So awesome, right?!? The teachers loved our teacher appreciation gift this year. Practical with some funny thrown in for good measure! What I loved most though? It was a no-brainer for me and I was oh-so-very-thankful for that this year. I’m currently drowning in the craziness of life, and no-brainer, fun gifts are exactly what this worn-out momma needs!!

Our school does teacher appreciation on one day … it’s not a week long thing. On Wednesday of Teacher Appreciation Week, the room moms arrange to have baskets outside the classroom doors for the kids to leave gifts. For Hunter’s class, one of the parents suggested the kids also bring in a flower for the teacher and teacher’s aide … that parent left a vase outside the classroom to collect said flowers.

Teacher Appreciation Wednesday was also plant-growing-salad-making-teaching-moment-day and each of the kids were assigned to bring in something to make a salad. Hunter was assigned 24 cherry tomatoes.

One of the other girls had a field trip to attend and needed a “sack” lunch. And well … I don’t know, all I remember was a crazy, tasmanian-devil-like whirlwind of a morning. I was shoving stuff at Hunter explaining who to give stuff to and where to leave it {she also had the front desk administrative to leave a gift for}.

Between making breakfast, a sack lunch, explaining gifts, flowers, letting dogs out, water bottles, vitamins, papers signed in book bags, general morning craziness … and let’s not forget … a photo for Instagram! …

When I finally returned home from school drop-off errands, guess what I noticed in the fridge?

24 cherry tomatoes. Humpf!

{free download available from chickabug.com}

Share some of your “crazy” with me?

sources:
Brown Sugar Blondies
Sugar Cookie Squares

Do you have a bake sale favorite?

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I’m over at Together in Ten today talking about fashion and pinspiration! Join me?

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So you start with a few simple ingredients …

Press the cookie dough into each tin well; place a Reese’s on top of the cookie dough; pour prepared brownie batter on top of that; and bake at 350 for 18ish minutes.

YUM, right?! Okay, but be honest … are you thinking these are looking a little “off?” Just a little?

Yeah … cuz they were! I ended up with a Pinstrosity. The photo above shows the best of the best …

This is what the rest of them looked like.

I’m not quite sure what I did wrong. Anyone?

Regardless, I’m not gonna lie … the pairing of these ingredients didn’t keep me from nibbling on their yumminess. Ugly maybe, but tasty none-the-less.

Anyway … I took her to the doctor the next morning, and sure enough … nasty ear infection. After some meds, we decided to bring the treats in to her class at lunchtime.

And now for some deets on this little project! I had pinned a beautiful photo of chocolate cover peeps and thought they’d make the perfect birthday treat for Hunter. Easy-peasy, right?

Kinda not so much. Stay with me here, cuz I’ve got some Pinterest-gone-wrong thoughts to share with y’all!

I talked it over with Hunt {and sister-crew} and we decided to do some kind of “nest” and set the peeps inside. I knew I’d seen edible Easter grass in the past, so as long as I could find some we’d be set. The only unknown was what to put them in.

Bingo! while at Walmart for the supplies, I spotted these cute buckets {green & pink} … .97 cents! And then a friend of mine had some left over gumballs from one of her girls recent birthday parties … perfect!

Until I started dipping my peeps. Um, yeah. Not so perfect.

I used the melted chocolate candy wafer things … chocolate and white chocolate. And a variety of sprinkles. After I melted my chocolate and started dipping the peeps, it was just an ugly mess. After the chocolate bath, I dipped them into the sprinkles … and that was an ugly mess.

In my mind, I had a beautiful image of perfectly covered chocolate peeps. As the words “Pinterest fail” kept running through my head, I figured the photo I had pinned must’ve been done by a professional. Like a baker, or, I dunno know … a professional peep dipper? But make no doubt … it couldn’t been just a regular mom making treats in her kitchen. Oh … side note … I hadn’t clicked through to the original source before starting my project. When doing a Pinterest project, might I recommend you check out the original source before starting?

Back to my peep dipping.

After a bit, I scrapped the white chocolate {just not cute}. I stopped dipping the whole peep bottom {hee, peep bottom}, and just dipped the front. And I also stopped dipping the covered peep in the sprinkles, instead sprinkling the sprinkles on top of the covered peep. Whew.

Still with me?

Anyway … those changes made the project smoother, faster, and less ugly.

When I was done, I headed to the computer and thought I’d go ahead and take a look at the original source to see just who this professional was. Turns out she’s just a regular over-achieving mom who has a flair for the creative! Humpf.

Why am I sharing all of this you might be wondering? Well … I read this post the other day about “Pinterest peer pressure” and it made me laugh. There’s a lot of truth there!

I wanted to comment, but was too shy … are you too shy to comment sometimes? So … I wanted to comment and say … it’s all in moderation. I would love, love, love to do many of the projects I see on Pinterest. I’d love to throw grand parties for each birthday celebration we have. But I know my limits. Sometimes I have the time for it and I gain much pleasure from creating something lovely. Other times, I’m too busy, my heart’s not in it, I can’t wrap my head around anything other than getting dressed in the morning, and so I either don’t do something grand, or I settle for something right in between that won’t stress me out, or I settle for doing nothing … and feel good about it!

I love Pinterest! I’m a fan of all the beautiful photos and projects and food and clothes and kittens and Ryan Gosling… but I think we each need to recognize where our limits lie and work within those boundaries based on kids, jobs, time on our hands. And we should enjoy Pinterest for what it is … a beautiful collection of ideas, recipes, and photos. No guilt involved. Some of us just don’t have the time or resources to be Martha Stewart.

Anyway … a bit of a tangent there … but mostly to encourage you. As with everything in life … you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have … the facts of life, the facts of life. Anyone? Anyone? :)

Okay, sorry, I’m getting a bit loopy. Seriously … I just wanted to encourage you to take what you can from Pinterest, enjoy it, and realize it’s just a pinboard for EVERYTHING on the internet … all that pretty, sometimes magazine worthy, stuff!

OH! and I was just turned on to a new blog … love it! They take Pinterest projects and do them to see if they turn into a Pinstrosity!

This was her classroom treat …

And these were her birthday invites!

Both items were inspired from things I saw on Pinterest here and here {links to original source}. But of course, I enlisted the help of my fav designer {who happens to be on maternity leave, so be sure to check in on her blog for info on when she’s back in the designing game!}.

I love when something I do from Pinterest actually works for me, cuz, um, I’ve had my share of Pinterest-fails!

How ’bout you? Are you “pin-collector?” Do you try the things you pin? Do they work for you? Have you had any major fails?

Overall, I’m woman enough to admit that I’m thoroughly addicted! Have a great weekend y’all!

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