leftover lemons. The stems were not long enough to arrange in my large vase without sinking. That's when I remembered this un-pinned pin. I created a grid on the top of the vase with transparent tape.

Starting in the middle, I trimmed the old ends of the flowers and stuck them about 3-5 per grid opening. I just worked from the middle to the edges all the way around.

 This trick worked fabulously. My brain was in too much of a cluttered state to remember to take an after picture! But it was gorgeous. The grid held the flowers perfectly and kept them from sinking which made them so much easier to arrange.

As for the flowers, I am not sure if it was the lemons or the fact that I bought these flowers from a wholesale market, but they were gorgeous for at least 12 days! Even when I tossed them at least half of them were salvageable.

Total cost: $0

Total time: 2 minutes to make the grid

Final verdict: Awesome little trick. I will definitely use this again.

Pin 72

Original Pin:

http://www.notesonawedding.com/diy-mason-jars-wrapped-in-twine/

You may have noticed these in Pin 71. As I mentioned in that post, I was having a little last minute scramble for jars for the teacher appreciation luncheon last week. I always save my jars when I am cooking to use as grease collectors so I had a few stashed under the sink. I tried soaking off the labels which worked for some, but two really had some awful glue on them. I tried hot water, the microwave, soaking, scrubbing, scraping. I didn't have any steel wool--this was an unexpected obstacle, but I did have some of those green heavy duty scrubbers. I called in Mr. Muscle and even he couldn't get this glue off. All we did was take it from a white gluey, sticky mess to a green mess as it shredded the scrubber.

ewww. gross.

I remembered pinning this and decided this was going to be the best solution to this problem. I didn't go back and look at the original pin at the time. I was just in "get-it-done" mode. I grabbed a ball of twine and my hot glue gun and went to work. When I went back later and read the original author's directions, we were pretty much the same. I used hot glue, but she used another type of glue. The nasty residue glue actually helped the twine stick right in place so I only used one dot of hot glue where I started. The ends I just tied in place.

The jar on the left I just tied the beginning end to the final end. The jar on the right, I did a few layers of figure eights and tied in the back.

These turned out super cute, were fast and easy to make, and fit in with our decor perfectly! The perfect fix to this sticky label problem.

In action

Total cost: $0, upcycled jars, leftover twine that originated from the dollar store

Total time: 5 minutes per jar

Final verdict: I loved this simple solution to hiding the ugly adhesive on the jars.

Pin 71

Original pin:

http://www.allyou.com/budget-home/easy-decorating/backyard-party-ideas-00411000067578/page5.html

Our theme for the teacher's appreciation luncheon was yellow, so I did not go with the red bandanna runner, just the lemon & daisies motif.

So many things right about this. I just don't know where to start.

First, I think it is sweetly simple and pretty.

Secondly, and I didn't know this before, but the lemons help the flowers stay fresher, longer. I was a little worried making these that the lemons would make the water too acidic for the flowers. I was arranging them the night before and I didn't want them to die overnight. A little google action later, I learned that the lemon was actually great for the flowers.

I just went with white daisies. I wanted to but them in bulk because I did not need the extra greenery that comes with arrangements. I tried to order them from a wholesale club in our area but there seemed to be some communication difficulties. Next, I called a local florist. He said he could do it, but that I could get a better deal if I went to Fort Worth Flower Market on 7th. Thanks for the advice! If you are in Hurst, support Cooper's Florist! Since they were so helpful and honest, I will be buying my next arrangement there! As for bulk, 7th street was definitely the way to go!

As I gathered my supplies to pull it all together, I realized I only had 6 mason jars instead of the 9 I thought I had. I had to scramble for some extra vases at the last minute but the eclectic grouping just pulled it all together perfectly.

The next morning, the flowers were fully opened and absolutely gorgeous. I added some color-coordinated ribbons and they were beautiful!

My eclectic grouping of jars, pitchers, and vases.

I threw some white Asters in the tall glass. A parent brought a dish in this picnic basket that worked perfectly with the theme so we pulled it into the decor!

The teachers loved them!

Total cost: $5 worth of lemons, $37 of flowers. Random assortment of already owned jars & vases made 11 arrangements

Total time: 1 1/2 hours of arranging

Final verdict: I love the way they turned out and we got lots of compliments. Super cute! And I feel smart knowing that adding a little lemon to the water will keep the flowers fresh. The flowers are nearly five days old now and still look gorgeous. Not one has wilted yet.

And just a few extra flower pictures. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of them. I don't think I have ever had this many gorgeous flowers in my house at one time!