For the Love of Pinterest

When we got together with the good in-laws (divorce cleanly split the good and the bad nearly three decades ago) back in May, my favorite sister-in-law kept commenting about this thing called Pinterest that she thought was so fantastic. I told her that I was on there, but thought it wasn’t very good. I never really got past the first page of pretty pictures… I couldn’t really figure out how to navigate and thought it was a waste of time. I didn’t understand how many friends claimed to be addicts… and claimed to find all kinds of good craft ideas, recipes, humorous quotes, organizational ideas for the home… Again, all I saw were pretty pictures.

Bossy sister-in-law told me to try again. I told her to shut up.

Then came a day that I was bored at work. I got bored on Facebook. I didn’t feel like cleaning my desk or filing the ten years’ worth of crap laying around in the file room. So I wandered over to Pinterest. Since I figured that my favorite sissy loved it so much, I would start by looking at her stuff. Before long, I was creating my own boards and repinning her stuff.

In what seemed like minutes, hours went by. Suddenly I had boards full of recipes, ideas, crafts… There was a ton of shit that I had to go home and do immediately. I was going to sew some quilts and decorate for Halloween, fall and Christmas at once. I was going to cook 37 meals in my crock pot and I was going to freeze 50 bags full of stuff for future crock pot meals. I had 15 cakes I wanted to bake that day and a dozen brownie recipes that begged to be made first.

That, my friends, is what Pinterest will do to you. They put up beautiful pictures and make everything seem so easy. You will be excited about your newfound knowledge, trips and tricks and you will want to try them all at once. In your Pinterest euphoria, you will forget that you don’t have the ingredients or supplies to make any of that shit, and you will have to spend hundreds to get prepared. By then, your euphoria will have turned into a gigantic hangover and you will need a nap.  

I vowed not to be one of those women that sits in front of a computer planning a thousand things, but doing none… I have actually used several recipes… They were all ok in my eyes, but were very well received by others.

Crock pot beef with mushrooms and
secret ingredient... Diet Sprite! 

Popcorn with white chocolate and
crushed Oreos... too sweet for me!

I thought this recipe was bland. Sister
suggested that I might have cooked it
wrong. How dare she. 

Pinterest is not perfect though… if you pin something that you have already pinned, it doesn’t tell you. It’s also not possible to forward a pin directly to a friend for them to check it out. Some images are “dead,” meaning that you click on them and are lead nowhere or to a broken link. Of course this happens to the images that you are the most excited about. Pinterest can be a dream crusher.

And then there’s the issue of feeling inadequate. My house isn’t up to snuff, my kids lunches aren’t organic and the sandwiches aren’t cut into heart-shapes. And even if I followed every direction to the T, my crafty attempts would pale in comparison to the beautiful visions dancing before my eyes on that blasted site.

Then there's the issue that if I make these for Spice's first grade
Halloween party, Sugar will be pissed that she didn't get those.
Solution: make extra for Sugar to bring for her friends!

If you heaven’t checked Pinterest out yet, I encourage you to do so. Even if you aren’t into holiday decorating, crafts, kid snacks, there are lots of other things to look at. Start by stalking people you know that are already on there… Look at their boards and get lost from there.

I texted my favorite sister-in-law today and I told her that we should blow off her sister’s wedding in a few weeks, kidnap Stepmommy, drink, cook shit and get all crafty. She’s down with it.

Then she said, “I knew you would like it once you got into it.” I told her to shut up. 

xoxo

Ice Princess