Quiet time is sanity time.

I have a two year old son.  Sometimes I need him to leave me alone.  Just, like, three minutes of silence.  Therefore, Pinterest and I are working on increasing the size of my arsenal of quiet time activities.

My sister and her children came to visit recently, and Bubs showed great interest in their dry erase alphabet workbooks, even trying to write a few of the letters himself.  I should be ashamed to admit that my first reaction was, Hmmmm, that's Pinteresting.  But I'm not.  Because I have 117 pins on my kids! board, and I haven't even been able to use ONE of them yet.  THAT'S A LOT OF PIN-TENTIAL.

I was excited to make these sensory bags from Pre-school Play for Bubs.  I thought they might be a good place to start engaging his new-found natural interest in writing.

STEP ONE!  Assemble your materials.  Take a moment to contemplate the decisions you've made in your life that have led to crafting with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter.

STEP TWO!  Throw all that crap into a large Ziploc and squish it to death.

STEP THREE!  Tape it shut.  Super shut.  I can't speak from experience, but I'm assuming a Ziploc full of hair gel and food coloring is not something you want exploding in your home.

STEP FOUR!  Let your preschooler have at it.  I gave him a popsicle stick to use as a "pencil" but I also think an unsharpened pencil would work just as well.  Or their finger.  Or anything.

Bubs showed interest in writing on it for about 3 seconds, but he did enjoy squishing the bag around for about 45 seconds.  Forty-five seconds is also about how long he will occupy himself picking his nose.  So the final verdict, sensory bags = as fun as picking your nose.

And that's how you Pinterest.

A great deal... of confusion.

A recent pin that has gone viral.  Shouting about things that EVERY TARGET SHOPPER NEEDS TO KNOW.

"If the price ends in 8," Pinterest says, "it will be marked down again.  If it ends in a 4, it’s the lowest it will be."

Awesome.  I love Target.  I love a good deal.  This was Pinteresting.

I was excited to exercise my new-found dealing-making knowledge during my next trip to Target, where I was on the hunt for shorts for my Bubs.  And believe you me, I was not going to buy them if that price ended in 4!

The hell?  I'm pretty sure the big fat 0 at the end of this price opened up some kind of worm hole through which my decision making abilities slipped through, because I was so confused and sad that I just quietly and calmly walked away.  With no shorts.

And that's how you Pinterest.

This is my happy place.

I have mixed feelings about word art.  On the one hand, I firmly believe language can (and has) changed the world.  On the other hand, if I see one more Live, Laugh, Love placard... throat punch.

So I debated how I felt about this little ditty from South of Main Street:

But finally decided: LOVE!  It's the perfect combo of two strongly-held beliefs of mine: home can be a heaven on earth + happiness is a choice you can make.  A few weeks after pinning it, I decided to make this my home's motto, and boldly risk getting throat punched by someone someday by displaying it proudly.

Then!  I found this easy-peasy tutorial from Southern Belle Soul, Mountain Bride Heart:

And immediately thought, This is my happy place!  I can do that!  Uh huh.

STEP ONE!  Get yo'self a stretched canvas, vinyl letters (or stickers from the scrapbook section of Jo-Ann... that'll probably work... sure...), acrylic paint, modge podge, and your choice of background material (I went with newspaper... that'll probably work... sure...).

STEP TWO!  Modge podge the crap out of your canvas + newspaper.

STEP THREE!  Apply vinyl letters/stickers.  (Jo-Ann only had the super sparkly version of the font I wanted.  Don't judge me.  Also, Shane thought I was done at this point.  He might have better pin-tuition than I do...)

STEP FOUR!  Paint!  (There is a lot more blue in this "slate blue" than is apparent in this photo. It was all artificial light up in my kitchen. Shut your face.)

STEP FIVE!  Watch paint dry.  Remove stickers.

STEP SIX!  Say swear words.  Order the original on Esty.

And that's how you Pinterest.