I’ve written about my tempestuous relationship with Facebook, and although I am on Twitter, I’ll be the first to admit I rarely use it. It just goes way too fast for me to keep up with (and yes, I realize that just saying that makes me sound like I’m ninety-nine years old). I haven’t yet found a tool that I can use to filter the tweets of all the people I follow so that I can effectively use this uber-popular social medium.
But fear not. I have found my place.
Pinterest.
You see, I’m a visual person (maybe that’s why the short bursts of text on Twitter have never quite managed to capture my attention). I love to look at pretty things. And to imagine myself owning, wearing, making or consuming said pretty things. And Pinterest? Is all about the pretty.
My recent Pinterest obsession has been party planning ideas. See my oldest is turning twelve this month, and on Friday she’s invited a gaggle of girls over for a sleepover. I had warned her she needed to keep this party frugal, which determined that the party would be held here, at home. But beyond that, we were kind of out of ideas. She googled some 12 year old birthday party ideas and came up with things like, do makeup, do hair, do a home spa, and so on. But nothing really grabbed her.
So one morning this weekend, while glorying in the fact that I didn’t have to get up and go to work (yet sadly still awake at 6:00 a.m.), I grabbed my iPhone and turned to Pinterest. “Birthday Party Ideas”, I asked it. And boy, did Pinterest deliver:
I pinned a few dozen ideas, went through them with Charlotte, and she settled on a cupcake/candy theme. We’ll have cupcakes to decorate and a candy bar. For those not making or consuming sweets, pedicures will be on offer and a make-your-own-bodyscrub bar. The colours she settled on are green, pink and yellow. Taking strongly after her mother, Charlotte wanted to do EVERYTHING! Sadly, I asked her to focus on just a few, and these are the ones she decided to try for her party on Friday:
After seemingly several hundred tootsie pops, we have nearly built our lollipop ball!
Made with sweetened condensed milk and Kool Aid. Who knew?
There are no words to describe how excited I am to make these. NO. WORDS.
Keeping things healthy with caramel chocolate apples. Dude: caramel and chocolate.
To decorate the ceiling, cut up dollar store tablecloths instead of using crepe paper. Brilliant! Also: we scooped another fab idea on Pinterest and will be inserting a glow stick inside each of the balloons to make a glowing magical sphere of awesomeness.
I stocked up on a few extra placemats at the dollar store and we’re going to drape them against one of the living room walls and set up my good camera on a tripod. We’ve collected a basket of old dress up stuff (wigs, boas, bunny ears, sunglasses and even a fascinator or two) and the girls can have fun with a photo booth! (Now that idea I scammed from repeated episodes of Four Weddings on TLC).
All in all, I spent a grand total of $75 at the dollar store, and picked up a few extras that we couldn’t find at Wal-Mart today for $24. So this party (minus the sugar, honey, etc. for the body scrub station which I already have on hand) is coming in at a whopping $99.
So yeah…we put a lot of time into planning it and buying the supplies, but it was fun time. Together time. The kind of time that you don’t get so much of anymore when your kid is on the cusp of adolescence. She even said to me yesterday, “Mom, maybe we can go to the dollar store tomorrow to get stuff for my party. It can be our date!”
Thank you, Pinterest.
Great ideas, lady!! I do love Pinterest for finding good ideas for all kinds of things (I’m so heavily visual also) but I haven’t pinned anything yet – I’m still unsure about how I feel about their policies regarding ownership and photo credits… that said, I sure do love slipping into that wormhole sometimes. Like whoa.
I hope her party is just splendid!!
Those look like amazing ideas! The only thing I use Twitter for (really) is to stay in touch with educators and it’s been amazing for that. I’ve “met” so many fabulous people with incredible ideas. I’ve gone on to meet many in person also – at various conferences. There’s a real community there. For reals. I have to admit though, that since school has started and my days are very busy, I spend less time there. Sometimes, I find I have too many ideas and I can’t focus on one or two.