You CAN Share Your Failures

If I can share my failures, then you can too! When we share on blogs or Facebook or even *gasp* person-to-person in real life, we usually think about sharing our successes. Why would we want to share failures? Isn't that embarrassing?

Well, yes it is embarrassing - LOL! But in sharing our failures, we make connections. The failures are what make us human and real. Sharing some failure makes others feel better. Not only can you share what *not* to do, but you make people feel a little more at ease around you. Think of a time when you discovered that a friend wasn't perfect {sink full of dishes, cobweb in the corner, thick layer of dust on a shelf, etc.<---oh wait, that's me} - didn't most of you feel a sense of relief?

Years ago, I had a friend confess to me that she kept all her clean clothes piled up on a chair in the living room - hoping that it would motivate her to get them folded and put away faster. But she often found herself having to scramble and move the pile to the bedroom when people came over. She was able to go ahead and leave her clean clothes piled up when I came over, and I loved her for that!! My clean clothes pile was always hidden away in my bedroom. To this day I think of her when I have clean clothes piled up and I feel a little better knowing that she has a pile too. :) {Now that's not an excuse to never fold them up - LOL.}

I've shared a few failures on my blog, like The Muffin Fail, The Pound Cake Fail, and a Decorating Fail just to name a few . I first saw failures shared on other blogs and realized that I gave more credibility to the bloggers that showed me the "real" side of things. Publicly sharing some of your failures {maybe not every single failure you experience 'cause that's all I'd be writing about some days} is the authentic thing to do. First, you discover that you're not alone! And then you discover that you no longer give others an unrealistic standard to strive for. Nobody is perfect, so why don't we share that side a little more often?

You CAN share your failures!

Don't be afraid - everybody fails at something. Just because you fail doesn't mean that YOU are a failure! If you've never shared any of your failures due to fear or embarrassment, try stepping out of your comfort zone and sharing one on a blog, on Facebook, or in real life and see what kind of reaction you get!

What failures have you experienced recently? Have you publicly shared any failures? How do people react when you do share failures? Share in the comments!

Day 9 of #31Days. Find all the posts in this series by clicking the pic...

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Have a blessed day friends!

Decorating Fail

I'm always behind on decorating and worse this year since I'm homeschooling. A couple weeks ago I finally got a chance to straighten up a few decorations around the house and put out just a couple small Valentine touches here and there.

As I was doing this, I noticed something. Something I had walked by several times and had not even realized what was there.

There's something wrong here - I know it's hard to figure out.  ;)

Um, yeah. PUMPKINS. In February. So so wrong - LOL!!

If I was an awesomely resourceful decorator/crafter maybe I could have painted these white with red hearts all over.  :) But that's not me. I was just SO happy that they were not rotting or even soft. And who noticed these and never told me about it? Friends don't let friends leave pumpkins out all winter.

Do I need to start a new trend of decorating with pumpkins year round? Have you had any recent fails (I mean I'm sure you haven't because you're all so fabulous, but maybe you could share a "friend's" recent fail - LOL)?

Have a wonderful day friends!  :)

The Muffin Fail

Things do not always go right for me in the kitchen!  Sometimes the fails are my fault and sometimes they're not, but I take comfort in knowing that all of my friends fail sometimes in the kitchen.  Right??  Just nod yes and make me feel good.  :)

Sometimes fails aren't pretty...

like this one...

Pound cake fail.

Or this one.

Strawberry ice cream fail.

But sometimes they are deceptively pretty...

like this one...

Chocolate chai fail.

Or my latest failure ~ Chocolate Raspberry Muffins!

Muffin fail.

Such pretty muffins ~ such horrible taste!

Don't those muffins look delicious?!  The recipe sounded yummy to me.  Unfortunately I was making them very late at night to take to church in the morning, so I was under time pressure.  I did follow the recipe exactly (which was in a cookbook!), but if I had more time I might have realized that something was wrong.  It was the salt.

The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of salt, but it only made 12 muffins.  And it called for a stick of salted butter too!  Now, I did hesitate as I was adding the salt, thinking it seemed like a bit much, but surely the cookbook couldn't be wrong (and it's not like they said something crazy like tablespoons!) - they must know something I don't!  LOL!  I knew there was a problem as I was putting them into the oven and then tasted the leftover batter from the bowl.  WOW - super salty!  But...maybe...possibly...the flavor cooks out?  Or combines with the chocolate and raspberry so you don't notice it?  Noooooo...it did not.

Sadly, I kept sampling the muffins thinking that they couldn't be THAT bad because they looked so good!  But they were bad every taste I took - LOL!  Hubs tasted them and was disgusted.  Son took one little teensy taste and couldn't stand it.  There was nothing I could do with them other than throw them away  - AFTER taking pics for a blog post, of course!  :)

So, what do you think?  12 muffins with chocolate chips, some raspberry jam filling, a stick of butter and the other usual ingredients - how much salt would you add?  If I can figure it out, I may try again, but I really don't want a chance of having to throw out another dozen pretty muffins - it makes me cringe.

Have you had any failures lately?  It's OK to share - you're in good company.  :)

Have a lovely day friends!

12 New Things ~ Attempting Pie Crust

Though Sarah Mae at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee is no longer doing this (she had to scale back), I decided to continue on my own and I thought you might like my November update!

For November I was supposed to make my own pie crust.  Ugh.  I made pie crust once or twice long long ago, as in over 20 years ago, and it didn't work out so well and was too much trouble I thought.  So I used Pillsbury refrigerated crusts all these years (and sometimes Marie Callender's frozen crusts).  I was perfectly content with this method as my hubs' grandmother complimented me many years ago on my flaky pie crust!  I had used Pillsbury, but didn't dare mention it as she only made homemade pie crust.  Instead, I simply thanked her!  :)

But as I'm trying to move toward less processed foods and more cooking from scratch, I made the decision to attempt homemade crust.  What I *should* have done was try out a few recipes before Thanksgiving.  But nooooo...that would not fit my procrastinator ways.  I decided to try out a butter crust (I don't care for shortening and am trying to use less oils that aren't extra virgin olive or coconut.)

I found a great tutorial on making butter pie crust at Smitten Kitchen.  I felt fairly confident that I could handle this crust and so went ahead and made it...the night before Thanksgiving.  It didn't go so well.  No fault of the recipe or tutorial!  Just my own unfamiliarity of working with dough!  I used the crust anyway.  'Cause wasting a stick of butter just doesn't sit well with me.  I should have started over.  Really.

Here it is.  Unsuccessful pie crust that should not be used.

Go ahead and laugh.  I won't be offended!  May I list out a bit of advice on pie crust?

- One should make sure that the chunks of butter in the dough are the size of small peas rather than the size of pea pods as in the above pic.

- When cutting the recipe in half to make a single crust, one should remember to cut the amount of water in half BEFORE adding it to the mixture.  Adding lots of flour after the fact to make up for it does not make good pie crust.

- After rolling out, if it looks like clumps of butter barely joined together by dough, one might consider starting over.

- If one is going to really mash the dough into a glass pie plate trying to shape it into something that resembles crust, it might be nice to butter the pie plate so the crust will actually come out later.

- If one gets too tired and decides to make pie in the morning instead, one should probably cover crust that is already in pan in refrigerator with plastic wrap so crust doesn't completely dry out.

- If one decides to use the crust anyway because one rationalizes that it will be filled with pumpkin deliciousness (I tried this Cinnamon Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Pie) so maybe nobody will notice, then during dessert time one should declare loudly "I don't know WHAT happened to this crust - I should get my money back!"

- One should get pictures of failed pie crust as it's sure to make a good post if one happens to be a blogger.

So now I see that pie crust takes practice and patience!  Yes, I will try to make this butter pie crust again.  I have a feeling that it will take me a few tries to get it right.  I guess that's what learning a new skill is all about!  It doesn't mean that you will be instantly good at it!

I did not yet finish my November project of reorganizing my China cabinets, but hey, the month isn't quite over!  My book for November was Pride and Prejudice which I finished today - *happy sigh*!  Love that book!  In fact, I didn't start it until after Thanksgiving because I knew it might distract me from making things like...pie crust.  I hadn't read Pride and Prejudice in years and realized that the A&E version of the movie (which I own thanks to hubs!!) is very close to the book which makes me happy!

Do you make homemade pie crust my friends?  Any tips?  Or are you a faithful Pillsbury user?  Did I make you smile today?  Are you laughing *with* me?!  :)

Have a great day friends!