Things I Actually Made From Pinterest - Valentine's Day Edition

If you're anything like me, you're slightly addicted to Pinterest. All these wonderful recipes! All these cool crafts!

All these feelings of inadequacy!

I have probably pinned hundreds of things, and actually only attempted a few. Since I choose to view the glass as half full, I am going to start telling you about the things I have pinned and actually tried to make. This is not to act as a catalyst for your own feelings of inadequacy, oh no...this is all about me. I need to facilitate my own feeling of accomplishment. I've got to get it where I can.

Any holiday is a good excuse to look for some fun crafts or recipes. So for Valentine's Day, I looked for a couple of easy things that Lucy and I could do.

First, a craft project - heart "suncatchers." This turned out to be a little ambitious for a three-and-three-quarters-year-old, so I of course ended up doing most of the work. This wasn't a bad endeavor but for trying to peel the tissue paper off the waxed paper. I am convinced there is an easier way, but I followed the directions, and in the process created lots of holes which I then patched with tiny pieces of tissue paper. On the plus side, cutting all those heart frames results in an excess of paper hearts, which a certain preschooler kept busy coloring while I swore at the tissue paper under my breath.

Also, they look pretty, eh? (That's my niece presenting the close-up shot).

For the 2nd Pinterest adventure, school valentines. I don't think I actually pinned this idea, but I definitely saw something like it while browsing. I wanted to do something other than candy, but not anything that was too time or craft intensive, since Lucy had to bring 34 valentines for the toddlers and all the preschool rooms at her school. Solution - popcorn! I used Trader Joes 94% fat free popcorn, which is delicious and comes in small bags. It is also only $1.99 for 6, so while it's more expensive than buying a box of valentines at the store, I definitely felt good about giving something other than candy and still not breaking the bank. I took about 10 minutes to create a sheet of labels, Husband printed them, and voila - "Valentine, you make my heart pop!" Lucy signed her own name to most of them.

So that was our Valentine's Day Pinterest experience!