Friday, December 16, 2011

Real Women Of Pinterest: Card Holders and Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

As some of you know, there is a special place in my heart for Pinterest. I luff it. I can distract myself endlessly on there. Contained within its bits and bytes are a million and one ideas for projects and decorations and clothes and things that I would like to do. However, after several months of "pinning", I have actually done exactly zero of the projects I have found on there. Pinterest FAIL. I have followed my dear friends mep and E... as they tackle projects as part of their Real Women of Pinterest challenge and every week I am inspired but the busyness of everyday life gets in the way and somehow another week passes without me doing anything.

But that changed this week!

I present my first project:The Card Holder























Majestic, isn't it? I know, I know. You all want one. Every year we get holiday cards from all of our nearest and dearest and they wind up cluttered on every available flat surface: dining table, mantle, bulletin board, refrigerator. I needed some way to display them but I hadn't really settled on anything. My first thought was a french memo board. I've made a few and I quite like them. But I didn't want it to be a permanent installation and we are not exactly overburdened with storage here, so I was reluctant to create something that would take up valuable space the other 11 months of the year. When I saw this idea on Pinterest, I was smitten. The original was hung on a hook over a door, but we don't have a door that would be good for that, they are all either out of the way or see too much use, so I hung it on a nail in the dining room. There are a few things I would change but I'm mostly happy with it, especially considering it was almost entirely constructed of things I had on hand. I would like to point out the level of attention to detail I committed to this: I dyed the clothespins to match the color scheme. Bow to my craftiness, minions.

My next project was a recipe for a cookie exchange: Peanut Butter Cup Brownies






















I'll grant you, this recipe isn't exactly rocket surgery. Basically, it's a brownie mix with peanut butter poured on top, but it's peanut butter and chocolate, HELLO two great tastes that taste great together, and they looked cute. I keep trying overly complicated recipes and completely screwing them up, so I wanted something foolproof. Well, as with EVERYTHING in my world, nothing is foolproof, and I'm not overjoyed with how mine turned out. I'm going to blame my oven. (It certainly can't be MY fault. Pfft.) I couldn't seem to get the brownies to the exact right doneness wherein the center collapses and the peanut butter goes in perfectly. But reports were that they tasted good. I doubt I will make them again, but it was a fun experiement.

So that's it for this week! If you aren't already, get thee to Pinterest! If you want to see what I'm pinning, I'm Carabee74. And to see what some other Real Women of Pinterest are creating, check out Not to Brag.

10 comments:

  1. Love the cardholder -- great idea! And, really, how can one go astray with any combination of chocolate and peanut butter? Tis not possible. Tis not. I think your brownies look divine, actually, and would be thrilled with that final product, especially since you got reports of tastiness! So glad you joined us for RWOP this week -- I always like your pins.

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  2. Nice work.

    I don't Pinterest but I am thinking of changing that in 2012.

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  3. Love the card holder. Right now all mine are just taped on the wall. NOT creative at all. And I agree with MEP, there is no wrong way to do chocolate and peanut butter. They look awesome and I would have no qualms about eating a few. Or more.

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  4. The card holder is great. I put my photo cards into the branches of an artificial wreath, but something like this would be good for the rest of them, which I just stick into a basket. Those brownies look awesome. I really miss peanut butter now that I'm not supposed to eat it anymore. Glad you joined us for RWOP!

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  5. I should definitely do something like this with my cards. Right now they sit on the entry table in a fanned out pile. Attractive it is not. :D And you can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter...Mmmmm!!

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  6. Yum on the chocolatey peanut buttery treats! And that card holder is a good idea! Right now we have an area with one of those openings between walls. Some great 50's idea they had when they built this house. I usually line that area with the cards, I tape them around that square area. Bleh.

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  7. Look at you, getting' all crafty. How much do I love that you dyed the clothespins to match? LOTS.

    And the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is the best combination of all.

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  8. those cupcakes look pretty awesome! You're much better than I am. I pin stuff but never get around to making anything. One day....one day.

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  9. I've made a few recipes off of Pinterest but none of the crafty stuff. I heart Pinterest.

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  10. So proud of you for actually doing a project - I am much the same lots of voyueristic eyes on some great "pins" and hoping that I'll get the chance to actually create one day...well you beat me to it! :) Well done!

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Give me some sugar, baby!