Friday, October 2, 2015

Pinterest Perfect {or not…}


We have all see those perfect pictures everyone posts on Facebook, Twitter and the dreaded Pinterest which make us think “why on earth doesn’t my family picture look like that” or “I should be able to create that spun sugar rose for my daughter’s birthday cake”.  But do we ever get to see the 50 outtakes, messed up cakes and burnt rice?  Heck no.

I don’t know about you, but I think that the pressure to always be Pinterest-perfect is just crazy.  We all have enough going on trying to keep the kids fed, house cleaned and make it to work with matching earrings, something’s gotta give.

Don’t give me wrong, I am head over heels in love with Pinterest and could spend hours upon hours pinning, pinning and re-pinning.  But I do have to remind myself that while I’m capable of many things, mimicking everything I see on Pinterest is purely out of the question.  I was reminded of that recently when I attempted to make ketchup cup muffins.  After all, the pin made it looks so ingenuous and easy!  Long story short, it simply didn’t work.  Not only did the muffing mix either not rise to the top or completely spill over, you can’t get the muffins out of the adorable little cups in one piece.

Lesson learned:  Ketchup cups are for ketchup.

A few people were surprised that I was eager to share my #PinterestFail picture.  Buy why the heck not?  I find it highly entertaining that something I thought was such a no-brainer was a total disaster and hopefully someone will learn from my goof and teach me how to do it right next time.

Plus, it’s fun to get a behind the scenes look at what goes in to making something look Pinterest-perfect.  Like my oldest son’s first Halloween picture:


Ahhh, my sweet little baby boy in his adorable (and ridiculously expensive) monkey costume playing with the perfect pumpkins we are about to carve as a family.  Yeah, right.  This super cute picture was actually taken a week before Halloween with fake pumpkins from the craft store.  If memory serves me we spent a good 15 min chasing down this little man to get one pictures:


So here is one of my favorite tips to de-stress your life and take a little pressure off.  Sure, we all want a perfect picture of the first day of school and the little one’s blowing out their birthday candles and those moments are nearly impossible to recreate.  But what about the moments which are possible to recreate?  I say, recreate them!  Take a little pressure off by taking your “First Day of School!” pictures before and after school.  Or shoot, change the sign to “Kindergarten!” and you can get away with taking the picture during the week before, or the week of the first day of school.

When my youngest was nearly 7 months old I may, or may not, have realized that we forgot to make his 6 month footprint plate.  We immediately ran to the pottery store and made his 6 month footprints.  Yes, the plate prominently says “6 month”.  After all, what’s a few weeks among family? :-) 

My point, of course, is to take full advantage of the times when you can take the pressure off and give yourself a bit of breathing room.  Wouldn’t you rather be present in that wonderful moment of carving pumpkins with your kids than worrying about getting a Pinterest-perfect picture?

Happy pinning!

Until next time,
Jennifer
aka Chick #1

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