Monster Mash

I've started to think our family is more of a cold season group.  Not to say we ski or anything of the sort, but we seem to enjoy the process of coming together and creating things as the air gets cooler.  We are a family of baking and extravagant art projects that we accomplish together.  Everything does seem more fun when you have a partner in crime!

The cooler breezes are sweeping through the city and all the little monsters are getting ready for that one glorious night, Halloween.  The excitement of choosing a new costume, collecting candy around the neighborhood, and, in our house at least, a cookie decorating party is on the horizon.  Decorating the home seems to be a family event that is taken a little serious in our house.  One year our daughter even asked for a Halloween themed birthday party, at the end of September, just because we love decorating so much.  These past few years we have been a little slack on the decorating though because a lot of our possessions reside 2600 miles away from us.  And as most of you home decorating enthusiasts know, going big, isn't always cheap.  We have been slowly building up our decorations again.

This year, as many of you have, I searched Pinterest to find exciting and good ideas for cheap ways to liven up our home this October season.  I found an seriously cheap, we are talking less than a dollar, idea for the front door.  Granted, I had all the supplies laying around my house in random spots, but this door idea was simple.  I was super excited to get the kids involved as well.  As it turned out only the youngest monster was truly excited to help get this project done.  And in his own way, Boots, made this door project his own.

Over at Honey & Fitz there is a super easy tutorial for creating a Mummy Door.  It's cute, cheap, easy, and all the things this mom loves!  When Boots decided to help me we went on a hunt for white streamers.  Unfortunately we did not have any in our house and he refused to make a trip to the store with me.  So in the wake of feeling like my cheap decorating idea was being blown out of the water, he suggests we use black streamers.  Of course to this I said "But Mummies aren't black" and his simple response was "But Monsters are".  The 9 year old wins.  He is true and correct in the sentiment that some monsters are black and in this statement he also saved the day.

We gathered our double sided sticky tape, lined the door, and then began stretching the steamers back and forth.  Boots was rather bothered that he couldn't reach the top, and thus instructed that it was my area to complete.  I would have liked having more streamers, we only had 2 rolls, I would suggest picking up maybe 4 for this project if you don't already have some.  But then I do tend to attempt at overachieving at the most random of things.  Boots believes that once we added the eyeballs, that he made from paper plates, and the mouth, that we cut and colored on a large poster board, it would all come together.  Man he was Right!  I think that our Monster front door is the perfect addition to our other random decorations.  But you can be the judge of that.

The Constant Pinner

My name is April, and I am addicted to Pinterest.  I understand that it is not exactly the most productive spending of my daily down time, but the ease of use and the amount of new plus exciting things I find intrigues me.  I am constantly reading about ways to improve my home , be a little more healthy, or get a good laugh.  I know there are thousands of other things floating around out there on my various boards too that I am constantly updating, going back to and trying out but I must admit, I cannot stop.

I feel that I am not your average pinner.  Many pins that I read come with the caption "pin now, read later".  I prefer the read now, pin if interesting option though.  I suppose in a way this is good for my brain.  I read that constant reading helps improve memory. On a pin of course!  So maybe I am on the right track there.  But I also find in the "read now, then pin" concept, I pin proper links.

I recently read a post about "cleaning up Pinterest" that had some very valid information.  In this post they suggest you revamp your community. Figure out what type of account you want to have and clean out the pins that are no longer relevant, or that have dead links. Also update your profile, insuring that you are representing yourself accurately based on the type of account you have (business or personal).  Today, I plan to do all of these things.

Do you see the addiction yet?  I suppose that there are far worse things in life to be addicted to though.  Pinterest has really cultivated my artistic side. 

Mod Podge I made 

I have found many a decorating ideas that I have utilized in my own home.  Simple, easy things that make my home a little more cozy and were not really huge changes costing a lot of money (I'm always looking for a deal). And I've found a lot of ideas that I probably would have never found elsewhere because I am not a regular online surfer.  

I suppose you could say that I am constantly surfing the net via Pinterest, but I rarely open up my Google or Bing app and type in something I am looking for.  I'm not a big fan of online shopping.  I prefer hands on shopping.  I enjoy collecting ideas from Pinterest and then going out into my community and finding like products to use in my own home.  (on a side note I love shopping at Junkie's here in Reno.  They have some awesome finds at great prices!!)  I think this gives my home a little more character because I often find one of a kind items (which can be frustrating when I was looking for curtains and they only had one panel rather than the 2 I needed) and often these items have that "washed vintage" theme already.  

Along with you, I too am wondering where this post is headed, and really, it is just trying to explain how much I value Pinterest and the good I see that it offers.  If you follow me, you will see hours worth of pins flood your timeline in large blocks.  I'm at home in the day time with my boys and rarely have much more to do outside of cleaning.  I prefer to blow off steam if you will, looking at various ideas for my home and family.  I have found many a dinner idea, party foods, and DIY art projects that I have tried out on my family.  They are my personal guinea pigs!  I wouldn't say that my addiction is really a waste of my time, but I often start sentences with "I was reading on Pinterest".  I guess this could be a bit unnerving to some, but I have also found that most people are excited, head over to Pinterest in their spare time, and check it out themselves.  

I have to say that I have found a ton of wonderful blogs via Pinterest that I would have never found on my own.  And most of those blogs happily source their information back to the places they first read the information as well.  Ahhhh the love of the responsible and caring blogger.  Who really knows exactly where all the information first came about, but I do think it is awesome that we can all share what we read and source it back to where we first saw it.  

Thank you Pinterest for helping me find wonderful, amazing, and loads of information relevant to me.