One Night- 8 Lessons Learned

My original title for this post was going to be "Epic Fail", but then I realized that tonight's activities were more of a learning lesson than a complete failure.... But let's back up a little and start at the beginning. My plan for tonight was to try out a new recipe for Pumpkin Mac and Cheese that promised to be the creamiest Mac and Cheese ever. Excited at the prospect of discovering a new recipe for some good comfort food, and excited about blogging about this fabulous new dish I discovered, I set out with my ingredients and my camera.....If you judge by the pics, this looks like a successful venture....

Yum? Looks good right?    *sigh* Wrong. So while you scratch your head and wonder how this delicious looking dish could possibly be bad, I give you- The Lessons Learned:

*Lesson Number 1: Apparently I do not like pumpkin. Eating this actually made me nauseous afterward. It was creamy, but it also wasn't cheesy enough. The pumpkin was over powering and bland. Blech.

*Lesson Number 2: Don't dump out the noodles before you check that they are done. Because refilling the pot with water and waiting for it to boil a second time because the noodles are undercooked sucks. 

*Lesson Number 3: Three year olds do not like pumpkin mac and cheese either. Juliana kept asking for "real" mac and cheese, followed by "I don't like this one. "

*Lesson Number 4: Even though your sweet husband eats his plate full of Pumpkin Mac and Cheese, the fact that he discreetly threw away the left overs and did not keep it for his lunch, followed by a "snack" of peanut butter and jelly crackers later on- are both good signs that he does not like it either.

*Lesson Number 5: One year olds love Pumpkin Mac and Cheese. Ironically, the only one of us who actually liked this dish, is the one who only has two teeth and eats most of her food out of a jar.

Hmm. Oh well.

In other news, I learned a few more lessons tonight that were good things! Over the weekend I took advantage of the Persnickety Prints fall sale, and I ordered over 35 layouts. I received my order today and I am impressed!! So here are those lessons learned:

*Lesson Number 6: I have a print lab crush on Persnickety Prints. I am such a print snob. I mean it. I refuse to print at Costco (too green), I refuse to print at Target (too red, and glossy- ick). So when I got my first order from Persnickety, I reviewed my layouts with a super critical eye... and I was not disappointed. I can't wait to print my first photo book with them!

*Lesson Number 7: I don't think I love putting my layouts in a 12x12 post bound album. I thought that with a hodge podge of layouts, I wouldn't like a photo book because it wouldn't flow. But I don't like the glare of the page protector, and how some of the pages buckle a little. I know that's super picky but there you have it- the real me. I think I'm going to try to just do a photo book for 2011.

*Lesson Number 8: I love white space! Out of all the layouts I printed, my absolute favorite ones were the ones with a lot of white space (or a light background).

So there you have it- one night, 8 lessons learned- some good, some bad.

While you are here, don't forget to enter the giveaway for A Very Vintage Christmas! It ends tomorrow night!