Jen vs. the Snowmen

No, it's not the title of a bad movie, likely to be mocked by MST3K... but, it is just as pathetic.

The other day, I saw this cute little craft/recipe on Bakerella for these Milk-Men/Snowmen:

And, I look at it, and think it's so incredibly cute... and actually looks pretty simple to do, too! Then, yesterday, we get the first significant snowfall of the season... and, I had to make a trip to grocery store last night anyway... so, I think, this is the perfect time to make these little guys for my little girls.

So, along with my grocery order, I pick up everything I think I'll need. I wasn't going to follow the recipe exactly... I had a few little improvements/improvisations that I thought would work well. And, the recipe on Bakerella was actually just another version of another version of another version of these milkmen guys. So, I kind of wanted to make my own version.

So, I bring everything home and at about noon today (giving myself what I thought would be plenty of time to complete the project before having to pick up the girls from school), I begin to craft my milkmen snowmen. I just forgot one little detail: I suck at this kind of thing.

Not that I'm not a creative person, or don't have any talents in the crafting/decorating/baking/cooking arena. I actually have many... but, when it comes to these delicate little projects that require such a gentle hand and perfect little, graceful accouterments... yeah, not so much.

Of course, I didn't remember this until I was halfway through and had already, stupidly, told the girls to expect a surprise after school, today.

I was actually doing OK (not great, but OK)... UNTIL, I got to their heads.

First, I realized that the donut holes I had bought were too small to really sit on the rim of the glass without possibly/probably falling in. So, I did come up with this genius idea of taking plastic wrap and stretching it over the mouth of the bottle, taking double-sided tape to secure it, and then wrapping some of this white sheer ribbon I had around the lip of the bottle. Which, sorta worked... I guess....

But, even so, I had this tiny area to work with on the donut hole itself, to make these little faces. I also bought these strawberry milk straws thinking they would be great to use since I could pour in white milk, but they could actually be drinking strawberry milk. (And the pink straws would add some extra color.) But, it was almost impossible to get these giant straws through these tiny donut holes without destroying the donut hole...

And, then the chocolate chips were too big, and I couldn't get them to stick and the only icing I had to use as glue was orange (that I had bought to make the carrot nose)... and, even the nose itself wasn't turning out because all the tips I had were too big... and in all this, the little pink beads in the straws were slow dissolving in the milk... and, well, after much trial and error (mostly error), this was the best I could do...

And these were the stars... you should have seen the rejects! It was like something out of sugary nightmare.

However, I thought the girls might still like them. And, they did... but, I think I built up the surprise too much and when I handed these over, I think they were thinking, "Oh, OK, yeah, these are nice, too, I guess." (I knew I'd made a mistake as soon as I mentioned it to them this morning... the first thing they responded with, after I told them I would have a surprise for them after school today was, "Is it a puppy??")

They did enjoy them, though... and it gave me fodder for this blog post. I really am trying to get back into the habit of blogging here (and on my other blogs)... I haven't given up on my New Year's Resolutions! I just have so many, it's taking me awhile to get to all of them. However, my biggest resolution is really just to not give up... to keep trying each day. And, even if I have a bad day, to just get back on that horse again the next day and try again.

Although, I think I might have to make an exception when it comes to the milkmen/snowmen. I don't think I'm gonna try this again... so, extra donut holes, anyone?