Pinterest & Rainbow Rice!

Programming Note:  I know I still have MANY posts to catch up on (ten to be exact!) but I have decided to plow ahead with what we are up to today and go back and post date the other posts when I get around to writing them.  Hopefully I will get them done this weekend!

Four days ago, one of my mommy friends casually asked “What’s Pinterest?  I’ve been seeing it everywhere!”  I had no idea what it was but decided I better go and investigate.  Big. Mistake.  I am in love and totally obsessed. 

So what is it?  It is a little hard to explain but basically it is a virtual bulletin board where you can “pin” things you might normally put in your bookmark list and forget about forever.  You can create tons of different lists (that are really pretty to look at) and you can also follow your friends so you can see all the awesome stuff they are finding.  So far I’ve got some really good lists of crafts to do, scrapbook layouts, recipes, gift ideas, tips and tricks, quotes, home décor ideas and more.  This blog has a good (but longish) explanation of Pinterest if you want to know more, or just sign up and follow me and you will figure it out as you go!  :)

So why am I telling you all this?  Because today the kids and I did a project that I found by clicking around Pinterest.  A friend’s pin led me to a blog post on how to make rainbow colored rice  for the kids to play with.  I knew the kids would get a kick out of it, so we decided to do the project today and this was the beautiful result:

Awesome right?

To make your own: get a GIANT bag of rice (I bought a 25 pound bag at Costco), 1 bottle rubbing alcohol, some large ziploc bags, and lots of food coloring.  Put 4 cups of rice in your ziploc bag, add about 2 tablespoons food coloring, and 3 tablespoons rubbing alcohol.  Seal the bag tightly and knead it to mix. 

Once you have all your bags mixed up lay the rice out on baking sheets to dry in the sun.  If you are like me and don’t have a million baking sheets, cut some paper grocery bags in half to make trays like this:

It only took about 20 minutes for our rice to dry but I suppose it depends how sunny it is.  Once its dry, you’re ready to play! 

So there is is.  Our very first Pinterest project!