Pinterest, Nailed or Failed?

So like many of you, I have been posting recipes, projects, and ideas on my Pinterest boards for a few years now.   I have made quite a few recipes, crocheted hats, scarves, arm knitting, storage ideas, etc.
So, I decided last Easter to try 4 Pinterest recipes for our Easter Brunch to go along with our Spiral Cut Hickory Smoked Ham  and a Potato Cheesy Casserole.

The pictures on Pinterest always look so good and I had good success with the few recipes I had tried so far so I was ALL IN, as they say in poker.

I had quite the spread.  Out of all the things that I made I would say only ONE was a total hit and therefore a real keeper.  The rest were, at best. mediocre.

Undaunted by the failure fluke, or so I thought, I kept pinning.  I have made quite a few recipes now from my Foods to Try and the results have been mostly underwhelming.  I would say 30% are keepers, 20% are just plain awful either in flavor or direction and 50% are I wouldn't waste my time making something so; boring, flavorless, difficult, time consuming or just blah.

I also found that with some of my projects, the directions were less than spot on. For instance, I was in the middle of crocheting a hat for Christmas and the directions were less than clear, they were downright wrong.  I had to ad lib to make it all work and only a week til the big day.  A novice would have cried.

Lately, I find that I am asking does no one actually test these recipes, projects, crafts etc. I have started looking at the original posts to see if they have comments on them, most I find don't have anything helpful. I hate wasting my time on something that doesn't turn out.  I am sure you do to, Life is full of good stuff, but time is precious.  So I have decided that I am going to test Pinterest posts, ones I have collected and of course the popular ones and give you my opinion. (My husband always says an opinion is worth what you pay for it.)

I know my way around a kitchen and am not intimidated by difficult recipes.  I enjoy baking and cooking, just not the cleaning up part! I also am a pretty descent seamstress, I make 20 pairs of pajamas every year for family, and I've done a little quilting too.  I know how to crochet I have made, hats, booties, gloves, scarves, sweaters, doilies, doll clothes, toys etc. Knitting, however, is not my thing.  Never got the hang of it, except the arm kind. I like organizing and like things in their proper place. I am a  couponing, good deal finding, make every penny count kind of gal. I also know alot about gardening and health, thanks mom.

I will try different pins so that you don't have to bother trying the ones Failed and can add the Nailed to your own Pinterest Boards, to use later. In addition maybe the original post writer will see how to fix what's wrong with their offering to the Pinterest world.
I am going to start with Easter.  I don't have pics of my NAILED or FAILED Pinterest trys for this one. So let's look at the lovely Pinterest pictures that I aspired to duplicate and I will tell you what I and my family thought of how they turned out.

1. Strawberry Mini Carrots- NAILED. These were easy and cute! The Grandkids especially liked them.

The flavor isn't as good as actual chocolate, since this is essentially white chocolate with orange coloring. However, mine turned out exactly like this picture from the original post. The instructions were extremely brief but understandable, all in all I would do this again.

Here is the link to the original post:

http://www.parenting.com/blogs/kid-friendly-recipes/holly-kapherr/easter-craft-ideas

2. Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars -  FAILED! Easy and blah- nothing special here. The little kids each had one but no one really ate seconds.

Original Post Link:

http://www.thebakerupstairs.com/2014/02/frosted-sugar-cookie-bars.html

I would not bother to make these again.  The instructions were descent and easy to understand but the end result was underwhelming to say the least.  When you have a spectacular sugar cookie recipe these just don't stack up.

3. Maple Bacon Bites - FAILED! LOOK GOOD but BORING! However, with a little recipe adjusting and some experimentation, these have potential.

Here is the link to the original post:

http://www.vixenskitchen.com/maple-bacon-pancake-bites/

Here is what I would change: First, the icing was to thin and needed more maple flavor so I would increase the cream cheese to 2/3 cup and add a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of maple flavoring.  Next, I would reduce the milk to 2 cups and and 1/2 cup of maple syrup to the batter. That should make the maple flavor come out and stand up to the bacon and batter flavors.

4.  Blueberry Croissant Puff - NAILED!! This was the hit of the brunch. Light and fluffy! It looks exactly like the picture too.

Here is the link to the original post:

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2013/02/blueberry-croissant-puff.html

I made a fresh Raspberry Croissant Puff also, but because I only had one 9X9 pan I used a muffin tin. They liked the texture of this even better.  It got a little crispy on the outside.  So you get creamy, cheesy, flaky, crispy berry goodness. Give it a try you will love it!