On When Pinterest is a Suck and Not an Inspiration

Some of my best ideas have come from pinterest.  I don't feel like that's an exaggeration.  "I could eat a horse," now, that's an exaggeration.  Unless you live in a country where people do eat horses, in which case you're not really communicating the extent of your hunger, more just expressing a meat preference.  But for realz, some of our favorite recipes, best reads, cutest boots, dreamiest house layout plans, they've come from pinterest.

Favorite Meal via Pinterest

Sometimes, pinterest can inspire.  And that's nice.  I find that when I go to pinterest just to explore, or just to find some examples of an idea I already have, it can do its best work.  Looking for a new baked spaghetti recipe?  There are ideas for you.  Can't put your finger on the type of sweater you're looking for, or what goes with the sweater you've got?  They've got that covered.  Looking for new quilt ideas, handbag trends, and things to make with excessive amounts of butter and sugar, those are all reasons that I head to pinterest.

Favorite Boots via Pinterest

But then sometimes it sucks.  And not just in a "Pinterest, you suck" sort of way.  I think that it can seriously suck the good stuff right out of you.  For me, if I'm even slightly unhappy with my {house, decor, pantry pickings, wardrobe} (choose one), I look through pinterest (and other social medias *coughInstagramcough*) and find myself even more disatisfied.

Favorite Book via Pinterest

That, dear friend, is not life giving.  Its life sucking, and its dumb (now I'm talking to me.  For you, I wouldn't use the word dumb.  Let's say "misguided, yes?).  If I know I'm unhappy, and I go and look at what "everyone else" "has", the chances of me leaving a venture like that more satisfied than when I started are basically nil.  Looking at the best that everyone else is offering is never going to make you more satisfied with your own lot.

On a side note, this sort of makes me want to start a website where people share the lousy parts of everything so that when you go and look at all of their dirty floors and dirty children and poor, poor fancy-knob-less dressers, you'd feel good about yourself.  Except I'm pretty sure that is a slippery slope and would also fall under the heading of "not life giving".  End aside.

The same principle applies when I start seeing all of the things that other people are doing, not just what they have (or have ideas for).  Some people are cutting their kids lunches into dolphins that are swimming in a sea of bean sprouts with jelly fish string cheese.  Some people do more for their children's/spouses birthdays than just string pom poms on thread and pretend to have balloons.   People are traveling the globe and adopting orphans and writing books and doing all. the. things.  If I'm not careful, I can start to feel stale.  Stagnant.  Unproductive.  

Favorite Floor Plan via Pinterest

Here's the little tricky truth that lies inside those lies: the truth is that, compared to (some) other people, I am sort of stale, stagnant, and unproductive.  There is (and always will be) someone who is doing more than me.  The implied lie in that truth is that it is a worthwhile effort to compare myself to other people.  

They are not my measuring stick.  

You, sweet lovely person who has your child's nursery all laid out and makes your husband a 52-page picture book for valentines day that he actually likes and who has been to Malta and Bora-Bora and knows famous people, you're a darling.  I'm happy for you.  I'm not meant to be you.  Even though there are definitely parts of what I'm seeing that I would gladly, happily hijack, I can't and I won't, and I've got plenty good going on when I take time to realize it.

And that is the not-tricky and most important truth: my value doesn't oscillate depending on how I measure up against the invisible pinterest people.  My value is inherent, and there is no gain to be found in comparing myself with others, real or imagined.  So while pinterest can be helpful to inspire and save ideas if you come at it with a right attitude, you have to control that attitude.  Which means I have to control my attitude.  Which for me, means focusing on gratefulness and contentment, both on and offline.

Thank you for letting me work out my feelings and write down reminders to myself on here!  Happy Wednesday!

<3 M.

Just Make Art :: WFMW

I can be a little analytical.  A measure-er.  An over-thinker.  Like about kissing.  Its weird, right?  Lips, which are just part of a face, mashed up against someone else's lips.  Weird.  But through some odd quirk of personality, when it comes to making things, I rarely over-think.  I just do.

Now, there are some drawbacks to such a devil-may-care approach.  I generally fall short of my vision if I'm trying to copy something exactly.  I'm terrible at drawing faces and things that require precision.  Draperies?  Nope.  I've made them, but only one of the 4 sets in my household actually cover the entire window.  

But art?  Art I can do.  And you can, too.

You can make art.  And it doesn't have to fall into the neat lines of the box that we've drawn around that loaded word.  The way you craft a conversation so that the person you're talking with feels valued and encouraged?  That's an art.  And the care you take with your home so that it looks and feels fresh and restful - also art.  Mine, well, my art is just making stuff.  And I use "stuff" in the strictest sense of the word.  I've got a long list of items I've made through the years, although my current favorites include homemade foodstuffs (nutella, candy, pasta noodles, salsa), things that are sewn, and properly captioned photographs.  

I'm hoping, soon, to add things like "furniture" and "home decorating with cross stitch" to my list.

Here's the thing, though.  To make art, you have to just do stuff.  If conversation is your art, you have to just talk to people.  And if its food, then for the love of hungry tummies, cook.  Last weekend, a friend of mine brought over her Cameo, and we cut out some words, slapped them on canvas, painted over them, then peeled off the names.  Its adorable.  Art was created.

Don't over-think.  Gather inspiration, but then make your own thing.  Realize that end products might be wildly different from envisioned results, and that's okay.  Allow yourself to change your plan when you realize the project is moving differently than expected.  But above all, just make art.

The painting thing occurred because some friends wanted to have a Pin-did party.  It turned into cookie-baking and hanging-out, but there was some creating that was done.  If you want to have a pin-did party, here's what you do: decide on one or two or five projects.  Get the materials.  Invite friends.  Provide some food, light music, and refreshments.  Then make stuff.  Allow yourself to enjoy the gathering, without the pressure of a perfect artistic outcome - it is a party, people.

See?
Totally not perfect.

We're going to have another one, soon.  And this time I'm going to buy actual glass-etching stuff, rather than glass etching effect stuff.  And we're going to maybe make jewelry out of thrift store finds.  And there will be some Disney music piped in.  And more snacks.  Always more snacks :)

I was reading about an improvisational quilting book this week, and they had a suggestion for people who found it difficult to just start sewing without any real plan: Get a bunch of scraps together from previous projects; put them in a bag.  Without looking, choose two and sew them together.  Then choose another one, and sew it to the first two.  Then again, and again, until your scraps are gone.  The point wasn't to make something beautiful, it was to just sort of loosen up and get used to working without a specific plan.  I'd suggest the same thing for paint.  The canvas above is from Hobby Lobby, two for $6.  The paints were $7 for the lot of them.  Grab some, and a brush, and just put the paint on the canvas.  Swirl it around.  Keep yourself limited to only cool colors or something, if you need some sort of theme.  Paint only squares.  Just slap some on there and go.  But remember, red+green make brown, and no one likes a painting that looks like poop.  So don't go all wild on me.

Have you had any of these parties?  Have you made art lately?  If you haven't, I highly recommend it!

<3 M.

(linking up with Works-For-Me-Wednesday)

Trendy Vegetables :: Cauliflower Rice

I'm coming a little late to the party, but that's par for the course in the Mag household.  Really, we're late so often that friends routinely tell us that parties start a good 2 hours before they do.  I might be understating it, but the addition of a 3rd member to our ranks has not helped this issue.

So its not surprising that I'm late when it comes to trending things as well.  I mean, Shan has been touting the deliciousness of brussel sprouts for ages, and I haven't tried it. [Although the Butter Keks she speaks of?  Ah-mazing! Publix has a more expensive type, but I'm staying loyal to my first love, found at Aldi's.]  I'm even just now slowly getting on the avacado bandwagon, though still mostly in guac.  So I surprised myself last night when I picked up a head of cauliflower, never before spotted in my shopping cart.  Or my mother's.  

What I'm trying to tell you is that I bought cauliflower for the first time.  Might have even eaten it for the first time.  And I blame my mother that it has taken me this long.

My madre, while we're speaking of her (Mom, are your ears burning?  Is your nose itching?  What about your left tibia? {name that 90's sitcom}), even tried this trendy vegetable before I did.  Roasted cauliflower, or something like it.  She said it tasted like bleh... cauliflower.  So no wonder I wasn't over-eager to try it.

But following a posting by a frand on fb, I found this recipe, and thought I'd give it a go.  We're feeling all "fresh is best" up in the hizz-ouse, and it just seemed right.  So I tried passing off cauliflower as rice.  First person I fooled?  Myself.  I mean, I was there, I knew it wasn't rice, but still - I didn't miss the rice.  It was just right.  Thus I've developed a new title for my someday book: Soy Sauce Covers a Multitude of Sins (c).  

Pins On The Brain

First, let me tell you all, I loved all of your great comments and interaction from the giveaway!  I appreciate that you stop here, that you talk to me, that we get to just... know each other.  Sharing, you know, that stuff.  The giveaway also gave me time away to fully enjoy time with the in-laws.  

We had a great time.

And we worked like dogs.

Not that I've ever seen a dog actually work, but I hear Australian shepherds do work sometimes.  Or something like that.  My FIL, I'll tell you what.  That man is happiest when working, and it's impressive what he can get accomplished.  I'm not going to tell you that it's all fun, but it's impressive ;-)

Anyhow, I'll be updating you on the hard won progress soon.  But for now, in my final days of Spring Break, I've got a leetle bit-o-time to get my creativeness out.  And I've turned to pinterest for some inspiration.  Here's a mix of my favorite things.  Some I can do, some I can't.  But it's nice to imagine!

1. Crispy Gnocchi and Pesto
Technically, I made this already.
But I'm making it again.
Because it's easy and delicious.
Seriously, they are just... so fun to bit into!

2. Fabric Rosettes
They're cute, and could have so many uses.
Or they could just sit around my house in various places.
Either way, I call it necessary.

Pin-disaster

It's sort of funny, really, how one little letter can change your perspective so much.

Last night, at 11:43 PM, those walls seemed awesome to me.

Today, at 11:43 AM, those walls seem awful.

And that is why I left my walls bare.  Don't get me wrong, those kitchen shelves seem positively inspired to me, still.  But the other room, which is awkward enough in it's positioning and scale, is not something I'm going to be able to leave.  Boo.  Idea: Good.  Execution: deserved for what I've done to my walls not so good.

I just don't know what to do.  

Perhaps I'll move the frames to the basement, where the blue/green/teal & brown chair will be eventually, and so the color scheme will seem appropriate.  I have a single small wall down there that could hold all of the excitement I tried to spread on 3 large walls upstairs.  

But then, how do I make it feel like Christmas down there, with aqua and teal fighting for attention?  Is this just a bad time of year to introduce non-festive colors?  And don't tell me to decorate for Christmas with Blue.  

Blasphemy.

Here is my inspiration.  I know I need... more.  More frames, more things-that-are-not-frames... just more.  Please feel free to ply me with suggestions.

From her site

From here

No Longer Frozen

ASIDE: Do you know what I just thought??  Of course you don't.  What I just thought is that I should have put up a picture, on thanksgiving, of the turkey straight out of the oven.  That would be the entire post, and the title??

BOOM.  Roasted.

Wouldn't that have been perfect?!? *sigh*  Is it a bad sign I started with an aside?  I surely hope not.

Our house, you know, we're newly moved in and all that jazz?  At least I keep telling myself that we're still "newly" moved in, although I'm not sure how long I can keep milking it.  ANYhow, the house was remodeled before we moved in, and the contractor chose the bold color scheme of beige on beige with beige accents.  And now that I think of it, there's probably some highlights of beige in there somewhere.

It's a statement maker, that's for sure. ~dripping with sarcasm~

Anyhow, I've got these large walls, all painted and beige and, well... empty.

That emptiness of the walls had left me frozen.  Sort of like the first page of a diary - too much pressure.

ASIDE: I always skip the first page of a new journal and start on the second which somehow, although it's still the first page with writing, is totally devoid of pressure and importance.  In my opinion.

Well, my Madre and S-Padre were  in town, and S-Padre is a real do-er.  Last time he came down and I didn't have work for him to do, he went insane in the brain.  This time, I had a whole list, like getting the bathroom doors to shut (check) and ridding my house of devil-squirrels (maybe check?).  Something about all of his "do-ing" has unfrozen me, and might have unleashed a monster.

This is my favorite frame, so I didn't paint it.

(Un-)Inspired Food Choices

I'm just not feeling it today.  It could be that having my tooth removed yesterday (don't feel bad I didn't tell you, I didn't even tell myself until I was already in the chair) has dulled my appetite.  Or it could be the frugal miserly side of myself rearing her ugly head and demanding that no more monies be spent.  Or, heck, it could be pure laziness; I doubt it, but it's possible.

Either way, I'm not feeling like menu planning/grocery shopping/cooking much of anything at all.  Two things I am on board with are these:

Mac-n-Cheese Wedding Cups

and these:

No-Bake Cookies

But that hardly constitutes a balanced diet.  Doesn't mean I'm not going to make them this very afternoon before I go grocery shopping, but it does mean my Mom would be ticked if that was all I fed my family for the remainder of the week.  Especially Duke, she's concerned about him.

So I turn to the place where all of inspiration happens.  The place where dreams are given a picture, and where ideas are shared freely and with encouragement: Pinterest.  Here's what I've come up with: