Jellyfish in a Bottle [FAIL]

I'm really good at failing. Not in school or my marriage (thank goodness!), but in blog projects. I take something, assume it's really easy to do, try it out, and laugh when the 3rd time is never the charm. Today's example? The jellyfish in a bottle picture I found here on TheMetaPicture. There aren't any instructions, just photos, so I guess I can cut myself a little slack, but I tried this three different ways, each more frustrating than the last. If you want to try this at home, here are some things I recommend you don't do.

Before you start, gather your supplies. You'll need:

* 1 or 2 plastic bottles (depending on how many you want to make - I used old water bottles)
* 1 or 2 plastic bags (like what you'll find in the produce section - they're free and if you're prone to making mistakes, you'll want a few!)
* Scissors to cut the bags
* Food coloring (should you want to tint the water)
* String (or a rubber band, if you don't mind it being visible).

Attempt #1 - Judging by the pictures in the original post, here's what I did.

#1 - Opened up the bag so it was a nice big flat square...

#2 - I put my finger in the middle of the bag so as to...

#3 - ...easily find the head of the jellyfish. I secured the head with a piece of string.

#4 - Next: the tentacles. I took my scissors and started hacking away, making these really big, thick, long tentacles. Hack hack hack.

After seeing just how big it was, I decided to cut the tentacles in half. Was still quite a beast.

And after filling the "head" with water, securing it tightly, filling up my water bottle and placing my jellyfish inside... well, it looks like "jelly" and more "trashy."

I tried again.

Attempt #2 - Ok, this time I figured out what not to do. Don't have thick, long tentacles and use a more "invisible" string. Got it.

#1 - So first I cut the bag to the length of the bottle. That way I knew the tentacles wouldn't be too long.

#2 - I opted to use white thread to secure the head. Much more invisible.

#3 - I didn't use the entire bag this time. Sometimes I threw out giant chunks of plastic, just so my little jellyfish wouldn't be overwhelmed in the bottle.

#4 - I filled up the head with water... but then the head fell apart! Apparently the thread just slipped off. Let me tell you - if your thread isn't long enough, it's going to take you at least half an hour to form the head again, put the string back on, and fill up with water because when the plastic and thread get wet, it's just a slippery mess!

#5 - Since I was closer than last time, I added 1 drop of food coloring. And let me tell you - 1 drop is too much!

My little jellyfish is invisible. And still a clump of plastic floating at the top.

Sigh. Ok, one more time...

Attempt #3 - This time I was going to do it right. Water down the color, forget the string, and make even fewer (and shorter) tentacles!

#1 - This time I made the head first AND used a rubber band to secure it. Take that jellyfish!

#2 - I hacked at the little jellyfish so much he looked like a ghost of his former self.

#3 - My bottle is filled, the color diluted, and... the head won't fit. Are. You. Freaking. Kidding Me.

#4 - After 10 minutes of trying to make the head smaller, I eventually get it in the bottle and my little guy is upside down.

I flip it over and over and over and you can barely see his little head at the top.

I think, after three tries, I can call this jellyfish in a bottle an epic fail. I'm going to go curl up to, "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish" by Jarrett Krosoczka now. You're better off doing the same.

TOTAL COSTS: Free
I recycled my bags, bottles, string, and rubber bands. Scissors and food coloring also on hand.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Would you believe me if I said over an hour? Ugh...

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 4 out of 5
I have no doubt that if I had used bigger bottles, this experiment might have gone differently, however I tried to replicate the exact pictures to no avail. My little jellyfish were destined to swim upside-down, sideways, and every way in between.

DIY Cooling Pack That Won't Freeze!

Whelp, it's officially summer! The season for kids to fall off their bikes, runners to pull a muscle, and me to sweat my tail off. What do these things have in common? Ice packs. Sure, you could put some ice in a bag but it won't last very long because the ice will melt and sometimes the bag won't confirm to the shape you need it to. So I decided to take this tip from Ziploc's website and make my own cooling pack, which is awesome because in this California heat and lack of air conditioning, it'll be used almost daily!





To make one yourself, all you need is:

1. A plastic bag (I went with the quart size)
2. Rubbing alcohol
3. Water
4. Food coloring (optional)
5. Glitter (optional)




Mix three parts water to one part rubbing alcohol - I used 3 cups of water with 1 cup of rubbing alcohol. Next, add your food coloring (completely optional). 5 drops of blue did the trick!

And if you want to get fancy, a little glitter never hurt anyone.

Close up the bag and squeeze until all the ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Place it in your freezer until you're ready to use it!

I left mine in the freezer overnight and it was just as malleable as before!

If you're using this to cool yourself down in the summer months, the best places to put it would be your neck, armpits, groin, or behind the knee. Wherever an artery is close to the surface, you'll want to place the pack so you can keep your core temperature down. Keep cool and stay safe everyone!

TOTAL COSTS: About $4
$2.99 for box of Ziploc bags
$.99 for rubbing alcohol
Food coloring and glitter already on hand, both optional

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Less than 5 minutes to assemble + 1-2 hours in the freezer

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is very easy to put together and keep in the freezer. However, I might recommend duct taping the edges, as sometimes the water tends to try and leak out when you aren't looking!

DIY Kool-Aid Henna Tattoo - Real or Fake?

Perhaps you've seen this making the rounds on the interwebs - how to make henna tattoos out of Kool-Aid and food coloring:

Sounds easy enough, right? The Kool-Aid and food coloring dyes your skin so you can "paint" whatever pattern you like. The original post says it should last over a week and judging by the photos, it's quite vibrant. So of course, I had to try it out.

As it states, you need a cup of water, green food coloring, and Orange Kool-Aid but I used Cherry instead. Figured it would make a darker imprint.

So, add one drop of food coloring to the water and Kool-Aid and mix.

Grab your paintbrush and apply a pattern to your hand. Now here's something they fail to mention - it's too wet to paint much of anything on your hand, let alone something as detailed and delicate as a henna pattern. It will just end up being a big blob of water if you're not careful.

 

Let it sit for one minute to dry and ta-da!

It looks like someone tried to watercolored on my hand. Not vibrant, very blotchy.

Yeah, so this one is totally debunked. I washed my hands, since it said it "should last over a week" and it didn't even last 30 seconds. Sorry kids, but unless you plan on not washing that part of your body for a week, this is a major fail.

TOTAL COSTS: About $4 (if you want to give it a try)
$.39 for packet of Kool-Aid
$3.49 for box of food coloring

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Less than 5 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It's not hard to make this henna tattoo fail, if you're into that sort of thing!

Can You Dye Pantyhose?

My Aunt showed me this post on how to dye your pantyhose (which would be ideal for Halloween, Cosplay, a number of things!) and asked, "Is this idea cute, inexpensive and fun...or the worst idea ever?" If I had to choose from those four options, I'd definitely choose inexpensive. Colored tights can run you up to $15! Because I read the original instructions wrong, I tried this twice: the first time (red) Kool-Aid and the second time with (green) Jello and food coloring.

I wanted to follow the blogger's exact steps so I bought L'eggs Sheer Energy in Nude and only used 3 packets of Kool-Aid (though I bet two would have been enough).

The Kool-Aid Method:
Start by boiling some water in a medium pot.

Once the bubbles start to form, add your Kool-Aid and stir with a plastic, not wooden, spoon.

Next, add your nylons. Now depending on what color you use, it could take 5 seconds or 5 minutes until the nylons are dyed. With red, it was 5 seconds, but I gave it a full 5 minutes, constantly stirring, so the color would completely saturate the nylons and not leave any splotchy patches. Splotchy is a word, right?

After you're sure the color has set, carefully (since they're hot!) run the nylons under cold water until the water runs clear. As you can see here, there was still pink coming out. It should only take a minute or so.

And hang them up to dry! WARNING: If you dry these on a plastic hanger, make sure there are no snags in the plastic. My hose got caught on a snag and now my new pair has a big hole in them!

The Jello/Food Coloring Method:
Again, start by boiling some water in a medium pot and add your Jello mix (I actually used a whole box of lime).

Next, add your nylons...

And here's the trick - add 10 drops of food coloring. The more, the better.

After an hour, nothing will change, so don't expect immediate results like with the Kool-Aid. I had to wait a good 6 hours (the stove was off, don't worry) before the color finally dyed the nylons!

And just like before, rinse and hang.

Now the color from the Kool-Aid nylons was much more vibrant than the Jello/food coloring nylons, which came off as an olive green. If I had to choose a method, I'd recommend going with the Kool-Aid. It's faster, easier, and the final color is much better, in my opinion.

UPDATE: I washed the red nylons in the washer/dryer with a bunch of other red items (sheets, mainly) and the color didn't change one bit! The photo on the left is "before" and on the right is "after." As long as you wash with similar colors, it doesn't look like it'll fade anytime soon!

TOTAL COSTS: Depends on method
Kool-Aid Method: $5.99 for L'eggs nylons, $1 for 3 Kool-Aid packets
Jello/Food Coloring Method: $5.99 for L'eggs mylons, $1 for Jello, $3.49 for food coloring

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Depends on method
Kool-Aid Method: 5 minutes to boil water, 5 minutes to soak, 1 minute to rinse, 6 hours to dry
Jello/Food Coloring Method: 10 minutes to boil water, 6 hours to soak, 1 minute to rinse, 6 hours to dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is the easiest of peasiest of projects! So whether you're going to a costume party, ComicCon, in a school play, dressing up for Halloween, or are working Hollywood Blvd. this time of year, this is an easy and inexpensive way to add to your wardrobe without the added cost!

Rainbow Cookies

rain·bow

ˈrānˌbō

noun

1. an arch of colors formed in the sky in certain circumstances, caused by the refraction and dispersion of the sun's light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere.

I like my definition better: freakin' awesome.

You know what's even better than a rainbow? Rainbow + cakes, rainbow + cupcakes, rainbow + cookies... you see what I'm saying? I decided to make rainbow cookies for a birthday party, based on this post by GoodLifeEats. They look almost too perfect, don't they? That's because they are. Your cookies will not come out like this. If they do, you should start your own business called, "Magic Rainbow Delight" and I will be your first customer. However, if you're like me and NOT an expert baker, I guarantee you'll come up with a cookie that doesn't look anything like the original but will still be to your liking.

To start, make some sugar cookies. I made mine from scratch, because in the comments she says they're delicious but really, they're just meh. The Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix will probably produce the same result and will taste better. But, if you're insistent on making these from scratch, here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter (3 sticks)

2 cups of sugar

2 whole eggs AND

2 whole egg yolks

4 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of almond extra

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Food coloring

Start by combining the butter and sugar and beat well for a good two minutes. It should be very light and fluffy. After two minutes, add the eggs and egg yolks. Once those are mixed in, add the vanilla and almond extract.

Note the paddle attachment, not the whisk

In a separate medium to large bowl (since it is a lot of flour), combine the flour, salt, and baking powder and whisk together. Slowly add to the wet ingredients until just combined.

Now if you have a kitchen scale, you can use that to evenly divide the dough six ways. If you don't, like me, just eyeball it. Wilton food gel is awesome for vibrant colors - these are the six I used:

So the dough went from this...

To this...

Put the dough in individual saran wrap or plastic bags and stick on the fridge. The original post says "until firm, about an hour or two." I had mine in the fridge for 7 hours and it still wasn't firm but I wasn't waiting any longer.

Use flour to roll out the dough (so it doesn't stick to the table or the rolling pin) approximately 6"x9".

Layer the dough in rainbow order and I recommend having a piece of saran wrap underneath the layers so it'll be easier to wrap up once you're done.

Now you're supposed to cut off the edges so they're clean cuts but my dough was so greasy and soft (even after 7 hours!) that it was a little sloppy but eh, oh well.

Wrap in saran wrap and they say "freeze for several hours." Well, I was going to bed and didn't want it to be rock hard when I woke up, so I put it in the fridge for 10 hours. I should have put it in the freezer, though, because it was still pretty soft.

When you take it out, you should be able to slice 1/4" thick pieces and cut them in half to create rectangles. 

I found this to work only half the time. As the dough got softer, it wasn't as easy to slice so I decided to make some rectangles, some with a cookie cutter (which I don't recommend), some as rainbows, and with the leftovers? Combine them to make rainbow-colored cookies! Let them set one more time = in the freezer = until you're ready to bake.

Once you're ready, bake them at 350 for as long as it takes (the original post says 6-10 minutes but mine took 15 minutes) and let them cool before devouring. But here's the thing: the point of keeping them in the freezer is so they won't expand as much... but you can't tell me that rainbow isn't bloated. So the whole freezing thing? Seems like a waste of time.

But there you have it folks! Rainbow cookies for a birthday party, a St. Patrick's day get-together, or gay pride this month! Sure they don't look anything like the original post, but that's ok. No two rainbows are ever the same!

TOTAL COSTS: Less than $20 to make over 2 dozen (prices from Vons)

$.99 for butter 

$2.69 for sugar

$2.49 for eggs

$4.99 for almond extra

$3.29 for flour

$.99 for salt

$1.99 for baking powder

Food coloring on hand and vanilla extract homemade

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 21 hours
15 minutes to make the dough
20 minutes to color the dough
7 hours to let set
40 minutes to roll out and layer
10 hours to set
30 minutes to cut out pieces
2 hours to let freeze
15 minutes to bake

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
I suppose if I had put the dough in the freezer when slicing the pieces instead of the fridge, it would have been easier to slice. I was just afraid the dough would have been rock hard. Nonetheless, I'm happy with the outcome. They're not the best tasting cookies I've ever had, but they're definitely the most colorful!