Footprints

Again, I found myself poking around on Pinterest, this time for some homemade Christmas gift ideas. I wanted to do something special for our son’s grandparents, his aunt, and uncles. I found an adorable idea for preserving his footprints, in the form of ornaments. Too cute.

This is the original Pin: https://youresomartha.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/handprint-ornament-diy/

So I called my mom and set out to the craft store with a supply list I assembled from the pin. There were lots of different interpretations of this ornament project on Pinterest and I wasn’t sure what to get. For instance, some pinners commented that they pressed their son/daughter’s name into the dough, while others used a paint pen after the project was complete. Other pinners suggested using a clear coat spray on the ornament, while contradicting posts said to use Mod Podge. So, I bought everything I could possibly need for any or all of those options.

Grandma rolling out the dough with Pinterest Fail #1 because I didn’t have a rolling pin. This really should have been a sign to stop right then…

Then, my mom came over to help me get the dough together. It was supposed to be super easy, containing just three ingredients: salt, flour, and water. Perfect for a Pinterest Wannabe, like me. So we got the dough together and used a bowl to cut the circle-shaped ornaments out.  My husband helped us with the baby portion on the project. He held the baby over the dough and did his best to center his squirmy foot, and press it into a perfect little footprint.  The ornaments looked great when I put them into the oven for the 3-4 hours the Pinterest Pinner suggested.

“Mom…What are we doing?”

When I took them out of the oven, I could tell there was a problem.  Apparently our dough was too dry, because they had all cracked. Not cracked like they split down the center; cracked like the Sahara Desert’s surface.  Damn it. So, we decided we would give it another go a few days later.

We used a little more water in the dough, and thought that they looked great! I baked them again, and this time they came out with an orange tint?! Dang it! By this point we were only 3 days from Christmas, and I knew I could never get another round baked, painted, and decorated in time. So, here I sit on December 26^th with a couple of baking pans full of orange tinted footprint ornaments and a crap load of art supplies, but no Christmas gifts. So my friends, let’s chalk it up to yet another Pinterest Fail.

Oh well, right? We cannot excel at everything, I guess. I will just stick to wiping bottoms and noses 🙂

Pinterest Mommy

For a few years now, I have been using Pinterest for various things, such as wasting time and pretending that someday I will attempt some of these impossible crafts. Pinterest has become less of social media site, and more of an evaluation marker for how perfect your housekeeping, organizing, cooking, and crafting skills are, in my humble opinion. Everyone wants to copy that picture-perfect Thanksgiving pie recipe and wow their family. But the truth that many of us have discovered, is that we will never be able to recreate these elaborate “DIY” projects. Try as we might.

I have accepted my fate as a Pinterest Wannabe, to steal a term from the virtuoso group: The Spice Girls. As an official Wannabe I would like to welcome all other moms out there who try their hardest, but just can’t get that pallet art work to look the same as the original pinner’s did. (By the way, I haven’t looked very diligently, but I can only assume that these ‘original pinners’ reside in Oz or Narnia.) Anyway, should you want to join the club, all it will cost you is a notarized photograph depicting the Pinterest project you attempted, and your failed outcome. Also, you’ll need to learn our mantra, “I am not Pinterest Perfect, and that’s okay.”

Aren’t these beautiful? Photo: http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/02/rainbow-scavenger-hunt-and-rainbow.html

Anywho, I attempted a Pinterest Project today that didn’t go terribly, but didn’t end up looking like the pictures.  (Not that they ever do anyway…) I was researching sensory play, (can you call it ‘research’ when you’re on Pinterest?), and I found these really neat DIY sensory bottles. The only supplies you needed were water bottles filled with water and various objects to go in them. The idea is to get babies and toddlers to discover colors and how things move underwater, etc. Simple enough. NOT.

First off, every Pinner suggested getting Voss water because the bottles were BPA free and were shaped ideally for looking into its contents. I went to the store and they were $2.27 a bottle! [Don’t tell my husband that.] Listen people, I am a bulk-loving mama. I buy a case of 40 bottled waters for $3.98! Buying 6 of these nearly killed me! But, hey, it’s for the kid and Pinterest said so.

So I get the bottles home and have a dickens of a time getting the labels off. I used nail polish remover, hot water, a scrubbing pad, and there are still eye-sore, sticky patches all over a couple of them. (Not Pinterest Approved.) After I gave up on perfection there, I had to sort out the do-dads I had purchased to go in the bottles. I decided to make color sensory bottles, as it seemed fitting for the age and stage of my little guy. Choosing the odds and ends for these bottles was tough. I didn’t know how much stuff I would need to fill a bottle and trying to find an even amount of things in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple was challenging.

After I color coded the ‘stuff’, I refilled the bottles, (I had to empty them to get the labels off clean–so yes I poured 15+ dollars down the drain, literally), and started putting the stuff in its coordinating bottle.  I had issues with the floating stuff in some bottles and the displacement of water by some stuff in other bottles. Needless to say, this was not the 10 minute project I thought it would be. After hemming and hawing over my resulting work, I am happy with it–kind of. My son has been staring at them all night, and wasn’t that the task? NO! Pinterest had me brainwashed to think that the task was to make these picture-perfect replicas and then show off my versions on social media to prove how great of a mom I am. Damn you, Pinterest.

 

I digress and will just let the photos speak for themselves. And I’ll leave you with one last thought, “I am not Pinterest Perfect, and that’s okay.”

What projects or recipes have you tried and failed from Pinterest? Or are you one of the elite who can not only duplicate these incredible projects, but post wonderful pins of your own? If you are of the latter, my greatest respect and a tip of the hat to you, friend.