Pinterest Part II

I know everyone has been waiting for an update on my Pinterest status.  I'm still learning/wasting time over on the site.  But I have experienced a few confusing emotions and may have to step away for a while. 

First of all, I see the same thing pinned all over the place and start to wonder about anyone's true creativity.  I worry that if I braid Kitty's hair in the "waterfall" braid for church on Sunday she'll be one of four other girls with the same cool hairstyle.  Worse yet, the mom's will all look at me and call me a copy cat because they saw it on Pinterest too, but no one really knows where it came from in the first place.

And I think that's the thing... it's all about "sharing", which translates to copying for me.  And as we all know, I am a true copy cat but I don't want anyone to know that.  Before Pinterest I could get away with copying something and convincing myself it was half my own idea. Not anymore.

Then there's the problem of the site sparking my innate negativity.  I love all the decorating and design inspiration, but then I look around and think, "that will never happen."  So then I get mad that some people think they can achieve a magazine layout for a living room and I vow to never invite them over to my house.  Maybe I'm just jaded, but reality is never as good as the fantasy. 

And what about the fashion and hair pinboards? I don't mind if you want to pin your favorite fashion inspirations, but if you are actually skinny and wealthy enough to wear any of it-- stop rubbing it in. I've been looking all over the internet for the perfect pair of yoga pants to pin to my fashion board.

It can get a little materialistic and sometimes leaves me empty.

The one thing I have liked is when people have a pinboard that shows every craft/recipe they've actually tried, which is rare because it is so much easier to pin than to do.

I also like all the food boards. They don't leave me empty like those inspirational running quotes do.

Taking care of business

We had to take care of some important business on Sunday. John got baptized and Chickie got blessed. John did not want a long program so we didn't have any talks, and I think I prefer it that way. Chickie didn't want a long drawn out blessing so she cried during the whole thing and Jared cut it short.  We had cousins, grandparents and good friends there to support John and Chickie, it was pretty great.

 

Gotta love that overhead fluorescent lighting.



Why did I sit like that?  Oh yeah, I wanted to look fat.

Grandma, Papa, and Grammie

Kitty was there too.

This is the best picture of Emily in the dress made by my Grandma Alice for my sister Meri's blessing.  The dress was the only pre-requisite for the day since both Meri and Emily share my grandmother's name as their middle name. The binky leash is not original to the dress.

Pinterwhat?

For a few months I've been hearing/reading about Pinterest and never really knowing what it was (that, and planking which I still don't get).  How do these things get started?  All of the sudden everyone is on Pinterest, talking about their "board" and what-not like everyone else knows what they are talking about.  A while ago I was curious and visited the site, but was deterred by the "by invitation only" membership.  Forget that. Oh wait.  You just have to ask for an invite? There's no rigorous interview process? I see... it's a clever way to obtain your email address while making you feel like you got into an exclusive club at the same time.  Just what we housewives of the internet need for validation.  "Did you get your Pinterest invitation? Oh, not yet?  Mine came three days ago..."

So luckily I got into the club (it was touch and go there for a few minutes) and have started my pin boards, although I don't know what I am doing yet.  Imagine my suprise to find many of my friends already in the club and thriving with all kinds of boards.  Why had they never invited me?  I won't dwell on it.

As far as I can tell, it is a new way to waste your day on the computer... just what I needed because Facebook sucks.

First snow of the season, John's tiny snowman

She might be a little irritated...

Chickie!



Or: Chickie Chickie Boom Boom (will there be enough room?)



Or: Chickie Chickie Bang Bang

Or: Chickie-Chickie-Tembo-No-Sa-Rembo-Chari-Bari-Ruchi-Pip-Perry-Pembo (has fallen into the well)

3 months already!

14 Reasons for my low self-esteem

So my face is starting to resemble the rugged, weathered look of Paul Hogan.  It is enough to drive me to distraction.  Really. Distraction. While I am driving.  The rear-view mirror has a way of highlighting my rough, freckled forehead.  It's awesome.

Did you know that I don't have any comfortable jeans?  Well, I don't. Just the other day in the midst of a clothing crisis I vowed to lose those lingering 15 lbs of Chickie weight come hell or high water.  Speaking of high water-- most of my jeans are just a tidge too short, probably because they no longer "hang"-- they just stick. 

But don't worry, the diet didn't start immediately, which is good, because had I not gone for that late night dish of ice cream I would not have discovered that our fridge was broken. Having a broken fridge for five days sounds like a great diet-- but it's not because you find yourself trying to eat everything before it spoils. So the diet starts Monday, after the new fridge is finally delivered.

The morning after the fridge mishap John asked me if the sink was also broken.  I told him it wasn't and he explained that because there were no dishes in the sink he thought something must be wrong.  Really? Do I leave dishes in the sink that often?

So after the unforeseen expense of the week and after watching some crazy couponing show on TLC, I decided that I needed to start using coupons in order to save a little cash. I was actually contemplating coupons while I was in line at Super Target.  The checker (you know the one with the obscenely large cleft chin) was sooo slow and the woman in front of me had about $500 worth of groceries. After he completed her sale, she handed him a coupon for a free loaf of bread that she had forgotten to give him. By this time there were about five people behind me and I realized why sometimes you should just pay for the freaking loaf of bread. You might think the setting for this story should have been Wal Mart, but that just goes to show that the recession has affected everyone.

I'll be honest, I considered advertising this post on facebook just so someone would comment and make me feel interesting. I still might do it.  I have TONS of friends on facebook and they all find me interesting.

Because I now have baby blog

My friend Korie gave me the idea to chronicle Emily's growth by taking a picture with the same object every month. Can you tell which on is the real baby?



Two months

Are you sick of the flower yet?  I have a million other bows but this is the one that is always nearby and it always matches. Plus, I've never been too girlie-- this is as good as it gets.

Rambling thoughts from the middle of the night

A new post for the blog was working itself out in my brain during one of Chickie's midnight meals.  The post would be brilliant, it would explain the sheep herding documentary John and I watched the other day. I would go into great detail about how the herder dressed a new lamb in what seemed to be a little outfit we both assumed was to keep the baby warm.  It was so cute.  Then I would go on to recount how the little "outfit" was actually the skin of a still-born lamb and it was placed on this lamb so the mother of the dead baby would think the impostor lamb was hers.  My story would conclude with a very real statement that I finally understood the history behind the expression, "a wolf in sheep's clothing".  The end.

But then I got distracted thinking about all the fascinating, useless facts I could share. I get these facts mostly from stories on NPR and more times than not, I end up having a "driveway moment" at my destination. 

I could include the ultra interesting history of overalls, especially the striped one's worn by rail workers (so as to be seen by the trains, duh). 

Everyone would be asking for more about the story I heard about redesigning the toothbrush and the fact that there are about five different grips people use to brush their teeth (the majority of women use the "death grip").

And did you know there's a person whose job it is to engineer the sounds our electronic devices make?  You know-- the beep of pushing a button on your phone, the click of your iPod, the turn signal in your car.  Getting just the right tone is a rigorous process, believe me.

And did you know the banjo was invented by Southern slaves and that it was based on instruments they knew from West Africa? If you're interested in learning more just ask, I wrote a paper on it.

I also wrote a paper about how various cultures divide color.  Some people refer to all colors as either black or white.  Then the next color to be distinguished from all the rest is always red. Fascinating! I should be on NPR.

It all sounded good in the middle of the night.

By the way, Kitty turned 6 last week.