How Pinterest Made Me A Better Mom

Everybody has a snide comment about pinterest these days. It's no secret, I like it. But mostly because I am a doer, not just a random pinner. I like the freedom to try new things, within the confines of an idea that actually worked for somebody.

For the past several years I have been really stuck with a baby on my hip and every Christmas season just seems to get away from me. I think of all the decorating I'd love to do, or the new recipes I would like to try, but life always gets in my way. This year has been such an amazing opportunity at growth as all of my babies have become slightly more independent. It has given me the motivation to try new things, especially pinteresty things.

Because my parents were both in music ministry, growing up my Christmases were spent watching a lot of rehearsals and any real time we spent baking was mostly rolling out pre-made nestle tollhouse dough from the store. I really didn't know how to make anything from scratch and, quite frankly, was terrified at the notion. When I entered motherhood, I was determined to at least TRY to do brave things and so, after I moved into my new house with a new fabulous kitchen, I held my breath and took the plunge into the unknown.

Thank sweet baby Jesus for Pinterest. The recipes on the back of the chocolate chip cookies you buy are nothing, NOTHING compared to the amazing recipes and step-by-step blogs I found on Pinterest. Armed with my laptop on the counter and my ingredients, I set to work.

After 2 days I had baked hundreds of cookies and had even tried my hand at making homemade hot chocolate. I have to say, even I was amazed that I had transformed into THAT mom.

I know that there will be a thousand things my kids remember about my faults, and my weaknesses as a mother. But I hope that one day they can look back and also see that I did manage to bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

But I digress. I've heard a lot of negative comments about Pinterest lately. How it's a waste of time, an addiction, or a fantasy world. And maybe that is true for some people. But for me, I have to say that Pinterest has made me a better mom. It's given me the motivation and confidence to try new things and step out of my comfort zone, all the while providing easy, step-by-step instructions and the feeling of accomplishment as I step out of the kitchen. So thanks Pinterest, you saved my kid's Christmas!

How to make a tutu table and vanity mirror

So I have pretty much been steadily pinning things on pinterest like a madwoman. Particularily, adorable things for my little girl. Once upon a time, I bought this amazing little Peter Pan table for my boys. It was adorable, with crafted original artwork. 2 years later, I found it trashed in my backyard by my boisterous boys and the top of it had been completely ripped off. I was sad that this chapter had to end. But I put it in the back corner of my garage thinking that maybe someday I would do something cool with it.

                                           
My daughter Liv just turned 2 and has become obsessed with princesses. I wanted to do something special for her, besides the usual toys. So I dug through a handful of my favorite pinterest pictures and decided to do a mash up of a tutu-skirted nightstand, and a deco-pauged table I saw. These pictures were my inspiration:

 So I dragged my old, dirt-ridden playtable and scrubbed it raw. After that, I spraypainted it white (first a base coat, then a second coat.) After it was all spray painted white, I started cutting scraps of fabric into squares (kinda like fat quarters for quilting). I also added a 49 cent piece of pink sparkly scrapbook paper to the mix, and decopaged the top of the table. Over the course of a few days, I would add a top layer of decopage glue each day to make the top of the table scratch resistent and spill-proof. Next it was time for step two: tulle. I hit up Joanne's with an online coupon and bought 8 yards of tulle fabric. It ended up being about $10.

I'd love to say that I am an amazing tool wielder, but sadly I am not. So I enlisted my husband to help me use the staple gun. I bunched up sections at the bottom and stapled all the way around. When it was evenly distributed, I cut the bottom to be just above the floor line (so little legs to get caught in it). Next I took a can of sparkle hairspray I had from Halloween and added a little glitz to the tulle. Just enough to shimmer.

After I finished the table up, I went to work on the chairs, painting them white and then decopaging the seat with some more pink scrapbook paper I bought. Then I used the eraser side of pencil and dipped it in pink paint to write her name on the back of the chair.

But somehow, it still felt like I needed a mirror to make the vanity complete. So my mother in law brought her mirror she had been storing and graciously let me paint it pink (3 coats). Then I sprayed it with a shiny finish to give it the glitzy look. I also added bling that I hot glued all around the edges of the mirror, and then hot glued die-cuts of the disney princesses I had bought at Michaels ($4). Then I took a crown that I bought at the dollar store, and evenly cut the back part out so that it wouldn't be top heavy and fall over. And I hot glued that to the top.

At the end, I made a totally unique vanity table for $20! And this is what it looked like:

 It was a total hit! Have any Pinterest Challenges of your own? Send me a link to your creation!

Easy wall hanging using scrapbook paper

So I just moved into this new home and the first thing I realized was that I didn't have nearly enough decore to cover all the walls of this house. So I did what any frugal crafter would do, I hit up Pinterest to see what I could come up with. I stumbled upon this idea and loved it but... no tutorial. Boo. So I and ran with it: It was 9 12X12 wood blocks, painted and using scrapbook paper.The blog tutorial it came with seemed fairly straight forward. It started out telling you to go to Lowe's and buy some shelving wood. Right away this intimidated me, but I put my best foot forward and braved the lumber department. I ended up deciding on a 1ft X 12ft shelving board. And I had them cut it into 9 12X12 squares. I had 9 pieces that looked like this:

Then came the tricky part, picking the scrapbooking paper. I wanted to center the colors around our favorite painting: Red Jazz. But I also wanted to update our livingroom by adding different color palletes, so choosing the patterns, and colors and then picking 9 pages that all went together was much more challenging than I thought it would be.

When I got home, I went to work. I had some leftover paint from when I painted Noah's nursery and it happened to be a nice shade of espresso. So I painted all the sides of each one of the blocks. Because it's January (why do I always choose January to paint?) it took 24 hours to really dry.

Next came the modge podge. I spread it evenly on the board with a paintbrush and secured the page to fit just right. It took some maneuvering and redos at first, but after a while I got into a rhythm.Next I bought those little saw teeth to hang picture frames on and had my hubby secure them to the back of each square. (I don't have that much hair on my arms).One of the most difficult parts of this project was securing all the boards evenly and placing them in a pattern I liked. It took me several times and lots of relevling and straightening for me to get it to where I liked it. But the end product turned out better than I could have imagined and it brought in a lot of rich and vibrant colors into my livingroom pallete.
Price breakdown:

9 12X12 scrapbook pages: $9

1 1ft X 12ft shelving board: $18

2 containers of picture hanging teeth: $3

mod podge: on hand

espresso paint: on hand

Total Cost:

$30

The best part is that it covers a good portion of a once barren wall. One of my favorite pinterest challenges so far. Have a pinterest project to share? Email me, or comment on this blog, I'd LOVE to see it!

Pinterest Challenge: Of Turkeys and Tutus

This month I had to make something for my 4-year-old neice's birthday. What do you get a girl who loves to twirl? Oh a tutu. But not just any tutu, I came acrossed this a few months ago and set it aside for a rainy-day project.

The tutorial was easy and straight forward and I used scraps of fabric that I had lying around in my art closet. I wanted to make her something she could wear her adorable pink cowboy boots with and something that she could pull almost any shirt out of her drawer and wear with it. I ended up with this:
What tutu would be complete without a cute headband that matches? I couldn't resist and I used a new flower tutorial this time.
I also wanted to do something crafty with the boys that would teach them about Thanksgiving's true meaning. I found this cute idea and thought I'd try it. Ofcourse as soon as I saw the ingredients for it I instantly knew I didn't have everything I needed. So I improvised.
I let THEM color all the feathers and paint the plate themselves, so it doesn't look as perfect as the picture but they LOVED it and enjoyed making it.
So this is my pinterest challenge for the month. What pinterest projects have YOU done?

How to make a chandelier out of dollar store beads

So I saw this amazing picture on Pinterest months and months ago. I pinned it, I "ooohed and aaaahed" and then I moved forward. It wasn't until I got ready to do Liv's first birthday party that I revisited it.
This picture originally came from this blog all about making craft genius out of dollar store finds. She made this beautiful chandelier out of a dollar store hanging planter and mardis gras beads. Using only hot glue, wire, spray paint and creativity. When I read it, it looked like a fairly simple project. So I began collecting the materials which, by the way, in September is not easy.

I followed the directions to the letter, but I had some difficulty. First off, she suggests spray painting the planter and the beads first. I did that, but it's actually a lot harder to keep them dry when they're not hanging, and to put them through all the holes and wires without the paint rubbing off. If I had to do it over, I would wait until it was completely constructed before I whipped out my spray paint. Secondly, I would not have hot glued the necklaces all at once, this proved to be a total nightmare weaving them through, up and over.

I did find that her suggestion of hanging the basket throughout the process was a valid one. It really helped me put it all together. Here are the stats:

1 wire planter- $1
6 packages of beads- $6
spray paint- $9 (totally could have used cheaper kind, and less cans, but I didn't)
wire-on hand
hot glue- on hand

Total hours, messing up, painting, re-painting and getting the project done: 5 hours

So 5 hours and $16, not too bad. I think the next time I do it (and yes, there will TOTALLY be a next time, because it turned out amazing) it will take way less time now that I know what I'm doing. Without further adieu, here it is!
Phase one of Liv's party decore complete! Now, what was YOUR Pinterest Challenge this month?

The Pinterest Challenge: Of Wreaths and Scarves

I've mentioned before that I was going to start a blog about all my Pinterest experiments: good and bad. So here is my first Pinterest Challenge blog.

Project #1: I started out with something simple: making a scarf out of old t-shirts. It seemed easy enough... or so I thought.

I followed the instructions to the letter. It seemed fairly simple and straight forward. Everything went well, until I finished it and realized it was nothing more than a whole bunch of strings around my neck. They got tangled, and it looked like a hot mess. Maybe cute co-eds can pull of this look, but if I walked into a room of my friends, I'm fairly certain they would ask me why I had a whole bunch of string tied around my neck. I ended up trying to braid it and make some sort of a necklace out of it- on the principle that I refused to waste a perfectly good t-shirt. I stuck some felt flowers on it, and it turned out decent. Not sure if it's anything that I would EVER wear in public, but hey if nothing else, it'll be a start to Liv's first dress-up box.

FAIL

Project #2: A fall wreath using felt flowers.
I have spent the last several months perfecting the felt flower look and I came to the conclusion that, for me, they just looked a little too cheap. So I decided to use fabric flowers instead (which I learned how to do using THIS tutorial.) I bought a grapevine wreath for $3.50 at Walmart. Used fabric samples, scraps, and ribbon from my craft box, and some pearls from the box- note: craftboxes come in handy. It was cheap and totally easy. I finished it in just a few hours and was so excited to hang it and commence fall (at least in my head). I highly reccomend this if you want a cheap and fairly painless seasonal craft project.

SUCCESS
So there you go, my first Pinterest Challenge. Now, I challenge YOU to hit up Pinterest and blogpost your progress! I'd love to learn something new and be inspired by my friends!

Here are a few links to friends who took the challenge:
Shellie

A Pinteresting Blog

My sister was here for a few weeks and made an interesting observation: "You're always doing a project". I thought about this statement for a minute, and I realized, I am in fact always busy doing something. While she was here, I made a bow holder for Olivia's room, redecorated the boys room, made a photo collage frame, re-organized both bathrooms, made a welcome to motherhood scrapbook for a friend, and made some cute new flower clips for Liv's hair.

To me, that's a normal week. I guess I never realized that to other people, it isn't. I live for projects. Organizational ideas, restoration, design, and crafts. It ALL interests me. And here's my little secret: I'm really NOT crafty. I can't really sew, or paint amazing pictures. But I like to try new things and challenge myself. Because I want to be the mom who does cool projects with her kids, and always has something amazing in her backpocket.

One MAJOR influence on me lately has been Pinterest. An online pinboard just full of good ideas. Some I collect and think "Hmmm... that's nice" others, I actually try out. So I'd like to start a blog series all about good ideas I find on Pinterest. The failures and the successes. It's going to be called: The Pinterest Challenge. And THIS is my first posting.

Idea: Take dollar store frames and put scrapbooking paper inside them and use as wall decore.

Execution: I had an EXTREMELY blank wall in my bathroom, and I happened to have some old dollar store frames. I painted them a dark brown color (to match the shower curtain) and found some unique scrapbooking paper. While it's not the best picture I have ever taken, I assure you, my bathroom looks waaaay better.
SUCCESS
Idea: Make cars out of cardboard boxes to create a drive-in movie night. Execution: Trusting my 4-year-old and 2-year-old with markers is not something I could do. And the thought of taking the time to glue construction paper that Noah would rip off the box as a fun "game" was not at all appealing. However, I still thought this was a cute idea. So I took 2 boxes and a permanent marker outside and let them give me their creative input on their cars. Elijah wanted an awesome sound system. Noah wanted a nice license plate, and to make sure there was a door. I put it in front of the TV, gave them each a bag of popcorn, and let them enjoy Finding Nemo at the drive-in theatre. They LOVED it!
TOTAL SUCCESS!
I am really loving the ideas this website is giving me, and the memories it's allowing me to make with my kids. I am looking forward to the fall season and all the interesting projects it brings!