BulgingButtons

Not bad for a fat girl


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The Pinterest Vortex

imagesI have sort of an on-again, off-again relationship with Pinterest. I mostly love it, but if I’m not careful it can easily get out of hand. Here are my Pinterest pros and cons, in no particular order.

Pros

1. It’s a delight for the eyes. Most of the images are beautifully photographed and just looking at them is a treat.

2. I learn things. Mostly things that I may never ever use, but if someday I need them, I’ll know where to search for the information. It will be on my “clean it, fix it, do it” board, of course. Either that or the “I ought to” board, but that one’s mainly health and fitness.

3. I actually use ideas from Pinterest in my classroom. I especially like the anchor charts that so many teachers labor over for hours and graciously share. I replicate them in my own, streamlined fashion, and use them to teach and reinforce concepts. Thank you Pinterest teachers!

4. I get inspired. After seeing 800 excellent ideas for decorating a yard for Halloween, I’m more likely to get off my duff and actually put out my lights. It may not be Pinterest worthy, but it’s done.

5. I armchair travel. I like that my feed is full of all sorts of things chosen for me by others (with my input). I love seeing beautiful gardens, stunning wild animals, and interesting architecture from around the world. It’s like flipping through a magazine of all my favorite things and never getting to the last page.

6. The quilts! I love quilts but I find myself making fewer of them, as other things have gotten in the way, and there are still only 24 hours to each day. By admiring others quilts I still feel connected to what is going on in the quilting world, without the expense of dozens of magazine subscriptions or regular shopping trips to all the wonderful quilt shops.

7. The blogs! I have found so many excellent blogs as a result of following pins to their origin. This is both a blessing and a curse. Which brings me to…

The cons

1. The blogs! There are too many and I could spend hours and hours reading them. I love them! Well, a lot of them anyway. Too bad I don’t have unlimited free time, or I would devour far more of them than I already do.

2. I get hungry. So many pins are of delicious looking food, so my tummy starts to rumble and my brain tells me I’m hungry, even if I’m not.

3. Pin envy. I try not to do it, but sometimes it happens anyway. Kitchens and bathrooms seem to be the worst offenders for me, but other things can trigger it too. At first my negativity was directed to the crazy PinLadies, who apparently had nothing but unlimited time and budgets on their hands to make everything, then gush about how their perfect family so appreciated their efforts. Really? Screw you. Then I woke up and realized that anyone posting that kind of stuff was either delusional or lying to herself or living the dream and should be congratulated, not envied. Now I just envy pretty rooms that are already done and therefore no longer involve contractors, mess, or money.

4. The time suck factor. It feels like just five minutes have gone by, but really it’s fifty-five. Then it’s hard to stop. I usually tell myself that I’ll just pin 5 more items, then I have to move on. It mostly works.

5. Virtual hoarding. That’s what I’ve heard it called, and I believe it’s true. If anyone were to ask me WHY I gather all those pins, what would I say? So I can make an anchor chart? Well, no, I can search that information in just a few seconds, I don’t need to pin it. So I can cook? As if I actually use the recipes I pin. For all the housekeeping tips? Hardly. I’m happy when I get around to running the vacuum. So why? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just like them. Spoken like a true hoarder.

Still, I stand by my earlier claim. I mostly love Pinterest, and it mostly loves me back. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to search up some dessert pins.

 


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Welcome to the Crazy that we Call November

tumblr_mctpaoujxl1qk32z8o1_500The trick-or-treaters are all gone, and only a few candy wrappers were blowing around the empty street this morning. I’m debating whether to put away the Halloween decorations today or wait until Monday. It seems like they should stay up through the weekend. I even hit the half price section of my major discount retailer this morning for a few strands of orange lights and a three foot tall monster yard decoration. Oh, and a couple of bags of half price candy. We ran out last night and I’m a candy addict, I admit it.39677b717efbbcd1367b367cb27c2f6c

So now that another holiday is officially in the books, the craziness that is November begins. We start the month with the vestiges of Halloween, and the candy and mess (think rotting pumpkins) it leaves behind. As soon as we get that all put away, we turn our attention to Thanksgiving. Who will be coming over, what dishes should we serve? And if you live at my house, how shall we prepare the turkey? Fried, smoked, or roasted? Decisions, decisions. Then, the day after that’s all done, as we’re enjoying leftovers, we turn our attention to Christmas. Up goes the tree, and out go the crazy black Friday shoppers. No offense, but I enjoy sleep way too much to get up in the middle of the night to fight crowds and spend money. No, thank you.

Mix into all of that a little thing called NaNoWriMo, where you challenge yourself to write a whole novel in November, and another little thing called NaBloPoMo, where you challenge yourself to blog everyday, and you have a recipe for madness. The really weird part about it all? I did it last year (oh, and threw in a very early Chanukah to boot) and honestly, I LOVED it! I blogged everyday. I wrote a manuscript of over 50,000 words. I cleaned up from Halloween, celebrated Thanksgiving, celebrated Chanukah, and prepared for Christmas. I also taught full-time and parented a teen and maintained a relationship with my fiance. I rocked it!

So here we are back at November 1. I’m in a new home, but everything else is the same. Do I think I can do it again? Why not! I won’t know unless I try, so by golly I’m going to try. Hang on to your hat, because November is here!

 


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Halloweens, Long Ago and Far Away


I really love Halloween. Not the scary stuff, but the fun stuff. The jack-o-lanterns and the dressing up and the trick-or-treating are all wonderful. I’ve always loved Halloween. As a kid with a big imagination and a sweet tooth, why wouldn’t I? I got to dress up and fill a bag full of candy from all over the neighborhood. What could be better?

I have no idea when I first started to dress up for Halloween. We don’t have pictures of Halloween past that I’m aware of. There are dozens of close up shots of flowers, but no little kids in costumes. Go figure. Still, I know I trick or treated as a kid.

The first costume I recall included one of those awful plastic masks that were hard to see out of and hard to breathe through. It was a woman’s face with blonde hair. I think it was Sleeping Beauty or Goldilocks, but I can’t be sure. Either seems like an odd choice for me, but I imagine it’s what was available at the store at the time.

My mother isn’t exactly what you’d call creative. My brother and I took care of our own costumes for the most part. I seem to recall that he was a hobo more than once. He did create a rather impressive robot out of odds and ends one year that left a lasting impression on me.

My costumes weren’t always the best, and honestly I don’t think the neighbors had any clue what I was dressed as half the time. That’s okay, since most of us had to wear our winter coats over our costumes anyway. I never had a great costume as a kid. Charlie Chaplin with his colored scotch tape mustache was kind of a bust. I didn’t give up though, not until the final year, in high school, when I pinned some ears on a grey sweatshirt and used eye pencil to draw on whiskers. DSC00553So lame, but at least I didn’t go alone!

When my son came along I swore his Halloweens would be memorable. For his first Halloween I sewed him the most adorable pumpkin costume, but it turned out way too big. At the last minute I put him in white pajamas and stuck on a cute little puppy bib and called it done. He was darling.

At two he wore the pumpkin costume, and it was perfect! When he was three I sewed him a lion costume that was equally charming. I practically swooned when I saw him in it. Then, at four, he decided that he had to be Batman. A small part of me died inside, but he was happy.

At five he “spotted” a cute leopard costume, and I had to admit that I couldn’t have made it myself for the same price, so it was store bought again. Then there was a Power Ranger costume, and a Ninja, and who knows what else, until he decided to put together his own costumes.

One year it was Darth Mullett… a hillbilly version of the terrifying Darth Maul from one of the newer Star Wars movies that I don’t like. DSC01972He donned red and black face paint and a wig, and he looked pretty bizarro. He was happy. Another year he was a creepy pumpkin patch guy. He made a pumpkin mask, then borrowed a fall leaf garland that he wrapped around himself. He looked pretty awesome.

My son is too old to trick or treat now, and Halloween has lost some of its magic for him, but I still love it. I enjoy being outside and watching the neighborhood come to life. I love to see the little ones experience it for the first time, and to joke around with the teenagers who are trying to stuff their pillowcases with free candy and hang on to their childhoods.

I think back to all those freezing cold Halloween nights from my childhood, and I wouldn’t change a thing.