Cleaning Sink with Bag of Vinegar: 1/5

Have you seen the pins about how to clean your sink? The aerator accumulates mineral deposits over time and this can be particularly difficult to clean. I have seen several pins that say you can tie/rubberband/whatever a bag of vinegar around the faucet and let it soak. This was a horrible, painful failure. I'm not referencing anyone's specific pin because, well, it is nobody's fault but my own. Oh, and the faucet's. And perhaps our hard water. See the offending faucet? It's in the trash.

Not only did I not get the faucet clean, but I broke the entire faucet. Then I tried to install the new one and failed at that too. After hours of wasting my own unskilled labor as well as several of the husband's, we ended up calling a plumber in the end. So that's the short version. If you care to hear the whole story, keep reading.

When I tried to tie the bag of vinegar to the faucet, it just plain didn't work. I couldn't get it sealed, so the vinegar kept leaking out of the bag and running down the underside of the faucet. After several attempts I gave up. I also realized I could hear a dripping sound under the sink. Somehow, and nobody knows how the some is, the vinegar was getting from the sink into the cabinet below. Of course I was frustrated and knew I'd have to chase that problem down, but first I was determined to get that aerator clean!

I figured I could unscrew the aerator with my hand. Nope. So I grabbed some pliers. Nope. The crust had gotten so thick that the aerator was stuck tight. Then I remembered my brother gave us a vice grip. Awesome! A chance to use it, right? Yeah. Rather than working through the green and white mineral deposits, I ripped the faucet in two. Seriously. I'm not that strong. I don't know how it happened. I would guess that it was cracking already which is how the vinegar was getting through. It's too bad nobody got to see the look of horror on my face when I realized what I had done.

Off to Home Depot I went to pick out a new faucet. I talked to friends, watched online videos, and read how-to articles. With a little more help from the vice grip (apparently I didn't learn my lesson after the first incident), I finally got it installed! And it was leaking. The husband and I tried and tried to fix the leaks. My mother-in-law gave me some great tips but sadly I still had one last leak we couldn't figure out. We just had to call a plumber.

What was the problem? (By the way, if you're still reading this boring story, I'm impressed. Don't you have something more interesting to do?) The problem was one lousy nut. I put it on upside-down. I didn't know you could even get it to go on upside-down, so I would never have solved this on my own. The water was then creeping up the threads. Doh. The plumber was very kind and told me not to be embarrassed. But of course I was mortified. On the bright side, the new faucet is squeaky clean!

Gift Wrap Door (er....shelves) 4/5

Wrapping paper is a regular frustration for me. I've wanted to get a hanging door organizer for awhile (my mother-in-law has one that I love!) but haven't found one that fits my needs. The rolls of wrapping paper have just been crammed in the closet where they aren't easily accessible and often unroll. Then a friend on Pinterest posted a gift wrap door.

My closet doesn't have a swinging door but has sliding doors instead. However, I do have a metal shelving unit in the closet, and it was perfect for hanging the gift wrap.

I found some cheap shower curtain hooks from Amazon.com and clipped the rolls onto the side of the shelves. Done. Couldn't have been easier.

Insulated Casserole Carrier: 4/5

My mother-in-law has these great casserole carriers that look like this. I think she told me that she got them with the original casserole dishes when she was first married. Not helpful to me. Thus, I was thrilled to find this tutorial. I did make it closer to 40" to fit my handled casserole dishes, but otherwise followed the tutorial of Little Hooligans. The materials were definitely not anything I had lying around the house, but a quick trip to the fabric store fixed that. I got a little lost about how to make the velcro work, so I just did my own thing. It worked fine. Basically, I didn't measure where to sew the velcro and just slapped them on where I thought seemed best. Oh, and I didn't make the handle padding attachment; Angela was getting restless. Had I more time (and patience) I would have made them. Overall, good tutorial. Now I just need an excuse to use the carrier!

"That's the Best Frosting I Ever Had": 5/5

This recipe sounded weirder than weird. Who puts flour in a frosting?? From now on, I do. Scientifically, I have no idea how this recipe came together, but somehow the end result really is like the best whipped cream ever. I don't even like whipped cream very much. But this has such a buttery, rich flavor like buttercream frosting and has that light quality of whipped cream frosting

Of course it was a little extra trouble to have to cook the frosting, but it was well worth the effort. I put it on red velvet cupcakes from a box, and I couldn't have been happier. I've been told that this was the original frosting on red velvet cake before it become popular to use cream cheese frosting. Oh, and please be sure to let the frosting get cool, not just lukewarm. Otherwise you may have to throw it in the fridge and try mixing it again 30 minutes later. Or so I have heard.

One last thing! The recipe said the frosting was best served the same day as made. That is true. However, I have been enjoying these for a few days, and they still taste pretty good anyway.

Battery Storage in a Tackle Box: 4/5

Excellent idea. I don't know how you store your batteries, but ours were floating around the infamous junk drawer. Finding them was a pain. Truth be told, we usually bought new batteries instead of trying to find what we needed. Now they are nicely contained in one place. These are the simple things that take five minutes to do, but you can feel like you really accomplished something important!

See what a mess the drawer is? But the batteries are organized. By the way, if you want to rob my house and steal my checks, don't bother trying. Those may be check boxes but they don't have my actual checks in them. Sorry.

Peanut Butter and Oat Energy Bites: 5/5

These little balls, on the other hand, are incredible. I just made another double batch after gobbling down the first batch last week. I did make a couple of changes, more out of a desire to avoid making an extra trip to the store than wanting to change the recipe. I used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth. I'm certain the smooth would have been just as delicious, but I certainly didn't mind the crunch. The other ingredient my pantry lacked was the sunflower seeds. I just used some finely chopped walnuts. I loved the walnuts but, again, think the sunflower seeds would be good too. Maybe even better! Aside from being most delicious and super fast/easy to whip up, I also felt like I was eating something reasonably healthy. AND I really did feel satiated with just one. Unlike the cupcake I just finished and wanted to immediately eat another. But that's a post for another day.

Raw Cookie Dough Bites: 2/5

It sounds like a good idea, right? Healthy alternative to real cookie dough. I really should've known. If it sounds too good to be true, of course it is too good to be true. It's not that these were awful, but they did not taste like cookie dough. They tasted like nuts, oats, and honey in ball form. Except for the ball part. They were too crumbly for me to make balls. Instead I made a giant log. That's my laziness. I should've just added more honey, but by then I was too disenchanted. If you'd like a healthy snack, go for these with the extra honey! They did taste good. But if you think you're going to get cookie dough without butter or real sugar, you're as naive as I was.

Photograph courtesy of adashofcompassion.com