pinterest, my frenemy.

Completion of our first Pinterest project.

Pinterest is my frenemy.  You know, that person that pretends to be your friend to your face but has all kinds of nasty things about how much you suck at life behind your back to its real friends when you're not looking.  Or at least that's how I've felt about it for the past couple months.

A couple of months ago a bunch of my friends starting using this site.  I was sent an invite and decided to log on see what all the hype was about.  This was my thought process once I first got logged on:

 LOG ON:

"Alright, what's this about."

"Hmm...there are a bunch of...pictures?"

"No, not pictures..they're pins."

"Pins?"

"Pins."

"I pin them on boards.  Why would I do that?"

"Pin pictures on boards?  What for?"

"I don't get this."

LOG OUT!

A few months went by.  More and more friends kept raving about their new "addiction." Clearly I was missing something.  Not content to be a quitter, I tried again.

LOG ON:

"Alright, let's see. More friends are pinning things!"

"Oh...pictures of recipes...that's...intesting..."

"Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella?  That looks yummy..."

"Wait on second thought, this looks complicated...these things will take too long to cook..I can't do that..."

"Oh! Here's a picture of a cute dress for a little girl!"

"Oh...that lady made it...it's a pattern how to make it."

"I could try to make that..."

"Who am I kidding? I can't sew."

"I'd pay someone on Etsy to make that."

"Oh!  Look at that picture of a beautiful big master bedroom!"

"Oh...that's what she wants to put in her new big house..."

"I'm not buying a new big house."

"I'll never have a bedroom that big."

"This shit's depressing."

LOG OUT!

Pinterest suddenly had the uncanny ability to make me feel like a failure at life.

I can't cook anything that takes more than 40 minutes to prepare.

I can't sew.

I'm not redecorating my house.

I started having mean thoughts about Pinterest.  I didn't understand why this website was so intent on making me feel like I suck.

But being a glutton for punishment, I went back.  This time in voyeur mode.  I'm not gonna pin a THING.  I'm just going to stalk my frenemy...see what it's up to...

LOG ON:

"Oh..let's see what other impossible standards you want to hold me to today, PINTEREST!"

"Ha! 50 things to do with my toddler in one day? I get 3 hours in the evening after work with my kid, I'm NOT LISTENING TO YOU!"

"Templates for home schooling?  So now I'm supposed to feel bad that I'm sending my kid to regular school and not spending all day with her teaching her at home?"

"I suppose you're gonna give me a speech next about, "they're only little once!" huh?"

"Go ahead, Pinterest, I know you want to...JUDGE AWAY!"

"Oh! How convenient...make my own playdough from crap around my house."

"Well you know what, PINTEREST?  I'm giving her the STORE BOUGHT KIND.  With  it's ARTIFICIAL COLORS AND ALL!"

"I DON'T NEED YOUR STANDARDS AND JUDGEMENT!"

"SO THERE!"

LOG OFF!

I couldn't get over my disdain for this website.   While am I letting this WEBSITE make me feel bad?  Like I'll never measure up to its expectations?

Well you know what?

I'm not going to.  Forget you, Pinterest, I'M NOT PINTERESTED!

I boycotted it hard.  When other talked about it non-stop, I refused to let my curiosity get the better of me.  

"But it's full of great ideas!" they'd say.

"And it's so visually intersting!" I'd hear.

I had three words for those people: GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH.

I don't need no stinkin' Pinterest to give me ideas for Sadie's Dr. Seuss Birthday Party.  I got all my ideas from a simple Google Image search...well, that and a little thing I like to call MY BRAIN.

SO TAKE THAT!

Hmph.

Time went by.

Days...

...weeks...

...months..

Somewhere along the line I made a little joke about my Pinterest failure.  I posted on Facebook how I just might make a board on Pinterest called, "Tattoos I really like but am too chicken to get."  And post a tons of tatts.  I bet all those home-schooling, organic-only, sew-all-my-kids-clothes, new-home-owning, monthly-re-decorating, make-my-own-macaroni-for-my-homemade-macaroni-and-cheese-from-scratch moms would really like that!

HA!

JOKES ON YOU, SUCKAAA!!!

And surprisingly a lot of my friends thought it would be a fun idea...

So a few weeks later....I ventured back on Pinterest.

This time with my own agenda.

And I made a board for all the places I wanted to travel to.

And a board of all of the places I've already been to.

{I'll combat those feelings of inadequacy by pinning things like "places I have been." So even if I suck at crafting and never cook a damn recipe I find, at least I'm well-travelled.}

And a board of all of my Ravens crap.

And a board of tattoos I really like, but am too chicken to get. ;-)  (Cause I'm a brat like that...)

And soon enough it seemed like there were more and more people more like me on Pinterest...it wasn't so intimidating, or impractical, or unattainable, or perfect mom-ish.

I think I even noticed a curse word or two on a few of the pins!  :-D

So I gave it whirl.

LOG ON:

"Hmm...that's kinda cool."

"Melted crayon art crafts...I bet we could do that pretty easily..."

"Ah-ha! Look at that!  Broken crayons melted into heart shapes for Valentines! BEAT YOU, Pinterest, we did that LAST YEAR!"

(Not gonna lie, I felt a twinge of superiority that I got one over on my frenemy...)

"HA! That's a funny quote, I'll re-pin that..."

"Oooh...pretty purple shoes! I looooove those!"

And I wasn't a hater anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I'll never be an "addict."  And I still struggle with what the exact PURPOSE of Pinterest is...but I also struggle with this on Twitter too...I just constantly feel like I'm missing something...like I log on only once in awhile to "check in" but I don't feel that NEED to constantly connect like I do with my lover Facebook (insert chorus of angels singing here).

But I think I can pop onto Pinterest every now and then and pick up an idea or two...and maybe, just maybe I'll put them into action.

Like I did last night.

With---get this--materials I already had around my house.  HA!

So after I got home from work, and we had my crockpot chicken parm for dinner (my recipe, thankyouverymuch), Sadira and I whipped out a canvas, a bunch of crayons, the glue gun...

..and my hairdryer. :-)

And first we did a little of this:

 

 

 

And once we had them all lined up...

 

And pulled out our other materials..

 

We got those babies glued on.

 

And then came the fun part..

 

 

We cranked the blowdryer up to high, and held it about two inches away from the crayons...until they started to melt and drip down the canvas.

(Sadly no pictures of this part, since it was an all hands on deck step.)

But when we were all finished, we ended up with this:

 

So take THAT, Pinterest!  This full-time-work-outside-the-home, shuffle-her-kid-to-school, then-dump-her-off-to-daycare, with-an-hour-commute-home, must-make-dinner-in-under-30-minutes (so-once-a-week-we-settle-for-Subway), sometimes-we-skip-a-bath, let-her-kid-play-with-her-Leappad-for-20-minutes-in-her-bed-at-night (which-is-always-well-past-bedtime) non-perfect Mom just knocked out one of your crafty projects.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful frenemy-ship.  ;-)