I think we are all aware of the Pinterest internet sensation by now. Everyone who wants to be a member has been invited and the website has grown tremendously over the past few months. I'll be honest, I joined in the craze for a while. I spent countless hours designing our future house, pinning crafts I'd never have the patience to do and planning rainbow parties for the girl I currently do not have (and probably never will!)
I spent so much time that I became aware that it was consuming me. I was judging myself and others by the things I saw on pinterest. There was no doubt, I was coveting the things I didn't have and things I wanted. It seemed to always leave me with a feeling of discontent or "I'm not good enough."
I made a decision at the beginning of the fall that I would have to take a step back from pinterest. I loved it, however, life was happening around me and I was about to miss it! Keeping up with my friends on facebook and my beloved blog following was all the computer face time I could handle. It sucks to place yourself on restriction. It's like mothering yourself and you don't like it and want to rebel against it. But who are you hurting besides yourself.
I took a complete break for a while and have recently been using it for looking up the perfect recipes for dinner and cooking club, crafts that I DO have the patience for and ideas for the 100th day of Kindergarten. I'm far better off if I have a goal in mind when I get on there. I still find time to peruse a few pages but it is not all consuming. Now if I could imply this kind of discipline in other areas of my life (on screen and off!) then I could add a few more hours to my day!
Comparison is the Thief of Joy
With that being said, I 'have been looking into some valentine crafts for me to do lately. I wanted a new wreath for the front door and all over pinterest, I've seen the yarn wrapped wreaths. I even have another blogger friend that made one and I decided I could do that one. So, I went off to Michaels with my 40% off coupon and big plans for my wreath. I got all the necessary materials. A straw wreath, my choice of yarn color, 3 runuculus flowers (because I decided against making my own felt ones.), and a love plaque that needed to be painted a different color, pink paint and floral wire. Ok, now with what I think is all I need, I go to wrapping the wreath. I do this beside Jason in the floor and he looks at me like I'm crazy. It's going to take a while. Hours probably. I finished one layer of yarn but to look nice, it's going to need another. After that, I cut, place and hot glue my flowers. I remove the country looking bow motif from the wooden plaque and prime and paint it pink, twice. When it's dry, I also hot glue it to adhere it to the top of the wreath. I hang it and decide that it's still missing something. Back to pinterest, back to Michaels, I finally have a finished product that I can be proud of. Just out of curiosity, I checked to see how much I'd have paid for this baby on etsy. I was quite surprised to see that aside from the cost of shipping, I could have nearly the same wreath, delivered to my door for about the same price. I was a little smug at this discovery but I'm trying to convince myself that I need to be uber proud that I took the time out to do this, regardless of cost. That's where you come in I guess!
Next I wanted to make cake balls. I've been hearing about them for years and I think staying far far away was still a good decision. Curiosity got the best of me and I'd been craving some strawberry cake anyway. Cue the Valentines bug again, I wanted to do some pink cake balls and easily found my vice on pinterest. I found several but the winner included cream cheese along with the frosting in the cake mix. It too was a process. Bake the cake, cool the cake, crumble the cake, mix the cake with frosting and cream cheese, chill the mixture, roll the mixture into balls, freeze the balls, melt the candy coating, dip the balls and let them cool AGAIN. Yeah, a process but I'm telling you right now, this one was WELL worth it. They were a hit! They were worth the hour I'm going to spend in the grueling Cardio Blast class next week to burn a few of them off.
I'd love to hear about some of your latest pinteresting projects. I'm already a little excited about St. Patty's day. It's the one day a year my boys can properly participate in rainbow crafts!
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