It's a Pinterest Appreciation Halloween

I had an entire post written about my love/hate relationship with Pinterest but deleted it for fear of sounding whiney. I'm guessing you can relate. It's like an endless pit of awe and inspiration, with the devilish quality of sucking ones entire life away or making us each feel like we aren't creative enough, fashionable enough, photogenic enough, or.... insert characteristic here. My SIL mentioned a while back that she's quit reading blogs because they make her feel like she isn't doing enough, when she's actually one of those awesome people we all aspire to become. I wish I had that much self control. Wait, no I don't.

For years I had folders full of ideas, just waiting for the right moment to use them. I'd cut out pages from the Pottery Barn catalog because I liked the paint or felt I could make my own kids Christmas applique quilt similar to theirs for 1/100th the cost. There were pages from old Martha Stewart Holidays magazines I'd purchased from used bookstores and random scribbles I'd jotted down watching HGTV. Somewhere, I still have half those papers in a file folder. Too bad I probably can't track down all those old ideas when I *need* them.

This year, Halloween is really laid back. I didn't make any new decorations and my Squirt's costume was purchased by her dad. I didn't plan a party or swap out couch pillows or make a new wreath. It's been very liberating. Most importantly, it's been really fun.

Since there's been no stress I actually spent 4 hours baking cupcakes with a friend and carved pumpkins  with the fam last night. Both of those endeavors were simplified by Pinterest. I literally sat at the table with a computer, typed in an idea, and five minutes later we were on our way. That would never have happened with my paper files.

We used many ideas that we found online (ghosts here, owls here) but then our creativity ran a little rampant and we came up with some things on our own (I'm especially proud of my Harry Potter ghost) like the skeleton cookies. I saw the idea here but decided that they would be extra-Halloweeny if I used the ABC cookie cutters so they were missing random limbs without having to actually break them. I'm also pretty proud of my chalk outline dead guys, though the hubs didn't seem to find the same humor in them that I did. If I'd had more time, I'd have mixed up multiple colors of royal icing and had a complete zombie apocalypse going on. As it was, I would bust up laughing every third cookie or so. Even more so when I iced one with a giddy smile.

Pumpkins are another story. I suck at pumpkins. So a quick search led to a Hello Kitty template for Squirt, which she cut out all by herself and exclaimed "It's even cuter than I thought!" Totally worth the 4.13 seconds it took to type 'jack o'lantern template' into the search box.

I guess the whole point is that I think I may just be finding a balance. Clearly I relied on the 'ol iphone and didn't pull out the Canon to document things in the name of blogging. Nor did I spend hours on Pinterest obsessing over how many freaking cool Holiday ideas are out of my budget. So, Pinterest is on my good side again. Great ideas and time to use them. That is what it should be about.