List #9 - Silly reasons I haven't been blogging

1. I'm all pregnant, which means I'm tired, which means I go to bed crazy early lately.

2. I usually get over writer's block with a glass of wine...not happening anymore. I miss wine.
3. I'm busy doing fabulous photo shoots. My modeling career is really in demand. I've been going to such exotic places as my dining room.

4. The kiddo has been taking short baths...and I usually do all the Etsy managing and blogging during bath time.
5. I'm busy trying to figure out how to watch American Idol online so I can see MK perform. (It's not possible...only highlights and bootlegs allowed. Boooo)
6. Work has been total madness - We put on a Drag Ball, which was an awesomely huge success and was great for the kids (I work at a school that has a very active and effective GSA, and acts in many ways as a safe haven for kids who might struggle to fit in at other high schools). But man, was it a lot of work. I've also been on a committee that's working to increase our diversity and relevance, and that's involved a lot of travel, and a lot of time lost in Excel spreadsheets. It's all good stuff, and I like it, but it's busy stuff too.
7. I fell down a Pinterest wormhole planning my sister's 30th Birthday/Baby Shower/Housewarming Party. It was super fun, and I did all sorts of lovely crafty fun things. Which I promptly forgot to take good Pinterest-Worthy pictures of. I'll never be a successful mommy-blogger that way! Or at least, not one who's good at pretending to do all the things perfectly!

There were also adorable Oreo pops, some pretty funny games, seriously photo-worthy decorations...but all I got were a bunch of pictures of people having fun, one shot of the cupcakes and my kiddo scribbling all over the calendar! Priorities, Lyn! Ha!
8. House of Cards...seriously.

Magic Snow, or how to make a giant mess

I really truly cannot figure out how all these pristine mommy-bloggers do it! They craft gorgeous educational activities, photograph them every step of the way, engage their kids in them (neatly, of course!), put up stunning pictures and still seem to have time to do things like cook dinner afterwards! It's amazing.

 That is so not how crafty fun time goes at my house. I had been wanting to try this "magic snow" recipe and activity for ages (since before Christmas) but I always had a feeling it wasn't going to go as smoothly as it looked here, where I found it first (lovely photos of this activity happening indoors are about 1/3 of the way down the page).

I was so right. The kiddo had a great time, don't get me wrong. But neat and pretty this was not. My back porch is still recovering, and I'm pretty sure there's cornstarch in all the crevices of my phone.

We did two "scienspeewments:"  magic snow and oobleck. Of course, I didn't take the proper ingredients picture until after the hurricane of kid fun had ended.

Hopefully your kitchen ingredients don't look like this! 

To make snow, mix together baking soda and shaving cream until it's the consistency you want. It's actually cool stuff...smells like clean soap, feels a bit cool to the touch, and is kinda squishy but moldable. I'm sure there are actual amounts you're supposed to use, but we kept adding more shaving cream about every 5 minutes. Mostly because E would get ahold of the shaving cream and put more in there. He's way too good at reaching things. It did seem to dry out fairly quickly, though, so I think he was on the right track.

Squish

 We made a snowman. I used parts of the plants I have growing on the porch for the eyes and nose.

It looks like he's stoned and vomiting.

 Oobleck was next. I was excited about this, because I used to love teaching about this stuff when I worked at a preschool. Simple stuff - just corn starch and water, mixed well. I have no idea about amounts, but you've probably made this before, because I think most everyone has, so you should be ok. Just mix til it does that weird thing where it looks like it's a liquid but when you press on it, it's not.

About 3 seconds after I got this picture, he dumped the bowl on my pants

We had a good time with the Oobleck for a bit, but he kept finding the darn shaving cream and trying to add it to stuff.

All proper back porches should have an unusable desk chair

 Finally, we decided to mix the snow and oobleck together. It turned out just about how you'd expect. Half snowy play-dough, half gooey fake liquid stuff. Totally fun to play with.

Mixing, very messily

 And then, the kiddo realized the hose was right there. So he added water. Then sprayed me.

See, if I hadn't been trying to take pictures, I would've been able to get out of the way of this!

 After that, I realized any semblance of neatness was totally lost, and just let him go for it. And it was adorable! He splashed and giggled and got this stuff all over the place.

A seriously happy kid

 So to all you parents who can do this kind of stuff inside - I commend you. You must be incredibly good at multi-tasking! Or you have 8 arms. Or maybe you're cyborgs who can just take photos by blinking. And have children who actually stop spraying you with a hose when you shout "No no no stop please hey kiddo you're getting water in the house!" Mine just giggles. But then again, I did too.

How can you not smile at that happy mess of a child?

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Today, I'm thankful for Pinterest, cause I wouldn't have found this fun project without it. Also for gummy bears, Diana Krall albums, ginger ale, and most definitely our washer and dryer.

Etsy Etsy Etsy

We've sold 5 pieces! And have a request for a custom order on a 6th! This is so exciting! The stuffed animal paintings seem to be the biggest hit, with the butterflies a close second. We're scrambling to get everything ready to go - for some reason, I thought it would take longer for people to make purchases, but nope! They're buying away! I just love the thought of Ross's art hanging on people's walls - it makes me so happy having it here, I just know it'll make other people smile too.

Here's what we've sold so far:

Butterfly Greeting Card Set

Penguin Painting

Animals Greeting Card Set

Blue Butterfly

Panda Bear Painting

I've been having fun figuring out all the little nooks and crannies on Etsy. I started following several people; mostly family and friends, but also a few people who have excellent taste, like Anastaisha and Denise.

I also started using Treasuries, which is kind of like creating tiny little shops or museum displays. Hunt down items that fit into a particular theme, display them, and ta-da, mini-Pinterest! I have no idea which of the two came first, but I love using both of them to organize my ideas. So far I only have one treasury, called Ooooh, Sparkly, all about the things I would have loved, or did love, when I was younger and highly motivated by glitter. (To be honest, I would still buy all those things now, because I'm still highly motivated by glitter. And Neil Diamond).

It's also a lot like my Pinterest board called Sparkly. Like I said, glitter. I'm always amazed when people get upset about being glitter-bombed. That's a dream come true, not a weapon!

 I'm working on another treasury called Hauntingly Beautiful (I know, it's stolen from an episode of How I Met Your Mother, but "The Pineapple Incident" is probably the best episode of that show ever. So there!) I had it all done, but I must've forgotten to hit "save" or something, because my description is there, but my items aren't. Dangit! I'll redo it and share it at some point.

Also, I think there's a chance I could get Ross into creating Treasury lists. He likes hunting things down, seeing threads of connection between things that others might miss, and really really loves things that contrast harsh and delicate in adept ways. That's kind of what he likes to do with his art, so it makes sense he'd like it when other people do it well, too.

He also got really into my Pinterest board called "Ross Makes Things." The second I showed it to him, he was off and running with ideas and critiques, so we may start adding wooden toys and other things to the shop sooner than later!

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I'm thankful today for being an adult. It means I can have pie for dinner if I want, which was exactly what I did want. Also, for Lysol. It was needed. Hot toddies with lots of lemon and honey and whiskey and Grand Marnier left over from Thanksgiving (we're getting sick around here - the kiddo is crying and being consoled by Ross as we speak). And for a job that lets me bring my kid to work when necessary without batting an eye. I'm so lucky to work where I do. Finally, I'm thankful that Ross turned on the heater. Seriously, the man NEVER does this. But today (probably because he's getting sick too), he did. Which means I'm almost warm for the first time in ages!

Pinterest Tutorial 1 (from someone who's very new at it)

So, I've been blogging and working with Ross on our new little business for almost 2 weeks now, and I've had a bazillion questions about all those kinds of things. And some of those questions had answers that were hard to find! So here is one of the things I've tried to figure out, along with the answer. I'll try to make this a semi-regular thing, as I figure out stuff that needs explaining.

How do I put a link to my Pinterest or twitter on my blogger or blogspot blog?

Ok, there are like 80,000 tutorials about how to do this, but none of them came with screenshots, and so I did the wrong thing about 30 times before I figured it out. So I'm gonna give this tutorial a shot, and see if I can make it make sense. Keep in mind, I wrote this so even my grandma could do with with minimal phone calls:

1 and 2. Go to Pinterest, and (1) click on the menu (upper left side, three horizontal lines, helpfully labeled with a 1 in the picture). Then (2) click on "Developers" down at the bottom (labeled 2!)

3. Click on "Pin It Button"

 

4. Click on "Widget Builder"

5.  Select "Follow Button"

6. In the "Pinterest User URL" window, replace the second "pinterest" (the one with the box around it) with your username. Do the same in the box underneath

7. Click "Build It"

8. A new little bit of HTML will appear. Select all of it with your mouse, then copy it by pressing "Ctrl" and "c" on your keyboard

 

9. Go to your blogger dashboard and click on "layout"

10. Click on "add a gadget." Pick whichever spot you want. I pointed out 2 of the options, but there are others.

11. Once you do that, a new window will pop open. Scroll down in that window until you see "HTML/Javascript." Click on that. (This was the part I had the toughest time figuring out. Don't click on that tempting "add your own" option at the top of the pop up window. It won't work. You'll get an error message that says "URL contains illegal characters," and no other explanation. Which is frustrating when you're new!)

12. In the "Title" box, type in "Follow Me on Pinterest!" or whatever else you want to call it. You can call it potato salad for all I care. But I think that might confuse people...

13. In the "Content" box, paste the code you copied from the Pinterest site (use "Ctrl" and "v" on your keyboard)

14. Click "Save"

And you're done! Check out your blog, and if you don't have a shiny new Pinterest widget on your blog, call someone who knows more about computers, cause I just gave you all I've got. This is how I did mine, after lots of trial and error. Hopefully you can follow me on Pinterest through the link. I've got my fingers crossed...if I did it right, I should be famous on Pinterest within weeks, right?