We have a severe case of AMPLIMC syndrome in this house: All My Pictures Live In My Computer. Even MORE embarrassing, even when I do manage to get them printed out they end up living in the protective sleeve for months (years. decades.) until I can find just the RIGHT frame and just the RIGHT mat and just the RIGHT place to hang them. But when you’re busy being as epically lazy as I strive to be it’s hard to remember to get all that done.

This Picture Frame Clothes Pin Photo Display fixed my problem:

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest (here’s the blog post), but that version was way too complicated. Mine is an old glassless frame I pulled out of someone’s trash, a few pieces of ribbon I found in my craft box and some wooden clothespins left over from the nursery makeover. If you’re looking to add more of a personal touch to your project, custom enamel pins is a great idea. I used teeny tiny nails to secure the ribbon to the back of the frame and hung up pictures I got for free from Shutterfly during their mother’s day sale. Total cost: $3.17 for the shipping on the prints. It’s super easy to switch out the pics and I could totally change the mood of the board by using all fall pictures or all black and white pictures or all close-ups. I can also use it to display Caroline’s monthday photos all at once for her first birthday.

Update: I DID indeed use it for Caroline’s winter sparkle snowflake first birthday and it worked perfectly.

Thanks to Pinterest (don’t know what that is? I recommend this brilliant how-to-use Pinterest post written by a very talented blogger)(spoiler alert: it was me) I’ve been inspired to make a bunch of stuff recently. Or at least attempt to make a bunch of stuff. I’m having some extreme spray-paint related angst. I am TERRIBLE at spray painting stuff. It’s a really debilitating condition, like people who can’t park straight or say “supposably”. So I gave up on a few ideas and wandered around Michael’s Crafts staring at other kinds of paint until I was struck with new, better ideas. I think I’ve used up all my crafting energy for the next month and a half though so don’t worry about me trying to turn this into a craft blog.

Here are my successful non-spray paint related crafts from this weekend:

Buttons + corks = stamps

They actually work pretty well! Even better on soft stuff, like bubble mailers.

Corks + hot glue = trivet. I KNEW drinking all that wine would come in handy.

Scrabble Letter Shadow Box

Toddler involved craft project:

My little Picasso helped me paint

This is the glass from an $8 frame I bought at the craft store. I helped Little Evan paint directly on one side with green, blues and white. After it dried I painted over his paint with yellow. When I turned it over, this is the side that shows through the frame.

Then I Googled "quotes about creativity" until I found one I liked, printed it on clear full-sheet label, trimmed it a little and stuck it on the front side of the glass. Voila: Art! The two other frames are just plastic paper holders from Staples. It takes 3 seconds to switch out the pictures so it will be a rotating display of Little Evan's creations.

Inspiration for some of the projects found here on my Crafty Pinterest board.

Now, does anyone have any suggestions for turning a plain beige metal filing cabinet into something prettier? AND DON’T SAY SPRAY PAINT.

Warning: DON’T READ THIS POST IF YOU LOVE THE INTERNET. Because if you’re as addicted to blogging and tweeting as I am, the last thing you need is another online way to waste time.

But if you like: art, food, home decor, dessert, crafts, photography, fashion, happiness, make up, tutorials, jewelry, etsy, joy and being inspired on a daily basis, I highly recommend you get on the Pinterest bandwagon as fast as if your pants were on fire and the wagon was covered in hot firemen.

My friend Brigid actually sent me an invitation months ago, because genius that she is Brigid knew it was a brilliant next-big-thing idea and also the sort of something I would love. I should send her a fruit basket. Maybe I’ll go look for creative fruit basket ideas on Pinterest. Because there are probably FORTY BILLION of them. I procrastinated for a few weeks, thinking I’d check it out when I had time and surly it wasn’t some sort of life changing website.

IT IS A LIFE CHANGING WEBSITE.

Here’s the overview: When you sign up, you create pin boards (like digital bulletin boards) where you can stick ideas you find online. The easiest way to pin is to add a shorcut to your toolbar following the instructions here. Then all the stuff you like is in one convenient, organized, neat-looking place. It’s  like a visual representation of bookmark folders in your internet browser. Here’s a screenshot of my recipe board, where I’m keeping all the recipes I’ve meal-planned for this week. It’s so much more fun SEEING the food than just reading about the food that I am actually more inspired to cook:

The second stage of Pinterest is following other people and their boards, so you can find inspiration right there on your homepage. You can follow all of someone’s boards or just one or two, based on what you’re interested in seeing in your feed. When you click on something that’s been pinned it takes you back to the original website, where you can get the info you need to make/cook/buy/try/read about the thing that was pinned.

This is what mine looks like right now:

Food, tutorials, fashion, all in one place. And here’s another shot, if I scroll down my page a little:

Home decor, a playhouse, tutorials, crafts, more recipes, things to buy…really, there are PLENTY of things to look at on a minute by minute basis.

Have I convinced you to sign up yet? Or do you have an account you’ve been neglecting because you just didn’t really “get it” yet? Here’s some Do’s and Don’ts to help you understand how to get the most out of your boards:

Pinterest DO’s:

– DO follow lots of people. The more people you follow the more stuff shows up on your homepage.
– DO follow people you don’t know. I promise it’s not creepy or stalkerish, so if you find a board that you’re in love with always add them!
– DO repin when you love something.
– DO use the search option to find more of what you want. I searched “polka dots” every day for a week to find inspiration for Little Evan’s birthday.
– DO check in often. Your friends will go on pinning sprees and looking at several days worth of stuff at once means you might miss something.
– DO unsubscribe from a board before a person. Maybe you love your friend’s sense of style but you don’t like pictures of babies or celebrities or quilts. Keep following their fashion board but unfollow the board you don’t like.
– DO use Pinterest to keep track of stuff you find in magazines. I do this a lot with recipes – if there’s an online version it’s so much easier to pin it than hold onto ripped out pages.
– DO check out the “staff favorites” boards and the ones Pinterest suggests you might like. It’s about expanding places you find inspiration, not looking at stuff you’d see on your friend’s blog anyways.
– But DO pin stuff from your friend’s blogs when you love it. I’m not going to lie, being pinned feels nice.
– DO be my friend on Pinterest!

Pinterest DON’TS:

– DON’T just repin stuff from other people’s boards. Add new content to the Pinterest community when you find it online, whether it’s from blogs, shops, websites, or friends.
– DON’T pin stuff to multiple boards. Pick the category it fits best and pin it just once.
– DON’T forget to label your pins with helpful tags and explanations, especially when pinning recipes. “Yum!” isn’t as helpful as “strawberry shortcake cupcakes”. For stuff from shops, adding prices is nice.
– DON’T just pin stuff from your blog. You can pin your own some sparingly, but follow the social media 80/20 rule: Promote other people 80% of the time and yourself 20% of the time.
– DON’T think Pinterest is just for bloggers. You don’t need anything besides an email to sign up and you don’t need online friends.
– DON’T post EVERYTHING you pin to Facebook or Twitter. I accidentally put my pins in my Facebook feed and was super annoying for a few hours before I noticed.
– DON’T forget that just because a picture is on Pinterest doesn’t mean it’s not subject to copyright. You cannot just take and use them on your blog without checking with the owner.

Seeing all the things I want to cook/make/buy all at once makes my life so much easier and more organized. I can actually re-find stuff I saw on the internet and thought “oh, I should do that!” Now I CAN do that. I’m also slightly addicted to checking what’s been pinned from my own blog. It’s reaching an unhealthy no-there’s-nothing-for-dinner-can’t-you-see-I’m-busy-looking-at-recipes-on-pinterest-WHAT-DO-YOU-MEAN-THAT’S-SUPER-IRONIC??? levels of time consumption, but I don’t even care. I love it.

Are you going to sign up now? Are you addicted yet? Do you have any suggestions for ways to make the most of Pinterest?

I don’t even know who I am anymore.

Sticks. Trash. Should be thrown away or at the very most turned into mulch.

I was out in the garden this week, cutting back a stupid useless vine of some sort that keeps trying to grow up the side of our house and stuffing it into a trash can to haul out to the dump. I looked at the bendy, twiggy vine all curled up in the can and thought “hey, it looks kind of like a wreath.” And then instead of doing the TOTALLY NORMAL PERSON THING and throwing it away I cut a few more branches, dragged them inside, trimmed them up and made a damn wreath.

I started with some long ones and just twisted them together. I used an extra thin twig to tie the ends.

By hand. With sticks. Sitting on the floor of my living room. When I could have been doing something useful like knitting or blogging or picking my toenails.

Then I twisted different sized twigs around and tucked in the ends until it was wreath-sized.

Oh but I didn’t stop there. I dragged out my craft box and glue gun and the felt flowers I made last year and decorated that bitch right up.

Junk I keep in a box for moments like this where I lose my mind.

I started with some ribbon and tulle and yarn, because those look nice on a wreath, right?

I really half-assed it on the bow

Then I used the glue gun to attach some felt leaves and flowers.

Hot glue: the lazy crafter's best tool

And because, hey, naptime lasts forever right? I’ve got all the time in the world to waste! I stitched up couple of little buds to fill in the gaps.

Just makin' it up as I go

A little more hot glue, a loop of ribbon for a hanger and BOOM. My front door has been spring-ified for exactly zero dollars.

Too bad I made a brown wreath for a brown door. Stupid.

Take your $6 stick wreath and SHOVE IT, craft store. Ain't got nothin' on me.

And that’s the end of today’s craft project. I’ll be in the kitchen, drinking wine straight from a bottle and wondering when my life became so boring this is what I do for fun.

I am currently less than 50% of the way through two separate adult-sized sweaters (one for myself, one for E) so of course I’ve spent all my spare time this week starting brand new small projects instead of working on them. I am a fickle knitter who gets bored with the same yarn and the same pattern over and over and little extra projects keep me from quitting altogether.

Here’s what I’ve made in the last week and a half:

Reusable coffee coozies

I finally finished up the last 2 of these I wanted to send to friends. All I need now is time to get to the post office. I’m glad these are the last two I’ve promised to make because I am sick to DEATH of them. (Original pattern found here, but I’ve changed a lot of it)

My first attempt at baby socks

I have always said I hated knitting socks and I’ve only ever knit one before. Not one pair, one SOCK. The second one is less than 1/2 an inch long and still on my needles. But BABY socks are baby sized, and these took only a couple of hours. I made a counting mistake on the first one that I just fudged and a couple of knit vs. purl mistakes on the second one that I had to rip out and do over but even with the frustrating parts they are so adorable I don’t even care. I see a lot more tiny socks in my future. (Garter stripe baby socks pattern found here)

Blanket buddy rabbit

This was SO EASY and SO CHEAP to make – it’s done in dishcloth cotton, which you can buy at Walmart for only a couple of dollars and takes less than 1 ball. It’s all seamless so nothing can be pulled apart and the face is stitched on with yarn so there are no choking hazards which makes it perfect for babies. I had this yarn left from the very first time I ever bought yarn (EVER!) and found the pattern in one of my 1-skein pattern books. If you’re a new-ish knitter who only makes hats and scarves this would make a great next step project.

Baby and toddler bibs

More dishcloth cotton AND a pattern I made up myself. Well, ok, I modeled it off a nearly identical bib my friend Megan gave me as a baby gift but still – no pattern. You are only impressed if you’ve never knit a stitch in your life. Otherwise you know it does not get any easier than a garter stitch square. These are gifts for someone who happens to be a knitter so I hope she knows they were made with LOVE even if it wasn’t with hours and hours of time.

Tiny bunny

Finally, I present OH MY GOD the cutest little 15 minute knitting project ever from Mochimochi Land. I stumbled onto these on Ravelry this afternoon and made this one approximately 30 seconds later. Then I spent two hours squeeing over their other patterns and wondering why I hadn’t been knitting these adorable little things for months and months already?

You know your husband loves you when he'll pose with your tiny bunny

I have already made another, slightly larger one for the toddler to play with and plan to make a few more. They keep multiplying like…well…rabbits. I will build a bunny army!

And now I guess it’s time to get back to my sweaters. Sigh. At least I have all summer to finish them.