Pinterest Challenges 1-4

So thanks to Jessica's challenge to finish 10 pins in the month of August and thanks to getting some fancy new noodle bowls in the mail today, I decided to try this Malaysian Veggie Laksa that's been sitting under my Vegetarian board for quite some time now.

I definitely made a few of my own modifications (the most obvious being the fact that I used Ramen noodles! Oh for shame! But it was still delicious). Original recipe can be found here.

Pin #1: Malaysian Veggie Laksa (success)
2 Ramen noodle packages
1 tsp olive oil
2 Tbs red curry paste
1 chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 can light coconut milk
1 cup chopped red pepper and zucchini
2 cups boiling water


Heat olive oil in a large pot. Cook curry paste, onion, and garlic in the oil until onions are softened. Add can of coconut milk, peppers, and zucchini. Boil until veggies are softened.

While veggies are boiling, cook ramen noodles. When noodles are done, measure two cups of the boiling water and add to the coconut milk, along with the noodles and the two seasoning packets.
That's it! So easy and sooo yummy. I also added crushed red pepper flakes cuz I like it hot.

Pin #2: Braid Buns (fail)

Source.

I'm pretty okay when it comes to doing my own hair.....except for braids. Dreaded braids. I can't braid other people's hair and I certainly can't braid my own hair. So I should have known this was going to be a failed attempt from the very beginning, but I thought it looked simple enough. First of all, I didn't do the braid within the braid like the directions said because that's just too many braids. I got the three sections braided and things were already looking ugly. Then when I started to try to pin them up, they just kept falling out and down and around and all over. My layers poking out of the braids didn't look cute-messy, they looked sloppy-messy. By the time I gave up, it looked like I had let a four-year-old do my hair - and it was just about as painful too. I tried to take a picture but I wasn't flexible enough and Adam wasn't home and I wasn't about to keep my hair like that the whole day. I'm sure anyone else could have made this pin work, but not me. (Total use of the word "braid": 9)

Pin #3: Striped Nails (fail)

Original pin

I've got way too high of hopes for myself when it comes to pins, apparently. I know I can't paint my own nails for the life of me, and yet here I am trying. And trying one with stripes nonetheless. But, really, I didn't even get to that step before I failed.

I put three different colors on my nails like it shows in the top right-hand corner of the photo, but I used green, blue, and silver (they matched, I promise). That paint job was pretty ugly already. While I was waiting for that layer to dry, my dog needed his collar on and, like usual, I just said, "Oh they should be fine by now anyway," and started putting his collar on. By the time I was done with that, my nails were pretty butchered. But I figured with the top color over it you wouldn't be able to tell. So then I couldn't find my black nail polish, nor any tape thin enough to make the stripes. So I thought I could just use my silver crackle paint on top and maybe that would really seal the deal. Well, seal it, it did. A terrible paint job to begin with + smudges from the dog collar + messy crackle paint = really, really, really ugly nails. So I did what any other girl would do at this point - I took it off. Aaaaaaaaand of course we didn't have nail polish remover so I just scraped it off. Lovely. I'm sure you've got a pretty good idea of what my fingers (not just nails anymore) looked like at this point.

This is what they looked like three days and a gazillion hand-washes later. Still not too hot.

Pin #4: Potato Salad (kind of success)

I am definitely a lot better at Recipe pins than Style pins. This Potato salad recipe added sugar, something I'd never done before. I didn't really like it - I like my potato salad to have more of a kick, so I probably won't be using this recipe again.


And here's a picture of my boy. Just because he's cute. I didn't make anything else in this photo but the child, and hey, at least I didn't need a pin to know how to make him :)