I debated long and hard about even sharing this latest Pinterest-inspired project with you all this morning, but in the name of real-life blogging, I’m going to spill the beans.

It all started with the pin you see below. The promise made was that a mixture of baking soda and peroxide could rid cookie sheets of that tough, baked on discoloration. The best part? There was no scrubbing involved!

Source: One Good Thing

The “no scrubbing” key was in a good long wait. Basically, you sprinkle on a layer of baking soda, then pour on a layer of the peroxide, followed by one more layer of baking soda. Several hours later, you should be able to wipe the thick white solution away to reveal a gleaming silver surface.

I admit that it seemed a little too good to be true, but as you can see below, our cookie sheet was in desperate need of some cleaning power. And after learning about (and witnessing the true power of) homemade cleaning solutions from Jessalyn, I put my full faith in this newly discovered formula.

I was especially fond of the idea that this project would cost me NADA since I already had both the peroxide and baking soda on hand. Of course, I ended up using every last bit of both, but we were down to the bottom on each anyway.

The actual process was as simple as it seems. A sprinkle of this, a douse of that and one last sprinkle of this. I gently shimmied the goop around a bit just to make sure everything was mixed and spread before setting it aside to work. I locked it up in our laundry room (away from curious kitty and puppy paws) and then we headed out to run some errands. The DIY cleaning solution was left to its own devices for probably a solid two and a half to three hours.

Upon our return home, I excitedly threw open the door to the laundry room, grabbed the tray and plopped it in the sink. The original pin source explained that she didn’t even have to put any muscle into the actual cleaning phase of the project, but for good measure I got out my handy-dandy plastic scraper just in case. As I made my first scrape over the white degreaser, I saw an awful lot of brown…So I tried pushing a little harder and scraping with more gusto. Nothing. With a heavy sigh, I pushed on and scraped the rest of the pan “clean” of the peroxide/baking soda mixture.

Drum roll please…

TADA!!:

Yeah. It didn’t work. Not onnnnnne bit. I think there might have been one small section of the pan that turned the white stuff brownish as it was scraped clean, but that was probably just a patch that I hadn’t gotten to well enough with my last, post-baking surface clean.

Not to knock the blogger behind the original project, but I’d classify this a complete and utter failure. The solution did absolutely nothing besides waste the rest of our peroxide and baking soda, but live and learn as they say.

Have you guys ever tried a Pinterest project that promises a BRILLIANT result only to be left a little less than speechless with the results (or lack thereof)? I am still a 100% believer in the magic of Pinterest ideas, but this is one that I’ll be deleting from my boards for future reference…

BONUS PROJECT

You know I couldn’t leave you with that Debbie Downer of a tutorial! Here’s a super simple project that I did over the weekend that I thought I’d share for the cost-savings factor.

So, as you heard Friday, my friends from work and I are on a bit of a slippery slope when it comes to our careers. Some of us have plans for new jobs, some of us already HAVE new jobs and some of us have no idea what we are going to do (ahem::me::ahem). But the fact of the matter is that our tight little group of pals is splitting off in all sorts of directions – across the city, across the state or across the country. So we planned a weekend full of “lasts” to celebrate the fabulous ride that has been our friendship.

One tangible way we planned on keeping the memories alive, was to have our best group photo printed and framed in a big 8×10 matted frame. At one of our get-togethers over the weekend, we passed the mats around the circle and each took a moment to write out a little message for posterity.

The plan was in place for weeks ahead of time, but I of course waited until the last-minute and had no frame or mat to speak of come party day. I was this close > < to pulling into Walgreen’s for a $20 frame when I remembered that I pass a Goodwill on the way to work. So I stopped in quickly to scavenge for a matted 8×10 frame. I was in luck!

I snagged this angel-tastic guy for less than $4, saving me at least $15 from my original plan. All I had to do was flip it over, scrape off the backing paper to get to the mat and my cheapo frame was ready for signage.

(sorry for the fuzzy iPhone photos!)

That evening, we passed around our mats and had a great time reliving years gone by. There were tears and good laughs and a heck of a lot of appreciation for the time we’d been given.

I think I actually really lucked out with the brass finishes and custom layered two-toned mat. It’s a pretty expensive look for next to no money – Thanks, Goodwill!

So the next time you are in a framing pinch, check your local thrift store first. It’s definitely worth a shot to save you some of your hard-earned cash…