Pinterest is Changing My Life.

Okay... that title is a bold statement. And perhaps it's not LITERALLY changing my LIFE... But it IS making it oh-so-much better!

What is Pinterest, you ask?

Oh, just a lovely lovely place online where you can store visual bookmarks of all the marvelous things you come across on the web... recipes, perfect throw pillows, craft tutorials, landscape photos, cute shoes... ANYTHING, really. Pinterest helps you organize your bookmarks into "boards", categorized ANY way you dream of. Then, when you're ready to revisit that bookmark, its there on your boards, pretty and appealing, with the original link intact. AWESOME.

Okay. But whoa. That's not all. Pinterest is a community. And all your friends are pinning amazing things, too. Suddenly, it's like you have a whole team of personal web surfers finding treasures that you'll love. And you are allowed to REpin their pins. Its encouraged! In fact, once you really get knee-deep in Pinterest, you kinda actually do less of your own online searching, and end up mesmerized by all the amazing pins already in the Pinterest universe-- a catalog of MILLIONS of amazing bookmarks from millions of people. So you repin and repin and repin  FABULOUS things.  It is basically just a beautiful, inspiring universe you want to live in.

Anyway. Besides the gorgeous things, I am finding and stockpiling a whole lot of clever ideas--- time savers, problem solvers, and other brilliance. And just yesterday, I got to use two of those clever ideas and WOW they simplified my life both times. I LOVE Pinterest!

Idea One: Packaging Cupcakes in Clear Cups

Pinterest link

I made these pretty little cupcakes Wednesday night, and needed to take some to a friend's house. 

I used my "ice cream cone" cupcake pan, so these cuppies have a bigger base that is a lot more tippy... So putting them in a standard cupcake carrier was a no-go. Enter the plastic cup idea. VOILA! Oh my goodness, SO PERFECT. I don't have a pic, but they fit perfectly... and the base of the cup fit perfectly in a standard cupcake tin, so I could still carry a bunch of cupcakes-in-a-cup on their own tray. They traveled so so well. THANK YOU, Pinterest!


Idea Two: Toothpaste To Help Hang Photos
Pinterest link

I don't have a picture of this myself, but here's the deal. I had 5 fabric-covered letters I wanted to hang on Lucy's wall. Each of these letters had two hanger hoops on the back. Anyone who has tried to align and hammer in nails for TWO loops knows what a pain it is to center, measure, and level these nails. I mean, I will sometimes have to try multiple times to get the nails right so that the item will hang on the wall. YUCK!! Enter my Pinterest repin. You dab a bit of toothpaste on the metal hangers... Then you place your picture or fabric letter or whatever on the wall how you want it. When you take it away from the wall, there's a teeny toothpaste mark left behind in the EXACT place where you should hammer your nail. COME ON. I hung those letters in record time and did not have to re-hammer any nails ONCE. AMAZING.

THANK YOU PINTEREST!!

Okay. Not only is Pinterest helping me with these common household problems... but it has become the place I put all my "crafties to do one day" ideas now. And my "One Recipe and One Crafty a Week" project sends me straight to my boards every time. I've not posted any recently, but here is my crafty and recipe from a few weeks ago. The crafty:

MONSTER KNEES

Taken directly from the original idea, from a Dutch blog. (Heres the pin/Here's the original site) I did not even think of any of this on my own. TOTALLY borrowed. But oh-so-cute. And handy, right?



And the recipe:

BANOFFEE PIE

from this pin.

Truly as easy as the pin and recipe describe, and AMAZINGLY tasty. I will be making this again, for sure!

(Forgive the crappy pics. My kitchen does NOT get pretty light).



So. Pinterest. Yes. More, please. (Feel free to come follow my insane pinning here: http://pinterest.com/emsoutherland/ . I am addicted. It's embarrassing. But oh-so-fun. I am so inspired right now!)

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But for those of you who couldn't care less about crafties and food and such, and only come here to see my amazing kids (*snort*, yeah right... Maybe the GRANDPARENTS come for that. The rest of you just endure my oversharing of the kids... Haha!)

Here's some recent Noah. He has his Old Mai on as a cape. He is eating a cocoa puff ball. He is telling you to HALT.



And here is Lucy in my FAVORITE of her summer outfits. I love this little romper so much that I will probably set it aside to be only hers and not a hand-me-down, and maybe frame it in a shadowbox one day. I just love it.

Oh, yeah... and I love HER, too. When she gives us those 20-minute Cute Spells, I just die over how amazing she is.

And that concludes my oversharing for the day. Oversharing my obsession with Pinterest. Oversharing my babies. 

I gotta get out more. 

Ha. 

Back to the grind, folks... Thanks for reading. I love that I can feel like I'm part of the world through blogging, even when I spend most days totally at home with two young ones who don't do well at adult conversation. :)