I also have a theory I was telling the boyfriend about: Pinterest is just virtual hoarding. But it's organized hoarding, which is two steps above physical hoarding, one step above virtual hoarding. I think, despite everything I pin, I may accomplish 50 percent of it. Let's be honest, I think it's cute to take a photo every year of my child in the beginning and end of the school year with a homemade sign that says what she wants to be AND in a shirt that has Class of ____ for her to grow into AND have every single teacher she has sign a copy of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" But, I know me. I probably won't do those things, even though I have them all pinned. (Sorry if the links don't direct you to the original site, as things tend to get lost among the Pinterest shuffle.)
But, I am proud when I have Pinterest-worthy moments, as I call them in my head. I have a spark of an idea, I get out the crafting stuff or go to the Dollar Store -- my rule, if I can't do it with mostly Dollar Store supplies, it's not worth it -- and get to work. Even if making the things takes hours and L. only gets 20 minutes of enjoyment out of it, I still think it's worth it. Or even five minutes until I have to take it away.
Case in point -- the house. It had been a tough morning. L. was in a mood and I couldn't figure out why until I put her in a time out and she fell asleep, clearly overtired and I had missed the signs. I needed something to occupy my time because I was too frustrated to nap. So, I decided L. might like a little dollhouse. She has one at her dad's house and she loves the one at the library by us. But we don't have the room in our apartment for one. So, I made the cardboard version. And I made it pretty. Like, really pretty. I went back to my days learning to wrap with my Mom to make this house.
(Side note: Was anyone else's mom a stickler about wrapping like mine? Does anyone else know what "seams" on the paper would mean? Did anyone else's mom make them unwrap and rewrap a present until they got it right? Didn't think so. Just mine. Not sure why she put so much emphasis on having me be such a perfectionist when it came to wrapping presents, but, OK, I'll admit it, I'm happy she did because my gifts are so precisely wrapped, you would think a machine did them.)
In the end, my house was brilliant. I would have loved to play with this fun house. Maybe I would have been older, but, really, what harm could my 2-year-old do?, I thought.
Oh, plenty. She woke up from her nap and I got the happy, "Oh, wow!" she elicits and makes my heart melt when something I do makes her happy. She went right over and began to pretend her stuffed bunny was walking into the house. Then, she realized she could bend the house. Then she found out the house could be flattened. I watched my hard work be terrorized by this Godzilla of a toddler. With that, the house was taken apart and put in the closet. Not sure when it will come out again.
One thing that did prove successful was fixing L.'s nightlight. It was just too bright. I needed a solution, instead of having L. wake up and either being scared or ending up staying awake once awoken. So, I layered two different colors of tissue paper over it and now it's awesome. It glows purple, but not enough to keep her awake and it's dim enough she can sleep with it on.
One pin proved to be especially entertaining for L. She loves her bath time anyway, so she could simply be happy for about 20 minutes with just herself in the water. But when I gave her bath paints, she had a ball! The water was tepid and her fingers and toes were so wrinkled by the time she got out. And, trust me, even then she didn't want to leave. All it is was corn starch, baby shampoo and food coloring. And, since it's soap, I felt like she was giving my shower a good washing, which it needed as you can see from some of the black stains -- a big faux pas for me to even post, I know.
That middle photo on the left, by the way, was her face after inevitably eating the bath paint. But, otherwise she had such a blast. I even took a piece of paper and pressed it against the design and let it dry as a piece of art on my fridge. Not sure how long it will keep, though. And the colors really fade when they dry.
Speaking of corn starch, I'm so happy I finally remembered to buy some. It's definitely cheap enough. And a little goes a long way. Luckily, shaving cream can be found at Dollar Tree. So I decided to try another popular pin and made indoor snow. I cut some straws to put in the "snow."
It was such a fun texture to play with. I could mold it into a snowball and L. would crush it so it would crumble. Also, I've come to terms with the fact that L. will and SHOULD make messes. If nothing else, her making a mess will require me to vacuum, which I know I don't do often enough, especially with two cats who shed up a storm now that the warmer months are here.
One more Pinterest-worthy thing: Blue Dawn + Hydrogen Peroxide is pretty damn magical. My white backpack was finally brought back it its original awesome-ness.
So, despite having very little time, it's true: You make time for the things you're passionate about.
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