I admit that I am a latecomer to Pinterest. I heard people talking about it for years before I decided to check it out for myself, but once I did, I fell in love. Suddenly I was able to glance at hundreds of images of food, decorations, furniture, clothes, hairstyles, and so much more without picking up a magazine at the store. Ideas and inspirations were at my fingertips to look at any time of the day, and I could gather them in my own personal collection to go back to over and over again. It was amazing!
It took me about a year before I started to look for fellow pinners and friends on Pinterest. It took me even longer than that to actually try to recreate these inspirations at my own house. Once I did, I discovered that some things are much harder to make than they look, even with the detailed instructions that some of the linked sites give. Looking at Pinterest left me excited and inspired. Actually doing some of the things on Pinterest often leaves me feeling frustrated and discouraged.
I ventured into even newer territory after I began blogging and pinning my own photos on Pinterest several months ago. I am still learning the nuances of the many facets of this form of social media; it is both fun and challenging. I thought I'd put myself out there and share with you some of my Pinterest-inspired activities, some of which worked great and others that kind of flopped. You'll recognize some of the successes because I often blogged about them. Others I didn't discuss until now. Finally, some are just in that gray area of not turning out as nice as the pins but they weren't total disasters either.
Relative Successes:
Nutella Crunch Ice Cream Cake made for my daughter's pink zebra birthday party---not as pretty as the pin, but still delicious! Pinterest recipe can be found at www.afamilyfeast.com/nutella-crunch-ice-cream-cake/.
Lego Slime made at our son's Lego birthday party---a blast to make and fun to play with. I will say this stuff is very difficult to get out of clothes or rugs even though vinegar is supposed to remove it. Recipe and tips at lemonlineadventures.com/simple-lego-slime/.
Lego napkin and plasticware holders that our sons made for a birthday party. This and other Lego party ideas can be found at sillyhappysweet.blogspot.com/2013/04/lego-birthday-party-ideas.html.
Porches decorated for autumn. There were many pictures I pinned, but one of my favorites is at www.shelterness.com/15-thanksgiving-front-porch-decorating-ideas/.
Using a chalkboard for seasonal porch displays. I've had this old blackboard lying around the house from our days of homeschooling preschoolers. This inspiration came from cottageintheoaks.com/2014/10/autumn-front-porch-ideas-2014/.
These Owl Healthy Snacks were actually made for an owl-themed party. I used pumpkin spice cookie butter instead of peanut butter on the mini bagels, so they're not as healthy as they could be. I pinned this idea from daisiesandpie.co.uk/easy-school-day-breakfast-ideas/.
There is one more success item I want to mention, but I didn't get a photograph of it. It is a Melted Olaf treat (Greek yogurt) for a Frozen themed birthday. I made about 20 of these for my six year-old daughter's class at school last May. Some of the boys were disappointed that I didn't bring in cupcakes, but most of the children loved them. The picture and recipe can be found here: www.getcreativejuice.com/2014/06/frozen-party-ideas-birthday.html.
Not Exactly Successes, But Not Total Disasters Either
Cute baby goat/farm pictures. We do have a lot of cute farm pictures, especially of goat kids with my kiddos. However, I saw this nice preppy picture on Pinterest of Sarah Vickers and Kiel James Patrick holding goat kids (www.bloglovin.com/blogs/classy-girls-wear-pearls-3394709/hope-goats-2809094327,) and I thought how wonderful it would be to get some shots like that on our farm. That never happens! Our goats nibble your hair, get cud on your jackets, and leave hoof prints all over your clothes. You can forget about a beautiful, preppy picture.
Lego Fruit Tray that started out looking pretty good. I still couldn't stack these fruits the way they were in the Pinterest photo. Everything wanted to fall off and roll around. Plus, the maraschino cherries started "bleeding" all over the tray, as did the strawberries. We ate it quickly before it made more of a mess. The display found at burntapple.com/2014/02/23/lego-movie-birthday-party-ideas/ looks much better. Now that I see it again, I notice that they didn't use strawberries or cherries, so that's my mistake. I tried to use up what we had in our refrigerator.
Hairstyles for Over 40. Every time I get my hair cut now I take along my tablet with Pinterest pins to show the hairdresser. This last time I was going for a Diane Keaton look, whom I love. I actually kind of like how my hair turned out, but it definitely doesn't look like this photo of the actress: pophaircuts.com/hairstyles-for-women-over-40/2014-medium-hairstyles-for-women-over-40.
Complete Disasters
Fall Leaf Candle Holders. You may recall my attempt at creating these with dried leaves, ModPodge, and Mason jars. I still don't know what I did wrong, but this did not turn out at all. After spending half an hour or longer trying to get these leaves to stick to the jars, we just had a big sticky mess all over the picnic table. They were supposed to look like this: www.sparkandchemistry.com/blog/leaf-mason-jar-candle-holder.
One Room Interval Training. Jumping into high-intensity exercise at the age of 40-something with an umbilical hernia was not a good idea. The above photo was taken for a blogpost back in June when I was actually recovering from surgery. Last spring I got the bright idea to follow this schedule that I found on Pinterest. It involved jumping jacks, high knees, butt kickers, and squat jumps. It also included some things I had never heard of during the ten years I taught aerobics a couple of decades ago. Things like burpees, inchworms, star jumps, and mountain climbers. I looked them up on Youtube to see how to do them, and then I got the bright idea to try them all out myself---with no warm-up. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I already had a hernia. The next morning my insides did not feel like they had before. Things did not feel...quite right. A few weeks later when I saw a surgeon about my gallstones, I discovered that I also had an umbilical hernia. I am certain that my evening of trying this intense workout found on Pinterest did not help. Definitely not anyone's fault but my own. It was me still thinking I could act like a 25 year-old who hadn't given birth to six children and was still in fantastic shape. If you are in good condition and want to give it a try, the workout can be found at backonpointe.tumblr.com/post/34643249382/high-intensity-interval-training-in-the-comfort-of.
I have no doubt there will be more Pinterest attempts of mine that will fall under this failed category.
Over the next two months, I have a few pins I would like to create.
1. There are these cute Gourd Candles I want to put on our Thanksgiving table: rainbowdelicious.com/friendsgiving/. (You have to scroll down through the food pictures to get to the candles.)
2. This Cheese/Salami/Cracker Tray in the shape of a turkey looks too fun to resist trying: alsothatsit.blogspot.com/2013/11/cheese-tray-turkey-as-promised.html.
3. And I'm fairly certain these Pumpkin Spice Smoothies are in our future too: deliciouslysprinkled.com/pumpkin-spice-smoothie/.
To any of you readers whose link might have found its way here, Thank You for the inspiration---even if my result didn't turn out nearly as well as yours.
To all you fellow Pinterest lovers, may you have a week of Happy Pinning!
