Saturday, February 25, 2012

Pinterest Saved Me (from complete hibernation)


This is probably a weird way to start a blog but I must  say, I typically have a hard time getting through the winter months. I live in a very rainy, cloudy part of the USA and dread the winter, particularly February.    Ugh   Well, good news! This year during the season of hibernation, I found the world of fabulous crafty wonderfulness they call pinterest.com

The recipes, craft ideas, dreamy plans for spring and summer and party planning posts I have come across have given me a new lease on life and a can do attitude. The ideas, links, photos, tutorials etc. etc. etc. are enough to make one giddy with excitement.  I don't know what it is about it but people are starting to refer to the whole Pinterest experience as internet crack.  In other words, Very Addictive!

My fellow Pinterest friends and I chuckle at our common tendency to pin and pin and pin all night yet never make craft one. But I look back now and I realize that over the last few months I have used lots of ideas I found on Pinterest.  Plus, I now think twice about throwing away even the most mundane items, like toilet paper rolls.  My mother would be appalled, but hey, that is a subject for another blog day.

I think my first fabulous find from Pinterest was the idea for these cupcakes for my friend Mary Anne's 50th birthday party.  The theme was "Life's a Beach!" I believe the original idea came from www.bettycrocker.com

There are many examples on Pinterest. Type beach cupcake into the search box and lots of very cute cupcake examples pop up.  See the bikini clad Teddy Graham bathing beauty lying on her fruit stripe gum beach towel?  Do you know how hard it was to find Fruit Stripe gum?!?  We uses Gummy Lifesavers for life rings and added Swedish fish of course.  The sand was organic brown sugar.  We also used Annie's Chocolate and whole wheat Bunny crackers and stuck them in the water and on the beaches. (beach bunnies  hee hee) My friend Holly made the palm trees out of Tootsie Rolls and Wilton's candy melts.  We had to put toothpicks in the palm tree trunks because they kept falling over.  Lessons learned...

Next, I made and pinned this idea for Ground Hog's Day cupcakes since my husband was born on Ground Hog's Day. 
this photo was taken before I added the "dirt" which was really chocolate wafer crumbs. 

 I found the original idea on Google Images. 

Next, I found out via Pinterest that those Magic Eraser Sponges are just Melamine Foam and can be ordered from Amazon.com or eBay. 30 sponges for about $6.00! Wow, who knew?  

Back in January, I hit the clearance jack pot at Target.  All of the Christmas merchandise was 90% off.  I grabbed a ton of these heart ornaments. I thought, "Wow, these will make great (and cheap economical) Valentine's Day gifts."  They were originally $1.00 for 3 felt hearts in wonderful colors.  I couldn't believe it.  10 cents?  I can't remember the last time I bought something for 10 cents.  I think Pinterest has inspired me to imagine new and fabulous ways in which to be crafty.  I feel a new confidence.  It turns out that pinning all of those ideas really was worthwhile.  In the grand scheme of things, all of that time I thought I was wasting has really paid off.  So, please tune in next time to see what I made with these felt Target hearts.    

And,  if you haven't already, check out Pinterest and pin away.  11 million pinners can't be wrong!