Pinterest Love and Fails

I love Pinterest, plain and simple.  I love looking at photography, fashion, recipes, and craft projects.  I'm not very creative but I have a great appreciation for beautiful and creative things.

Whenever I pin something, I always want to know if it really is as easy as it seems.  Is the food actually good?  Have someone actually tried making/doing/cooking this?

I thought I'd go through some of the successes and failures I've had at making things from Pinterest.

Pepperoni Roll-ups- SO GOOD!  Brought them to a party and friends ate them right up.  I served them with a marinara sauce.  I made a "skinny" version with lowfat crescent rolls, light string cheese, and turkey pepperoni.

I love you because...frame- I already had the frame and stickers.  I just ran up to Hobby Lobby for a nice, yellow damask paper and a dry erase marker and that was it.  It is really nice to pass this back and forth and write things that we appreciate about each other but don't say on a daily basis.  Below is my Mother's Day message...



Holiday baby pictures- There are always so many cute pictures of babies around the holidays.  Here are the ideas I found on Pinterest and did with Ethan.

              

Baby hand print ornament- FAIL.  We tried to just do red paint on a clear ornament in December and it was a mess.  Ethan was only 6 months old and just wasn't having it.  We tried awake, we tried sleeping.  Nope.  Might try again this year.  We will see...

Popcorn cupcakes-  I got a couple of comments on these so I knew I would include them.  These were super easy.  I bought the cupcake collars from Oriental Trading and regular cake mixes for the cupcakes.  We iced the cupcakes with white icing and took a handful of marshmallows for the topping.  It was so easy to just "dip" the cupcakes into the palm of a hand full of marshmallows.  Easy peasy and super cute!  (My DH did make little labels and we had to tape the cuffs shut.  They kept popping open.)

Spray painting the highchair- Young House Love did a post on spray painting an old high chair and I immediately knew this would be happening for Ethan's party.  I was surprised when my mom willingly let me spray our old highchair from when I was a baby.  We followed the directions from the post and also used this post from Bower Power and one I found on Pinterest.  I was so happy with how it turned out and it wasn't too hard.  My husband actually did it in the yard.  He didn't sand it beforehand and he used grey primer.  He did sand a few drips and had to go to the store for more primer and color spray.  Get more than you think you will need!

I also got the idea of the hot dog bar, goldfish bags, and favors from Pinterest too!




Crockpot Buffalo Chicken-  YUM YUM YUMMMM!  Made this last night and it was so good and super easy.  3 ingredients:  frozen chicken, bottle of Frank's buffalo sauce, and 1 dry ranch packet.  I made it "skinny" by not adding butter and putting it on a Sandwich Thin.  We actually did put a bit of Greek Yogurt in the bun for a "ranch" taste.  (pic below is from the original Pinterest blog post).

Those are my favorite things from Pinterest right now.  What are yours?  I love to try things out that I KNOW have been tested by someone and recommended.  Baby is up from naptime!  See ya!

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Ethan's First Birthday- Carnival Party

For Ethan's first birthday party, I wanted to do something special.  I wanted to find a fun theme that would work for his outside party at a nearby park.  I scoured Pinterest and found so many carnival/circus ideas (see my inspiration board here!)  Honestly, I had no idea how much work it all would take.  I've now decided that Pinterest is the devil and although it provided me with TONS of ideas, it also made this party almost impossible to prepare.  Working full time (and having a husband with 2 jobs) and taking care of a child doesn't leave much time for party planning.  I enlisted the help of my family and the night before Ethan's party, we cranked it all out.  (It also didn't help that I ran a 5K and was out of the house from 7-9 am on the morning of his party.)  It was crazy but we did it!  (I already feel sorry for our future children who will never have this much energy or creativity put into any of their parties.)

Without further ado...Ethan's party!

I LOVED how the popcorn cupcakes turned out.  So easy and so cute!

Party favors

Hot dog bar for lunch

Now for the fun part!

Adorable birthday t-shirt from LeeLynn Crafts.

My mom let us repaint our childhood highchair that she now uses for Ethan.  Thanks for the idea Young House Love.

Happy birthday, Ethan!  Thanks for all of the friends and family that helped make Ethan's day special (and for helping me not lose my mind preparing).  Xoxo

Cupcake holders and cuffs, popcorn bags, plates, silverware, table cloths, stickers, lollipops- Oriental Trading Company (they have TONS of carnival decor and item)

Plastic Popcorn Holders (for favors and chips), red bowls, balloon bases, foil tins, ketchup/mustard- The Dollar Store

Hot dog Wrappers and Cracker Jacks- Amazon

***Since I was asked, the dress is from Old Navy.  They only have it in navy blue and a small.  The dress runs big (I'm wearing a small).  I bet you can find it in the clearance area in-store too!

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