Facebook is such a necessary evil, in my opinion. I hate a lot of the negative stuff I usually see on my newsfeed when I open it up. I hate how some people's random junk still pops up even after I've unsubscribed to their comments. I hate when people have these ridiculously fabulous announcements to share and I get to say "hey guess what just got stolen this week?!" But mostly, I hate what a time suck it is. I can honestly spend an hour or more just scrolling through everybody's business, looking at random photos from Lord knows when, and trying to come up with these little witty comments to leave on their updates. (Yes, there are crazy people like me who do that. Think about what you post, people!) So really, I just hate how much I love it.
And I would give up Facebook altogether except for I feel like I honestly need to keep it. I have so many different friends that it is just easier to get in touch with via Facebook than over the phone, email, or what have you. I can keep connected to people that I normally would be too lazy to pick up the phone and call. I am able to see pictures of my family and that helps me keep up with all of them, no matter how far away the Army takes us. And then there are all of the organizations who post events and information on their FB pages before posting anywhere else. So I guess Facebook is really not all bad. In fact, it's really a good thing. But as the old adage goes, too much of anything is bad.
So how did I attempt to break the Facebook spell? Um...I signed up for Pinterest :)
(Side note: If you just read this and asked yourself, "what is Pinterest?" you really need to get with the program. Seriously, I will send you an invite today.)
So I thought Facebook was a time suck... OH. MY. LANTA! The first time I logged onto Pinterest after I created my account, I was on there for 3.5 hours.
Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. Click. Click. (Hmmmm...) Scroll. Like. Scroll. Scroll. Click. Click. (No way! That's awesome!) Repin. Repeat...
I have to tell you, for about a week straight after I put the kids to sleep, I poured myself a glass of wine and had a little date with Pinterest. I don't think I mopped or did any housekeeping beyond dishes for the better part of 3 weeks. I seriously did not wash laundry until I went to get a clean pair of socks out of my drawer and I had none.
And the real trouble with Pinterest is, you FEEL like you're being so productive! "Pinterest Liz" is the most stylish, crafty person you've ever met. She makes fabulous recipes all the time. Her home is decorated to a tea. And she knows more wise sayings than an Indian monk. However, in reality, normal Liz has not worn anything but sweatpants in three days, is heating up leftovers for supper once again, and says things like "Hey bubba, get your hands out your stinky dipey."
You're laughing...but this is a problem!!!
My goal was to refrain from using Facebook as much so I could make more productive use of my time, and here I am signing myself up for Facebook on steroids! What's a girl to do?!
I decided that half of my problem was that I was logging on each night because I loved the inspiration, but I wasn't actually giving myself a creative outlet. So here's what I've been working on for the past week...
I've had my eye on these beautiful glass soap dispensers at Target for like a year, but they never go on sale, and I am just too big of a cheapo to fork over $20 for a jar. I saw these mason jar soap dispensers and thought, "Hey I have a buttload of those! And I can actually do that myself!" This was my first Pinterest project:
Feeling good about myself after I accomplished one, I immediately started on another. This guy is a dry erase board you make out of a picture frame and you can leave "I love you because" messages on it. The one I saw used gift wrap for backing, but I decided to fashion something out of scrap. Then I added denim flair onto the side because I'm a country bumpkin like that. Excited to get all mushy with the hubby once he gets home :)
On a roll now, I decided to use one of my extra barnwood frames and make this backless frame. I want to say that in the original I saw on Pinterest, she had used twine to string along the nails, but I had yarn and that does the trick too. Clothespins to hang your favorite photos. Denim buds to match my message board. (Designers call that repitition...do I get to pretend to be a designer when talking about denim rosebuds?!)
This last guy is my favorite. Nathan and I have a very strong love for Texas and a very funky kitchen. The goal is to give our kitchen a "homier" resemblance to one of our favorite bar and grills from our favorite place in the whole world-- Aggieland! Anyway, I used a template I printed online as a guide so I could cut out my scrap and glue it onto a board backing. Then I stuck bottlecaps from Texas breweries all around the border and voilà!
I think it fits in perdy good!
Lastly, I did something I normally don't do and decorated for Valentine's Day. I don't know, maybe I thought because my valentine wasn't here, I needed to do a little extra something to keep myself from feeling blah. Now I feel the love :) This one took me about 15 minutes. For hearts: just cut strips of scrap paper, fold in the center, curl the ends around your finger, and glue together where they meet. Then string them up on whatever you have handy. The chain was inspiration from Pinterest. Attaching it to the wreath was an afterthought.
Anyway, I feel much better now that I've given myself that creative time. It felt nice to get off of my hind-end and look at something other than a computer screen.
Now having said that, I am going to publish this and then immediately hop onto Pinterest...
But for a good reason! I decided that if I am going to keep up with Pinterest, I need to create a new board featuring all of the things I've actually made. That way, I can A)Be proud of my accomplishments. (Toot toot!-- That's my own horn!) B)Feel that the time I spend on Pinterest is validated because I am actually creating something C)Check myself when after a month, I have 200 new pins on my other boards and nothing on my 'I DID IT' board, or what ever I choose to call it...
I still don't know what I'm going to do about Facebook...but maybe I'll figure it out and then post it to my new board. :)
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